Royal Rebel 4 ~ The Return

Chapter 54: East Wing; Captain U

"Captain U." One of the Yiga footsoldiers bowed to the woman as she walked into the clan entrance, and she gave a shallow head nod back. "We've been awaiting your return. Were you successful?"

"Of course I was successful." She scoffed, and the guard cleared his throat and went on.

"Subject I is upstairs, and unfortunately had to be left unsupervised for the past hour of your absence. One of the troops returned and required-"

"It's fine." She huffed before walking further into the clan, and the guard nodded and remained quiet as she left.

It only took a short walk through the halls to reach her secret door, and she hummed the rest of the way to the room she had placed Subject I. Finally, she reached the doors enclosing the room, easily spotted due to the purple tarp hanging over them. She pushed them open, and saw her subject sitting on her bed.

"Subject I, there you are." She smiled and closed the doors, slipping her hand into her pocket to grab a small key with the yiga eye at the head. She slid it into the keyhole and locked the door, and she heard a sigh emit from her subject. "Is something the matter?"

"Leave me alone." The woman sighed herself before she walked over to the bed where her teenage daughter sat, and she dropped her curved, black dagger next to the girl. More blood dripped from the tip of it and stained into the bed spread.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait here for just a bit longer, Irvine." Her voice twisted at the girl's name, and she ambled to the bookcase on the opposite wall of the bed. "They're coming to us."

"Finally." Irvine muttered under her breath, looking away from the other woman. "At least that gives father more preparation time." Her remark earned her a heartless laugh from her mother, and her golden eyes narrowed as she looked to her in question.

"Your father has had a lifetime to prepare for this, and the pathetic man is still going to die." Ulia snickered as she pulled a book from the shelf, and she threw it so it fell just beside her dagger. "I mean, I could honestly care less if they killed him now or later. So long as they off the lowlife somehow."

"Maybe they'll get you too while they're here." Irvine mumbled, but it was just loud enough for Ulia to hear it.

"You're lucky I'm going to lengths like this to keep you safe. If it were up to me, I wouldn't be doing this for my ungrateful 'child'. But Sammy cares about you for reasons I fail to understand." She pulled her slick black hair back and looked at herself in the mirror, occasionally glancing back at her daughter, who was very obviously on the verge of tears. "I'll come back once I've slayed the queen."

"You say it like your killing some monster," Irvine's voice caught Ulia before she left, and she held the door waiting for the last few words of her child she'd hear. "You're the monster they should be slaying."

~~~~

The halls of the clan were dark and empty as the four of us marched through them, having inserted ourselves in a troop with two other captains and a handful of footsoldiers. We were patient about waiting to branch out and search for the leaders, but then my father decided to get friendly.

"Pardon me," He spoke, rasping his voice to hide his identity, and the captain leading our group turned his head back and gave his attention to the undercover king. "But I was wondering where the leaders of the clan are?"

"Master Sauron is-" He started, but he stopped himself when he heard a banging down the hall. "Master Sauron does not want us to disclose that information." He hurried ahead, signaling for us to stay behind, and he unlocked the door where the banging came from.