The Knight of Settadel

Chapter 11

"Louella!" Once again, Louella's sleep was disturbed by loud banging on her door. The woman sat up on her bed and wiped the sleep off her eyes before going towards the door where the banging still continues.

"You have some news?" Louella asked, not beating around the bush, when she saw Curio.

"I have many" it was all Curio needed to say to get all of Louella's attention.

"But we have got no time, I will tell them on the way to the palace. The King is asking for us and we must not make him wait another second"

Louella wanted to ask, but knew she won't get an answer from the man unless they are on the road. So she hastily made herself presentable and boarded Curio's Carriage, where Raymond and Aliesha was waiting for them.

"Can someone at least give me a brief explanation of what is happening?" Louella requested, but the three only shook their heads.

"I wish we could, but we don't have any idea as well" Raymond said. "But we know that it is related to Elyse"

"What about her? Where is she anyway?"

"She disappeared again" it was Aliesha who spoke. "When you left with Curio the night before, we were surprised to find her nowhere. It's just like she vanished"

Once again, the urge to tell everyone what she had seen the night prior became strong, but knew better than to tell. So Louella kept quiet for a moment until they find something that explains what she had seen and something tells here that it would be soon.

Everyone was then quiet for the whole ride, all of them busy with their own thoughts as they tried to make sense of what has happened to the town for the past few weeks. It's all just happening too fast and, although they are used to bizarre stuff happening, their minds couldn't keep up.

Then, they had seen the majestic palace and, once at the gates, they had to walk the rest of the way, with two guards each at their front and back. The surrounding feels eerily quiet for Louella, or maybe it's just her hyper-sensitive senses that came with old age, which she blames whenever she would, sometimes, easily lose her patience.

When the guards had opened the enormous front doors of the palace, they had immediately seen that the King, along with the Queen, was already with their respective thrones, awaiting them, with their only daughter, Mackenzie, standing by the Queen's side. Both Raymond and Curio had been to the palace at instances that are too many to count, or mention, and none had been too serious enough that the royalty had also required the presence of their daughter, an act of which the King states of protectiveness over his only child, and something all understands. 

So seeing the princess in the room had increased the tenseness of their bodies, knowing that what was about to happen is something so important that it also required her in the room.

As soon as they had reached the front of the thrones, everyone had bowed their heads in respect.

"Thank you so much for being here in such short notice, I know that each of you had been restless due to the creature that had been roaming your town for days, which is why I had called upon you as soon as I heard of some news. In all honesty, I still have not been able to wrap my head around this, so I will let Emilia tell everything to you"

Then, as if she was just waiting to be summoned, the large doors at the far right corner of the room had groaned open and in came the sorceress in all her elegance with the red dress that she wore. Of course, as usual, her face was spotless and is just perfect, just like everyone had known her to be.

There was a faint smile on her face, a smile so innocent and child-like that you would not believe that she is the remaining sorceress in the kingdom that is responsible for protecting it from the outside world. You would not be able to believe the power that she holds.