The Songster in Revenant Kingdom

Chapter 5

They kept moving through the palace, every sound making them jump and every footstep thought to belong to the Black Knight.

They soon reached the main part of the palace, and Roland looked in, not seeing the Black Knight at all.

"Where is he?" He wondered out loud as they looked around. There were only regular soldiers monitoring the area, but there were a lot of them.

"Not here, luckily," Aranella told him. "Now's our chance." But Evan was still pretty nervous.

"But look at all those soldiers..." 

"There's so many." Gascon whispered, Camilla putting her hand on his shoulder in a protective way as she glared around. 

"No surprises there-covering the exits is standard procedure in a situation like this." Camilla looked up at that, furrowing her eyebrows. 

"Just want to keep us in. You think we can take them on?" Roland scoffed.

"There's no way. Too many for just us."

"The entrance to the sewers is down the corridor on the far side of the courtyard," Aranella told them regrettably.

"Alright, we'll have to sneak through then." 

"Gascon, can't you cast a Veil spell over us?" Camilla asked him, and Gascon shook his head quickly.

"No, I can't! I told you, my magic isn't working right! Stop asking me to do magic when you know I can't!" Then he rushed out of the room, sneaking around the edges.

"Gascon! Wait up!" Evan quickly followed after him, with Roland running around in front of them, Aranella taking the rear as Camilla let out a sigh, but followed after her.

They moved around the area as quickly as they could and found themselves in a new room. 

"It's just an ordinary room..." Roland murmured, looking around. It was a very plain, unnoticeable sort of room. It had a bookshelf, a fireplace, and a door. 

"An ordinary room with a secret door." Aranella told them as she went to the bookshelf. "There's a switch around here somewhere." She felt each of the books, tilting them and pushing them. "I've never used it myself, but I believe it's hidden in the bookcase..." She pulled at the books, and the bookcase slid open revealing a secret doorway!

"Gosh! Look at that!" Evan was shocked, and Roland chuckled a little.

"Heh. This is like something out a movie..." Gascon looked up at him curiously.

"What's a movie?" He was ignored as they kept running into the doorway, where they found themselves in the sewers.

"It's a bit dark in here. Everyone be careful!"  But Evan stopped short. He had been pretty quiet almost the whole way, with burning questions building up in his brain.

"Nella..," She stopped as soon as she heard his small voice. "Why would Mausinger start a rebellion? Is it because I became king?" She quickly hurried back to him.

"Oh, Evan..." She wanted to tell him what she was thinking, but even she wasn't feeling brave enough for that, so Roland spoke up instead.

"I doubt it. In my experience, these things are never quite that simple." He then looked to Aranella. "Aranella, I couldn't help noticing a certain... species divide between the two sides in this conflict." She gave a short nod.

"Yes... Relations between the grimalkin and the mice have never been entirely civil." She looked to her feet. "King Leonhard did his best to heal the long-standing rift between the two, but..." She trailed off, but Roland knew the rest.

"Let me guess. Things didn't go so well?" Evan let out a sigh, putting a hand over his heart, Gascon putting an arm around him comfortingly.

"Father..." Evan murmured, and Aranella turned back to Roland.

"You'll have to forgive him... It's all still very raw..." Roland rubbed his chin thoughtfully, understanding the feeling that young Evan had at the lost of his father.

"I can imagine..." 

"Evan, there's something I have to tell you." Camilla suddenly spoke up, pulling a small bottle from her coat pocket. "I did a bit of snooping, and found this in Mausinger's room." She knelt down to show Evan. "It's empty, but I recognize the smell. Its a deadly poison. The same poison used on your father."

"Poison!?" Evan exclaimed, tears filling his eyes. "But, he died of an illness, Camilla! A rare, untreatable illness!" She shook her head.

"I got one of Mausinger's bodyguards to blab. He admitted that they were paid off to put it in his food. A little at a time so that no one would suspect anything. It slowly weakened him until he was bed-bound." 

"To make it look like he had gotten sick, huh?" Roland concluded. "They must have been planning this for some time..." Evan pulled away from Gascon and Camilla, looking to each of them as if hoping they'd tell him it was some joke, but of course, no one did.

"H-How could he...?" Roland couldn't help but feel his heart long to hold poor little Evan, but he knew better, and knew that they didn't have much time.

"I know this must be hard, Evan, but we have to keep moving. Come on." 

They kept moving, Gascon holding onto Evan's hand to keep him moving so he wouldn't fall behind. The poor boy kept lagging from sheer shock of everything that was going on, and he could hardly pay attention to any of the familiars that roamed the sewers that Roland, Camilla, and Aranella had to fight to keep them away. The whole place was something out of a nightmare. The entire situation felt like something out of a nightmare.