The Damned

VII The Secret Truth

          The time that passed after the Chikir left was a sort of blur for Darra. She remembered being escorted away by the Prince's guards into a guest room not too far away from the corridor. This time, they did not try and confuse her with longer ways to her room. It was a corridor to the left, straight to a door at the end of that hallway to the right. Once the guards had locked her in there, Darra only plopped onto the bed and begged herself not to think of what had just happened.

She did not know where Zed or his mother had gone off to nor did she want to know.

                                                                                            *     *     *

Darra, thought Elliott the minute he came to his senses. It was obvious what the Elf court had done to the Chikir to avoid fighting. But the question was, why did they? The Elves were always the first to want to start a fight, so why didn't they when they clearly had the upper hand?

It didn't matter. What mattered was finding a way to get Darra back.

Elliott went in search for the king; he would know what to do. As for where to find him was a complete mystery to Elliott. Although they both were near each other exiting the Underground, Elliott and King Jason did not make it back to the same place. Some joke the Elf Queen decided to play, Elliott was sure of it.

He had only drifted a couple blocks away from the Whitelaw home, the meeting point for all Chikir. It was in the heart of the city and accessible to everyone twenty-four-seven. The house had wards that hid it from the human eye. To humans, the house was but a run-down two-story apartment building.

The house itself was nothing special, but what hid beneath it was mind-blowing. Research centers and meeting rooms were only the beginning of what the Whitelaw Manor held underground. All decisions and reunions were done under the house which made it the heart of Chikir activity.

When Whitelaw Manor came into view, Elliott couldn't contain his shock when he saw dozens of Chikir crowding each entrance to the basement.

As Elliott approached, he had managed to subdue his shock and see what was going on. Although he had tried asking around to have someone explain to him why they were there, he had made it to the front of the crowd with no explanation as to why there were so many people in the Whitelaw Manor front lawn.

The only thing Elliott noticed at the front of the crowd was an insane amount of security roaming around the entrance to the manor's living room. Something was going on, and Elliott intended to find out what it was.

After pushing through the small throng of people and dealing with both yells of annoyance and the occasional push back, Elliott had made it to the security guarding the door.

"I need to speak to the king. Please let me in," was his first attempt at making it in the Whitelaw Manor. Clearly, there had to be more tries before he can enter.

"I am not permitted to allow anyone into the manor before the king's speech. Please, return to your seat and wait for the king to come out. I am sure he will gladly see you after he is done saying what he has to say," replied the guard with no tone in his voice.

"Let me in, I'm sure the king wouldn't mind having me by his side when he delivers his speech. And what is this speech about anyway? Nothing bad has happened to the populace, nor are we celebrating an event, I do not understand why there is a need for a speech. Just let me in, I bet I can sort all of this out," Elliott half-pleaded-half-demanded.