~Assassin~
The second Oris crossed the doorway that demarcated the dungeons from the rest of the palace, her gaze landed on absolute chaos.
She froze in place to take in what was happening in front of her but the prisoners behind her didn't care for her astonishment. They shoved her away from the entrance and poured into the hallway.
Oris staggered forward but immediately regained her footing and pressed herself against the closest wall to avoid blocking the path of anyone who was eager to rush to their death.
It was just her luck that the moment she managed to escape on disaster, she stumbled right into another one. Still, her chances of dying from being out here were lower than those she would have if she stayed in her cell and waited for an assassin to slit her throat.
Out here, a handful of men dressed in black stealth clothes were fighting the palace guards and winning. At the same time, the guards attempted to hold back the escaping convicts, but as the prisoners fled the dungeons they were immediately equipped with weapons being handed out by the black-clad intruders.
Just what is going on? she wondered while inching along the wall to get away from the bloody battle unfolding in front of her. There are really assassins in the palace?
She had to duck when a spear embedded itself in the spot above her head. Blood pouring from its owner's neck splashed against her front as he collapsed beside her.
Oris held her breath and waited for his corpse to fall to the ground before stepping over it and continuing along the wall. Right now, she was glad that the hallways here weren't as brightly lit as the one she had just come out from.
The men around her were so engrossed in trying to kill one another that they hadn't really noticed her attempts to sneak away.
She had to get somewhere safe, fast, before they did.
This sudden attack on the palace could either be as a result of a failed attempt on Hermes' life or a successful invasion. Either circumstance was definitely not the sort a woman should be caught dead in the middle of while disrobed.
Right now, every man in front of Oris was her enemy, and she did not fear for her life but her chastity.
If she let herself be taken then her kingdom would remain a subservient State,and that was the last reality she wanted imposed on her people because of her inattentiveness.
It was a hard and slow job getting to the other end of the hallway but Oris persevered, pausing and holding her breath whenever someone got too close. She had lost count of how many prayers she had muttered under her breath as dying prisoners and enraged soldiers alike tore each other apart right in front of her.
While she hoped that this was the only part of the palace that had been invaded, the rational part of her knew that she was being unrealistically optimistic.
The dungeons of Hermes' palace—unlike conventional ones—were built just two floors below his bedchambers. They were nowhere near the ground floor.
That meant that these assassins had the skills to slip past the hundred soldiers guarding the lower floors unnoticed. Since they chose to show themselves now, their plan couldn't just be to hand prisoners weapons and add fuel to the chaos they caused, and out in the open was the last place Oris wanted to be when it all went down.
The only option she had now was to somehow get back to her room and hide out with her maids until it all blew over.
She'd deal with the crime of escaping the dungeons later.
It took her half an hour to make it into the other hallway, and the moment she did a guard was thrown into the spot on the wall beside her.
He groaned and rushed back into battle without noticing Oris but more than five pairs of eyes were on her because of him.
She stared back at them, her mind working overtime, trying to find a way to save herself. Then in the midst of scanning the hallway, her eyes found someone familiar.
She ignored the armed prisoners as they stalked closer, and watched Mikeal run an assassin through with his sword while blocking the attack of another with his shield.
If she had had any doubts regarding his identity before, now it was clarified by what was happening right before her eyes. There was no doubt that Mikeal was a knight—and one very high up the ranks.
Beside him was a man whose hair was a color between red and blonde, and was almost a light shade of pink in the dim lighting.
He wore tight-fitting, black clothes—just like the assassins—and had a quiver strapped to his back. In his hands was a crossbow that he never stopped firing into the men that attempted to attack Mikeal while he had his back turned.
Either of them could save her, seeing that they both had weapons while she didn't, so without a moment of hesitation, she shouted Mikeal's name as loud as she could.
The battle seemed to pause as all attention was centered on her, then a bolt flew across the hallway and pierced the chest of the man in front of her. He gurgled on his blood then spat out a mouthful before falling to the ground and dying.
The other prisoners scrambled away from Oris immediately, suddenly remembering the fact that this was a battle and they could die.
She paid no mind to them and ran to the dead man. With one hard tug, she pulled the sword out of his grip and tested its weight.
It was double-edged with a straight blade and light enough to be wielded with one hand.
Perfect. It felt nice to finally hold a weapon after all this time. Oris might not be some swordmaster's protégé but she had been taught the basic stances as a child. If anyone else got near her, she wouldn't not hesitate to swing the sword at their head.
And that was just what she did when she heard the sound of someone approaching.
"Easy, Princess." Mikeal held up his and took a step back. "I'm one of the good guys, remember?"
Oris kept her sword pointed at him. She could only imagine how she looked, barely clothed, splashed with blood and waving a sword around. She must have seemed crazy to him.
"That's Mother to you, Son."
"We're in the middle of a battle, is this really the time—"
"You didn't even visit me once, Mikeal." She narrowed her eyes at him. "If you didn't just save me, you wouldn't hear the end of it."
"Sorry Mother, I apologize," he said at last. "Now can I get you somewhere safe?"
She let her arm fall to her side. All she had wanted was to see what his intentions were. The worst thing that could happen to her right now was if Mikeal was on orders to capture her and take her back to the dungeons.
Wouldn't he just be taking her to the beginning of all this madness if he did? That was something Oris wouldn't tolerate, and if she needed to stab him to get away, she would.
Mikeal took off his cape and draped it over her shoulders. "You can drop the sword now."
She tightened her grip on the hilt and held the covering tightly over her exposed skin. She accepted his gesture as an olive branch and decided that he could be trusted. "What's happening?"
"Assassins," he answered with a small grimace then grabbed her by the arm. "We have to go."
"Where?"
"I'm not taking you back to the dungeons," he replied, as though he had read her mind. "Can we go now?"
Without waiting for her answer, he led her through the chaos without even having to unsheathe his sword. He just raised his shield to fend off attacks and a crossbow bolt did the rest.
The archer joined them when they reached the end of the hallway, and now that he was standing in front of her, Oris realized that she was slightly taller than him.
He was as slender as she was but looked even more delicate. He didn't have the face of a soldier but that of a pampered scholar who had never seen his own blood.
She was so fixated on the contradiction that she forgot to play coy and thank him for saving her.
"The prisoners have been subdued and apprehended. All the assassins are dead," he said, addressing Mikeal. "I will reorganize the troops and leave to secure the dungeons."
"Leave the prisoners to me," Mikeal said, and the man nodded and walked away.
"Who was that?" Oris kept her eyes on the petite stranger until he disappeared. "He was the one who saved me."
"On my orders," Mikeal added with a grin. "That is Lord Eugene."
"Lord Eugene?" Oris remembered the name from her time in the garden. It had sounded softer coming from Magnus' lips. And the man himself had sounded more playful and licentious. Nothing like how he was now.
"Yes," Mikeal said and offered no further explanation.
Oris didn't press for one either, she was just glad to be away from the fighting.
They continued walking.
"Where are we going?"
They turned a corner in silence.
"You said that you would handle the prisoners."
Mikeal finally halted his steps. "I am under directives to keep you safe. The prisoners can wait."
"Whose directives?"
"The Emperor's," he said curtly. "Now can you drop that sword? You will only hurt yourself with it."
"I will not—"
Oris was forced to swallow the rest of her sentence when a body slammed into the wall opposite them. The man pulled himself together and got to his feet again, albeit a little shaky in the process, and she was shocked to see that he was the Emperor's advisor.
"Magnus!" Mikeal was sprinting towards the battered man before she could properly formulate her thoughts.
He was by the advisor's side in no time, holding onto his face and whispering by his ear as he assessed his injuries.
Oris hadn't even begun to fully process what had just happened when Hermes stumbled into her field of vision. He wasn't alone, the blood gushing out the gaping wound on his shoulder made that obvious, and soon enough his assailant came into view as well.
Dressed from head to toe in black, he didn't look any different from the other assassins yet she sucked in a deep breath the moment she saw him.
Bren.
She could not see his beautiful blue eyes from this distance. She could not see the ringlets that formed in his hair and she could not see the birthmark he had under his lip from beneath his mask.
He could have been any other assassin.
But he wasn't.
She had lived with him her whole life. He had taught her to wield a sword, and she had watched him practice day after day as he worked to become a better swordsman.
So when Hermes raised his sword to parry an incoming blow, Oris knew immediately that it was a feint. And when the blade's edge clipped Hermes on the left side, she knew that she was right.
She took a step in his direction.
There were only two reasons he could be here. One was to kill Hermes, and the other was to rescue her.
She wanted so badly to call out to him—his name was just at the tip of her tongue—but she couldn't risk distracting him.
Seeing him here made her realize just how much she had longed for him; just how tired she was of faking smiles and stories in this palace.
She missed him. She missed the simplicity that followed as result of being with him.
A glint of light was what made her take her eyes off her childhood lover. Her gaze slid to Mikeal and Magnus, they were both watching just like she was.
So where. . ?
She turned on her heel and saw Lord Eugene standing farther down the hallway, his crossbow raised. The tip of the bolt shifted from side to side as the fight between Hermes and Bren heated up.
It was obvious what he was going to do, and for that reason Oris was on the move before she could think to stop herself, more aware of Bren's movements than anything else around her.
He and Hermes were locked in close combat, that was why he was still standing.
The archer had yet to find a clear shot. That meant she had a chance.
The moment Bren and Hermes broke their deadlock and pushed away from each other, Oris jumped in between them.
In those few seconds, it was as though time had slowed for her. She saw Hermes' exhaustion and shock at her sudden appearance then spun around to see Bren charging at her.
She watched his eyes widen and instantly acknowledged the fact that yes, she was going to die. This should have been the killing blow meant for Hermes, she had seen it coming from a mile away.
It was cruel of Fate to make her choose between the life of the only man she loved and the one of the person she hated the most, and now she had managed to save them both.
Time sped up again.
A sharp pain stabbed into her side just as Bren succeeded to stumble to a stop and held his sword out, away from the both of them where it could do no harm.
Oris stared into his eyes and felt tears build up in hers when she saw the pain brimming them.
She knew then that he had not known that she had been in the palace. He had not found Eve. All this time, he must have been living with the guilt of not being able to protect her and had finally decided to risk it all for the sake of the revenge she had always wanted.
He had wanted to kill Hermes to avenge her.
The intruders were her men, supporters of Orse, and maybe even her own people. And she had watched so many die without an ounce of care in her heart. They had given their lives for her and she had been apathetic to their cause.
The tears spilled down her cheeks and got soaked by her bloodstained veil. She looked down at the crossbow sticking out of her and a strangled cry left her lips, not because of the pain but because of the destructive emotions running her soul ragged.
Right now, she had a choice to make, caught between the two men her world revolved around.
Soon, she would lose the strength to stand and she could fall into either of their hands.
Her enemy or her lover.
If she chose Bren, he could use her as a hostage and rescue her at the same time. They would be together again, forever, like always.
If she chose Hermes, he would trust her, maybe think that she wanted to save his life. She could provide her soldiers with vital information that would ensure that the next assassination attempt wasn't just an attempt.
She saw Bren shake his head. She felt herself slip away and made her choice.
She let her body drop and knew that she had made the right one when familiar arms wrapped gently around her. She resisted the urge to lean into them, not wanting to reveal herself as a traitor so soon.
There was still so much to do.
Her eyes fluttered shut when Bren's gentle hold tightened and his sword moved to rest on her neck.
"Stand down," he said, his voice loud enough to echo across the hallway, "or she dies."
~
I'm finally done. Finally! I hope you guys like this chapter. There are typos, I'm sure...