We landed in the garden. Too bad. This was my favorite dress.
Winn and Anne landed a few feet away. I tried to stand up, but a hot pain shot through my leg. My ankle was definitely facing the wrong way. A loud bang came from the room above us, and the window landed inches from my face.
I screamed for Winn and him and my brother helped me up and to the wall. They both climbed up and began to pull me up, when a cold hand grabbed my leg. It sent a sharp stabbing feeling up my entire leg. I looked down to see a hooded woman rip me from my brothers hands. She pulled a dagger from a pouch and pulled me up. She held the dagger to my neck.
"Come back down here prince Atlas, or your sister gets it."
My brother looked shocked. He was beginning to climb down when I felt a warm wash over my side. I turned to see what had happened and to my horror, I saw Sayga's sword retract from the woman's shoulder. I screamed. She tucked her sword away, and grabbed my arm. She boosted me over the wall and for the second time today I ruined my favorite dress.
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When we landed on the other side of the wall, Sayga picked me up and carried me to a small corner of the castle wall with a small storage room.
We had just a few seconds before the troops would be on the other side of the door.
"Hurry," Sayga cried "grabbed everything you can carry"
We all grabbed blankets, socks, a first aid kit, and food.
Anne screamed "HOLD THE DOOR" she placed a board across the door, but it began bending with the pressure from the other side.
"We're trapped. There's no way out."
Suddenly the door fell back into it's original place. There were several thud noises, and then a quiet knock. The world was absolutely silent. No one breathed. Another knock, and a whisper from the other side.
"You guys okay in there?" It was Sayga. Atlas very slowly lifted the board, and stepped outside.
She was standing in the middle of the meadow right outside the storage room, surrounded by guards, lying motionless on the ground.
"Are they dead?" Winn asked with a look of horror on his face.
"No no," she said. "I knocked them out. They will wake up in a few hours, and will have concussions, but they will live."
Anne walked over to the bodies, felt their pulse, and nodded, that they would be alright. We quietly grabbed everything we could carry. We were all afraid of the power that this girl possessed. It wasn't safe for any one person to have that much power.
We loaded everything that we could into a small potato sack. As we left the room, a thin silver arrow shot from the dense forest rimming the meadow. It hit the doorway, inches from my brothers nose. A small note was attached to the shaft. Atlas gently pulled it off, and read the words:
I have your parents. King Lex, queen Marra, and Lord Gregory
It is all part of my plan. I will see you soon prince Atlas.
There was a short pause.
Sincerely Maxim.
And then he folded the note and put it in his pocket.
"He sure will be seeing us soon." Then we began our walk to Maxim's castle.
