I Am: The Saviour

Chapter 14

The flight was wordless, and I let the wind blow my silver untamed hair back from my face as we glided over the quiet mountains. Pegasus said nothing, and we spent hours outside, away from everyone. We flew, we landed, we dozed, we flew some more, eventually settling down to sleep in the same valley where we'd practiced Connecting. It was incredibly calming, and I felt more at peace with myself than I had in a long, long time.

The next day, I woke to the sound of distant birdsong. Pegasus was grazing contentedly nearby, his saddle lying on the ground beside me. I sat up and stretched, before grabbing the saddle. Pegasus trotted over and we returned to the ledge in silence. Neither of us felt the need to say anything; both of us needing time to deal with what had happened. I said goodbye to him, and he snorted before taking off to graze some more. His appetite was incredibly large after Connecting, and I found that I too was inclined to eat far more at each meal, snacking constantly in between.

Rydel cornered me the second I left the ledge, hurrying me along to the food room, hurrying me through my breakfast and essentially dragging me to the meeting room where we'd talked before. Henry sat bleary-eyed in the corner and Finch was barely suppressing a yawn. I could tell they were both regretting their decision to assist Rydel in planning the attack on Norwell Castle.

"Alright, Henry, we need at least a rough outline of the entire castle and surrounding grounds." Rydel barked, spreading out a large piece of parchment on the stone table. A handful of charcoal pieces were dumped unceremoniously beside it. Henry pushed himself up off the wall and wandered over to the parchment. He stared at the blank space for a minute, before making a decision. Picking up the charcoal in his one good hand, he began to sketch. Not once did he pause, stop or make a correction to his drawing. All of the rooms were labelled. The lines were rough and doubled in places, but by the time he was finished, there was a decent map in front of us.

"You have quite the eye for art." Rydel remarked as he studied the map. "You're sure that this is all correct?" Henry nodded resolutely as he stared at his drawing. "Ersatz, can you remember where you accessed the hidden tunnels? Are there any possible entrances from the outside?"

"The girl that showed them to me was a maid...her name was Vela." I traced the path that we had taken the day we stole the dragon hearts and found the point at which I separated from them. "I ran along here, turned left, and bumped into her about a quarter of the way down this hall. There was an entrance into the tunnels on the left wall at this point." I took a piece of charcoal and drew a circle where the entrance was situated. "As far as I know the only way back in is through the sewage."

"I wonder if we can steal a few maid uniforms." Rydel wondered out loud. "Sneak a few of you in to try and find this Vela girl. If we can persuade her to help us, she could show us the entire layout of the tunnels and get us into the castle unseen."

"I vaguely remember the route I took the other day..." I chuckled nervously at Rydel's disapproving snort. "It led out onto a sort of semi-circle dais above the throne room. I had a clear view of King Zelrox; he was a perfect target. How exactly are the dragon hearts meant to be used?"

"Fox is extracting the essence from each of the hearts and compressing them into a set of three bullets. Once the bullet enters the bloodstream, even if it just nicks the vein, his body will inevitably absorb it considering how deprived he has been of late. So long as he absorbs all three bullets before he comes off the high created by the first bullet, we'll be fine, according to Fox." Rydel explained. I nodded quietly.

"Now that Nadu is out of the way and Hunter 9 has been taken care of, I'll have a clear shot at him. Once we get in, it's a sure win."

"Hunter 9..."