Emerald Dreams (The Dream Traveler Series)

by Nicole Knight

  "Mother, she is the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, so she has the right to challenge Eduard to the throne. That is what she is about to go do now," Axel interceded.

  "Oh my," she said.

  She dropped to her knees.

  "I am so sorry, Princess, for my rude behavior, and for grabbing you like that," she pleaded.

  She wasn't looking me in the eyes.

  Why did she feel ashamed?

  "Please, please stand up," I told her.

  "There is no need for you to ever get on your knees for me."

  "Thank you, Princess," she said as she got up.

  "How can I help?" she asked.

  Her eyes were sparkling.

  If I had asked her to do something, I could sense she would do it without hesitation. Loyalty must run deep in this family, and it was something I admired immensely.

  "Mother, there isn't any way you can help. Violet is going to wake up Jessica, and then we are going to hide you. You will stay there until one of us comes to you. If we don't come for you by nightfall, you are to sneak out of the castle as best as you can," Axel said.

  He was back in charge.

  She bowed her head a little towards him. She then turned to me.

  "You did that? I thought she fainted," she asked.

  "Yes, I triggered her to faint so she would be out of harm's way. Excuse me for a moment while I try to wake her up. I've never done this before," I informed her.

  I tuned out Axel, and his mom talking and focused on his sister lying in his arms. It was harder to find that little defect in her mind's barrier. I reached out and put my hand on her, and then I was in.

  Everything inside was dark. I reached around, looking for a wall in her mind. I couldn't find anything. It was easier to knock her out then wake her back up.

  "Jessica," I called.

  Maybe she would wake up? There was no response. I needed a different approach. I focused some of my energy and channeled it into making the space light up. As I did, I was kicked back out of her mind and was watching her wake up in Axel's arms.

  When she opened her eyes, she formed tears at the sight of her brother. It was a beautiful thing.

  "There is no time for long reunions," he told her.

  "Mother will explain everything, but we need to hide you two first," Axel said.

  Jessica ignored his words.

  "Who are you?" she turned to me and asked.

  "She is our future Queen," he said a little harshly.

  "Like I said, Mother will explain. Violet lets go take care of the knight on the next floor, quickly. We will hide them up there."

  I nodded to let him know I understood. We put our swords away, and I cleaned the blood off his helmet. We walked up the stairs and put our faceplates down. We approached the knight, acting like we did before. When we got close enough, Axel jumped on top of the knight and quickly ended our guard problem.

  While Axel went downstairs to get his mother and sister, I cleaned the blood off the knight's armor and propped him up against the wall. That way, no one else would come and post guard here. It would look less suspicious.

  Axel hid his family underneath the stairs. He said his goodbyes. Axel and I gave each other one last hug. When I let go of him, we walked back up the stairs.

  There were so many emotions I felt as I put one foot in front of the other on those stairs, but I had to tune them all out.

  I had something I needed to focus on.

  Now that we were back on the main floor, which was densely populated, we had to be careful again. We went straight and ended up at the bottom of the staircase to the second floor.

  Someone behind us called out to us, asking where we were going. We ignored him and kept going. I was starting to get more nervous. There was now unwanted attention focused on us. Someone was watching us walk up the steps. Someone knew where we were heading.

  This couldn't be good.

  He began shouting to others to stop us. Axel started in a sprint up the stairs, and I followed his lead.

  "Split up and hide. Good luck" were the last words I heard Axel say before he ran in the opposite direction down the hall at the top of the stairs.

  Would I ever see him alive again?

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  I ran the other way and down a maze of corridors. I hoped I wouldn’t get myself lost. I ducked into a door that was unlocked and quietly shut and locked it behind me.

  I turned around, sensing someone else in the room. It was a girl, my age maybe a little younger. I immediately recognized her as the girl from the vision I had while I was in the village.

  She clearly was the help here at the castle. She was dressed like a peasant, just like the other help. She looked terrified. She presumably thinks a knight just snuck into her room. I had to end that thought and bring her some relief, or she might call out and lead all the men following me right to us.

  I lifted my faceplate up and took off my helmet.

  “I promise you, I’m not here to harm you,” I said.

  I raised my arms away from my side, where my sword rested.

  “I’m only here because I’m being chased,” I finished softly.

  The ball was in her court.

  “You must be, you look almost as terrified as I,” she responded back quickly.

  “It is odd that a woman is dressed as a knight, I know they don’t allow that. Who are you hiding from?” she asked.

  Smart and pretty, I instantly took a liking to her. I needed to remember her.

  “What’s your name?” I asked her.

  “What is yours?” she responded.

  I shrugged.

  “Fair enough, my name is Violet. There is another man in the castle with me named Axel,” I said in a leap of faith.

  “Trinity is my name, but you can call me Trin. What business do you have in the castle that leaves you to impersonate a knight and be chased?” she asked.

  “That is what’s tricky,” I responded.

  “How much do you know about the history of Kings and Queens here?” I asked.

  “A considerable amount,” she replied.

  “Good, this makes explaining things so much easier. Eduard doesn’t have the right to the thrown as long as there is a living relative of Queen Victoria, am I right?” I asked her.

  “Yes, that’s right… wait” Her eyes started to fill up with excitement.

  “One of you is the rightful heir? You’ve come to take it back!” she said a little louder.

  “Shhh! They might hear you. Yes, that’s me,” I answered.

  Next thing I knew, she dropped to the ground and said, “Princess Violet, how may I help you? Please save us from King Eduard. How can I help you?”

  I would never get used to a royal title or people dropping to their knees in front of me. I have to stop telling people who I am.

  “Please stand,” I told her quietly.

  “I don’t need much. Can I borrow your outfit, though? I’m wearing a dress underneath. Once it’s washed, it will look rather nice on you my gift for you to keep.”

  “Of course, Princess, we also must hide your armor. They will start checking people’s rooms shortly,” She responded.

  So right there in front of a total stranger, I removed all of the armor Axel dressed me in and my dress that had seen better days. I took the fresh uniform of the help from Trin and put it on. It was clean and smelt lovely. This was a luxury for me.

  My snake bite didn’t look so good though, the skin around it was turning an angry-looking red and was starting to bruise. Trin noticed it but didn’t say anything.

  “I don’t have enough time to deal with it right now,” I told her.

  It was the truth.

  “Does your friend know? He wouldn’t have let you go off by yourself with that, right?” she asked.

  “Right, which is exactly why I didn’t tell him. Us women have to be tough.”

  She nodded her head in agreement. She pulled something out from under he
r bed.

  “Here, this stuff is hard to come by, but it should pull out any poisons.”

  She took a small amount onto her fingers and motioned to me to put my leg up where she could get to it. She rubbed the medicine right over the bite. It burned, which I guess meant it was working.

  “I’ll buy you a new container, I swear,” I promised her.

  “Thank you, but it isn’t necessary,” she replied.

  I looked around for places to hide the armor. Under the bed and in the tiny makeshift closet were too obvious of a spot. I looked up and found my answer.

  The ceiling was much like the ones in school at home. Large tiled ceilings that could be pushed away. I don’t know why they were here in a castle, but I wasn’t going to question it now.

  “Help me move a tile,” I told Trin.

  “We can hide the armor up in the ceiling space.”

  Trin stood on her bed with me and helped me push the tile to the side. She jumped down from the bed and started handing me pieces of armor. I quietly placed them in the ceiling space. When the whole suit of armor was in the ceiling, we pushed the tile back into place. Not a minute had passed before we got a knock to open the door.

  “Follow my lead,” she said.

  Trin opened the door, and two big men were standing in the hallway.

  “Have you seen someone in a full suit of armor running through this hallway?” The biggest guy asked her.

  He looked very intimidating. How was she not shaking?

  “No, I haven’t, but I heard some commotion down that way.”

  She pointed out the door to the right, from the way I came. Hopefully, they would stop searching this part of the hallway.

  “Who is that?” The other guy asked, looking at me.

  “She is my new trainee. I’m showing her how to do all of the work that needs to be done in the servant’s quarters,” she replied.

  Both men nodded and backed away from the door. They turned and hastily walked in the direction Trin pointed them in.

  She quietly closed the door.

  When we could no longer hear their distanced footsteps, she said, “That was close.”

  “Yeah, it was. Thank you.”

  “It’s no problem, your majesty,” she replied.

  “I’m not Queen yet, you don’t have to address me as one. I just only need one more thing from you,” I told her.

  Several minutes later, I was walking down the hall, pretending to look for things to dust.

  I was heading in the direction of the King’s room. I had my sword tucked inside of my pants. I couldn’t bend my one knee with it hiding in my pants leg, so I had to walk around with a fake limp.

  I could still feel the burning in my snake bite and feel something oozing out of it. I had to ignore that for now. A snake bite wouldn’t matter if I got caught and was killed.

  I heard a commotion down the hall, which had to be Axel. As fast as I could, I limped down the hallway to try to find him. I searched one hall with no luck, and then another hall.

  I passed a grand room in the center of the castle, a throne sat there with a big fat old man occupying it. He wore arrogance like it was his skin. It was the same man from my vision.

  That had to be Eduard, but I didn’t have time for him yet. I passed the room and kept trying to follow the sounds the fighting was making.

  Finally, after searching four different hallways, I found Axel in the middle of a small battle. He was just taking down one of the other knights. I knew it was him because four knights were trying to disarm another knight in the same armor. It had to be him.

  There were now three knights versus Axel. He quickly took down another. I did the only thing I could do to help him in this situation, without having blood on my hands, metaphorically and literally.

  I walked in, pretending to be a maid trying to get to a room to clean. I let out a small scream that only the knights in the hall would hear. Only one of the armored knights knew who I was and ignored me. The others stopped a moment to look at me and see if I was a threat. In the small amount of time I provided a distraction, Axel took out a knight.

  He was now two on one.

  “Go on,” he shouted to me.

  “I have this handled.”

  I turned back in the direction I came. When I was finally in front of the King’s throne room, I took a deep breath.

  This was it, all of my hard work and training was to prepare me for this very moment. I had to take down a very experienced magic worker, and then the King.

  I could do this, right?

  I gave myself my little mental pep talk that I always used when I was nervous. I had used it more times than I could count, but it did its purpose. I took another deep breath and walked into the room.

  I bowed before the King, something that killed me to do.

  “Don’t mind me, your highness, I was sent in here to clean,” I said, waving around my little basket of supplies that Trin gave me.

  “It can’t wait until I’m asleep?” he complained.

  He didn’t sound forceful, he seemed like a whiny baby.

  “I can come back your highness. I was sent here because I am the best at my job, but I won’t be here by the time you are asleep,” I said.

  “Fair enough,” was all he said.

  I looked over to the magic worker sitting in the corner. He was eyeing me suspiciously but couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong. I kept limping around the room, cleaning things, while I took in my surroundings.

  I did my best to keep my breathing even. I forced myself to take steady breaths. Passing out in this room wouldn’t help me.

  All of my effort was in vain. When I got closer to the magic worker, he stood up, and there was recognition in his eyes.

  He knew what I was.

  Chapter Thirty

  "Who sent you to clean in here?" The magic worker demanded of me.

  "I'm not sure of her name," I said.

  "Wrong answer," he replied as he sent a whirling ball of fire my way.

  So this guy had control of the element of fire for sure. Who knows what else?

  Right before the ball could hit me, I pulled out the sword from my pants leg and used it to deflect the fireball. The magic worker almost looked pleased that I had fought back. I guess he had been looking for a fight the moment I walked into the room.

  He shot another fireball at me, and I deflected it. He started shooting several at a time, and more frequently, I was now barely deflecting them.

  I needed to come up with a new game plan.

  I took the magic blocker out of my pocket. I threw it on the ground right next to my sword.

  I started forming my own attack. I took Wisdom's advice and didn't show my whole hand. I simply just deflected most of his attacks using my magic. The magic worker looked surprised. I guess he was surprised that I had magic, and he couldn't sense it until I started using it.

  "You're telling me that a good old experienced magic worker like yourself couldn't tell I was a magic worker too? That's disappointing," I taunted him.

  I could sense heavy breathing at the doorway. I knew Axel was standing there watching. I could sense him.

  "Go away," I called to him.

  "I have this," I smiled, saying those words.

  They were the same ones he said to me not more than ten minutes ago. He didn't leave me, though. I wished he would, if anything went bad I didn't want him to be here to see it. While the magic worker couldn't magically cause harm to him, there were other ways for him to die.

  The magic worker threw another attack. This time he sent objects flying at me. I deflected them all, and they landed in a heap at my feet.

  I started circling left. This, in result caused him to take a couple steps to my right. As I continued to move left, he continued to circle my right. He continued his magic offense while I played strong defense.

  Every time he threw something my way, I just deflected it with little effort.

  "Is that all
you can do?" he shouted at me.

  I could feel the air heating around me. I knew I needed to counter with water. So I began pulling moisture out of the air, almost like pulling a cloud together except I gathered it between my hands. He began to throw long beams of flames.

  I shot the ball of water in my hands at the beam of fire coming towards me and the room filled with steam. It was hot and humid. I could immediately feel sweat starting to accumulate on my back.

  The look that appeared on the magic worker's face was priceless. He was angry.

  I demonstrated the ability to use water, which is the opposite of what he can control, rendering both of those abilities useless against each other.

  I then remembered that we were supposed to continue circling, so I kept walking to the left. The magic worker was almost standing in front of the sword and magic blocker. I needed to do something to continuously distract him and possibly disable him.

  I raised my hands in front of me and sent lightning bolts from my hands. I wasn't sure I could do it until the bolts left my hands. I could feel some of my hair rising with the electricity I was generating in my body.

  The magic worker barely dodged the bolts that landed at his feet. The top of the slippers he wore turned dark. They must have been a little burnt by the heat.

  I shot more bolts, one hit the magic worker, but he didn't fall over or scream in pain. It looked like he absorbed the electricity into his body and then shot it right back at me. I was still working on shooting another lightning bolt and didn't have time to picture my shield protecting me.

  It hit me in the chest, and I landed in a heap on the ground. I couldn't breathe. I tried to take a breath, but my lungs weren't accepting air.

  What was happening?

  "Violet!" I heard Axel scream.

  I lifted the arm closest to him. I mentally built a shield between him and my opponent. Just because he was immune to magic didn't mean for sure that the things it created couldn't harm him.

  He banged on the shield to try to get through. He dug his shoulder into it and kept trying to ram to break the shield, but it wouldn't budge, just the way I designed it.

  The shock of another lightning bolt hit me, and I could feel my nerve endings screaming in pain. It somehow got my lungs to hold air again, and I took a deep breath.