Heart of Lies

by Connor Whiteley

“What ya mean Unknown Crusade?” Hellen asked.

  “He says he wants to invade Mortisical, but I don’t believe him. I think he wants to take the palace,”

  “But he doesn’t need a secret army, does he? He could just use the men under his command,” Harrison asked.

  Continuing to play with his hair, I replied: “Not necessarily, the majority of the soldiers at the palace and in the military worship the Queen as a divine being. They would never support a coup against her,”

  He nodded.

  “What about this Triad the assassins referred to?” Nemesio inquired.

  “Well, a Triad means three,” Alessandria explained. “So, I think there are three masterminds behind these assassination attempts. Sure, Ares’ could be one, but who are the others? And we need proof. Ares has too much political power for the Queen to just arrest him without proof. That could put her reign in even more uncertainty,”

  Laying out my head to look up at the wooden ceiling, I asked: “What now?”

  Raising my head again, I saw Alessandria stand up and stretch her arms. Whilst Nemesio stared at her. I wanted to smile at his lack of subtlety, but something told me not to.

  Walking over to me, Alessandria said: “Well, it’s almost eleven o’clock at night and I need to go to bed. Tomorrow I’ll go and see the old Lady Serpentine again and hopefully she’ll give us the name,”

  Alessandria leaned over Harrison, I felt him tense, and she gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

  As the three of them walked out the door, Alessandria added: “Harrison, Daniel has something he wants to talk to you about?”

  I smiled and shook my head at her. Trust her to make me talk about the topic.

  When the wooden door shut, Harrison rolled onto his side. His head still resting on my leg and he smiled at me.

  “What you want to talk about?”

  “Me and Alessandria were talking earlier, and she said I should just tell you,”

  Lifting up his arms, he grabbed his hands and said: “Daniel, if it’s about doing it. I will wait for as long as you need,”

  I allowed a weird laugh to come out.

  “No, it’s just...I want to. I really, really do. It’s my dream. I’m just not sure if I can cope with all the touching and the physical aspects of it. Hell, I collapsed from exhaustion earlier over nothing,”

  “Babe, I’m scared too,”

  “Why you’ve done it before?”

  “With women, not men. And I get it, we both hate being touched by others and we hate noise and everything else that can annoy us. So, when you’re ready, we’ll just take it slow and see how it goes. Daniel, I love you so relax,”

  I gave him another quick kiss.

  Then Harrison replied: “We aren’t trying it tonight. I’m too tired,”

  Then he simply walked away.

  CHAPTER 15

  Looking out over all the little stone buildings and thatch houses of the city and columns of smoke rising out of the majority of them. Alessandria sat out on the little balcony, with its waist-high stone pillars and guard rail and little marble squares acting as the floor, enjoying the sight of the city. Whilst the morning sun shone blood red as it continued to rise.

  As she focused on the beauty of the clouds turned blood red by the sunlight, her hands stretched over to the small white table next to her filled with a few sweet Iced pastries and slices of toast.

  Turning to look at the table, Alessandria picked up a small silver table knife and spread some butter on her toast. The sound of the knife scratching the bread almost echoing on the smooth castle walls behind her.

  The sound of a dropped knife hitting a fine china plate reminded Alessandria of Hellen's presence. She wasn't sure who's idea it was to have such a posh and noble breakfast together on a castle balcony but they needed to do it more often. Alessandria thought as the buttery taste of the toast filled her mouth.

  Looking at Hellen, Alessandria considered what she usually ate for breakfast. Scraps? Despite being good friends for at least two years, they never had met much before ten in the morning. Alessandria thought that was down to Hellen's busy male schedule, but who knows?

  Whatever the answer Alessandria needed to make sure this happened again. For it had been a great two hours of talking, catching up and just being friends whilst they waited for Nemesio to return from the Serpent gang.

  Of course, she had thought the old lady requesting his presence at the break of dawn was odd but she only knew this because Nemesio had left her a note. At least she got a bit of free time to just be a friend.

  Although, as far as the note Nemesio left was concerned, Alessandria was far more interested in the fact that Nemesio had made it clear he didn't want to disturb her sleep. Did he really care about her that much? He was a former Inquisitor, he was used to disturbing people. He used to do it for a living. Was this him changing or did he care about her?

  The delicious smell of sweet fruity buttery pastries made Alessandria return from her thinking as she saw Hellen feast on a few pastries. Smiling as she did so.

  “Enjoying the breakfast,” Alessandria asked.

  “Yea, this is great. Is this how the nobility normally eats?”

  “Most days, yes,”

  Hellen nodded her approval as she ate another pastry.

  “How comes we’ve never had breakfast together before?” Alessandria asked.

  “I don’t know but I want to. Especially, if ya serve food like this!”

  “What do you normally eat?”

  Hellen was about to speak before she closed her mouth to finish chewing a piece of chunky strawberry jam.

  “Normally, I eat toast or leftovers from the night before,”

  Alessandria nodded, wishing that her friend ate better.

  “So, Nemesio was staring at ya last night,”

  The Dominicus Procurator smiled and rolled her eyes.

  “Not you too. Daniel asked me if I found Nemesio attractive,”

  “Well, he is. He’s strong and now he’s left the Order. He’s a good guy in great shape,”

  Alessandria gave a small nod as she thought about it. She wasn’t wrong he was attractive, but how well did she know him? She had only known him three, coming up four weeks. Was that too soon to like someone?

  “I agree but we’re just work friends,”

  “He likes ya. I know it,”

  Alessandria’s blushed a little.

  “Come on, he has a great body. What did Daniel think of it?”

  “He didn’t common on Nemesio’s looks but he gave me his blessing if I liked Nemesio,”

  “What more do ya need?”

  Opening her mouth to speak, the words died out in Alessandria’s throat as she couldn’t think of a counter-argument. Hellen was right of course. She didn’t need anything. She had her brother’s blessing, the most important thing, and she liked Nemesio, the second most important thing to her. What was she waiting for?

  “I’ll think about it, I promise,”

  “That’s my girl,” Hellen replied as she ate another triangle of buttered toast.

  To the left of Alessandria, the wooden door opened and Nemesio in his strong muscular blue and red fiery armour walked towards them. He crouched next to Alessandria with there not being a free chair.

  Feeling his body heat, Alessandria began to feel warm and awkward. Maybe she should talk to him or even ask him out. No, that wasn’t appropriate. The Nobility wouldn’t allow that to stand, a woman asking out a man. Ridiculous!

  However, Alessandria started to think about her family’s bad standing because of Daniel. Would it matter if her family broke another tradition?

  “What’s ya thinking about?” Hellen teased.

  “Um, nothing,” Alessandria replied as she turned to look at Nemesio. “What did the Lady Serpentine want?”

  Nemesio made an interesting smile as he picked up a triangle pastry.

  “It turns out, the Serpentine is actually a Noble Family. A few kings ago
, there was a deal between the King and her great grandfather. They rule the underworld under a few conditions,”

  “Do they have a seat in the court?”

  “Yes and the Lady Serpentine confirmed they have a lot of influence over the House of Gravers,”

  “So getting their supports gets me the Gravers too?”

  “Correct,”

  Alessandria nodded as she thought about the Church, the House of Blueheart and the other Inquisitorial Orders that she needed to get. There were still so many voices she didn’t have. That would change in time, regardless of who objected. At least that was the plan.

  “But why did she request your presence?” Alessandria asked.

  Standing up and stretching his legs, Nemesio explained.

  “She was furious that Danic was murdered so she pledged her support to you, and she gave me the name,”

  Standing up, Alessandria asked very firmly: “Who?”

  “Lord Commander Ares,”

  CHAPTER 16

  As I looked up and down the immense stone corridor waiting for Alessandria and Nemesio, I was thrilled that we were finally going to take down this corrupt official.

  Of course, I had wanted to storm into the office without them and take him down. But Alessandria's note was very firm that I needed to wait for her. She's so boring sometimes!

  Anyway, I was stuck waiting for them. Just standing in the shadows of a stone staircase. Looking at the boring grey stone walls and ceiling while I waited.

  Well, at least I had some impressive paintings from centuries ago to look at. The painting directly in front of me was of the harbour filled with hundreds of ships unloading spices, sugar and other extremely precious cargo. I shook my head and spun my dulled blade slowly as I remembered Ordericous hadn't had a day like that for centuries. The war with Mortisical hadn't helped nor the other decisions of past kings.

  Perhaps I might try and change that in the future, I don't know how but it would be good for the people. Then I almost laughed at myself for starting to think as a leader.

  Maybe Alessandria was on to something. Maybe I could lead a Noble House successfully. Even now I wanted to rid this country of a traitor so perhaps I could lead and serve the Queen. But I know my sister has a long way to go yet with her family.

  Looking around again, there was still no sign of them. I hate people being late! Well, they weren't late but they were taking their time to get here.

  Poking my head further out of the shadows of the staircase, I looked towards the far end of the corridor where Ares' office was. So badly I wanted to charge in there, attack him and end his treachery, but spun my dulled blade faster and decided to wait.

  Although, I got the odd smell of oranges and sweet honey for an unknown reason. Maybe he was burning incense in his office?

  Getting almost bored of waiting, I took a few steps out into the corridor, feeling the cool morning breeze blow past me and the soft red carpet under my feet.

  Finally, I heard the typical sound of Hellen's big stick tapping on the stone floor. Turning around I saw them walk towards me. My dulled blade turned faster at the sight of Nemesio in his blue and fiery red armour, but I remained calm.

  Looking at Hellen, she gave me a cheerful smile. She too was probably excited by the idea of getting to thump someone over the head. Then Alessandria nodded in my direction wearing her usual black leather armour. But she smelt of pastries and honey. Could that be what I smelt earlier?

  When they reached me, they kept walking. I joined them. Together as one force, we walked towards the wooden door to Ares office.

  Once we reached it, Alessandria nodded to Hellen.

  She charged forward.

  Whacking the door with her big stick.

  Amazingly, it broke open.

  We charged it.

  I whipped out my sword.

  My eyes searched for Ares.

  Nothing.

  I only saw the same boring stone walls and tiny desk as earlier.

  Hellen smashed her stick down in frustration.

  My dulled blade turned faster in frustration.

  I wanted to lash out at him.

  However, taking a deep breath, I calmed myself. He wasn’t here that was out of my control. No point getting annoyed about the little things. I’ll leave that to the non-autistic people.

  Looking at Alessandria and Nemesio, they shook their heads in frustration and Nemesio went over to stand by the door. Presumably, in case Ares walked up the corridor.

  “The room’s clear,” Alessandria said as she passed me the Arrest Warrant signed by the Queen herself and the Lord Justice.

  I’m not particularly sure why the Lord Justice needed to sign it, but I couldn’t care less about Procurator politics.

  “He has not been here for a while,” I added as I pointed to the furry sandwich on his desk.

  We both turned towards the desk as Hellen tripped over some of the empty drink bottles.

  “Daniel, do you think mother’s okay?”

  “She will be fine. She’s in a locked complex with hundreds of people to talk to and scheme for and against. Do you really think she isn’t having the time of her life?”

  “Good point,” she laughed.

  “She’ll be fine, Alessandria. My concern is where is Ares? He should be here. He wouldn’t have known Lady Serpentine gave him up,”

  “A matter of time perhaps until she did?”

  “Killing her Grandchild was a poor move. The better idea would be to kidnap him and force her not to tell us,”

  “You’ve given this some thought,”

  “If my military history obsession has taught me anything. It’s you need to spend as much time thinking like the enemy than a loyal soldier,”

  Alessandria simply nodded.

  “If I was Ares, I would’ve... I don’t know. He has nowhere to go,”

  “Exactly, dear sister. He has nothing left to lose,”

  “Suicide?”

  I smiled at the comment.

  “As a person who almost did, this isn’t enough to drive him to it. And all his behaviour seems to be driven by the death of the Queen. And he still has the support of the Triad presumably, so suicide is too doubtful,”

  “What ya make of these?” Hellen asked as she pointed to piles of parchment on the desk.

  I rushed over and waved Alessandria over.

  She flicked through the pages of parchment with thick layers of text and diagrams. The cold parchment felt strange in my hands, as did the ancient smell of the parchment. Almost as if it were mouldy.

  “These are diagrams of the bridge near the main river a few kilometres away,” Alessandria explained.

  “I have some schematics about carriages. The weak points are highlighted,” Hellen added.

  I took those schematics and said: “I’ll show them to Harrison to see if they’re important,”

  Alessandria asked: “Would you be okay in the engineering room? It’s loud and sweaty,”

  “I’ll have to be for the Queen,”

  Alessandria nodded.

  Placing my pieces of parchment on the desk, I said: “And these drawings and recipes of gunpowder,”

  “Wait, Alessandria didn’t ya say the Queen gonna to the Outer most military Base in Ordericous today?”

  “She would have to cross that bridge,” I added.

  “They’re going to blow up on the bridge when she crosses it,” Alessandria finished. Dashing out the room to avert disaster.

  CHAPTER 17

  As their horses thumped along the hard dirt road, Alessandria, Hellen and Nemesio braced themselves as their horses stomped their hooves into the road. Travelling as fast as they could.

  As the horses galloped along, Alessandria felt the air whipped past her and her long strong hair whipped wildly in the wind. She wanted it to stop but her hair refused. Continuing to go wild and occasionally cover her face.

  Thankfully, these were Fireheart horses, immensely muscular black and brown hors
es bred for war. Despite these horses looking harmless, Alessandria knew these would easily kill a man and it could run much faster than a normal horse. And that is what she needed.

  Breathing in the fresh countryside air, Alessandria saw the massive knobby trees with their large spiky leaves turn to blurs as the horses picked up their pace.

  They needed to get to the bridge before the Queen. Alessandria's stomach began to flip at the thought of the Queen dying in the explosion of the bridge.

  She was not going to let that happen, not to her Queen.

  Shaking the reins of the horse, Alessandria willed it to go faster but they were already travelling so fast Alessandria couldn't see Nemesio and Hellen properly. They were mere blurry shapes next to her.

  With the wind continuing to whip past her creating an immense howl in her ears, Alessandria raised her head and smiled as she roughly saw the bridge. Thankfully, as she was travelling towards it, she could see it.

  In all of its stone might as the grey arched Bridge looked as if it had grown out of the ground and stretched to the other side.

  Alessandria searched for the Queen on their side of the bridge. She found them.

  About twenty metres from the bridge, there was a large black and red carriage rolling along with twenty armoured guards on horseback riding next to her.

  Delight filled Alessandria for finding her Queen before it was too late, but the Queen was still heading towards the bridge.

  They kept riding.

  Pointlessly, Alessandria started to wave her hands about. Hoping that a guard would see her. She even laughed at herself after a few moments.

  The horses started to slow down.

  They were growing tired.

  Alessandria’s eyes widened as the horses continued to slow. This wasn’t happening. Alessandria was not going to let her Queen die.

  She pulled the reins hard.

  The horse stopped.

  Alessandria jumped off and started running. Cutting across the thick green grassland to reach her Queen.

  She screamed.

  She shouted.

  She waved her arms in a crazy pattern.

  Nemesio and Hellen kept riding, but their horses were slowing.