King of Days: The Veiled Guardians

15. Treacherous Traitor

The men looked at each other, perplexed, visibly uncomfortable and not knowing what to do. The one man with the golden turban walked behind the cage. "I apologize, but I have no idea what it means."

The creature leaned forward, licked the bar and with a smile on its face spoke in a sing-song voice "lies, lies, king foe lieeeeeees." The man grew angry and threw off his robe. He wore a bronze plate mail and brandished a short double curved sword. The other men threw off their robes, revealing the same kind of armor. There was a scream of terror, the crowd rushed to exit. Karíto watched as his sisters were whisked toward the door, he wanted to make sure they had left, for then he knew they would be safe. Karíto looked back, the main assailant started to charge toward the king. Two guards ran to intercept the man, but he jumped on the cage,flipped over them and sliced one in the throat. The man made it to the king. King Garret saw the sword raise up and put his arms around his head in defense, but nothing happened. King Garret peeked from his arms and looked up, the man stood in front of him, but he was motionless. Confused, he looked at the man, he then noticed a bolt sticking from his head. The man collapsed to the ground. King Garret looked around, it was shot from Lord Jude who was standing in a doorway. The other men were now surrounding the cage with the knights all around. The creature jumped up and down and laughed "cut, cut, shoot dead." it gurgled a miserable chuckle.

One of the men turned toward it and yelled "traitor!" He stabbed at it, however the creature flung itself to the other side of the cage. The sword missed the mark and hit the lock on the cage, causing the lock to break off the cage. The creature snarled at the man and lept up out of the cage. It grabbed the man, threw the sword down and then swiftly broke his neck. The other men, horrified at the quick death of their friend, charged headlong at the knights, but they were quickly cut down. The knights turned toward the creature, who was standing over the dead man. It saw them move forward, submissively it climbed back into the cage and shut the lid. Plopping down on its rear it snickered "too fun"

The knights moved to kill the thing but were stopped by a shout from the King "No, leave it, it did me a service!"

Lord Jude was now standing next to the king, crossbow in hand. He cleared his throat. "Is that wise sire? One of the men did say 'traitor' to the thing, it may be part of the whole charade."

King Garret's eyes were fixed on the beast. "I believe it is my friend, plus it is rather entertaining"

Lord Jude nodded. "Then we will just keep it locked up... that is for its safety"

Karíto and another knight moved closer to the cage so they could secure it. However the beast screamed as they got closer "is he going to destroy us!?" It writhed around in the cage, visibly in pain. King Garret shouted "They will do no harm to you, they are only securing your..." he paused searching for an appropriate term "you home"

As they were securing the cage it looked from Karíto to the other knight, facing the knight it snickered "it can do us no harm"

The knight hit his hand against the cage "shut up you!" the knight exclaimed. They locked the cage and left it in the center of the court. Karíto and the knight walked back into formation the creature laughed again "It is weak and scared!" The following day the knight was found dead in his room, he was near a mirror with a contorted look on his face. Strange and terrible things began to happen throughout the castle. People were spontaneously getting sick, things were breaking all over, and the moods of those living there was a mix of anger and deceit.

Karíto had just finished eating breakfast when Lucia's maid Ella approached him. "Sir, Princess Lucia is feeling better, she has requested a walk in the garden." Karíto nodded, finished his meal then made his way to Lucia's room.