The Stolen Throne

Chapter Twenty - Destruction

Lucy and Vindexis managed to get past the general and his sentries on the steps by skirting past them while they were occupied by Lucy's forces pushing against them. Lucy led them both to a servants entrance in the courtyard wall and they entered the castle.

"This way." Lucy whispered, leading them both down a passageway that led to the corridor near the throne room. They hurried along, weapons jangling, their footfalls echoing along the passage. It was a wonder no one heard them, but maybe they were all either outside or surrounding Esmeralda. It seemed too good to be true as they drew nearer to the end of the passage and turned left onto the corridor outside the throne room.

Too good to be true indeed.

Two dozen guards at least stood six abreast in the corridor in front of them, blocking the way to the double doors leading to the throne room. At the front of the small party was General Warthog.

"Your Highness. A pleasure, yet again." His piggy little eyes shone with glee as he beheld the two of them.

"The pleasure is all mine." Lucy grinned, feigning confidence. In truth, she questioned how they were getting out of this alive. She knew Vindexis was good but with at least twelve to one, the odds were against them.

"Hello, General Terr." Vindexis drawled, lazily drawing her twin blades, "Do you remember me?"

"You!" The general spat, only having just noticed her, "You died. I saw you crushed by half a castle. How can you still be alive?"

"Your Empress is always underestimating me." Vindexis smirked, striding forwards. Empress? Lucy thought but pushed it to the back of her mind as the Black Guards in front of them, as a unit, drew their swords. Vindexis paid no notice to the two dozen swords pointed at her, prowling forward like a cat getting its cream.

Lucy notched an arrow in her bowstring the moment that Vindexis started swinging. General Terr (although he would forever be General Warthog to Lucy) retreated to the back of the group, his piggy eyes intently watching as Vindexis mowed down men like they were wheat in a field.

More and more men attacked her, seven or eight fighting against her at one time. All Lucy could do was watched, enthralled as this graceful killing machine took the lives of these men as though they were nothing to her. Vindexis was powerful and lethal, with or without her magic.

Finally, Lucy sprung into action, aiding her ally as arrow after arrow let fly. Yet again, her mind betrayed her as it called up memories of the last time she was fighting with her bow. The fall of Alex and after, her letting that arrow pierce Edward and almost kill him.

Shoving the thoughts from her mind and sending a silent prayer to the Gods to actually aid her for once, Lucy drew another arrow, felling guard after guard until Vindexis crossed her knives over one another and sliced the throat of the remaining guard.

Vindexis turned to her, splatters of blood that was not her own coating her amour and clothes and dripping from her blades. She inclined her head, beckoning Lucy towards the double doors with the Fidelis family crest emblazoned upon them.

"You may think you have won, but my Queen will always defeat you, as she always has." Came General Terr's voice from where he lay on the ground, blood leaking from his mouth as he clutched his stomach from where Vindexis had gutted him.

"It's a shame that you won't be alive to be proven wrong, General." Vindexis hissed before turning to the doors and pushing them open. Lucy followed, trying to ignore the fact that Vindexis had denied him the mercy of a more painless death in favour of letting him bleed out.

"How bad was he?" Lucy whispered as they crossed the threshold of the throne room.

"I once saw him order the execution of an entire village just because he suspected they'd helped me hide. They hadn't. He slaughtered one hundred innocent lives in cold blood and many more at the behest of his queen." A shadow passed over Vindexis' face as she gazed up at the queen sat on the throne that was not her own.