Shattered: The Gregorian Chronicles Book Two

23: She's Spotted

"I am ready to depart." Dawn stated as she exited Kabos' cell. Brenda looked puzzled as no one followed the Dark Princess out of the cell, and looked up at Dawn before speaking the question that was on the minds of both her and the guards she had spent the past minutes with.

"Where is Kabos? I suppose you cannot leave him here unattended while the guards are all off to fight in your battle with Gregoria?"

Dawn's face remained grim as she answered Brenda's question without ceasing in her pace.

"I have personally seen to it that Kabos is disposed of. He shall not be a bother to me or to anyone else."

Brenda nodded mutely, her silence indicating that she was sorely afraid of what the Dark Princess was capable of. Kabos had been her love, the one thing in her life that had brought her happiness at one point in time. Yet she had simply killed him without a second thought, ended the life of someone who had once made her own worth living.

Dawn ignored Brenda's quivering and turned to the guards.

"I wish for his body to be gone by the time I return from battle. You two will remain here to dispose of the body and keep an eye on the rest of my prisoners while I lead my army into battle. If I return to anything less than what I have asked for, it will be the last anyone hears from either of you."

Both of the guards nodded and rushed into Kabos' cell to do as Dawn had asked. The Dark Princess turned her back on her former lover's dying place and marched out of the dungeon, Brenda following her closely.

"Your Highness, the Ariesians wish to speak with you. They have brought some assistance." Lucas approached Dawn hesitantly as she emerged from the dungeons, her face set and her eyes angry.

Her brows furrowed in confusion as she digested Lucas' words.

"Assistance? What sort of assistance?"

"They have supplied our army with twenty of their own men, who have come to us from wherever the original four came, yet they still will not divulge the location."

"I see." Dawn muttered as she began to walk again. "And I am unsure of how many times I must remind you of this Lucas, but these are not "Ariesians", they are part of Troya. Ariesia does not exist."

"Right, I apologize." Lucas replied. "I seem to keep forgetting."

"Well ensure that it ceases to happen." Dawn muttered.

"Of course, Your Highness."

Lucas ran ahead as Dawn and Brenda maintained their pace, walking around the back of the castle and out to the front, where an army of exactly 199 Banished men and women were waiting for Dawn to lead them out of the Forest. At the front of the group stood Gregory, Joshua, Andrew, and Hayden, surrounded by twenty other iron-clad men who Dawn did not recognize.

"Dawn!" Gregory called as she drew nearer, a smile spread across his face, "At last. We are prepared to depart."

"Gregory, who have you brought?" Dawn asked, no grin visible on her lips.

"These are just a few of the men my elders have sent from Troya to assist you and your army in the battle that is ahead of us. Each of the men that I brought with me when we first arrived at your lovely castle, including myself, will be over a five-man battalion, creating four separate groups of six men to assist you in any way possible." Gregory answered, smiling broadly as the men all nodded politely at the Dark Princess.