The Immortal Guardians: Book IV

Chapter 32

To my surprise, Max was back early and with Henri.

"Byron has declared war." Henri told me before he even dismounted his horse.

"What?" I gaped at him.

"He declared war about three hours ago. The Warlocks are livid, Iris. The Chancellor was angry that Taron had been captured by Byron. Byron is drafting more Immortals for the guard."

"Can he do that?" I shook my head at him.

"He can do whatever he wants. He is the King." Henri took a deep breath. "We need to move fast. You guys are safe here. We need to move away from here and towards neutral territory."

"We need to get to the Chancellor." I protested. There was still a lot that we had to do.

"Yeah, well he is asking for your head too. I think you need to talk to Uncle so we can advise you. Word is going to get to my other Uncle that his daughter is involved with the Warlocks. I'm fucking screwed." He rubbed his head.

"Fine." I nodded. Maybe we could get some support from the Goblins but I doubted it. They weren't violent people and they tended to stay out of wars.

Instead of listening to the Healers advice, we moved Taron. We were going to visit the Goblin Minister. I could only imagine their faces when they saw me.

The Goblin Minister listened to me, not once did he show any kind of emotion. I wasn't sure what to think.

"King Byron has declared war." He told me in a monotone voice. "He thinks you are dead and it was caused by that thief." Taron was resting in different room upstairs. The Minister had reluctantly allowed him in. He had taken one look at me and I could swear he wanted to deny me help.

"Anika Enden was trying to kill you?" he sounded skeptical.

"I am dead so technically she did kill me." I told him. He raised his eyebrows. There was nobody else in the room besides the Minister, Jude Sr., Henri and myself. He hadn't called in his ministry, which maybe was a good sign.

"Uncle, she is telling the truth."

"Henri we do not get involved in Immortal affairs." Mr. Henri snapped at his son. Henri stood up, not flinching. "We advise them."

"I did what I had to do. She is my friend and I helped her out. Are we going to help her out or not?"

"Clearly, I do not have an adequate ruling presence among my people and that includes my army." The Minister stood up. "I am not in charge of the army, that belongs to my brother Jude." He bowed his head to me. "Guardian, I can't help you out, excuse me while I go to the bathroom." He quietly left the room. We waited until he was gone and I turned to Mr. Henri.

"Dad?" Henri spoke up first. His dad shot him a look, there was exasperation on his face.

"This will not be the first time I have helped the Immortals. I can't say I haven't meddled in Immortal affairs. I will offer you three soldiers, Iris." He stared at me sternly. He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "I can't do anymore for you. If the Warlocks find out we are helping you, they will come after us too. Taron can stay here and rest while you two go search for the Heir. He will be moved to my home and away from the Ministers."

"Yes, thank you dad." Henri got up and hugged him. Mr. Henri shook his head at his son. "Be careful, Henri. If you get caught- there is only so much we can do. I can't believe you dragged your family into this."

"You said to always be fair, and do what is right. This is right, Dad. Iknow it. She needs our help."

"I'm trusting your judgment on this. Be careful, both of you. As soon as Taron is well, I will inform him and send him to find you." He held out his hand to me.

"Thank you, Mr. Henri." I grasped his forearm as a sign as respect. I wanted to tell him that he wasn't making a mistake. "I will do my best to make sure you all aren't dragged into this."

"My son already took care of that." he sighed heavily, shaking his head.

"Who else did you help?" I asked him, wondering.

"The Old Queens" he shook his head at himself. "Queen Andrea, maybe you will have better luck finding the Heir than she did."

"She looked for him?" I furrowed my eyebrows, confused. She didn't tell me that the last time I had seen her.

"Indeed, but was never successful. I also helped Queen Brielle before she married King Aaron."

"I thought we didn't meddle in Immortal Affairs, Dad." Henri let out a low laugh.

"Son, I know too many things about the Immortals. King Aaron was going to be murdered and Brielle came here asking for help. We avoided his death that very night, and that's when Aaron made an alliance with Brielle. She would marry him to protect him."

I raised my eyebrows. I hadn't known that. It did seem that Mr. Henri knew a lot of things. He knew more than he let out.

The Minister came back in. He stared between us but didn't ask anything.

"I hope your son will be punished accordingly."

"Yes, brother." Mr. Henri replied automatically. He tilted his head at Henri got to his feet.

"As for you, I can not be of any assistance but your secret will be safe with us." the Minister nodded at me once. I nodded back at him. At least, he could do that for me.

"Thank you for your time. Byron will be stopping by soon to visit your other brother."

"Let us take care of Byron." the Minister answered, with a smirk. "Let's see if we can cool down that temper or get some sense into him."

"Well he's going to war because thinks Taron killed Iris. The face that launched a thousand ships." We all turned to Henri with a glare who only rolled his eyes. "It's true." Nobody was amused by him so he rolled his eyes. "Okay, should we get going. I think we can get out of here by dawn. We have lots to do and little time."