Serendipity

They know

Naida's pov

After returning to the castle everything felt unsafe. If I wasn't with Sam, Ant or Skeppy I'd panic. I did not want to die at the hands of Daniel and Nathaniel at the age of 20 because Herobrine wanted control of a kingdom I wasn't even in line to have. Not that I wanted to be queen in the first place. I was more than content with remaining the princess for my whole life.

"Are you okay Naida? You've been sticking closer to me than normal. Not that there's an issue with that, I like having you around." Skeppy said.

"I'm fine I just, I've been feeling a bit more paranoid since Dad was attacked, y'know, since they never found whoever did it." I said.

Skeppy pulled me into a hug.

"It'll be okay, you're safe here. No-one in this castle will let anything bad happen to you." Skeppy reassured.

If only he knew two of the residents here had been sent here with the sole purpose of killing me. I couldn't mention it yet because every time I tried Nathaniel or Daniel woul enter the room. I'm pretty sure they knew that I knew what they were up to. It's was pretty hard to act normal around someone when you know they are trying to kill you.

Three days. Three days I had been living with the knowledge that they were trying to kill me. Three nights I hadn't slept out of fear and Three days I had been desperate to tell someone.

"Now why don't we go and troll Bad? That'll cheer you up!" Skeppy said.

"Sure." I replied.

Trolling my father became an all day task. It kept me away from my potential murderers and distracted me for a little while so I guess that ment it was fun. Retiring to my room that night was the most stressful thing I had to do. I really did not want to be alone.

"Goodnight my muffin." Dad said before he kissed my forehead.

"Goodnight Dad." I said.

"If anything happens call on Skeppy, Sam's still in his workshop and I need to stay up late to finish something." Dad said making me feel anxious.

"Okay, I love you." I said.

"I love you too my muffin. Get some rest." Dad said, blowing out the torches and disappearing out my door.

I lay there in the dark just staring at the ceiling. The idea of going to sleep, especially without Sam around was terrifying. I lay there for what must have been hours before I heard the sound of my door being pushed open,

I lay as still as a corpse, not a single breath left my lips out of fear of the noise it would make. This was it, I was gonna die.

"Naida. Naida." Eret's voice called to me hurriedly. "Come on, we have to go."

"What's going on?" I asked.

"They're planning to kill you tonight Naida, we need to go." Eret said, pure panic in his voice.

I quickly slipped out of bed and rushed over to Eret's side. He ushered me out the door and hurried me around the corner away from my room. I stopped him to push down on a brick and reveal an emergency passageway. The two of us got inside and closed the door behind us before we hears them.

"Her room is this way, right? There shouldn't be anyone around?" Nathaniel asked.

"That guard of hers will be fixing our mess in his workshop until the early hours of the morning. You put enough of that drug in the advisor's tea to knock out an elephant and King Bad is too busy dealing with the little accident we staged. There's no-one around that can stop us." Daniel replied.

"What about Prince Eret?" Nathaniel asked.

"He plays a good actor, I don't think there's a single soul in this kingdom that believes he'd want her dead. In fact, he could probably cry tomorrow and tell everyone he was in love with her for the extra points. They wouldn't kick out a man grieving for his lover, that would just look bad." Daniel replied.

"I don't think its an act anymore Daniel, I think we've lost him to her." Nathaniel said.

"He was born and raised for this type of thing, he wouldn't allow the daughter of a monster to ruin it." Daniel said.

Eret began tugging me away from the wall as they got closer, leading me down the passageway. We remained silent as we walked, both of us were pale and I was shaking like a leaf. There was a grave look on his face.

We went down the staircase in the passageway and then turned down a second corridor only to be stopped by a wall.

"Where do we go from here? It's a dead end." Eret said.

"When we leave through here we'll be in the ballroom. We have to cross the ballroom to get to a second passageway that will lead us out of the Palace. There'll be two ways to leave, one way will lead us out towards  the ocean where there is always a boat waiting and the other will lead us to the center of the kingdom. We can decide what way to go once we get there. They might find us. The balconies that overlook the ballroom are connected to the upstairs near where my room is." I explained.

Eret nodded before pressing on the wall, peaking out into the ballroom as the wall opened. He signaled that there was no-one there before the two of us hurried out, hand in hand. We began running as quietly as possible across one of the largest rooms in the Palace. We tried to stick as close to the walls as possible, hiding in the shadows.

"Check out here! She has to be somewhere." We heard Daniel order.

"God damn it Eret! I knew it wasn't an act." Nathaniel said.

Eret, distracted by the sound of their voices, stepped on one of the suits of armour that lined the ballroom. It made a loud clanging sound and definitely drew their attention.

"Fuck." Eret said as he realised what he'd just done.