The Zodiacs

74. Prince Yoruba

Chione blasted through another door, her breathing ragged as she attempted to flee from the room she'd been thrown into. She wanted nothing more than to face the Pharaoh... to hurt him as he'd hurt her, but she's promised to protect Asarte from the Gemini. Now, the Sagitarius and the Virgo were left to face the older man on their own.

Her long cape flew behind her as the girl's pace began to pick up, the heels of her boots clicking into the ground while she raced through the wide castle corridors in search of the two. But she failed to recognize any of the paintings on the walls and abrupt turns --it had been too long since she walked through this palace for the girl to accurately pinpoint where she was going.

Just a few doors down, the girl was oblivious to the three men storming down a hall that would bring them into each other's paths. The Nigerian Prince was followed by his two guards, his eyes no longer as friendly as they had been when he was speaking to Lotus. "Search every space, and notify the others to move to the basement chambers," he hissed, his cold eyes scanning every room he passed.

"If he has done so much as lay a finger on my brother," Prince Yoruba spoke, his shoulders no longer rolled back elegantly. There was a new air of intimidation that followed the previously friendly man. "I will have this entire palace scorched to the ground-."

But his words halted to a stop when the Prince's footsteps halted quickly, keeping him from slamming into the girl that had raced into his path. Chione gasped in surprise, her reaction almost as instantaneous as that of the two guards who quickly moved in defense of Prince Yoruba.

His eyes slid down her uniform. "Stand down," the man announced, recognizing the garments that failed to match the Egyptian aesthetic. He didn't catch onto the girl's origins.

"Pardon me," Chione inhaled, lifting her hand to allow herself a moment's breath in an attempt to calm her racing heart. "I was not aware of your presence," her brown eyes landed on the emerald medallion on the mulberry-colored sash diagonally placed across his chest.

He narrowed his eyes on her when he noticed the three slashes over the girl's eye and the discoloration in one of her pupils. Chione had been too preoccupied with finding the others, she'd dropped her own disguise to focus her attention on her search. "What are you doing such a distance from the other guests, madam?" The Prince asked, a new suspicion rising in his mind at the sight of the girl.

Chione raised her eyebrows with the question, taking a moment to give herself a chance to ponder over the response she would give the man. "I am wandering... in search of my princess," she remembered the entrance she'd made with Lotus before their paths parted.

"Your princess?" Prince Yoruba asked, raising an eyebrow at the vagueness of the statement. "What princess exactly?"

The girl cursed, they'd never developed an alternate name for Lotus's royal identity. "Well, the princess... of my Kingdom, of course," she spoke, earning an even more skeptical look from the man, but Chione continued before he had a chance to question her statement. "I see no reason in sharing her identity with you when you may be the very threat I am attempting to protect her from."

"Some protection you have to offer," he answered sarcastically. Chione suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at the insolent man in front of her. "Regardless, I assure you that I am of no threat to your princess. In fact, I am also searching for a companion of my own."

Oh. "You are?" She asked.

With a firm nod that could only belong to someone of high status, the man responded. "My brother. I believe he's been taken captive by the Egyptian Pharaoh somewhere within this castle, and have my men searching for him at this very moment. If you would like, I can offer my aid in your search for your princess. She may be faced with the same fate as my brother," he offered.