Outcasts and Royals

Chapter 14

Mercuris left his prisoner not too long afterward.

"Alright, I think he's gone. Erik put this on. Katherine and Damien, stay here," Sylvia explained. She and Erik walked up to the place Mercuris had just emerged from, ready to free the Princess.

"Open sesame," Erik said while the black cloak hid his face while Sylvia tried to stay out of view. Sure enough, the secret door opened, and the two ran inside before the passage closed again.

"Let's go!" Sylvia said as she began to run up the stairs, and Erik quickly followed suit. However, not too long after they started making their way up the stairs, some small rocks began to fall.

"What's going on? Erik asked as rocks continued to fall.

"The tower must be starting to lean toward the water even more! Start running faster!" Sylvia yelled as she tried to run faster. Finally, despite the obstacles they had to face, the two of them reached the door that led to the princess's prison.

Sylvia opened the door and looked inside. Since the tower was leaning even closer to the water, Madeline was lying on the farthest wall.

"Erik, hold on to this; I'm going in!" Sylvia explained as she handed Erik the rope that she tied around her waist. She was then lowered inside the tower's room and grabbed onto Madeline's hand. Erik then pulled the two girls out of the room, and all of them started to run down the stairs.

However, as they were running, the stairs had turned smooth, making it impossible to run or even stay on the stairs. This caused the three of them to fall through a hole that one of the falling rocks had created.

"Oh, no! The three of them are going to fall into the water!" Damien yelled in horror as he saw all of them fall out of the tower. He and Katherine immediately started running to the water, praying that no one would get hurt. Luckily for them, Erik, Sylvia, and Madeline emerged from the water.

"Is everyone still alright?" Katherine asked.

"I mean, my leg hurts a little, but I've been through worse," Sylvia replied.

"At least I'm out of that tower," Madeline added.

"I'm just grateful that we're all alive," Erik said.

"I would like to thank you for saving me from Mercuris the Malicious. If I had stayed there for one more day, I could have died," Madeline thanked.

"Ahh, My Beloved, I have found you at last!" a voice from behind exclaimed joyfully.

Everyone looked around to see who was speaking.

"Nathaniel, you're here?" Madeline asked, once seeing that Prince Nathaniel was also on the island.

"Yes, My Love, I have traveled for a long time to make sure that you were alright, and here you are with your kidnappers. We will bring them back to Xebia, and they shall rot in prison," Nathaniel answered as he tried to lift Madeline in his arms to spin her around. "You know, this isn't going to work out as well as I thought it would. You, Servant, help hold her up; that way, I can turn her around." Martin came over to support Madeline so Nathaniel could spin her around in a circle.

"Wait, what did you say about having these people rot in prison?" Madeline asked while being spun around.

"Don't you understand, My Beloved? These were the people that kidnapped you. They obviously were hoping to fool the rest of the kingdom by replacing you with this lookalike," Nathaniel explained while gesturing towards Katherine.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you not looked at this girl? While she's clearly a little bony, and her eyes are a bit darker than yours. But, the facial structure, hair color, and height are surprisingly similar."

"I mean, to be fair, I kidnapped Katherine in the first place because I thought she was Madeline," Damien pointed out.

"Shut up, Outcast. Anyway, thank goodness we found you before these villains brought back this imposter in your place," Nathaniel interrupted.

"But you don't understand. Mercuris the Malicious originally kidnaped me, and this group of friends rescued me," Madeline tried to explain.

"Seriously, my darling? Mercuris the Malicious is just a myth. All this time you've been spending with your kidnappers has made you delusional. Servants, tie her kidnappers up and bring them back to the boat."

Before the outcasts could try and get away, the servants tied them up and blindfolded them.