Ancient Cardos: The Knight of Cardos

Chapter 11: Busted

The four of us were riding as fast as we could through the forest. The rouge army had spotted us and decided to take advantage of our poor numbers. There had to be at least ten of them chasing the four of us who are very tired and hungry ever since we left Camelot.

It had only been weeks, but when we got back to Cardos we realized what had really happened. It was a take over, not a destruction. That Percy had crowned himself the king. The other three kingdoms wont give him any support. Well, Waltendale and Roden were still rebuilding from dragon attacks years ago.

The last kingdom in our region just happened to be where we ended up. Jewels kingdom. It got its name after revealing that its mines were loaded with just about every jewel in existence. The home of great black smiths and crafters.

We arrived at the gates and I nearly passed out from exhaustion. I'm sure we were all about to. Our faces were covered with dirt and our clothes were ripped and worn out well enough that we made normal villagers look like royalty.

I climbed off my horse and went up to one of the guards. I told them who I was, but as soon as I mentioned Cardos it was all over. They sent me back to my horse and told me to leave.

They wanted nothing to do with us. We continued moving and the next sign of people that we came across was a friendlier village. It was called Thunder Peak. I have no clue why. There isn't a mountain in sight.

They let us in and gave us a building to stay in that had been empty for years. We all got in and laid down on the wooden ground.

"We need to fix ourselves." I said.

"Agreed." The three others said.

We spent weeks there hiding and helping out around the village. We built new homes and repaired buildings. I used a little magic here and there, but no one had noticed. Not even my friends.

We were so widely accepted there that they offered us food and drinks for free and that we were welcome whenever. We didn't stop there.

We started farming all the crops in their own fields. It was more than they ever thought they would get. It was a good rest there. A whole year had gone by and not a single fight broke out. No one came looking for us. It only made me anxious.

Did we really lose Percy and Leo? Are we really safe or are they waiting for a perfect moment to strike? The thought of it drove me crazy.

I left one night and took my horse. We traveled all the way to Cardos. I stopped on a cliff from a distance to look at the castle that was once my home.

It hurt to look at it. I can barely call that place home anymore. I picked up a bunch of sticks and held them together. I made them light into a fire and I used it to walk around the cliff side and making sure I wouldn't fall.

My horse started making noises and I went to calm him down, but someone was on my horse. I unlit the torch and drew my sword.

"Off my horse now."

"How did you do that?" The person said. It wasn't just a person. It was Adelle.

"How did you follow me without me noticing?"

"You were going pretty fast, any noise could have just been twigs breaking."

Adelle got off my horse and then I got on. "Get on your horse, we have to go back anyways."

"No." She said with so much defiance.

"What do you mean no? I am the leader here, we are on enemy ground."

"How did you make the flame go out?"

"I have magic now lets go!" I rode off and left her behind. She would follow eventually.

She caught up to me and we rode side by side. I slowed my horse down to let him rest a little. We didn't make it off enemy grounds in time. There was a patrol coming up to our path way. The sun was just coming up and trees flooded the area. Maybe we could hide in them.

"We are gonna have to leave the horses." I said.

"But we are barely half way home and the sun is barely rising."

"Adelle, just follow me." I climbed up into the trees and Adelle followed. The patrol that came by took no notice of us, but did see the horses. They waited around and looked around. They were suspicious.

Lucky for us they didn't have the time to wait around, so they killed the horses with their swords and left. When they were out of sight. I dropped from the trees and continued walking back to Thunder Peake.

"We can't just leave them." Adelle cried out.

"They are dead. We can't do anything. Let nature do what it does best."

We walked all day and the sun began to set. Being without a horse was making for a longer trip than planned.

We stopped in another great tree area. I started to collect wood to make a fire, Adelle didn't speak to me for the whole day. Probably shocked I had magic and didn't use it.

I started the fire and sat in front of it. "Join if you want Adelle. I'm not going to kill you if thats what you think."

"You lied to all of us." She said and stayed away from me.

"I didn't lie. I never used it. No one asked for a magical moment. This isn't my fault you saw me use magic and are now treating me like an enemy."

"You could have said something to us. Like 'Hey guys, I discovered that the magical gift my mom had has been given to me as well.' That would have been something."

I stood up from the fire and I really wanted to hit her for being arrogant about this.

"I was almost never born because of her having magic. I only came into the world because she believed it was gone. She believed magic was nothing, but a curse. It only brings enemies. Now I have to deal with running away from my oldest friend Leo and if he is not after me it's his dragon Snow. If it's not Snow it is Percy Ward that guy that killed my parents. He snuck into the castle and poisoned my fathers drink and i'm guaranteed he was behind my mother's sickness. Who just heats up and dies. So keep blaming me for having magic that i'm not suppose to have to begin with. Sorry for wanting to make sure I forgot I had it."

Adelle kept quiet for a moment and I went to sit back down in front of the flames. I was about to burn up myself. I felt so angry to be treated like an enemy for having magic.

"Alice, you can't keep hiding from who you really are inside. A Sorcerer." I drew my sword and turned to Adelle, keeping my blade close to her.

"I'll just go to sleep." Adelle said softly and laid down by a tree. I stabbed my sword into the ground and stared into the flames.