ꜱᴄᴀʀ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋᴇʏꜱ

Chapter 40: Scarvern

"Woohoo!" Scarvern cried gleefully as his dragon flew him over the continent of the Quad kingdom freely. He felt on top of the world, though he practically was. He gripped Uisdean's spikes as the dragon dipped into the sea of Vadelin. He had led him to Reylyn. Uisdean snorted up water through his nose and snorted it over to cool off Scarvern. From a distance, he could see the palace of Vadelin. They were just a bit away from saving her. Though Scarvern was sure she could stay on her own.

The crimson dragon from earlier was flying above them, her scales catching on the sun just enough to turn the ocean a red color. The pine and the white dragon had flown north, towards the kingdom of Alnao, if his directions were right. The castle of Vadelin was now in view. Uisdean bowed his back once again, and Scarvern hopped off of it.

"See you soon," he smiled. Uisdean rose from the ground of the castle and gilded across the water. He tiptoed to the nearest window. He was hoping this was the storage room. People were in the room beside it.

"You can't just hurt her," a woman muttered. "What if she's the last pyroe with royal blood in her? You can't just deplenish her bloodline,"

"I was promised only hydroes for my bloodline," this angry voice belonged to the king of Vadelin. "My son is to be king the moment I die. The girl's barely sixteen. The prince is almost eighteen. My sickness is declining drastically, she won't be queen if I'm alive,"

Scarvern had to hold in his surprised gasp as the king revealed his secret. That explained the prince's eagerness to turn them in. Wyahat was trying to prove himself worthy for king, before his father died. The king's throat sounded dry out of nowhere.

"Ever since these magical teenagers started their key quests," King Raj cleared his throat, a low and raspy cough erupting from his mouth. "My sickness has gotten worse. That's why we want them dead,"

Scarvern froze in his tracks. What did he mean by we?

The young woman made a soft 'hmm' sound. "What do you mean by we, sir?"

"By we I mean the rest of the kings, and queens. King Basil has two, I have one. Queen Reinette had one. He escaped somehow. But the Strass family saw him stop at their doorstep. The blond one. He belongs to my kingdom," Scarvern snapped his fingers to catch the attention of the ghosts surrounding the doors.

The white shadows of the ghosts turned their heads to the sound of the snap. They floated over to Scarvern. The five that he could see looked about mid teens and some looked old. . He could see the slight wounds from how they died. Some of them had no scars.

"What do you need, servant?" one of them snapped. If Scarvern had to guess, she was about fourteen when she died. Died from a stab wound near her gut.

"I need help finding this girl," he lifted the photo of Reylyn to the ghost who studied it closely. "She was last reported somewhere here, was she?"

The ghost turned to the other ones and they nodded. "Yes, I have. She's on the top floor of the prison. She's ten away from walking the plank,"

From what Scarvern heard, walking the plank was essentially death for people not native to Vadelin. His gut churned, but he kept his nerves at bay. "Is there any way I can get up there...? Safely? Can anyone report to me how she's been doing? How long has she been here?" he asked those questions with a shaky voice. So much for holding your nerves in.

"Two," the ghost spoke up. "There was business the king had to attend to in Alnao. You're lucky. She would've already been walking the plank if it weren't for that incident. But we'll check on her,"

"Thank you." he sighed breathly. "Is there any way I could get to her in, erm.. Human form?"

The ghost chuckled, but her expression hardened. Or as much as a ghost expression could harden. "Not human form."

A ghost from behind the girl flew to the front shyly. "I can make you turn into a ghost for a few hours. Thirty minutes at the shortest, five hours at the longest," the ghost boy stuttered under the older ghost girl's gaze.

"I'll take it." He didn't hesitate to take the offer. "Just take me to Reylyn."

"But there's a tiny problem.." the boy cowered under the gaze of the girl once again. "She won't be able to see you if she's never seen you, that or she has to have some type of connection to you, like love, friendship."

Scarvern leaned his palm on top of the castle's walls. "Still worth a try, isn't it?"

The boy nodded. "Yes, but..."

"But?"

"There's another drawback," the girl interrupted. "The other prisoners will see you too. They'll beg you to let them out,"

"And?" Scarvern didn't have time to argue time was ticking.

"They'll persuade you with their charms. With everything in there will power to get you to open their cell. Whatever you do, don't open it. You'll be a permanent ghost if you fall for it," she clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. "That's how ghost granter turned into a ghost," she turned to the boy who he was just talking to. "That's how he got his nickname,"

Ghost Granter flew to the front again and looked at Scarvern. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. I don't have time to wait," he snapped. Ghost Granter closed his eyes, and Scarvern felt weightless. He looked down at his hands, they were shimmering white. Just like the other ghosts were. Scarvern smiled. "Ready. Let's go." Ghost Granter and the older ghost girl lead the way to the 'walk the plank' prison. The first person he caught sight of was Reylyn's sleeping, but weak form in the eleventh cell.