Karlol

by Phoebe Nix

  But the adrenaline was one of the ways he would momentarily forget about the burden of his royal duties, the strict hierarchy that made him bear responsibilities he never asked for, and two nosy guards who would never leave his side no matter how many times he begged his uncle.

  However, his own civilization was on the brink of being demolished, so there was no room for such trivial arguments.

  “This is taking too long,” Lore complained. “I have a bad feeling about this. It’s not too late to leave and come back when-”

  “We’re not leaving,” Karlol said in an authoritative tone. “You’re here to guard me, not to give me a headache. I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but now you’re just being a nuisance.”

  Lore’s chest heaved. Because the two of them had once shared an unlikely friendship in the past, she would always forget that they weren’t on the treetops swings, gossiping the night away the way they used to when they were children – before Fareej promoted her to a Royal Guard.

  She turned away and paced to one of the fruit trees. She tilted her head up, pretending to gaze at her snack options, but it was clear she was only avoiding looking Karlol in the eyes lest he see hers watering.

  Darneel let out a quiet sigh. He had witnessed variants of this very conversation a dozen times, and it never seemed to teach Lore to give the Prince the distance he so obviously demanded. With his hands behind his back, he stood silently with a stoic expression, glancing here and there as he felt the ground with his toes to make sure there was no approaching danger.

  Lore turned around, pacing back toward the Prince. “You know, I miss the person you were a decade ago.”

  Karlol spat another pulp and furrowed his brows. “You mean when you didn’t tell me what to do, knowing that you have no authority to do that?”

  “I never meant to come off that way, I just worry about you.”

  “Lore, that’s enough,” Darneel glared. Vogel Guards were never permitted to casually converse with royalty, let alone argue with them.

  Although it was not unusual for Vogel Princes to wed a commoner, and Karlol didn’t look at Lore like that. He liked her, but he’d never love her. He thought about the prophecy that had been recently announced. Apparently, he was to encounter a foreign being, who was destined to save Lookar from the inexorable wars that threatened his civilization. That was all that was made known to the public, but what Karlol knew and no one else did was that he was also destined to fall in love with this mysterious woman.

  Not that he believed any of it. But his mother did, and that meant he had to pretend to as well. He would never be permitted to marry anyone else as long as his mother was alive.

  Which meant he had to push Lore away, to stop any false hopes on her part, regardless of the prophecy.

  “You’re allowed to worry about me. You’re supposed to because that’s what you’re here for. Again, I appreciate how passionate you are about your appointment, but I don’t like it when you go overboard. Why can’t you be more like Darneel?”

  “Because Darneel was never your friend!”

  “You were never mine. We socialized when I was younger. That doesn’t give you the authority to talk to me the way you do.”

  Lore’s lips trembled and her icy blue eyes darted from one of Karlol’s eyes to the other.

  “Lore,” Darneel calmly called out, strolling toward her and lightly tugging on her arm. She shook him away and flew overhead, landing on one of the branches.

  “I apologize for my sister’s behavior,” Darneel said.

  Karlol shrugged. “Not your fault. I will admit, the wait is starting to get pretty tedious.”

  “I’m sure someone will show up soon,” Darneel replied, nodding.

  “I wish my orders weren’t so vague. He didn’t even give me the exact location,” the Prince complained.

  Darneel spread his wings, his pupils dilating.

  “What is it?” Karlol asked, gazing around.

  “Your highness, I feel footsteps. We need to be more discreet.”

  Karlol spread his wings and flew next to Lore. He kneeled, the twins standing on either side of him. They all looked down to see who was approaching.

  They waited, but there was no sight of anyone.

  “Are you sure you heard something coming? It might have just been a wild boar.”

  “It was bipedal, and I doubt it’s an angry bear walking on its hind legs.”

  They activated their night vision, which was body-heat sensitive. Karlol agreed that he did feel something near, but his senses couldn’t spot where the presence was exactly, nor could his ears catch any foreign noises.

  Darneel suddenly let out a raucous cry and spread his wings wide. “Your highness, look out!” he hollered, about to shield the prince with his own body. But his maneuvers were not well-timed.

  The Prince turned around as his ears detected a whooshing noise coming from behind. He let out a groan as a spear pierced through his shoulder, lost his balance and plummeted from atop the tree. He spread his wings as he fell, landing on his knees. The twins descended toward the prince, swaying in the wind to avoid the shooting arrows.

  “Lore! Get Karlol, now!” Darneel hollered.

  She nodded and flew down to the Prince, her wings thrown back and her hair fluttering behind her. She landed beside him, but found a group of arrows flying toward her. She leaped sideways, then flew back to the tree branch. Spears and arrows were showering down on the guards, and they flew in zigzag motions to dodge the attacks.

  Lore was about to descend back to Karlol, but Darneel grabbed her by the wing in mid-air.

  “Go! There are too many of them!” Karlol called out

  “No!” Lore screamed.

  “You’ll get yourself killed!” More arrows flew at the twins, and they were forced to fly higher up. “Go now! It’s an order!”

  Karlol watched Darneel grab his sister, and the two flew skyward.

  Chapter 3

  Jocelyn’s wrists were sore from the tight shackles, and her spine ached from bending over in a cage that was too small for her.

  She had done her share of screaming for help and begging to be freed, but the riders pretended not to hear her pleas. They carried on with their conversation as though they weren’t dragging a human prisoner in a cage behind them.

  Some of them cracked jokes, laughing about how insistent she was about being let go, as if they would grow tired of her shrieks and drop her off at the side of the road. She was finally silent with her arms wrapped around her bent knees. She was not strong enough to fight these armed men, and they would likely kill her if she tried to escape. But she had no clue if caging her was just common procedure for foreign people, or if she was being commuted to the guillotine for trespassing.

  She wasn’t looking forward to finding out.

  The cage rolled down the hill as they approached the castle in the distance, which was surrounded by a murky moat. Even from where she sat, she could tell by the undulations of the water that there were some vicious beings that lurked in the waters. Jocelyn tried to quickly think of an escape plan; running as fast as she could as soon as they unlocked her cage was likely going to end with her death.

  As a historian, she found more and more signs that this was no medieval era. The way the bridge was not manually drawn, and seemed to automatically descend as soon as the riders stopped their horses, was just one of those things.

  The handsome man who had tricked her into coming with them kept looking over his shoulder to check if she were still in the cage, as if she had the strength to part the steel bars with her own hands and strut down the hill back to the forest.

  “Is it comfy back there?” he called out.

  Jocelyn couldn’t help but flip the man off. He didn’t seem to understand the gesture, but he snickered as she did.

  “I knew you’d be a feisty one when I laid my eyes on you,” he continued. “No worries, we’re almost there. It won’t be as bad as you think.” He tur
ned to her and scanned her body. “Just be a good girl.” He winked.

  “Fuck off.”

  The riders burst out in laughter. Jocelyn was as terrified as she was furious. For a moment, it seemed like her Stanton was not as much of an asshole as she thought he was compared to these men.

  Her cage swayed and shook as they rolled her on the bridge and made a turn to the massive castle courtyard.

  The commodious courtyard was peppered with rocks carved into makeshift chairs. They appeared to be covered in moss and padded with colorful cushions. In the distance, there was a gazebo underneath which was a canopy garden bed where a man clad in an exuberant gown was reclined with two women caressing him.

  Jocelyn was revolted by the sight, but said nothing. A squire came running and grabbed the reins of the leader’s horse.

  “Welcome home, Sir Narmer.”

  Narmer grunted and dismounted, gesturing toward the gazebo.

  “Tell the king we’ve successfully caught an alien,” he ordered.

  “Alien?” Jocelyn called out from her cage, clanking her shackles on the bar. “What the hell are you saying? I’m as human as the rest of you are.”

  As the riders dispersed, Narmer remained on guard. He sat down next to her on the freshly mowed grass, and the way his eyes scrutinized her body made her deeply uncomfortable. She shrunk away as far as possible.

  “I admire your attire,” he said.

  “Don’t try to socialize with me when you have me shackled in a cage,” she said.

  “It’s not you who has to worry, but you’re a stranger in our land and you must be confined until interrogated. As long as you disrespect no one, you should be safe.”

  She flipped him off again, this time with both middle fingers.

  “Pull that attitude off with the king, and you’ll have those pretty little fingers of yours chopped off.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” she taunted.

  “It’s not me you have to worry about. Strangers like yourself always presume I’m cruel, but I’m only following orders. You would do the same if you were in my shoes,” he said, turning his head to her. His eyes were fixed on her breasts.

  “Nazis were just following orders,” she blurted. “And my face is right here.” She pointed to her eyes.

  “I know where it is,” he grinned.

  She leaned back in her cage, tapping her feet nervously on the base. “Just kill me and get it over with. I hate the suspense,” she complained.

  Narmer scoffed. “I just might if you don’t keep your mouth shut.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who started the conversation.”

  He smiled. “Just passing the time. I can tell you and I are going to be friends, if you manage to stay alive during interrogation.”

  “I’ll never be your friend. You tricked me,” she spat.

  He shrugged, pulling his helmet off and placing it beside him. “You might not be from around here, but you are a human after all. You’ll fit in just fine, if you just learn to keep your fingers to yourself.”

  “I don’t want to fit in,” her voice faltered. “I want to go home.”

  Narmer shook his head. “This is home, whether you like it or not. There is no better place for a human to live. Lookar surpasses any other planet by light years.”

  Any other planet? Jocelyn’s heart raced in her chest. I’m on a different fucking planet? God damn you, Cameron, you clumsy goofball. What have you done? Where the hell is Lookar? What kind of name is that?

  The handsome rider gazed at Jocelyn, smiling at her distress.

  “Here,” he said, handing her what looked like a water bottle. It was a translucent glass flask with a matching cap that he clicked open before handing it to her.

  Jocelyn was reluctant, but she was parched. She took the bottle, which was heavier than it looked. “Is this poison?”

  He snatched it from her and took a sip. “It sure is.”

  Jocelyn took it back, her throat bulging as she drank every ounce in the bottle until the last drop.

  “You’re welcome,” he said.

  “I’ll thank you when you free me,” she fired back.

  “I’m afraid that can’t happen, little girl.” He shook his head with a grin that slowly faded as he saw the king approaching with the three riders following him, their eyes downcast, all of them holding their helmets in their hands as they trotted behind him.

  The king was quite short, an oversized gold crown adorning his bald head. He was clad in a velvet robe with a white shirt and black pantaloons. He eyed Jocelyn from head to toe and scoffed.

  Narmer quickly rose to his feet and bowed. “Your highness,” he said. “We have captured an alien.”

  “I said, I’m as human as you are!” Jocelyn grasped the steel bars and shook them. The king squinted at the noise her chains made across the bars.

  “Silence!” Narmer ordered, with one hand on his scabbard.

  The screeching of wheels reverberated behind Jocelyn, and she turned her head to see who else had been captured. Her jaw dropped as she gazed upon the most fascinating creature she had ever seen. It looked like a man – a stunning man with a well-built figure – but with wings that cloaked his body. He shielded his face with his wings, his hands grasping the bars of the cage. He shook it aggressively and yelled out in a foreign language.

  When the cart stopped, the winged man started thrashing around and groaning, his feathers flying from the bars of the cage, one of them landing in hers. She picked it up and raised it, running a finger down the soft hairs. She suddenly forgot about her fears, her eyes fixed on the beautiful creature in the cage beside her.

  She might have written it off as just another foreign bird species, but he was definitely a humanoid who looked like nothing she’d ever seen before. She felt a shiver run down her spine as she witnessed the gorgeous man in such distress. Clearly, he had something to fear, and whatever they were going to do to him was likely going to apply to her as well.

  The humanoid continued to groan uncontrollably, and the screeching was deafening. Narmer pulled what looked like a baton from his uniform, but it zapped when he pressed on a button and waved it at the creature.

  The winged man didn’t stop screeching.

  All four riders approached the cage, zapping the steel bars with their tasers. The way the man moaned in pain was heart-wrenching. Jocelyn watched with her hands over her mouth, and looked away when more and more feathers flew out of the cage. Eventually, the man was beaten down badly, until he gave in and curled into a ball, his face facing Jocelyn’s.

  She gazed at the man’s face. It was almost perfectly symmetrical. His eyes were a sea green, his irises larger than a human’s with thick, dark limbal rings that accentuated the sparkling color. With his lips parted, his eyes were falling shut until he finally saw Jocelyn. His eyes widened and his pupils immediately dilated, like a cat that was about to attack a string toy. His chest heaved as he continued to stare, and the way he looked at her was perplexing. She wasn’t sure if he were equally fascinated or if he was frightened.

  Narmer slid his taser between the bars and gave him one long zap until the man fell unconscious.

  Those fucking monsters.

  She, too, curled up with her knees bent. She sat still with her gaze fixed on the king, who did not seem to be interested in her. She wasn’t sure if that was a good sign, but she was lucky enough not to be beaten into a coma.

  Chapter 4

  Karlol slowly opened his eyes.

  He moaned in pain as he tried to move. Every muscle in his body was sore from the beating he’d received earlier. He turned on his side and could barely spread his wings. His vision was blurred, and it took a few blinks for it to clear up, as he took in his surroundings.

  It seemed he was in a prison cell. The walls were covered in what looked like dried blood, and a window in the top corner too small to crawl through was his only illumination. He could even taste the dust in the air.

  After months of trying
to catch him, the humans finally had him prisoner. He had no clue what they planned to do with him, but he knew that it was not going to be any good for him or his kingdom.

  He recalled seeing his guards escape shortly before he was captured; thank goodness they made it. His shoulder was still in excruciating pain from the spear that had pierced through him, but that wound was the least of his worries.

  It was all a blur, and he shook his head as he tried to make sense of the memories that were jumbled in his head. An image popped up in the forefront of his mind.

  Another human. A different human.

  Her hair had been a fiery red and her eyes olive green. Freckles had been speckled across her half-naked skin, and he suddenly wondered if she was the one. It must have been. The prophecy had said that the woman would come into his life unannounced, that he would never see it coming. She matched the description perfectly, and this was definitely not a conventional situation.

  But could it be that the wars were coming so soon?

  He could hear his own breath whistling from his nostrils, and he could barely keep his eyes open. Karlol glanced upon his own figure and saw a trail of blood across his shoulder. He was healing slower than usual. Everything was happening so fast, and it seemed like he would meet his end in the prison if he didn’t manage to escape in time.

  He wanted to lift his head, but he lacked the stamina. The pounding there was too heavy. Wherever that girl was, he needed to find her before it was too late. There was something about her that instinctively he wanted to protect.

  White feathers dotted the floor in a trail, marking where he had been dragged.

  He tried to push up to a sitting position, but stopped suddenly when he heard familiar steps approaching his cell.

  The doors slid open and a woman in heels marched in. She was clad in a red dress and her hair was tied up in a high bun. She slowly squatted, pressing her finger under his chin to lift up his head.