Artemis and Caspian: The Spy

Chapter Nine

 Artemis sat on her bed, followed by Caspian who closed the door with a quiet click. "You were right," he sighed sadly, sitting beside her. "I can't believe he's gone." Artemis shook her head and cast her gaze upon the ground.

"Caspian, what are we doing?"

He shrugged, "Preventing total chaos, saving the whole world and grabbing a bite to eat if we have the time." He chuckled at himself and the attempt to make the mood lighter.

"No," Artemis said, tangling in a web of thoughts. "We're failing." Cas turned to her with an almost accusatory glare.

"How could you say that?" he practically shouted, regretting the harsh notes in his voice. "You warned the King and the sun god sent me nothing about the future, how is this our fault?" He stood up passionately bitter, "We've been training for months! Before this, I was a simple farm boy. My biggest problem was figuring out when the rains came," He quickly began pacing the room, "Now I have magic, I'm responsible for saving thousands of lives, I have the fate of the entire world resting on my shoulders and I don't even know where to begin," He stopped and ran his fingers through his hair, cooly collecting himself once more. He closed his eyes and gently leaned his head back, trying to lift some of the considerable weight off his shoulders. "It just feels like I never even had a choice." Artemis hugged her knees close to her chest.

"I know how you feel."

The two existed for a long time in relative silence before Caspian breathed loudly, shaking his head, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she bit her lip. "I hate sitting here like this. People are dying. The Prince will be looking at us for an answer and I have nothing to give him." Caspian returned to her side and laced his hands on his lap.

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know."

A hopeless quiet wedged itself between the saviors, putridly lingering in the air. In the wake of the King's death, nothing but darkness seemed to occupy their thoughts. Artemis had to look away as she wiped a lonely tear from the fold of her eye. She hoped Caspian couldn't see. He did. The warlock gave her a small, reassuring smile as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, using his thumb to rub small, soothing circles along her skin.

"Hey, remember what you told me a few days ago?"

Artemis let out a small sniffle and wiped a hand across her face. "What?"

"There's no use dwelling on things. We did our best. All we can do now is keep practicing. Once we get better, we'll find a way to end this war."

His confidence made the witch grin. He always knew how to make her feel better.

"Then I should get back to work," she stated enthusiastically, trudging over to a spellbook laying open at the ready. "I'll look to see if there's anything useful in here."

Caspian joined her, snooping over her shoulder with his arms crossed tightly on his chest. "Alright, well that's a start I guess. Good luck with that. I'll look through mine too. Maybe I can find a way to heal soldiers in Calatan without actually being there." Artemis grinned again and pushed him with her hip.

"See there you go, you'll live up to the savior name in no time." He laughed as she kissed him on the cheek.

Outside the door Duke Arioch listened intently, smiling from ear to ear. The saviors had no idea what they were doing. He was right, these inexperienced novices would lead him to their own downfall. His Lord would be very interested in this. Very interested indeed. He pulled on his gloves and strode down the hallway unsuspected, stopping at the Prince's door and knocking three times.