A Dance With Death

|| Chapter 20 - Unanswered ||

Shortly after the incident, screams are heard from outside, silencing the entire hall. Everybody faces the giant doorway. The king and the queen stand up. More screams and yells follow. The people in the hall let out gasps.

I take a step to my left, increasing the space between us. I look away from him, his proximity bringing me uneasiness. He's up to something.

A bald man, around fifty, enters the hall. He's sweating and panting heavily.

"There's been an attack!" he yells, answering to the people's confusion. "They have attacked the villages! They're headed here my lord!"

This was enough to start panic among the once-merry people. Cries of women are heard. People start heading towards the second doorway, which turns out to be locked. They frantically start pounding on it. Some people run right through me as they head upstairs. A few guards surround the king and the queen while other guards try to guide the crowd.

I look around, not sure of what I should do. Caius is nowhere to be seen. That is when I start panicking too. And that's when I become sure of my doubt. He's clearly up to something. Or he wouldn't show me all of this.

I decide to go towards the royal couple; it looks like a safer option. But before I could do anything, I hear a loud bang behind me and a bright flash of light. A strong force throws my body forward and I end up on lying on the ground, my chest against the now-uneven flooring.

My ears start ringing. My senses have been knocked out. However I can still manage to make out some sounds. More screeches are heard in the background. My head starts searing with pain because of the noise and my entire body seems heavy. Oddly, I can feel the heat all around me. Careful not to make too much of movement, I look to my side. My vision isn't clear, but it is enough to see another man lying about a couple of feet away from me. His face is covered with blood and dirt. His eyes are open and he is not moving.

When I divert my gaze from his corpse, I see many others lying dead. Terrified, I try to stand up. My eyes meet another corpse right in front of me. I gasp with shock and lose my balance, almost falling backwards. Slowly, I lift myself up. I can see people still running around, yelling and crying. The whole hall is broken. Fire is burning everywhere. I turn around and find that the wall behind me has been blown up into pieces.

Burnt and bloody bodies lie all around. Blood puddles are present at every step. The air around smells vile and sickening. Yes, I can smell again. There's so much blood, I can taste the metal. However, there is no trace of blood or injury on my body, so I cannot be hurt, no matter what happens -- I mean, I survived a bomb blast for god's sake. I cannot see the king nor the queen. The flames around me are blocking my sight. But I can see a few soldiers through the flames.

But what about the attackers? Where are they? They have managed to blow up a wall of this place. Obviously, they wanted to get to the royal family. But why aren't they here yet?

As soon as the thought occurs to me, I hear the sound of rubber threads snapping and the shrill sounds of metal. And above the fire, I see a storm of whistling arrows approaching. My instincts take over and I start to run away from the source of the arrows. I don't know whether those arrows can hit me. I don't want to know.

The remaining people who survived the blast start dropping dead, one by one, as arrows pierce through their bodies. I'm filled with horror as I see all of them being killed. I feel the urge to vomit as I sense the puddles of blood underneath my feet. My sensations are coming to life. There's a high probability that I could be killed right now.

I then hear a series of howls and roars. I stop, but just for a moment, to see what is going on. I see through the flames that the soldiers of the enemy have entered the hall. This causes me to panic even more. Not bothering about the dead bodies, I start running again. Behind me I can hear the sounds of swords -- metal bashing against metal.