The Dead war.

Chapter Three: Prophis

We entered Prophis with the help of the guards. I watched Kara show her mom the bag while the guards weren't looking. Her mom looked so happy. Kara pointed to me and her mother made the sign language of thank you. I nodded and apparently I was making a face so Nate bumped into me softly and I looked up.
"What's up with you? You have that face again." Nate said questionly
That damn face I always made. I shook my head and he shoved me playfully.
"I just don't understand if she was running away from home. Why all of a sudden would she be so excited to return home?" I explained
"I told you Serena she is 6 maybe 7 she isn't gonna know where home is." He retorted
"You're such an ass." I said pushing him
" I'm being serious Nate, I had to learn to fend for myself to protect myself and find my way back home. So why didn't she get taught the same thing?" I asked again. We walked in silence for about 5 minutes until Nate finally said something.
"You were born into royalty, she wasn't you were given the best in life she wasn't. You were taught to survive a war she wasn't. There is a difference between royalty and poverty." He said with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I expressed my anger bluntly. I didn't even try to hide it.
"It's like you forget where you come from. You assume everyone has the luxury of having food every day, warm blankets. A bed, a fire, warmth. It's almost like you forget that your royalty and everything always gets handed to you." He said very bluntly. He sped up and I looked at him confused. Why was he acting like this all the sudden? Why had my best friends and lifetime brother suddenly become so cold towards me? I pushed the thought aside and caught up and walked right past Nathaniel and walked to the front of the line to stand by Liam.
"What was that about?" Liam asked, turning to me.
"I have no clue what's going on with him. I've never used my royalty to my advantage. I've always fought for what I believed in." I said looking back at Nathaniel. He didn't even look at me but a hint of pain was in his normally very lively brown eyes.
We entered the innermost part of Prophis and the guards stopped and talked to another guard. In a language I didn't understand. They looked around us and their eyes landed on me. The other guard spoke and Liam turned to me.
"He is telling them that you're the leader of this mission but that you don't talk. And they don't know why but I will talk on your behalf." Liam spoke in a whisper.
"You understand them?" I asked
"Yeah I grew up in Prophis, remember?" He said with a hint of surprise I didn't remember toying on his vocal cords
"Oh right, I forgot you were a Proph." I said softly. He looked at me confused but seemed to brush it off. Once the guards were finished talking. They nodded my way and I nodded back. The guard pushed us on word and we continued to the castle part of Prophis. It was smaller than Umbris but not by much. They had more people but less room. Families had to share bedrooms and even not family members had to share houses. We continued to walk and I looked around at all of the people and houses, horses and animals. My eyes passed by a group of soldiers and I immediately snapped my head away from them.
"What is it?" Liam asked, looking where I was looking.
"Those are the soldiers that were in the forest. When me and Nate were chased." I said, still looking away. Liam stopped and asked the soldier who those men and women were by the fire.
"The guard said, the woman is Viridia, she is the wife of the Chief of the Prophis army. The two men are Robert and Tim." Liam said, pointing them out. I looked at all the men and my eyes stopped again at viridia. As she looked up at me with one eyebrow raised. She wasn't very tall, maybe 5'5 and she had broad shoulders and very round legs. The two men were not very tall or broad; they were quite scrawny. The two men and the women continued to look at me. Liam gave them a nod and continued walking. I turned and continued walking with him, my hand on the hilt of my sword. I never used a sword but it still gave me comfort to know that it was there. We entered the front door of the castle. It was a very large door rounded at the top and it has beautiful stained glass. With portraits of what I assumed was the king and queen.
I felt the door as we passed it was a mixture of smooth and rough. It smelled like a forest. We walked into a huge main room. Maids and butlers walked around fast with food and towels and drinks and bandages. The room was very large, filled with chairs and tables and rugs made of animal fur.
We continued past the room and entered a large ballroom chandelier hung from the ceiling, they were very large diamond chandeliers. The floor was a very expensive looking marble. There were no cracks or lines, it looked very well put together. We all walked into the room in sync, the king waited in his thrones that was about 6-7 feet in the air stairs leading up to him. We were all stopped as the guard continued walking to the king and stood by his side.
"My name is King Leonard of Prophis. What brings you to our land?" The king said his voice Carried around the entire room. Not one part of the room couldn't hear his voice.
"I am Liam Carson. I am a doctor of 11 years. I heard in my travels that your queen, Queen Lillith, was sick. I wanted to offer my help, free of charge." Liam responded
"What's the catch?" King Leonard responded.
"No catch sir. I just want to help as many people as possible." Liam responded.
"Who is the lady?" The king asked as he motioned to me. I gulped my nerves, I wondered if he would take me seriously or how he would react. I knew the stories of his kicking girls out, sometimes killing them. Or arranging a marriage to his soldiers to repopulate his kingdom. Not that he didn't have enough already.
"She is the leader of this expedition. She is the best warrior I have ever seen. She is perfect at what she does with little error." Liam bragged. And I smirked.
"Why doesn't she talk for herself?" The king asked with one eyebrow raised.
"She has been forced to be mute since she was 5. She was tortured as a child and it caused her to go mute. She will only talk to us as her group who has been with her for over 6 years." Liam replied confidently
"How old is this soldier?" The king questioned, his eyebrow still raised.
"She is 18, almost 19 sir. She may look young but she has a temper and is the strongest of all of us." He pulled Nathaniel out, and the king looked at him. "She even took down this man Nathaniel many times. And Nathaniel is the strongest one here." Nathaniel nodded his head and the king looked at me for a few minutes.
"Well as they are your bodyguards, even though she is a woman I guess I shall allow it." He said a hint of bitterness in his voice as well.
"Korbin, please take them up to my wife's room please. And I want to have a meeting to discuss options tomorrow morning. We will have rooms prepared for you all to sleep in." He finished and we all walked out of the room Nathaniel and I followed Liam to the queen's quarters. And as soon as the door opened my breath hitched in my throat sitting by the side of the bed was that man. The man from the forest and the man from my dream. And then on the other side of her was the same woman from my dream. I felt my body tense up as I looked at them both. I knew the woman knew something was up as well and she immediately stood up and walked out of the room when she noticed me. Nathaniel leaned over to me.
"That was strange." He whispered.
"You're telling me." I said with a hint of suspicion lingering in my voice.
"What do you think she was..." Nate started to say before he got cut off by a knock at the door. The man sitting on the chair spoke now.
"Enter" the man said
"Prince Oliver, we have word that we have spies in Prophis your father isn't available so he asked me to talk to you to see how you would like me to handle it." The man said. I turned around and I felt my Stomach drop. It was the boy from my dream, the oldest brother. I immediately turned back around before he could say anything and I saw Nate turn to me.
"What did you see?" He asked, sounding very concerned.
"That woman and the man in the chair and the man at the door, they are the ones in my dream, the one I had for years and the man by the bed was the new edition, the one we found in the forest." I said in a hushed tone, being careful of how loud I spoke. Nate looked at the man by the bedside and nodded. Prince Oliver broke our conversation
"I never got to introduce myself. My name is Prince Oliver, the king is the father and this woman right here is my mother. Queen Lillith." He explained.
"My name is Liam. I am a doctor and have been for 11 years, this is My first in command and the leader of this expedition Serena, and this is her second in command Nathaniel, the rest of our group is in the rooms already." Liam pointed to all of us and I relaxed against the wall, my foot resting on the wall and my arms folded. He looked up at me and I looked back at him with no emotion or expression on my face.
"She doesn't talk?" Oliver asked.
"She doesn't when she knows the people." Nathaniel said with a wink in my direction.
"So you two are...like together?" Oliver asked.
"No! No..no not at all." Nate said, his face flushed a red shade, and then he coughed. "We are just friends, she is like my sister." He said again.  I rolled my eyes and smacked his chest. Liam continued to work. While we stood by the door. It took about 2 hours for him to do all of the work, when he finally stood up the Prince looked up again.
"How is she?" He asked. I could tell he was panicking. He cared about his mom a great deal. It made my job harder knowing I would have to take him from his mother and bring him back to Umbris with cuffs on his hand.
"Well she isn't doing well, she is stabilized for now but I'm not sure how long she will last. She is deteriorating fast." Liam replied he sounded frustrated.
"Do you know why?" Oliver asked Liam shook his head and Oliver sighed. "Alright that is enough for today we need to let her rest and I will be back tomorrow to do more." Liam said as he packed up his supplies.
"Thank you Liam." Oliver replied, walking over to shake Liam's hand. "This means a great deal, where are you from?" Oliver asked, looking back over at us standing at the door.
"In between, we travel around and offer our help for anyone who might need it." Nate told him, I looked from Nate over to Liam and then to Oliver.
"Does she really not ever talk?" Oliver said a hint of annoyance toying in his voice.
"It's rare, she talks when you get to know her but she normally keeps to herself the only one she lets go with is Nathaniel." Liam retorted, kinda laughing but stopped when no one else laughed.
"Well alright then, she'll come around I'm sure eventually." Liam replied, packing up more of his supplies. "Thank you Liam." Oliver replied, walking over to shake Liam's hand. "This means a great deal, where are you from?" Oliver asked, looking back over at us standing at the door.
"In between, we travel around and offer our help for anyone who might need it." Nate told him, I looked from Nate over to Liam and then to Oliver.
"Does she really not ever talk?" Oliver said a hint of annoyance toying in his voice.
"It's rare, she talks when you get to know her but she normally keeps to herself the only one she lets go with is Nathaniel." Liam retorted, kinda laughing but stopped when no one else laughed.
"Well alright then, she'll come around I'm sure eventually." Liam replied, packing up more of his supplies. Oliver nodded and sat back down with his mother. Liam finished packing and made more plans to come back the next day. I bowed to the Prince and walked out the door following another guard to the rooms. They weren't as nice as the rooms back in Umbris but they will do.
"These are absolutely disgusting looking. Not to be rude to the king but also I kinda don't want to be nice to him. These rooms are absolutely horrible." Nate said with disgust in his voice. He didn't even try to hide it.
"That's for sure. Even our town had better bedrooms than this. That's sad." I replied my own voice broke as I gagged. We placed our belongings on the couch and dust puffed up from where we set our stuff down. "How long do you think this will take?" Nate asked.
"I have no clue. Days, weeks maybe. I'm not entirely sure." I replied pulling my stuff out of my bag. "It all depends on how quickly we can get this job done. I need to talk to Liam to see how much he wants to heal her before we take Oliver." I explained. I got up and walked over to the opposite room where Liam and Oscar were set up. I knocked and Oscar opened the door and I walked in.
"How long do you reckon you want to stay here? Or how much do you want to heal the queen before we take Oliver and get out of here." I asked. Liam took a long pause before he finally replied.
"At least until she is more stable and we have an answer, I don't care if she dies I'm just trying to help her enough that King Leonard will talk to me about these plans. So I would guess a week maybe." He shook his shoulders as he replied and I nodded and walked out and walked down the hall and asked where the training rooms were. A lady pointed me to the stairs and she told me to go all the way down and turn left. I nodded and thanked her.
I approached the room and opened it, it was a very large room. Runners and weights lined the back wall while boxing rings and ropes and more lined the other wall and the middle was filled with punching Bags. And further down there was a bow and arrow section of the room. I immediately took my gear off and was in my tank top and loose pants and began to punch the bag. I felt eyes on me and my hair stood up on the edge. I kept my fists on the bag and turned my head to the left to see Prince Oliver leaning in the doorway.
"You used to be royalty didn't you? He asked.
"Why do you say that?" I replied
"Because you are using the punching bag, the same technique I was taught as a boy. By Viktor out Chief in command of the army." He said. His accent was thick and it was hard to understand him. I found his accent very interesting and entertaining to listen to. I liked it. It sounded like a mixture of Russian, and Italian.
"Yes I was born in Umbris, to the king and queen, but I left because I'm not a princess I'm a warrior." I replied punching a few more times as hard as I could. The bag swung and broke from the rusty chain that held it to the metal frame that was bolted to the floor. I punched it so hard that It fell to the floor with a thud.
"They wanted you to be a proper princess and you wanted to be the opposite. Sounds like me, my dad pleads for me to stay inside and keep myself from getting broken ribs and fingers but I never listened." He said with a laugh.
"My father was the same, and then I decided to pack up and leave. I was on a horse and my horse was shot by some Archers hiding in the woods. Liam found me and helped me. And that's all that matters." I said before Turning and punching the next bag.
"So why leave if you have everything handed to you?" Oliver asked.
"It's not that easy, yes I had everything but I wasn't happy, I had family and friends but I couldn't be who I wanted to be, and now I can." I said with one final punch to the bag this one also breaking.
"You really are the strongest person I have ever seen. No one on our guard has ever been able to break one of those." He chuckled. I smiled but got rid of it as fast as it came. I can't be laughing and smiling with him. In a few days time I was going to have to kidnap him. And bring him back to Umbris and he will know that everything I said was a lie. I walked over to the arrows and picked up a bow and measured it and then placed an arrow and fired. I hit the bullseye first try and Oliver started laughing and clapping.
"Man, who are you? I know some of our best Archers who can't even hit the bullseye on the first try." He laughed. I rolled my eyes smiling at the same time. He walked over to me and held out his hand for the bow and I handed it to him. Our hands brushed next to each other and I felt something. A spark, something electric blasted through my body. I looked up at him and when his brown eyes turned to look at me I felt my knees go weak. I had never felt this way before. I hated it. But at the same time I wanted to feel it again. And feel more than that. I took my eyes off of the Prince. And backed away slowly. He took the boy and fired. His arrow spun through the air landing with a crack right in the middle of my arrow splitting it in half.
"Not half back for a Prince." I said, nudging him with my shoulder.
"Not bad for a girl." He smirked and immediately mh stomach did flips. What was this feeling and why did I all the sudden feel like this. Why was I going against everything and talking to him? We had just met and I was ready to tell him my entire life story. I nudged his shoulder again with mine walking away back toward the door and picked up my coat.
"Wait! When can I see you again?" He yelled after me.
"You wish pretty boy," I said with a grin. He laughed and I walked out. As soon as I stepped out of the room I snapped back into reality here I was flirting with the enemy.
"Get a grip Serena!" I said with a huff and walked off. This man was our enemy. For the next few days I avoided Oliver at all costs. I couldn't get side tracked, I needed to remember what was at stake the mission that was on the line. My fathers trust in me was at stake as well. I couldn't let him down. I had to prove I could do this. And suddenly the day arrived. Liam had prepared us the night before that today. Today was the day we took Prince Oliver.
"Once it hits midnight and Oliver's asleep David you will go on and tie his hands together and Serena you will put this cloth over his mouth when he starts to wake up." He said.
"What's in it?" I asked, holding the cloth and putting it in my pocket.
"It's a drug that should knock him clean out for at least 48 hours giving us time to escape and run into the forest before he wakes." Liam answered.

" Are you all ready?" Liam asked. We all nodded and he smiled alright let's do this. It was 11:30 at night and we all waited in bed until it hit midnight. We put on our all black and our cloaks. We all had fabric masks that covered our neck and the bottom half of our faces. We didn't want to let anyone know who did it. I opened my door and slowly walked over to the room where David stayed. He opened the door and nodded. We walked slowly over to the other side of the castle. We entered the prince's room. He looked so peaceful sleeping he wasn't wearing a shirt and was wearing loose pants. David looked at me and I waved my finger signaling for him to move to the other side of the bed. He was lying on his stomach which made our life easier. David grabbed his hands in one fail swoop. Oliver jerked awake but David already had the rope around his wrists. I immediately put the cloth over his mouth. He struggled for a few minutes before he fell unconscious.
"Alright let's go." I said to David and pointed towards the door. We walked out the door while we carried Oliver between us, his arms over our shoulders, his legs dragging behind him. We got him out the front door while all the men and Liam waited outside. Charlie took over for me and I walked behind them. I heard a scream and everyone stopped. My mask was still up and I turned to see a woman in the window with the king pointing at us.
"They have noticed!" I yelled and Nathaniel rushed everyone forward and we all started to run. I turned around and shot arrows as the guards approached hitting all of them with a fatal blow. Suddenly one of the men from my dreams ran out and stood at the first step yelling out orders. He was the oldest one from my dream. And the younger man from my dream came out not long after. And then the youngest brother appeared not long after. They all looked at me, their faces draining of blood. We all looked at each other and it was like we were looking at ourselves. I shot them all in the leg I'm quick succession before they could react. I smirked even though I knew they couldn't see it. I sprinted to reach the men I was with. And in a flash the castle disappeared into the green of the forest. We continued to run until we knew we were out of sight of the guards. I stopped to catch my breath. I looked at the man on the ground and laughed.
"We actually did it." I said while laughing. All the boys laughed breathlessly
Now came the hard part getting him back to Umbris.