Onyx

Chapter 26: It's coming

Keanu rushed out of the room, leaving Onyx alone. I knew I couldn't trust Ludo. There was always something off about him to Keanu, that he could never quite pinpoint.

He sprinted towards the holding room. He saw the guards and grabbed one by his shirt slamming him into the wall.

"What happened?? How'd Ludo get in??!" he asked rage contorting his face.

The guards eyes widened in panic, fear on his face. "There was a disturbance in the halls and we went to go check!"

Keanu slammed the guard against the wall again. "It takes two of you to check something out? Use your brain idiot! I should have you executed for this!"

The guard whimpered. "Please sir, I didn't know! I meant no harm I did my best!"

Keanu threw the guard to the ground. "It wasn't enough." He snarled.

He turned his attention to the other guard who stared at him in shock. "Get out, I don't want to see your filthy faces here again. You don't deserve your flimsy uniform," he said grabbing the man's tunic.

Kicking past the guard on the ground, Keanu barged in the room, and found everything was sealed tight. It looked as if they had just disappeared in thin air.

Keanu heard footsteps and turned to see Cato walking in the room. "Find them."

Cato bowed and left the room.

Keanu examined every inch, and couldn't find any clues as to how they got out. Frustrated, he punched the wall putting a hole through it. Wait a second.

Using his bare hands, he ripped sides of the hole away until there was a large enough hole to fit his entire body. He looked down and saw the drop wasn't too far. They jumped.

Realization came to him. They broke open the wall, and Ludo sealed it back up. That was the only possible explanation for how they were able to disappear so quickly and efficiently.

Let me retrace their steps.

He jumped, rolling to cushion his fall. Looking around he saw he stood at the edge of the mountain. They climbed...but where?

Keanu searched around for signs of tracks, but couldn't find anything. He hit a dead end.

He felt his anger rise. He couldn't let it get out of control. He took deep breaths to calm himself. He wasn't so sure why this made him anger so quickly. Typically he was good at masking his emotions. That was his shield, it protected him. He felt so vulnerable right now. Why?

Shaking his thoughts off, he jogged away from the edge, and towards the path down the mountainside in the front of the castle. He needed to go to the military base and devise a search party.

***

"It's because of your arrogance, that the prisoner escaped!"

"My arrogance?! The prisoner escaped because of a traitor, not because of my 'arrogance' "

Keanu and his father glared at each other from across the table. The other elders watched silently, refusing to take sides.

"If you hadn't questioned him so early, then maybe the guards would have been more alert to trickery!"

Keanu rolled his eyes. "You sound ridiculous right now, you're reaching for something that's not even there!"

Xenon slammed his hands on the table. "Enough! You disobeyed me and look what happened. Since you want to be in charge and defy orders, then you go find him. He's your responsibility now."