Put back together

38. Twisted Royal

Warning: Slight body horror, imprisonment, swearing, slightly unsympathetic Dark Sides and betrayal ahead! *smiles innocently*

The garden was beautiful with exotic plants, colourful butterflies and somewhere between the trees Logan could hear a fountain bubble.
They followed Virgil down a stone path, passing a few marble benches and pavilions until they heard two voices.
Shortly after Logan could also see the two men, who were discussing something in hushed voices, with a few guards standing near by.

One wore fancy robes, similar to the man Virgil had talked to earlier.

The other wore a yellow robe with black embroidery and a golden crown.

The king.

The first man looked up as they got closer and trailed off with whatever he was going to say.

The king followed his companions stare.

The left side of his face, that Logan hadn't been able to see at first, was disfigured.
It was covered in yellowish scales, his eye was surrounded by pinkish flesh and his eyes was bright yellow with a slit pupil.

He made a dismissing gesture towards his companion, who immediately stood up and hurried away.

The king himself stood up as well.

"What do I owe the pleasure of you visiting again after all his time?" the king asked and looked Virgil over. Logan saw a thin, split tounge dart out for just a second.

The mage shrugged.

"Had to lead a few people off the Islands and I knew that if I stayed away too long you'd have me beheaded."

The king laughed and pulled Virgil into a hug.

Oh. Logan supposed that was an even better explanation for why Virgil was treated the way he was.
His brother was the king.
Which would make Virgil a prince.

But why the hell would a teronan prince live on the Cursed Islands?

"And who are these people?" the king's voice pulled Logan out of his thoughts.

A shiver ran down his spine as the man's yellow eye focused on him.

"A sallerowan prince and baker and a natican librarian," Virgil answered without hesitation.

The king's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Throw them in the dungeon," he said coldly.

"Wha-," Roman tried to protest but was grabbed roughly by two guards.

Strong hands grabbed Logan's arms and he had barely time to register what was going on before he was shoved down one of the many paths of the garden, towards on of the entrances into the castle.

What the actual hell..?

While Logan was still trying to keep up with what was happening, Roman was cursing loudly and struggling against the guards hold all the while trying not to injure his arm further.
Logan had never even heard most of the curses the prince spat.

One of the guards ripped his bag from his and took Patton's and Roman's weapons and bags too before handing them to a young boy and telling his to bring them to the armory.
The boy nodded and dashed off.

The guards almost pushed them down a set of narrow stairs and through a heavy wooden door into the dungeon.

The long corridor was lit by torches and something dripped down from the ceiling. Logan hoped it was water.
They passed a number of cells and criminals, guilty of all kinds of crimes, stared at them from the shadows.
A man whose face was more scars than anything else almost threw himself at the bars and laughed when Logan jumped and Patton yelped.

One of the guards unlocked an empty cell, they were pushed inside and behind them the lock was closed again.

"That goddamn son of a bitch!" Roman swore and pulled at his hair.

"Roman!" Patton half scolded.

"What?! Am I wrong? He fucking betrayed us! He knew that this would happen!" Roman yelled throwing his arms out only to wince slightly and pull the injured one close to his chest again.

"You can't know that for sure!" Patton argued back weakly. "Maybe he expected a different reaction!"

"Unlikely," Logan cut in. "The king is his brother. He most likely knows him well. At least well enough to know how he reacts to certain events. As much as it pains me to say it, I think Roman might be right; Virgil purposely ratted us out."

"He also lied to us!" Roman added and Logan noticed how his eyes seemed to burn in anger. "He said that he had been in Terona 'a few times'. But as we know now, this is his fucking home!"

A hiss cut Roman off before he could go into a full rant.
Elliott slowly crawled out of Logan's pocket, obviously displeased at having been woken up just like that.
They hissed at Roman again, seemed to almost choke and spat a small amount of fluid.
The spit hit the ground instead of its intended target and all three men jerked back when it burned a small hole into the already uneven stone floor.

Logan stared at Elliott wide eyed.

"Did you just spit acid at Roman?" he asked in slight disbelief. He had a feeling that this day couldn't get any more confusing or crazy at this point.
Or maybe he was just jinxing it by thinking that.
He hoped not.

Elliott gave a small 'Nan' and looked very proud of themselves.

"I think that's a 'Yes'," Patton mumbled.

"Your kid spit fucking acid at me," Roman huffed.

Patton punched his shoulder.
"No cursing infront of my child," he declared.

"Yes," Elliott agreed, the word slightly mispronounced as if they had a lisp.

Patton's face lit up in delight.

Elliott looked even prouder and continued to repeat the word again and again.

Logan huffed and leaned back against the cell wall, letting himself slide down into a seating position.
Elliott took the opportunity to roll up on his stomach and he lightly scratched their head.

Patton sat down next to him and Roman took the spot across from them.

"Do you think we could use their acid to break out?" he suggested after a moment.

Logan thought about it. It could potentially work. But there was also the possibility that Elliott's acid wouldn't destroy the metal or that they couldn't produce enough to open the lock. Or that they couldn't produce any at the moment, having just spit at Roman.

"We could try it," he finally conceded. "But let's wait till tomorrow. We're all tired and I doubt a breakout would be successful right now."

Patton nodded: "If we break out, we're going to have to run and I don't think I can do that right now."

"Alright, we rest and as soon as the sun sets we get out of here. We'll just have to get a map elsewhere... Or we steal it."

Patton shot him an aghast look.

"Think about it, we're going to have to steal our stuff back anyway. Might aswell get a map too. We'd just have to be extremely careful and make sure that our breakout goes unnoticed for as long as possible so the guards wont be alarmed!"

"And if the guards don't know we don't have to fight our way out," Logan added. "And I doubt that the three of us would be able to do that."

Roman nodded.

"Good, then we have a plan!"

*laughs in ruined relationships*
God, this was fun to write! I've been waiting to get here for so long!
Oh, honey. You got a big storm coming!

Feel free to yell at me, ask me what the hell I think I'm doing or roast me!

Also, while looking up the words I didn't know i stumbled across the word flabbergasted and it's my new favourite English word!

Have a nice (gay) day!