Fairytale Fate: The Legend Begins

♚ C H A P T E R • T H I R T Y - F I V E ♚

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"If you want your children to be intelligent,read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them morefairy tales." - Albert Einstein
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The four were hesitant to go through Caeshire's city gates, that wasn't even a question. What if Onyx knew or could sense that they were coming and was waiting for them with an army of guards at her beck and call? What if the potion didn't work at all?

            Aura waited with bated breath as their horses crept into the city. Her eyes widened in shock, and relief, when she and her friends were met with people strewn across the street, away in a distant dreamland. Others were slouched against the stone and mortar buildings, quietly snoring.

            "God if only I had my phone right now," Carolyn joked as Robin whipped their horse's reins, sending them flying down the cobblestone street.

            The four quickly and carefully navigated their way through the city and across the bridge that connected into the marketplace in front of the castle. As its sterling white towers loomed above them, the fear of Onyx waiting for them began to take hold of them once more.

            As they cautiously entered the grand hall, they were greeted with servants resembling the people in the streets—completely out cold, some with their buckets of suds spilled across the glossy floors.

            Robin led them down the familiar path to the dungeon, each of them slipping past the giant of a guard who was blissfully unaware as he dreamt above the clouds.

            Drip...drip...drip...

            Carolyn gritted her teeth at the familiar, chilled atmosphere of the dungeon. The looks on her friends' faces depicted a similar disdain for their current position. She rubbed her wrists in an attempt to rid of the memory of rusty chains clamped tightly around them.

            They four quietly descended one of the staircases to the first level of cells, the twins' bracelet chains emitting an almost undetectable glow. It brightened the second the four moved closer to the staircase that led further down into the depths of the dungeon.

            Aura took a deep breath as her bracelet's glow grew stronger with each step she took. Down and down they went, further into the darkness that was only combatted by the orange glow of the torches on the damp walls.

            The bracelets led them down one of the four corridors of cells that broke off from the main area, their lights sufficing better than the torches with each turn. And with each turn came more and more cells, its occupant's sentence growing more gruesome than the next.

            They eventually met a dead end of the maze, yet the bracelets became almost blinding. The wall was blank apart from the two torches that clung to the stone.

            A puzzled look overtook Robin's face, his eyebrows knitting together.

            Carolyn huffed in frustration, turning on her heal to retrace their steps. "They're probably malfunctioning and are trying to lead us to the Portal's Grotto."

            Aura grabbed her sister's wrist. "But Gran said that the bracelets would help us find what we need! And I'm pretty sure we need our dad."

            "That dealt with finding the items. C'mon we're wasting precious time. I want us to find Anthony, and maybe even Felicity...preferably together," Bailey said, backing away from the wall.

            Robin ran in from of her and Carolyn. "No, Aura's on to something." He pointed to the wall, walking back towards it. "There's something that doesn't add up. No other wing of this dungeon has a dead end. There's always a cell right here..." His sharp eyes examined every brick until he noticed a dull spot on only one of the sconces' iron surface.