Six Will Stand (First Draft)

Chapter 16

"Holy mother of Teva and Raksa, is that what I think it is?!" Fai let out a maniacal giggle. "Haha! Look! It looks like the tip of Sina Castle!"

"This place has a castle...?" Cade groaned. "Ugh, that means stuck-up nobles..." The blond glanced at Kole. "But we might already have one of those..."

"Shut it, brat. You know full well that any title I have is nowhere near 'noble'." Cade just shrugged in response to the brunet's comment.

"So...how big is Sina, exactly...?" Marion tightened her grip on the folds of Cade's shirt.

Josh looked up ahead. "Pretty big. And Cade," he said, giving the blond a stern look, "only some of the nobles are actually stuck up. The house we'll probably end up staying at has people that are anything but stuck up." He looked at the others, contemplating something. "You three should probably go by those same fake names again. The people we can stay with will probably figure out who you are, but no one else really needs to know."

He looked hesitantly at the setting sun and some of the clouds moving in. "It looks like it's going to rain soon, and we should get there at least by nightfall." He lowered his voice, talking to himself. "I hope."

Cade grumbled to himself, the muffled words sounding like how he didn't mean to use stereotypes but he's had enough experience to use them.

Marion looked like she was contemplating something. "...Why...why would anyone know our names at all? That prophecy never said anything that had to do with our names, right?"

Josh froze and even Caleb stiffened. They both turned around slowly. Then Josh spoke, "Wait...you know about the prophecy?"

Marion nodded slowly. "Kind of. Granger and Lavender mentioned something about a prophecy before we left."

Josh exchanged a look with his brother. "Is that all you know?"

"I think...I remember hearing something about a healer, a chosen, and a...ruffian, I think. Actually..." Marion cocked her head. "No, that's all they said. I guess I accidentally thought they said something about a 'prophecy' since--" she cut herself off, looking back at Josh and Caleb. "Wait, there's actually a prophecy?!"

Caleb slapped his brother upside the head. "You and your big mouth."

"You mean there actually is a prophecy and it wasn't just a mess up?!" Cade rode Jean closer to Josh and Caleb's horse. "And it has to do with us?!"

Fai's eyes glazed over in thought. "Yeah, of course there'd have to be a prophecy about me..." Cade was too far away to slap him himself, so Kole happily obliged. If by 'happy' you mean glaring with a look that could kill a person. Over nine thousand times.

Caleb glared at his brother. Josh looked back at him. "What? I thought she knew!"

Caleb's voice was weak, but still full of irritation. He spoke through clenched teeth, "What part of 'never mention anything that has remotely to do with the prophecy in front of them or I will personally whip your hide' did you not understand?!" Which roughly translated to: everyone else except the twins freaking out.

"You even planned to never tell us?!" Cade narrowed his eyes. "What, is it that bad? We're going to die, aren't we." It wasn't a question.

"Ha! I told you Kole, I am more awesome than you give me credit for!" Fai was still rubbing his slapped cheek. "Just amazing..."

Marion stayed quiet, a very confused look in her eyes.

Josh looked at them. "I don't think you're going to die. Look, we really shouldn't be--"

"You don't think?!" Cade ran a hand through his hair to try to calm himself. It wasn't successful. "That technically means there's a chance that we're going to die, Josh."