Chapter 25 Pick a Side
"Well..." Yolanda said when she rushed into Fernanda's chambers fifteen minutes later. "What?" She replied, still dazed from whatever had occured between her and Sebastian earlier.
"Do you think the King fell for it?" The Maidservant asked again, she was eager to hear what Fernanda had to say. Fernanda had initially refused to go with the plan when Yolanda proposed it to her but agreed to do it later on after realizing they had no option.
"Maybe... I guess." Fernanda said, sighing frustratedly. "You sound skeptical, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just don't trust Sebastian enough to believe he'd actually fall for that. Even when we talked, I could see him trying to connect the dots. He isn't an easy man to fool." Fernanda told Yolanda.
Yolanda turned to look around and then back at Fernanda. "All the guards are gone Fernanda, he did what you asked him to do. Believe it or not, I think he is truly in love with you and will do anything you ask of him."
Fernanda gently rubbed her forehead , "You think so?"
"I know so, now let's prepare to leave before the King actually begins to connect the dots." Yolanda said, "Maya has gone to get the horses ready far away from the palace gates, she'll be waiting for us there. And since the festival will be held within the walls of the palace, it should be easier for us to sneak outside."
Fernanda nodded, "Let's count on Maya to get the horses ready on time before anyone notices anything suspicious." Fernanda had no idea how Maya was going to do that, but Maya had told her to trust her and she was willing to count on that.
Maya carefully snuck into the stables, tiptoeing around so she wouldn't disturb the horses. "Hey beautiful, care to do something for me?" She whispered softly into the ear of the first horse she saw.
"I need you to take two of your friends with you and go wait for me at the foot of the first mountain beyond the palace gates. Will you do that for me?" Threads of light came out of her lips and disappeared into the horse's ear. It neighed in response to which Maya sighed in relief.
She was afraid it wouldn't work, up till that moment she could only mind control humans and birds. Animals, for some reason she didn't know, were much harder for her to control.
Maya was relieved to know all the time she spent training her magic with the members of the order hadn't been a waste.
She properly saddled the horses before releasing them, a smile etched on her face as she watched all three gallop away.
"Love and friendship is the death of duty, so they say," Maya stilled when she heard the familiar voice. She turned around to see Lucius standing opposite her, a snarl on his face.
Before Maya could react, a strong force tightened around her throat. She tried to fight it away but it only got stronger. "You have failed the order Eira. You have become weak." Lucius snarled, he intensified the invisible force around her throat, lifted her up and threw her across the stable.
Maya's body crashed uncontrollably into some planks. The magnitude of the crash made her choke out blood. Her whole demeanor instantly changed, she was now angry.
She hated being defeated, she stood up and tried to confuse him with illusions but before she could channel out her magic, Lucius was struck in the chest by a dagger that came from nowhere. It was swifter than anything she had every seen.
He stilled, staring with wide eyes at Maya as life drained from his body. Levi stepped out of the shadows of the stables, flicking another dagger in between his fingers. "I've been watching this little asshole for a while, too bad he didn't last long enough for me to figure out what he was really up to." He said, briefly studying Lucius' cold body on the ground before looking at her.
"You look like you were the one struck with a dagger." Levi stated with a small scoff, no semblance of guilt on his face. He was right. All manner of color had seemingly drained from her face. She was rooted to the ground, unable to make a move, unable to scream as she continued to stare at Lucius' cold body.
He was dead. Lucius was dead. He was killed off just like that by Levi. She wanted to scream his name, to run to meet him and shake life back into his body. They fought a lot, mostly out of anger but ended up finding a common ground and that fight was probably just one of the many.
Lucius had been her companion for as long as she'd joined the order, they trained together, went on missions together and now he is dead and she can't even mourn him, else she'd be next.
Maya was too stunned to scream or run to help him. But that little hesitation might have saved her from getting executed by the vice commander too.
Instead, she glanced at him and shrugged indifferently, "I'm more than capable of defending myself."
"Judging from the way you were thrown across the stable like a weightless sack of potatoes, I very much doubt that." Although his expression remained impassive, the mockery in Levi's voice was very much evident.
Maya would have rolled her eyes at that remark if it had been said to her in a totally different situation, but this was different. Her friend had just been killed and she can't mourn him even if it was just for a moment. She has to act indifferent about his death.
She has to swallow her grief.
"How did you know I was here?" She asked impassively. Levi smirked and Maya felt the burning urge to claw it off his face. "If you think you are hard to spot, then you belong in a circus." He replied. "Go to hell and rot there." Maya wanted to tell him that.
"You said you have been watching this man for a while now, why?" She said instead. "We are at war with kingdoms who would do anything to defeat us, even if it means infiltrating." Levi said, swiftly withdrawing the dagger from Lucius'chest.
"So you think he is a spy." Maya stated and Levi nodded. "What makes you think he is?" Her voice was stern and defensive. "What makes you think he isn't?" Levi replied calmly.
"I didn't say that. It's just ridiculous to assume like that, do you have any proof?" She told him. "He tried to kill you, and he isn't the only one who had infiltrated in tonight. There are more of them and your first task as my spy is to execute two before dawn." Levi informed her, placing the daggers in her hand.
"What?" She exclaimed, "Do that and you earn my trust." Levi said.
Maya was dumbstruck, she was being ordered to kill two members of the order before daybreak. Her colleagues.
She tried connecting the dots, Lucius attacks were aggressive which only meant one thing, the order had taken business into their own hands. They had come for Fernanda.
Maya was stuck, there were a lot of sides and she didn't know which one to pick.