A Sword For Gold

Chapter 16 - Hectic Travels

"Why is it only the six of us traveling together?"

The five apprentices of Zel Rockborne had finally reunited, and were going through the grasslands as a small, unnoticeable and unsuspicious unit as they made their way towards the undoubtedly penurious lands of Dazolece, ruled by only fear, tyranny, poverty, and danger. They had been walking for at least an hour towards the southern borders by the Great Waterfall, before Baros had noticed that their traveling company was only the five of them, with Velenya Martel accompanying them in place of their late master, hence, Baros' curious question pertaining to where the other Shadow Hunters were.

"Baros, I didn't think this needed explaining," replied Vaelia with a slight sigh of annoyance, "But all of the Shadow Hunters can't just travel as one huge unit. We will draw out suspicion not just from the eyes of those who spy for the kingdom, but also for those who spy for The Rising. We have to be careful with how we conduct our travels. Thus, the smaller the amount of people traveling together, the lesser chances the traveling company would demand attention."

Baros grinned and shrugged sheepishly, unable to realize it until Vaelia's complete, lengthy explanation about their means of traveling towards the autocratic kingdom. Cora glanced at Baros, slightly concerned for him having been told off by Vaelia slightly, but it seemed like she didn't have to worry for someone who had a complete smile on his face. The other two boys, meanwhile...

"Maraxus, Kaleb," called the leading Velenya, carrying the Star Sword at her back, as she looked back at them, "You two have been awfully silent for the last hour or two," she pointed out, taking the words completely out of Cora's mouth who had also nearly spoken up, noticing the silent, eerie aura that they had been giving off.

"Maraxus, you too?" asked Kaleb, "You have a bad feeling about the prince, too, don't you?"

Maraxus nodded in full agreement, somewhat relieved that he wasn't the only one bothered with those kinds of suspicions and thoughts running amuck in his head. "It's hard for me to trust the prince," he admitted, "Why now? Why give us the Star Sword? He could have simply kept it by himself all this time, and neither his father nor The Rising would have been able to find him out, that he was secretly a bearer of the Unwieldable all along."

"I can't blame you for thinking that," said Velenya in what seemed like half-agreement, "But I'm guessing that he's had his eyes on us and most especially me all this time. Now that Laelith has been taken prisoner, he needs us."

"Basically, it's his response to an unforeseen circumstance," added Vaelia, "I'm going to boldly assume that he's been secretly working with the High Sorceress just as much as my sister has been. That's probably why he followed Kaleb all the way to our hideout. He needed us to know that we still had allies within the higher-ups of Levyria, and also assured us that he would do whatever it took to keep Laelith alive, from being executed."

"There's a lot he isn't telling us," replied Kaleb, "I've been a royal guard for two years and an accomplice to Velenya and Laelith at the same time, yet the prince never thought to make himself known to me."

"He doesn't trust us," assumed Velenya, shrugging as they kept walking.

"Well, tough shit for him," retorted Maraxus, "That only gives us more reason for us to trust him even less!"

"Still, we have to acknowledge and make do with the fact that Prince Melchor had just made himself known to us as a possible ally, and let's not ignore the fact that he entrusted the Star Sword to me," said Velenya, as she pointed at the Star Sword that she had sheathed behind her back.

"About that, sister," Vaelia chimed in, with more thoughts coursing through her mind that she needed to let out in the open. "You said that Alyria Desolas had the Star Sword, right? How come Prince Melchor had it with him? Don't tell me that accepting the Star Sword from him was a trap, so that Alyria could track us using that sword. I've known you only for a couple of hours, but I'm quite certain that even you wouldn't fall for something like that."