Three Fates Entwined | Dream Team

Chapter Twenty-One

Dream handed the arrows he had foraged to Sapnap, who returned them to their quiver. "Where's George?" he asked, glancing around him.

Sapnap shrugged. "Still looking for arrows, probably."

"You sound miffed."

"I am."

They looked up as George stumbled towards them from the far side of the field. He was looking rather pale, and his hands were shaking slightly.

"George?" Dream asked in concern, taking a step towards him. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

The prince trembled. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled, and regained his composure. "I saw a knife."

Dream stiffened. A knife... of course. He had left one of his attacker's knives in the trunk of a tree that night without thinking about the consequences. It had been a quick action, not much thought involved. He had a knife, he didn't need it, it was getting in his way, and so he disposed of it.

Thinking back, he didn't understand why he didn't just toss it into the forest.

"A knife, huh?" Sapnap said. He was eerily calm --- probably since he already knew about what had happened to Dream last night. "In the forest? That's interesting."

"Did you see anything else?" Dream asked cautiously.

George shook his head. "I turned and left right after I saw it."

Sapnap accepted the arrows he was holding out, slipping them into the quiver that was now way too full. He was quiet for a moment, and then he said, "We should go check it out."

Dream narrowed his eyes slightly. It would be bad if they went into the forest and George discovered the body, but at the same time, him being there with them would ensure that he could watch over them, making sure that they didn't find it in the first place.

"You're right," Dream said.

Sapnap blinked. "I am? I mean--- yeah, I am. Come on, George, let's go check out this mysterious knife you're talking about."

***

Dream spotted the knife almost immediately.

Stupid, stupid, he scolded himself. You're a trained assassin. How do you make a mistake like  this?

"Oh," Sapnap said, examining the knife. "That's... disturbing."

Dream glanced over at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...." He gestured at the knife, then the blood, then at the general direction of George.

George was looking even paler than before. Dream sighed and reached over, pulling the knife out of the tree. He tried wiping the blood off with the hem of his sweater before realizing that it was dry and any attempts were in vain.

"It's just a knife, George." His voice was a lot more steely than he had wanted. "Don't worry about it."

"This is why we're training, remember?" Sapnap said in a softer voice. "Calm down."

"Assassins are in the castle," George said, his surprisingly calm despite how freaked out his exterior was. "I have to warn my father."

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did you have to leave the knife there?

"That's a good idea," Dream lied through gritted teeth. "Should we toss out this knife?"

"No," George said immediately. "There's blood on it, isn't there? We can try and get a mage over here to test and see if we can track down who it belongs to."

"What if...." Sapnap hesitated, then continued, "what if the person who's blood is on the knife isn't the assassin?"

Dream's right eye twitched. "What do you mean?"

"What if the person is just someone who had a different motive?" Sapnap said, meeting his eyes. "Maybe they were tracking someone else."

Thank you, Sapnap.

But George just shook his head. "Maybe. But I still want to know. And at any rate, how did an enemy get into the castle in the first place?"

"We should up security," Sapnap agreed.

Nevermind.

"Maybe we should wait for someone else to get into the castle," Dream suggested. "Then we'd be able to find out how they did it and change things to make sure that nobody ever does again. Right now, we'd just be shooting blindly into the darkness."

"You do have a point," George said thoughtfully. "But I think that it would be better to start fortifying as soon as possible."

"That takes effort too. Why don't we save the effort for later?" Sapnap said.

"No. What if there isn't a later?"

"But---" Dream began, but George shot him a look.

"I'm the prince, Clay," he snapped. "This is my castle, and this is my decision."

Dream swallowed back his words. It was the first time since they had started getting friendly that George had played the "prince" card, and during such a crucial matter at that. Sure, he was trying to work things in his favor, but he definitely didn't enjoy having people sneak around at night, trying to kill him. And he was sure that Sapnap was just trying to help as well.

"Do what you want, George," Sapnap said with a shrug. "We're just knights, right? We don't have authority, and above all, we're just here to serve."

George's pale cheeks regained some color. "I---"

Dream turned and started heading back. "Wait, Clay!" George called. "Sapnap! Look, I didn't mean it like that!"

He ignored the prince, slinging his bow and quiver over his shoulder. It was tempting to turn around and shoot an arrow, completing his task once and for all, but that would be acting irrationally. Besides, despite how ticked off he was, the guy was still his friend.

Friend. He, Dream, the notorious assassin, had a friend.

He walked faster. Sapnap had called him his friend at breakfast. Dream didn't know that it was possible to feel that much guilt all at once. And he wasn't supposed to feel guilty. The word wasn't even supposed to be in his vocabulary.

Dream had finally gained their trust. And surprisingly, it wasn't him that was the one making cracks in it.