A Tale That Never Was [Book 1 of Selvina's Tale series]

Chapter 18: Predator and Prey

With the courtyard quiet again, the four friends exchanged glances of concern and uncertainty. Selvina didn't need to hear anyone's voice to know that they were all debating the idea of helping Belle and Beast or leaving them to deal with Artemian and his soldiers on their own. This matter truly did not concern them in any way and had Selvina not overheard Frollo's discussion she would have never come to the castle in the first place. This would have all happened without her presence and she would have been none the wiser.

Her eyes found Cindy's and a rush of determination and power flowed through her body, tensing her muscles, strengthening her resolve, sharpening her vision, and making her hands curl into fists. "We have to help them," she stated.

"Selvina, think about this," Jack warned. "We'd be going up against this world's greatest bounty hunter and twenty soldiers. I can hold my own in a fight but I only have a dagger and they have swords, axes, shields, armour and numbers. This isn't our fight."

"Cindy wasn't our concern either," Selvina spat back.

"Again with Cindy," Jack said with an exasperated sigh. "How often are you going to use that argument?"

"Hey!" Cindy said with a frown on her face. "She's right, Jack. No one needed to help me but she did and I'll always be grateful. Belle and Beast are in trouble and you just want to let them die?"

"No...I don't want them to die. I just...well, this doesn't concern us. Why should we risk our lives for people we don't even know?"

Selvina straightened her back and jabbed a finger at Jack's chest. "My brother died saving people he didn't know, Jack. He fought fires for a living and he saved a family of five just before their house collapsed on him. They had been declared dead and no one else was going to risk their lives for them but he did. He did it because he knew it was the right thing to do, just like how helping Belle and Beast is the right thing." She had buried the memories of her older brother deep inside and it pained her to resurface them but she felt that Jack needed to hear about it. She needed Jack at her side. Wiping away some tears that had risen along with the memory, she waited for his decision.

There was a click behind her and she glanced back to see Red fitting bolts to her crossbows. "You can stand here and decide all you want, Jack, but I'm going in." She fit a bolt to her other crossbow and was off before anyone could say a word, her red cloak and hair flapping behind her.

Cindy and Selvina fixed their eyes on Jack, their gazes piercing into him.

With a sigh, he raised his hands in deference. "All right, we'll do it your way, Selvina. I suppose dying doing something right isn't the worst way to go." He then unsheathed the dagger he had hidden in his boot and chased after Red. Selvina and Cindy, weaponless, exchanged a victorious smile and then followed.

They entered the keep and stepped into the Great Hall, the morning light shining beams of brilliance through the tall windows along its side. A soldier lay facedown at the top of the grand staircase, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his neck. Jack rushed up the steps and put a few fingers in front of the soldier's nose.

"He's alive," he said to Selvina and Cindy as they scrambled up after him.

"Red's no killer," Selvina told him. "She uses bolts with a poison that puts people to sleep."

"She might want to change into killing shots when she meets Artemian," Cindy said with a red-faced frown on her face. "If I could I'd kill him myself."

Selvina's eyes widened in surprise. She had never seen Cindy so furious. Artemian hadn't even insulted her and yet she was acting as if he had. It made her wonder if she herself had been treated similarly. Cindy was perhaps two or three years younger than she was, fresh into her teen years, but that did not mean she was too young to feel deep emotional pain. "Are you all right, Cindy?"