Sentria: The Knight Prince (Book 1)

Chapter Ten: Vanishing Vines

Three days had passed, and Eldwyn and I spent most of that time in our quarters. The illusion that we were there as anything other than prisoners with privileges was thinning by the hour, and the plot to escape remained underway. Our main impediment preventing this were those damned magical vines, deadening Edlwyn's magical abilities.

We hadn't seen Princess Ilya since the night of her revealed origin story and I began to wonder if she had been kept away from us by the king. I had, however, discovered where they kept my armor and sword; there was a suspicious room toward the back of the castle that always had a guard stationed there. I had the freedom of walking around the tower without much oversight and I noticed that no other room had such protection.

As the light dimmed on the third day, Eldwyn and I walked around the perimeter of the castle. Not having access to his magic had begun to wear on him. His hopeful sayings decreased and his smiles became rare sightings. I had to be the one to lift his spirits when I saw that they had sunk too low. That was new for me.

"We will find our way out of this," I said underneath my breath to hide my words from the following guards. "You mustn't give up."

"Yea, you're right," said Eldwyn, smiling for a second before it collapsed under the weight of his stress.

At the west side of the castle, we saw Captain Perry come our way with a group of ten soldiers behind him. They stopped and stood over us with cocksure faces, as if they were all in on a joke about  us. Their display was unbecoming of knighthood. They were nothing like the knights of the southern realm who held themselves in high regard and wouldn't crack a smile unless they were off-duty.

"The outsiders," Captain Perry said with a sneer. "I see you're still here."

"That we are," I said, refusing to let him see my fury.

"It's been such a long time since I've been in a true war. I fought in the Dynasty Wars, you know. I was but a young lad, but I killed hundreds of southerners. Marbury's, Hiddleston's, Colress's. They all felt the cold steel of my Cordathian blade."

"You must have been very proud," I said. "But today as a captain you would be more of a tactician, sending your soldiers into harm's ways. War is a young soldier's game, not meant for an aged artifact weakened by time and sluggishness."

Captain Perry frowned and glanced over his shoulder at his snickering men. He then leaned in close to my ear and said, "I cannot wait until every last one of your family's heads are atop our spikes for all the north to see."

I opened my mouth to speak when I noticed something in the corner of my eye. I turned and saw plumes of smoke rise from the exterior of the castle walls. The vines were burning. 

"Fire! Fire!" People yelled all around us and the church bells rang loudly. 

Princess Ilya's words came back to my mind as I watched the black smoke cover the sky. This was the sign.

I turned to look at the relic, who hadn't left my side this entire time. How he had suffered without his magic and held onto his last shred of hope with all that he had left. I gave him a smirk.

"Eldwyn," I said, and stared intensely at him.

Eldwyn smiled for the first time in days and said, "Bronte, auk em braun!" He threw out his hands and a gust of wind shot out, sending Captain Perry and his soldiers far into the distance. He then turned around and sent another gust at the guards trailing us and they did the same.

"I need my sword!" I said.

"Let's go then!" said Eldwyn.

The two of us rushed back through castle, Eldwyn pushed away every soldier that stood in our path with ease until we reached the back room which had been left vacant in the chaos. We burst through the door and I put on my cleaned armor quicker than I ever had before. The griffin symbol had never looked so good. We left the castle with precise haste having surveyed it for several days. Once we stepped back outside the doors, the Wizard Allaster stood there with that same mischievous smile and his hands held behind his back, like he was hiding an instrument designed for our torture.