The Arcane Rebellion- The Arcane Series #1

Chapter 6

Xavi

I was pacing around our common room, waiting for Uriah to return. He had heard nothing about the murder so I sent him out to investigate.

I hated waiting. Despised it, even. I was anxious. Layla was probably getting interrogated right now and if she was found guilty...

The punishment for murdering a knight is hanging. Public hanging. As far as I knew, Layla was already getting prepped for the hanging. That thought made me sick, but I pushed it away as best as I could. It was not the right time to panic.

The door of the common room swung open, revealing a masked Uriah.

"What have you got?", I immediately asked him.

He sighed, taking of his mask. "Sir Collin was murdered with one of Layla's bullets.", he said and I looked at him in disbelief. "The knights've got around 50 or so witnesses claiming they saw her at night, murdering Sir Collin. They're interrogating her right now, but it's more likely they'll find her guilty. Apparently her alibi is not reliable enough.", he explained and I nodded, thinking about everything he'd told me.

I looked at him and mentally prepared myself to ask the doomed question. "The hanging?", I asked, taking a deep breath.

"Is scheduled for this evening.", he said, his tone laced with sadness. "She was framed, man. I'm sure of it.", he said and I nodded, agreeing with him. I was with her the whole night, I know she was framed. I also know she would never be dumb enough to do anything illegal without her mask or with a registered bullet.

Every government official knows who the Horsemen are, but they only know us as our aliases. To everyone outside of the Sanctuary, our real identities are completely meaningless. Sure, they know we're crooks, but we're also owners of one of the most successful taverns in the whole kingdom and we're important to other business owners, because apparently, we've got a lot of influence and everyone is frightened of us. They can't afford to lose someone who makes them so much money, so they usually ignore all the 'little' stuff that we do. The 'little stuff' being robberies, illegal gambling, murder and battery.

Our aliases mean a lot, though. But, considering they could never catch us in time, or figure out who we were, we were safe from being arrested as long as we wore our masks and used our code names.

"Get Amir and put your mask back on. We've got to pay a visit to someone.", I told him and he nodded, not taking what I said as a suggestion but as an order.

When Layla's not here, I'm in charge. And I'm about to wreak havoc to the whole monarchy just so I can bring her back, alive and well in one piece. 

***

Mister Howell was in a meeting, but we didn't care. We burst the doors of his office open, making him and his clients jump up from their chairs. The clients ran out at the sights of us while Mister Howell tried hiding in the corner of the room. Pathetic.

"Mister Howell. We require some legal advice.", I said and his eyes widened in shock and fear. He started to shake so I pointed at his chair. "Please, take a seat.", he did as I told him, barely standing on his feet. I heard Amir chuckle beside me and I had to stifle my own laughter.

"H-How can I help, uh, you gentlemen?", Howell stuttered out, playing with his pen to try to steady his hands.

"Ah, thought you'd never ask. See, we've come across a problem. One of our... acquaintances was framed for a crime they didn't commit, but there are a lot of fake witnesses. We have to prove their innocence, but we don't know how. Any ideas?", I explained the situation and asked, my tone calm even though my thoughts were not.