Not Your Damsel in Distress

14

Isolde was pacing the room. It had been two days since she made the living conditions tougher for the peasants, but not a single word came about her stepdaughter. She was getting desperate. She could feel her power slowly going away. She needed another boost. She needs more social power.

Elora walked into the room. "Am I bothering you?" she asked. "I am really tired. I will just go to bed."

"Your brat is still nowhere to be seen," said Isolde through clenched teeth. "No one has come forward with any information."

"Why are you so obsessed with Lenny?" asked Elora, taking her mint green dress off, letting it fall to the floor.

Isolde sighed. "Honey, you know my magic strives from my social power. And if your little brat dies, my son will be the next in line, making me more powerful."

"All you want is power," said Elora. It wasn't a question.

Isolde nodded. "You are reasonable after all."

"But Lenny is too smart to let you kill her. She will get out of it."

Isolde's eyes flashed with anger. "I dare you," she hissed.

"Lenny is probably way over the board right now," said Elora before getting hit by a lightning.

The group was smaller than a group that was planning to overtake the queen would usually look like. Emmet was silently sitting by the fire and was munching on a piece of meat Charlene caught earlier, just listening to the plan Charlene and Beatrice were going over once again. They were using sticks to draw the rough outlook of the castle onto the soft sand they put their small camp on. Auberon was spitting next to Emmet and was pretending to listen when he was in fact lost in his thoughts.

"This part... this is what mother sent me on this," said Charlene and pulled the handkerchief out of her pocket. "It is the entrance."

"To what?" asked Emmet, who finally got interested. He brought her the little thing, he wanted to know what it meant.

"The castle," said Charlene and showed it to him. "This is the lake and this is the waterfall and this..."

"I know where that is," said Beatrice. "I just had no idea there was the entrance to the tunnels."

"We are taking it," said Charlene and turned to the plan again. "All set?"

"All set," said Auberon and stood up. "We should take a rest. Tomorrow at sundown everything will be done."

"No pressure," mumbled Beatrice and the group laughed. "But he is right." She took Charlene's stick and threw it away. "It will work. Don't worry."

Emmet and Beatrice fell asleep almost immediately after the group said their good-nights. Charlene was still too worried to sleep, but she managed to slip into a restless and shallow sleep anyway.

Auberon made sure he was able to hear everyone's breathing had changed, then he made his way away from the group, after he made sure the protection he put there was still strong. He knew this part of the woods and remembered it from when he and Charlene were there. They went with horses thus they were much faster. They also didn't bother to use the most remote road out there as he and Charlene did earlier so they reached that point so much faster.. He searched for the cave where he lost his consciousness and he had little trouble finding it as he could feel what was left of Isolde's magic inside his chest begin to heat. It didn't hurt, like it did before as it was night, but it still wasn't very comfortable for him. He entered it and found the crystals just how they left them; scattered all around the cave. He stuffed his pockets with a few of them, having already decided that he would give them to Emmet later as having them this close would probably send him unconscious again.