A Palace of Love And Darkness

Luke

Poison and potion resistance was a small part of my training as a Palace guard. So when the dart hit me, I didn't lose consciousness. I did pretend to, however, because I'm not risking a fight against one of the best bounty hunters in the country. Something's not right about this, though. Why was Terner the first to enter, if the Palace guards are the ones raiding?

We are thrown into the back of a carriage and it is slammed shut, almost all light cut off. Cass' unconscious body lies in the carriage next to me and I sigh as I subtly look over her. I'm struggling to avoid making any noise because I don't know how much the guards can hear from outside. If she's still conscious, we might have a chance of jumping out and running.

Cass' father is the King's brother. He's also a widely known Duke, making Cass almost-royalty. There should be no reason for her to be arrested, unless something unordinary happened. I shift in the carriage to get a look outside. It is sealed shut except for a few small cracks in the sides, and as I move to look through one, I almost piss myself. Two narrow, piercing, gray eyes meet mine.

I nearly flinch at how close the girl is to the carriage, and decide it's too late to keep playing unconscious as she keeps the eye contact. She is riding an individual horse. And then I recognize her as Julica, a girl I used to train with, who was promoted to the war council. I cringe as I expect her to let everyone know that I'm wide awake, but instead she just stares at me. As the carriage carrying us starts to move, she does as well.

A thousand thoughts are running thorough my head as the village flies by too fast. What'll happen if we really are under arrest? I look back out the crack as we arrive back at the Palace and see Julica still staring at me. She pulls something out of her cloak so fast I would've doubted it happened, and tosses it through the crack I've been peering through. I look down at the small, white object and recognize a piece of paper. I slip it into my pocket just seconds before we slow to a halt.

A few moments later, we are placed in a prison cell, Cass still unconscious. I try my best to act like I am too, making my body limp. A loud slam sounds through the cell, followed by a click, letting me know we were then alone. I cracked open my eyes and looked at Cass, who looked like she was peacefully sleeping. I lean closer to take a look at where the dart had hit, hoping it had just been a tranquilizer, and not poison. I can easily resist this stuff, due to the poison resistance course I took in ninth grade, and the monthly poison checks we had in the training course. But Cass... Worry washes over me as I think of what would happen if it really had been poison, and our captors really had meant to kill us.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"
I jump out of my seat at the sound and spin around to find Julica standing at the cell door. She is still wearing the black cloak from earlier, held at her chest with a gold pin, engraved with the official war council symbol of two swords crossed in an X. Her straight black hair falls over her shoulders, making her look like a shadow. Her eyes seem to burn through me and I feel defensive looking into them.

"Why didn't you say something," I say under my breath. Julica should've snitched the second she realized I was looking back at her. It's not like we're friends or anything. Her jaw ticks and she stares at me, a blank expression sitting on her face.

I then remembered why I had never liked this girl. She always looked so... dead. She never had any emotion on her face and was imposible to read. Most of the people at the training camp avoided her, but she was in my group for most of the projects, so I couldn't. "Did you open the note?" Her hollow voice sounds out again. I then remember the possibly illegal piece of paper she had handed me and hesitate before shaking my head.
"Read it. And to answer your question, it's because I care." I stare at her, waiting for her to explain.