The night came too slow for Bartholomew. He had skipped dinner and stayed in his room the entire time trying to get rid of the nerves that were plaguing him. After a long shower he felt much better, especially being in different clothes. They weren’t particularly his style, but they got the job done. Now the time was near where he would be sneaking out of one of the only safe places he has known in the past couple of months and headed into the most dangerous place. In any other circumstance than this one, Bart would be staying put, but that wasn’t an option. His best friend needed him and he knew she would’ve done the same thing for him. It pained him to leave his mom but he wasn’t even allowed to see her. Of course she wouldn’t want him going. He wasn’t nearly prepared enough if it came to a fight, and he would be hopelessly outnumbered. Yet he had no choice. If there was a chance that he could save Charlotte, he had to take it. There was a knock on the door that startled him. It’s time, he thought to himself. The door opened and Mr. Cole was standing there, surprising Bart.
“I see you’re awake,” he said with a smile. Bart returned the smile, but he was anxious. It was hard to look Charlotte’s dad in the face. Bart knew it was probably hard for Mr. Cole too, knowing Bart made it here and Charlotte didn’t. “I want you to know that I don’t blame you for any of this Bart,” Mr. Cole said. “It’s all my fault to be completely honest.” Bart just looked at him without speaking.
“Mr. Cole,” Bart started but Mr. Cole just raised his hand.
“Listen to me son,” he said softly. “Whatever happens, whether my daughter forgives me or not, you have to promise to stay close to her,” he continued. Bart’s stomach dropped. Of course Charlotte’s dad didn’t know about the fighting that took place in the woods between Bart and Charlotte. His request just made Bart feel worse. “She needs you, Bart. Whatever happens, you two have to keep your bond strong. It’s the only way to make it through all of this.” Bart wanted to cut him off but couldn’t do it. “Promise me that,” he said.
“Mr. Cole I don’t know if,-” Bart started to say, but he was again silenced.
“Just promise me,” Mr. Cole said firmly. Bart realized that his only option was to make this promise. It didn’t matter if he could keep it right now.
“I promise, sir,” Bart said. Without saying another word, Mr. Cole turned and walked away. Before Bart could process what just happened, Jonah showed up in all black ready to go.
“Are you ready for this,” he said with a smirk. Bart just nodded trying to not only convince Jonah but to reassure himself as well. Bart had done his fair share of crazy, rule breaking things but never anything that could result in him losing his life. He felt it was fair to second-guess this plan. Yet even if it was fair to him, it wasn’t fair to Charlotte. She had no chance or choice. So in his mind the only choice was to go through with it. He followed Jonah down the endless staircase that seemed longer this time and out through a back door which led into the courtyard. After they passed many people and stopped for few quick conversations they finally exited through the back of the castle. Standing on the outside of the castle was completely different than standing on the inside. It was massive and even though Bart could barely see the top of it he saw that it stretched out far atop of the hill they were standing on. They headed around the front of the castle and towards the gate.
“If we are going out the front gate, why didn’t we just come out the front doors?” Bart asked curiously. Jonah pointed towards the front doors where two guards were standing with giant spears in their hands.
“No one can leave the castle past midnight without the permission of Demetrius or Queen Natalie,” Jonah said as they kept walking. “And trust me, they will check.” They made it all the way to the gate where four guards were standing on the outside.
“How are we going to get out of this?” Bart whispered. Jonah just smiled.
“Going out again Boris,” Jonah said to one of the guards. The guard turned and smiled and then opened the gates. The two of them shook hands and then Bart and Jonah exited the gates. When the gates closed behind them he turned and saw a giant golden C formed at the center where the two parts of the gate met. He had no idea what that meant, but he figured it meant Crestcon for Crestcon castle. Bart followed Jonah down into the town. Bart hadn’t seen this small town. It was probably because he was knocked out on the trip into the castle but this town was so much smaller than the one near the market. “Boris and I grew up together so he lets me come down to the town every now and then. This is where my mom lives,” he said pointing at a small wooden house near the gates. There was a dim light coming from one of the windows.
“Why doesn’t your mom live in the castle with you?” Bart asked, completely unsure as to why they wouldn’t be together.
“Well the rule is that only warriors, wielders, and teachers live in the castle. Oh and of course royalty. My mom is a common woman. So she lives here in Crestcon village.” Bart didn’t know why that was a rule but he didn’t want to question it just in case it was a sensitive subject. “No worries though, this village is just as safe as the castle,” Jonah added. Bart wondered how Jonah’s mom would react to him going on this mission. If they were to die, Jonah would’ve never said goodbye. The same went for Bart, but Jonah had the chance and didn’t take it. Bart was sure that would be a mistake if things went south. They made their way through the small town all the way until they reached the edge near some woods. Standing there at the entrance by the tree line was someone neither Bart nor Jonah expected to see.
“Midnight stroll again, Jonah,” Victoria said with her arms crossed. “I see you brought Bartholomew with you.” She glanced at Bart and then back at Jonah.
“Look Victoria, the kid wants to do this,” Jonah said sternly. Victoria’s expression of disappointment didn’t change. Bart stepped up to confirm what Jonah was trying to say.
“Look, Charlotte needs my help. If we keep waiting there is no telling how long she will survive. I can’t just let her die for me. Not for me.” Victoria looked Bart straight in the eye and her face completely changed. Before it was a look of disapproval and slight anger, but now it was one that seemed to be a little empathetic.
“Bart, I know you want to save her and I know you don’t want anyone to die for you,” she said softly. “But you have to realize you are destined to be a King. People are willingly going to put their lives on the line for you.” Bart didn’t like the sound of that. Why should he get any special treatment? Everyone deserved the same respect whether royalty or not. If people died for him, he would feel responsible.
“Not for me,” he said coldly. He was not about to let Charlotte die for him and he wasn’t going to make it a habit to let anyone try and die for him. Victoria looked at him for at least ten seconds before looking back at Jonah.
“Well you will need all the help you can get,” she said finally. Jonah and Bart were both taken aback at her response.
“Yeah and I’m looking for a good fight,” said another voice who hopped down out of a tree nearby. It was Jester, Victoria’s twin brother, eating an apple as he walked up. Jonah rolled his eyes and Bart smiled.
“So what are we waiting for?” Bart asked, now more confident than ever. Jonah started walking and Bart began to follow.
“You don’t plan on walking all the way to Morehan do you?” said Victoria. Bart didn’t know what she was talking about, but clearly Jonah did.
“Well not all the way,” Jonah said, clearly irritated. “We would’ve picked up some horses along the way.” Victoria smirked and Jester started laughing.
“Amateurs,” Jester said throwing away the half eaten apple. “I’ll take the idiotic horse whisperer here,” he said pointing towards Jonah, who wasn’t too happy about it.
“Take him where?” Bart asked confused.
“Bart,” Victoria started. “Morehan is at least a month’s journey from here on foot. Maybe cut that down to three weeks by horse. If you wanted to save Charlotte that would not have been the right course of action.” Bart was baffled. How could this place be so far away? And why was Jonah so willing to walk or go by horse. “We will have to, how do the new ones say it? Teleport! That’s it we will teleport there.” Bart looked at her like she was crazy.
“Teleport?” he asked. “Are you out of your mind? How is that even possible?”
“Well, it’s much like any other wielding except it is much harder. It is by far one of the most advanced techniques we teach which is why Jonah here doesn’t know it yet.” Jonah let out some kind of angry grunt. “It consists of wielding the body mind and soul at the same time as thinking of where you wish to leave and where you wish to be. It takes tremendous practice. Messing up can result in catastrophic consequences.” Bart was terrified at what that could mean.
“Like what?” he asked starting to contemplate taking the horses anyway. What if it meant his body didn’t come but his soul did? Or his soul went but his body didn’t? What if he left his mind behind? He’d go crazy. He didn’t like the sound of any of that.
“Don’t worry about it. We are going to be fine. It’s best as long as we take ourselves or ourselves and one other person. Trying to transport more than that almost always ends in someone dealing with the consequences.” Bart was very nervous now. If the Chaos Prince didn’t kill him, teleportation would.
“We don’t have time for explanations, boy,” Jester said grabbing a hold of Jonah’s arm. “See you at the gates, Vicky,” he said and with that he vanished into thin air with Jonah along for the ride. Bart stood there stunned. One second they were talking to them, the next, Jester and Jonah were gone. It was sort of exciting.
“So impatient,” Victoria said. “Don’t worry Bart, nothing will happen to you I promise.” Once again her voice somehow calmed Bart down and she took his hand. “Oh and don’t open your eyes for anything,” she said quickly. Before Bart could even think twice, they were in nothing but blackness. There were screams and voices talking, calling out to Bart by name. He made sure his eyes didn’t open but they felt like they were being pulled out of his face. His head felt like it was spinning in circles around his neck and his bones began to ache. Just when he felt like he could take no more, he felt the ground under him. He was standing in mud outside of a much smaller version of the Crestcon castle. This place was all black but the one thing that caught Bart off guard was the giant tower behind the castle. He looked around and saw Jonah dusting himself off and Jester crouched by the gate. “Are you okay?” Victoria asked politely.
“Why could I hear voices?” Bart asked remembering the weird trip that he had just taken.
“I will explain later,” she said and then she turned and hurried to the gate. When Bart rejoined the three of them Victoria sounded a little worried.
“She is in there and she is alive,” Victoria said. Bart felt like his heart skipped a beat. Charlotte was still alive? He couldn’t believe it. He wanted to burst through the gate and save her before that changed.
“Yeah but she has no guards,” Jester added. “That doesn’t seem like a good thing.” Bart was confused as to how they even knew these things.
“They are reading your friends mind,” Jonah said crouching next to him. “If she is unguarded then that means they were expecting you.”
“But we knew this already,” Bart said.
“Yes we did,” Victoria said. “But if they were expecting you then why aren’t they all over us right now. They want you to free her. They want you inside.”
“So what,” Bart screamed. “Let’s go inside then.” Before anyone could object he thought of the gate opening and thrust his hands forward. The gate shot open, and Bart started running. He didn’t wait to see if anyone followed him. He did the same thing to the castle doors and found himself standing in an empty hall. Jonah came in behind him and paused. “How are we going to find her?” Bart said. Jonah sat there quiet for a couple seconds.
“This way,” he yelled and started running off to the right. Bart followed him and they made their way down some empty hallways and into a stairwell. There was a stench that Bart couldn’t pinpoint as to what it was or where it was coming from. The stairwell was narrow with not much room for two-way traffic. They came out into a long hallway with a door at the end. Standing in front of it were two men with swords drawn. Again, the hallway was narrow so there wasn’t much choice but to go through them. That didn’t bother Bart one bit. They started rushing Bart and Jonah, but Bart didn’t wait for them to attack. He ran forward as fast as he could. Please let this work he thought to himself. Then he shot one hand forward and closed his eyes tight. Then, to his surprise and clearly the surprise of the two guards, the floor turned into some kind of sinking sand. Bart smiled at his success and then kept sprinting towards the two guards who were now waist deep in the floor. Bart kneed one in the face as he passed and kicked the other one. Jonah followed close behind, laughing the entire time. “Nice job,” he yelled as they got to the door. Just then the door to the staircase where they came in flew open and guards started pouring into the hall. “I’ve got this,” Jonah said. Bart didn’t wait to argue. He kicked open the door and there she was. Charlotte was strung up on some beam by chains holding her arms in position above her head. She looked up and her eyes widened.
“Bart,” She shouted as Bart rushed over to her. “What are you doing here?”
“You didn’t think I would let these guys kill you did you?” he responded with a grin. “We came to rescue you.” Instead of looking relieved she looked worried.
“No Bart no,” she said shaking her head. “You weren’t supposed to.” Bart looked confused. Shouldn’t she be extremely happy that he came to save her?
“We know they wanted to capture me and kill me. It’s okay, we planned for that.” Bart was trying to convince her that everything was okay.
“No Bart they don’t want to kill you,” she yelled. She looked so scared. What had they done to her? Bart couldn’t tell if any of the scars on her face were old or from recent torture.
“What do you mean?” Bart asked as he looked into her eyes.
“They want to take something from you!” Bart didn’t like the sound of that, but he had come too far to turn back now and he wasn’t going to leave her behind. That was out of the question.
“You’re delusional,” he said starting to look for some kind of key. “Where is the key?” he asked her.
“I don’t know but you should just leave,” she said sounding angry. Bart had had enough.
“STOP,” he screamed. “I came to get you out and I’m not leaving without you! Don’t you get it? You’re my best friend! So you’re coming with me like it or not!” Charlotte just stared at him in disbelief. Bart didn’t keep the eye contact long as he began looking for the key again. “Forget it,” he said as he turned and thought of the chains becoming water. Instead they turned to ice, freezing Charlotte’s wrist.
“Great job!” she screamed.
“Whatever,” he said as he walked over to her and grabbed a hammer. “Don’t move,” he said softly taking aim.
“Does it look like I can really move Bart?” she asked sarcastically. He ignored her and brought the hammer down shattering the ice. He did it again to her left side and she was free.
“Can you run?” Bart asked.
“No not really,” she said as she nearly collapsed to the floor. Her legs were weak and Bart knew it was from whatever they did to her.
“What did they do to you?” he asked as he helped her keep her balance.
“They did some things to my mind and some kind of evil wielding torture to my body. I can’t remember everything. It’s all so fuzzy.” Bart was livid. If he ever had a chance to get his hands on Talion, he wouldn’t hesitate. He didn’t care how much weaker he was. He was going to find a way to take Talion out.
“I’ll help you,” Bart said putting one of Charlotte’s arm around his shoulder. They headed out the door where they saw Jonah engaged in battle with at least ten men.
“GO!” he hollered back at them. Bart took off running to the right with Charlotte hobbling at his side. They kept running, avoiding any guards they saw and made their way to an exit, which led them up the steps and into another hallway. This hallway was significantly wider and had tons of doors on either side. As they passed through, Bart could hear screams from many of the different rooms. Whatever was causing the people to scream had Bart hoping that he never encountered it. They kept running until they were faced with two guards ready to attack. Bart looked at Charlotte who was out of breath and looking extremely weak. He would have to take them alone. The two men charged and Bart pushed Charlotte behind him. He immediately focused on the ceiling. His hands lifted up and the ceiling began to rumble. The two guards slowed but then the sound stopped. They laughed as they began to advance again.
“Any other bright ideas,” Charlotte said. Bart ignored her and tried focusing on the ceiling again. It started to give him a serious headache but then suddenly the ceiling collapsed. The guards were prepared and stepped back just in time. One guard wasn’t so lucky, as his foot got smashed under the wreckage. As he screamed the other guard climbed over the wreckage and headed towards Bart and Charlotte. “This doesn’t look good, Bart,” she said as the man closed in.
“You think,” Bart said as he narrowly dodged the sword that came slashing down. He tackled the guard and got on top of him only to be shoved off quickly. As he stood up the guard went to tackle him but Bart was ready. He kneed him in the face and the guard fell back. Then Bart thought about ropes and surprisingly, they appeared and strapped the guard to the ground. He tried to reach his sword so he could cut the ropes but Bart was way ahead of him. He stepped on his wrists and then punched him right in the face, knocking him out.
“Nice one,” Charlotte said as she leaned against the wall for support.
“Thanks,” Bart said as he walked over to her and helped her up. The two friends slowly slipped past the wreckage and kept going until they ran through a door, and Bart didn’t recognize the scenery. He assumed they were out back. “We have to get to the front,” he said and they took off. Charlotte was trying to run by herself now and although she wasn’t very fast she was making good time. Maybe her injuries were wearing off quickly. They made their way around front and towards the gate when Bart stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Charlotte asked looking around to see if anyone was chasing them.
“We can’t leave without Victoria and Jester.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it’s a month’s trip from here back to the castle and they are the only ones who can teleport!” Charlotte looked surprised but Bart didn’t have time to explain. He also didn’t want to say that they had to leave one behind because Victoria told him that they can only teleport themselves and one other person. Since Jonah couldn’t teleport yet, he would have to be left. Just then Victoria and Jester came flying out the front doors of the castle.
“No time to chat. Run!” Victoria yelled as they sprinted past them. As they did, tons of guards came flooding out of the door, swords drawn and ready for battle. Bart and Charlotte took off after Victoria and Jester. Charlotte was still injured and she couldn’t run by herself but Bart helped her the best he could. They made their way towards the gate. They were almost there when suddenly Victoria and Jester had stopped dead in their tracks. Bart stopped right behind them and in front of them there was a man with the three people behind him. Bart immediately recognized Mafortian, Baron, and Talion. He wanted to attack immediately and rip Talion to shreds. However, the man in front, who was much shorter than the other three, Bart didn’t recognize. He was significantly younger with medium length black hair. His eyes were unmistakably green, and his armor was black and green.
“Going somewhere?” the man asked softly with a grin. Bart knew that this man could only be the one person they were trying to avoid. Charlotte gripped Bart’s bicep and whispered in his ear.
“That’s him,” she said. “That’s the guy they call the Chaos Prince.”
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