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Chapter Seventeen
After we had all eaten a decent sized meal, it was time to prepare for battle. It was dusk, and we would raid the castle walls at dawn, so we had to be organised. Zana had already gone to the village nearby to rally her old friends, while she had sent Monte to the other tribes. That left Hatsumo to organise his tribe and me to sit and worry.
"I won't be able to do it." I said quietly to Kaloua, Christian and Nadi, who are all sitting with me.
"Don't worry, you'll do fine." Christian says with an encouraging smile.
I sigh, "How can you be so sure?"
"I'm your advisor, I'm always sure."
"Just cause you have the title, doesn't mean you have to use it."
"Uh, yes it does." Christian says with a cheeky smirk plastered to his face, his blue eyes sparkling with amusement. I roll my eyes and look to the dragons,
"What about you two? You've both been oddly quiet, and friendly."
'Thats because we were stuck in the same cage for a number of hours,' Kaloua growls with slight annoyance, narrowing his eyes, 'And I can confirm I don't want to do it again anytime soon.'
I laugh and Christian looks at me confused, then I remember that Kaloua only spoke to me, "He was just telling me how much he loved sharing the cage with Nadi," though the sarcasm in my voice hints that he was just the opposite.
I see a figure walking back in the distance and it is Monte, followed by a large group of people...but not a whole tribe's amount. Hatsumo stops his work and walks over with confusion, speaking in his native tongue to Monte, who responds with what sounds like annoyance. He turns to me and bows,
"I am afraid that the tribes I visited would not support you as faithfully as they should have, and only volunteers came."
I nod, "You still got many to follow you, Monte. And we still have your tribe, and your mothers friends."
As I say that, Zana walks into the tribe grounds followed by many people I remember seeing in the town. They all look to me with a mix of surprise, hope and, most common, determination. These people have the effects of Arthur's foolish ruling. He has no care for them, and they hope I can change that I guess.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't get more, but they will still help us."
I nod and bow to them, then to the tribe, "Thank you all. I'm sure I will have a much better chance of success with you behind me."
After Monte translates for the tribe, they bow back in respect. I look to the townsfolk and one of the elder women step forward,
"We follow yer in chance for a new beginnin', Princ'ss. We'll die b'fore we surrender."
I smile gratefully and the woman nods, moving back into the crowd. A split second after, Zana shouts out commands in her native tongue, many people from the tribe rushing over with leather armour and all sorts of weapons, equipping the townsfolk with it. Zana grabs a blacksmith to the side and speaks something, pointing to my arm. He nods and walks over cautiously,
"May see mark?" He asks in his best English and I take off the chain mail armour, hitch up the sleeve until he can see the marking. He examines the sword and nods, walking off in a hurry. I pull the sleeve down and throw the armour back on, looking around at everyone in an organised chaos. Not that I can make sense of who is doing what.
'They all rallied here for you,' Kaloua says to me as he lays down beside me.
'I know. I really wish they hadn't though. It scares me to think that I could possibly be leading them towards their death!'
Kaloua smiles encouragingly as Christian walks over with Nadi, 'Don't worry, Belle, you'll be successful.' He says as Chrisrian shows me his armour and sword, which is gold mixture.
"Do you like it? It's made of gold and iron, to make it really strong."
I walk over to him and feel it, how heavy it is and the material it is made from seems strong enough. But worry still clutches at my heart, seeing my half-brother prepared for battle - and possibly death.
"It looks great." I choke out, giving my best smile but obviously it faulters. Christian places a strong hand on my shoulder,
"Don't you worry about me, Belle. I'll be fine."
"I know you will."
He scowls, "But you are still worried. About yourself, maybe?"
I hold back a denial, but I realise he has a point. Not only am I nervous about leading all these people into battle, I'm nervous about myself. This might just be the last night I have, if the plan goes right, we will have the crown on my head and Arthur's on a spike by midday tomorrow. My knees buckle and I go lightlheaded at the thought of killing him myself. Christian catches me and pulls me over to a chair, telling one of the tribe members to get me some food and water.
"Belle..." He sighs, "Don't worry!"
The tribe person comes back and I guzzle the water, then nibble on the piece of dried meat they got for me.
"Princess, here is your sword."
I turn around to see the blacksmith from before standing there, his large, strong arms holding out a slim sword, which looks oddly of of place. I stand and walk over to him, examining it closely.
It is a beautiful piece of work, with a golden hilt and an emerald encrusted into it. Like my eyes, I think to myself as I take it from him. It is light and easy to wield, but I touch its blade and produce a small paper cut on my finger. It's very sharp. The blacksmith passes me a leather holder for it, which has Princess Arabelle Tiona sewn in gold calligraphy on the side. I hook it around my waist and slide the sword in, nodding a thanks to the blacksmith.
Christian scowls sadly, "That makes my sword look like a piece of-"
"Attention everyone!" Zana interrupts, "Finish what you are doing, and come towards me." She waits for everyone to finish up and then begins again, "As you all know, we plan to raid the castle at dawn tomorrow. Tonight we will send out scouts to see where is best to enter, then-"
"Zana!" I call out and feel everyone's eyes on me. I shuffle my feet awkwardly as I continue, "Christian and I know the castle like the back of our hand, Christian more so than me. We know every good way in and some secret ones too."
Zana nods, "Ok, tonight take Monte and some of his close team to check out if they would work for a large raid." Though even as she says that, the rest of us look around with worry. We don't really have a large number - the palace probably has double our amount just in their guards. We would just have to use our advantage of surprise and end this quickly and efficiently.
Monte walks over to me as Zana issues out more commands for everyone else, "We can go now, if you like. So you get sleep tonight."
I nod and go to Kaloua, jumping on his back, "Come on our dragons, they will me much quicker and quieter."
Monte jumps on Kaloua, and so does another member of the tribe I don't recognise, and another goes on Nadi behind Christian. The two dragons take off and fly silently over the trees, towards the castle. I absorbe the peacefulness of the moment, the wind blowing my hair, the quiet howl of a wolf in the distance and the darkness of the night. I ignore the fact that this isn't a relaxing night flight, but a check out for the battle to come.
As we near the castle, my heart begins to race once again. We have only been away from normal routine for, what, two days? It was only yesterday Harrison confessed his love for me to Evangelina, and this morning that Christian and I had threatened the king. How quickly time flies when, well, I can't say having fun because this is anything but that.
The two dragons touch down on a tree near the castle gently and lower their tails towards the ground. I look at Kaloua questioningly and he just gives me a grin,
'Slide down. You should land on your feet.'
I nod to the person I don't know, "Slide down."
He looks down warily then nods, moving towards the tail and slides down, I look below and see him land shakily but on his feet, as Kaloua said. Monte follows and also lands on his feet, at the same time that Christian slides down Nadi. Only me. I take a deep breath and slide down, holding back a squeal because it would alert the people in the castle of our presence. As I see the end of Kaloua's tail is still two meters off the ground, a let out a quiet shriek.
I turn my body around and grab only one of the spikes on his tail, stopping myself from falling to the floor and joining the others. So instead, I dangle awkwardly from Kaloua's tail.
"Arabelle! Hurry up and just let go already! You'll be fine." Christian snap-whispers quickly. I just give a death stare and snap-whisper,
"I will not let go. Just investigate without me, cause there is no way I am, woah!" Kaloua begins to shake his tail with a cocky smirk on his face,
'Come on, Arabelle. Stop being a sook and just go already.'
I grumble and close my eyes, counting to three. One....two........
"Three." I whisper and let go, my eyes wide open with fear. I land, my feet touching the ground softly and I smile, proud of my successful landing. I turn to Christian and move forward, about to say something, when I trip over a tree root and fall face first into the mud.
"I now see why you didn't want to come down." Christian laughs as I stand. I walk cautiously over to him then slap his arm,
"Oh shut up, you annoying, bullying, pain-in-the-backside of an advisor brother."
Monte laughs and the two people beside him just have confused looks on their faces, obviously not understanding the exchange going on. I storm off towards the castle,
"Come on you horrible people, lets go already."
We all walk quietly towards the castle barrier, and I look around until I find the hole in the wall, climbing through it. We will need to make that bigger, I think as I watch Christian squeeze awkwardly through it. We continue towards the castle and I spot my normal climbing route up the side, which Harrison and I used to climb in the mornings. A pang of guilt hits me, knowing I have to kill his father with my own hands. Well, not really my hands, but my sword...it's the same type of thing.
I pause as I hear a crack and usher everyone back to the shadowy area near the wall. I spot a guard walking out of the castle, a lantern in his hand and a woman beside him. They are both giggling happily and I can not assume they are sneaking out for some fun. But in closer look, the woman is the queen. I sneak further forward to where he has placed the torch down and listen in,
"Hurry up, lov'. We need to 'urry if you're gonna get back to the kings chambers tonight."
The queen leans forward and places her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately, "Oh come now, he is settling our baby in bed. We have time."
The guard laughs, "It's like having our own child sitter. Does he still believe the child is his?"
"Of course he does! She looks a lot like me, so it's not like he can question who the mother is. Besides, he never got a look in for any of his sons. Aside from ugly little Jerremy."
The guard laughs, but then his eyes darken, "But your son, Harrison, he's seen us together. He knows Elizabeth is my daughter, not his fathers."
Teresa shrugs, "Don't worry about him, Tyson. Harrison is as good as dead anyways, once your daughter takes the throne. Then you, Christian, Elizabeth and I can love happily together."
Tyson? Your daughter? C-Christian! But...I stare at the man before me with both confusion and recognition. He does have black hair and green eyes, the same shade as mine, and so many familiar features to the father I once knew. I know it can't possibly be him, I saw my fathers body hanging at the gallows when I was only small.
Before I can stop myself, I step out from the shadows and Teresa instantly jumps away from Tyson, but her face relaxes once she sees its me,
"Arabelle..."
I watch Tyson as he tenses, turning his green eyes warily towards me. In them I see a mix of guilt, overwhelming joy and shock. He lifts up his lantern and moves closer to me, Teresa in tow. He gets only a meter away from me and looks me up and town, tears welling in his eyes,
"Is it...is it really you?" He asks, reaching out to me. Despite wanting to jump into his arms and hit him forever, I take a step away. Even if this is my father, he left me alone for, well, for a long time! A sad look takes over as I step away.
"Arabelle. Why did you step away?"
I shake my head, "Y-You can't be my father. I saw him hanging from the gallows years and years ago."
"A set up, Arabelle. So that Teresa and I could be together."
I shake my head, and stumble, but someone catches me and I turn around to see Christian, but he doesn't seem all that shocked at the sight of Tyson,
"Father." He nods and Tyson smiles warmly,
"Christian, I see you obviously didn't tell Arabelle about me...despite me asking."
He shrugs, "She didn't need the extra load to bear. I was going to tell her after the battle."
Teresa touches Tyson's arm soothingly, "He was doing it for the better of Arabelle."
That makes my father calm down and he looks to me apologetically, "I'm sorry Arabelle, I really am. There was no other way to do it, but once Christian found out I was his father we told him everything. I told him to tell you I was still alive and to come and visit me, but when you never did, I figured you obviously didn't care about me anymore. I didn't expect you to, after I left you alone with your wench of a mother."
"She is not a wench. She raised me as a mother should, better than you did!" I snap, letting my voice get a pinch too loud and get glares from all three people on front of me.
"I know, I know. And there is no way for me to make up for it, but I would do anything if it meant getting my daughter back."
I narrow my eyes menacingly, "You have Elizabeth now, isn't that enough? After all, you only want children that are fully you and Teresa. You did kill Jerremy after all."
Guilt washes over Tyson, "I know what I did, but it's in the past now. And Elizabeth? She will be my daughter now, and I will raise her the way I should have raised you, but I can't undo the past Arabelle. I still love you as my child, and I always will."
I don't know what to do. Half of me wants to run over to him and hug him, telling him I missed him and I will never stop loving him like my father. But the other half of me, the half that had been hidden until now, hated him for leaving me to be raised fatherless and with no one to stand up for me. Daniel helped me sometimes, but if mother wanted to punish me, she did it without anyone telling her not to. Tyson sees these mixed emotions and just nods,
"I know you don't want to forgive me, but after the battle, I promise to work things out with you. Pinky promise." He holds out his pinky and I watch it carefully. I get my own pinky an wrap it around his, shaking it then letting go. I turn to Christian,
"Come on, lets go."
We go to leave when Teresa grabs my arm, "Arabelle, why were you here in the first place?" She doesn't have any hard feelings in her voice, just pure curiosity.
"We..." I turn to Christian and he nods, "We were finding a good place to raid the castle, giving us the most surprise we can gather."
Teresa grins happily, "Then let us begin the forgiveness process by helping out."
I shrug, "Sure, what can you do?" I doubt that anything they do could honestly help.