The Savior's Throne

Chapter Twenty Nine

After a few tense moments he does as he's told and makes it halfway up. "Start climbing Salvare," Desmond tells me. "The only way I'm going over that fence, is by force." I turn and give Desmond a look of contempt, "I thought I told you my name is Orianna."

Ignoring my comment, Desmond speaks to his men, "pull her up the fence, I'll follow behind." The men nod and forcibly tug me up the gates. The vines cut my arms as I'm pulled up and my feet dangle in the air. Fearing a deathly fall, I grip the bars and set my feet on the gate.

When we all get to the top of the gate, we breath heavily and balance ourselves out.

"Now drop her," Desmond orders.

"What?" I desperately fight for a grip on the gate, but the men let go of me too soon. My mouth opens as I fall, my hair blowing in front of my face, washing away the sky and clouding my vision in darkness.

I land on the ground and my chest closes up. I'm completely immobile as pain radiates through my entire body. I try to think positively, in the fact that I'm not dead, only winded, but my head is screaming. I gasp for air, only to find nothing there. My heart races and my hands cling to the grass, mud caking its way in my nails.

"Bastards," I wheeze when air finally finds its way into my lungs. The sound of feet landing roughly on the ground has my head shifting to the side. I feel arms on my shoulders and they lug me up. I'm too weak to walk at the moment, so one throws me over his shoulders. I'm still wheezing when we sneak into the palace.

My eyes marvel at the stone walls and beautiful artwork decorating the walls. There are streamers that curve on the wall and hang from the ceilings. Elegant gems dandle off the lights that shine from up above, gleaming bulbs that sit inside giant chandeliers.

I tear my gaze away from the beauty and focus on the dreadful situation I'm in. The men don't ponder to look at all the artwork, their focus solely on getting to the throne. Every palace guard we run into is unsuspecting and is easily defeated. While Ungifteds may not be blessed with unique powers, they complicate it by being strong and strategic. Their minds are capable of making rash decisions and their will is strong enough to fight for anything. Ungifteds are desperate and desperation can lead to strength.

When the throne room comes into focus, I start to question how Desmond made it here, "How did you know where to go?" They needed me to figure out the Northern palace, yet they made it here by themselves.

Desmond grunts and answers my question, "Stole a map, took some effort, but it was manageable."

"Why so vague?" I ask. I'm curious to know why this mission was easier than the North, which was supposedly our easiest target. Besides the few guards milling around the palace, we've barely had any trouble. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so quick to come to the East, but I needed answers and we needed to start enacting my plans. I lower my head, I could barely finish out stage two of my plan, which was putting Winn on the throne. Stage one, of course being, convince the others to join me.

Instead of answering my question, Desmond places his hand on the throne room's door. "Stay focused, I have no idea what's going to be on the other side of this door," Desmond says. Everyone around me pulls out their weapons and I hesitate. I have a knife strapped to my ankle, but look around nervously at the men before me. I curl my hand into a fist to stop myself from grabbing it, I need to be smart about my next few moves. I slowly take a step back and then another and then my back hit's someone's chest.

Arms reach around and grip my shoulders, "Going somewhere?" My head turns and looks up to see a silver-eyed man looking down at me. He tightens his hold on me and we both turn to watch as Desmond opens the door to the throne room.