CROWNS I: Of Desolate Hope | ✔

21. Elias' Questions

Elias often had trouble sleeping since he was told. Although the contents of the letter he was to deliver hadn't been fully revealed to him, he now knew enough to scare him to the core. He wriggled and squirmed under his sheets. He wanted to talk to Eliza but she had since been confined to her room at night due to her sneaking around the Cazar. The extra blankets that he had requested last night were relatively thick but for some reason, he still felt cold. I'm sure I shut it. Elias shuddered as he lay watching the ceiling as if it had all the answers to the questions he had about the journey, the King and the invaders. It did not comfort him.

"Might as well check," he murmured, sluggishly dropping out of bed to check the window. To his surprise, he was actually right - he had shut the window. Got up just for that...just great. Elias plodded back to his bed, flopped onto it and closed his eyes in a concentrated effort to fall asleep. Well, this isn't working. Elias opened his eyes again and sat up. Through the window, he saw the pale moon staring at him. He wondered whether the evil King of Anador was looking at the same one. Despite being warned against it, he sometimes went to visit Senra in her room that doubled as a cage. She had told him things, dangerous and gruesome things about dragons and those who were in line with them. However, the thing that scared him the most was that they were here. 

There came a quiet but unpleasant scraping sound from the floor but it was too dark to make out anything. His mind flashed back to the conversation he had with Dek a few days ago about the Princess and Prince of Anador and how they didn't know their whereabouts. Probably just a mouse or those small lizard things, right?  It's not like they could be here. He suddenly felt a breeze enter the room. I know I shut the window. He leapt from his bed and grasped a fire iron. One quick glance to the left revealed that the window was ajar. "Show yourself," he called out, ready to confront whoever was sneaking around. Please be my imagination, please...

"Young Prince Ezekar," came a male voice that was vaguely familiar. "Is that even your name. I doubt it."

Elias didn't take another second to think. "Help!" he screamed. "Help me!" 

The figure suddenly appeared in front of Elias and grabbed him by the throat with one hand. "No one's coming. The guards have just changed. No one can hear you." 

"Wh-what," he rasped, the grip around his neck getting tighter and his vision becoming hazy, "do you...want?"

The man eased his grip enough for Elias to breath. "If you call for help, you die," said the assailant whose face was finally able to be seen properly. 

"You! I've-"

"Quiet, little boy," said the man. "Any more of that and I'll have to kill you."

Elias spat at him. "I knew you weren't a guard," he said in both fear and admirable defiance.

"I would have killed you and your friends where you stood if it were possible," replied the man, furiously punching Elias' stomach. "I have just one question for you then I can let you go and I'll be on my way..."

Elias let out a sly kick to the crotch of the man. The grasp around his neck disappeared as the attacker hunched over. Need - need to escape! Elias dashed past the man and toward the door. "Help!" he cried, hoping that the guards for the next shift had arrived early. He grabbed the door handle and twisted it up and down.  What is happening? The door was locked.

"I did warn you," said the man, dragging Elias back by his hair. "Prepare to die."

"Wait!Wait!" he exclaimed, trying to push the large hands off of his head.

"Yes?"

"What do you want from me?" asked Elias, ready to negotiate his way out of trouble, "I can give you whatever it is."