Behind the Royal Mask

Stealing Remedies

"Justice cannot be measured by the weight of gold, but by the strength of those who dare to uphold it, even in the shadows."

It was past midnight. Wind whistled through the trees and crickets chirped in the bushes. Under the dull light of full moon, a man rode on a horse. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties and had half of his lower face covered with a red piece of cloth. Sweat glistened on his forehead and seeped into his thick eyebrows.

He pulled the horse's reins to force it to stop on the diverging point of the road. Two roads went around a hill, both leading to a nearby town, though one was the shorter way. But he was not going to take any of the two paths. Clicking his tongue, he motioned the horse to go towards the longer path until he turned to another shorter one that winded up towards the top of the hill instead.

Reaching the top, which was flat as if had been cut that way, he found two people and two horses there. One was a man who was rubbing the nose of his horse. He too had half of his face covered with a similar red cloth. On spotting him, he walked away from the horse and towards the newcomer.

"Derin," the man greeted, getting off his horse, "They are on their way."

"Are the preparations done?" Derin asked. In the moonlight, his dark grey eyes appeared to be glinting with excitement. His slightly long hair had been tied behind him carelessly. He wore an old but clean white shirt with buttons fastened up to the top, and a brown pair of trousers which were equally worn out.

"The men are ready," the man said, "I hope we pull this off."

"We better, Finn," Another voice said. It belonged to the second person - a woman. She had been laying on the back of her horse, which had unusually stayed still to keep her comfortable. She jumped down from it, her curly brown hair swinging. She pulled out a thin strip of cloth from the pocket of her trousers and tied up her hair high in a ponytail.

"I am sure mother is mad at me right now because I ran off despite her warning me to stay. I have to make sure this mission succeeds to make up for the earful I am going to get when I go home," the woman said, shaking her head, her tone lament.

Derin chuckled and muttered, "Dramatic."

"Hey!" The woman exclaimed, "It's not you who is being forced by your mother to get married! You don't know what I go through everyday."

Derin raised his hands in surrender and said, "I am not going to undermine your...sufferings, Bea."

"Yes," Beatrice said, nodding, "I am just twenty-three yet. It's not like I am going to shrivel up in some years that no one will marry me. Besides, I have more important things to take care of."

"You do," Derin said, agreeing, "Also, if no one does marry you, I am always here."

Derin waved his eyebrows teasingly but Beatrice just smacked his back, rolling her eyes. Finn looked at the two in amusement. It was always fun watching Derin trying to flirt or drop hints to Bea but she would always be oblivious to it.

Finn wasn't surprised that Derin had fallen so bad for Bea. She looked like a goddess, except for her dirty clothes. She had dark green eyes with specks of yellow in them that would shine like stars in the sunlight. She would smile this big smile, showing her teeth and dimples, instead of packing her emotions into a small smile. With an athletic build, she was the heart throb of almost all men of the Vigil, though she herself was unaware of it. Finn himself, though, saw her as her sister.

Then, down on the road, he spotted lights from some carriages. There were a dozen of carriages carrying medical supplies to the town, for a newly built hospital for the nobles. Vigil's mission was to rob one of these carriages and get some medical supplies to tend to several sick commoners, who were too poor to afford medicine.