The Runaway Princess

~Chapter 14~

I gasp as the cool night air hits my bare face. 

I turn around and see the only knight that didn't fight. 

"Princess Alexia?" I hear the surprise in his voice and step back. I notice that the other fights have stopped. Everyone has their eyes on me, and I hate it.

For some reason his voice sounds familiar. I look at him and I can't make out who he is. "Who are you?" The knight takes off his helmet, it isn't a knight at all, its the King's eldest son.

"Prince Nicholas?" I question. "What are you doing here? Why are you fighting?" He asks.

"Because I wanted to fight." I answer in defence. 

"How could you let her fight?" Nicholas asks. "She insisted, and she's beaten both of us before." Anthony replies, if we were in a different situation I would smile but since we aren't I grip the sword tightly.         

"If she's so skilled let her battle against Nicholas." The King says with a snarl. I glare at him and wish he would just collapse and die. 

"We came here to fight you off, not to show how skilled I am." I say as if the words were poison.

"Exactly, lets finish this." Thomas says. He puts his sword up in front of him and stands in a fighting stance. 

"So be it." The King gets off his horse and pulls out his sword. Its an ancient as well. I stare at it and immediately recognise it. "That's my grandfather's sword." I say to him. He smiles, an evil looking one as if proud of owning such a thing. "Was your father's sword Alexia." 

"You have no right to have it. It belongs to my father." He spins it around in his hands. "Then come get it. If you win this battle you can have it. Even though you have an ancient yourself." He looks down to icicle. 

"I will beat you, no matter what." Everyone makes way for us to fight. "Alexia don't he is a skilled swordsman, he can beat you easily." Anthony warns. "You might want to listen to your brother. You'll never know how it'll end, you might lose an arm, or your life." 

"Just hurry up and fight you traitor." 

"Alexia, your helmet." I am surprised when I hear Prince Nicholas. He holds the helmet in his hand. I shake my head, "Your father doesn't have one. I hate wearing those anyway." I turn back to the man standing in front of me. "You have the bravery of your father, yet you have his stupidity as well." I can tell he's trying to taunt me but I can't help myself when he talks about my father. 

I charge at him and swing my arm at him with full force, the blade connecting with his side. The hit was so hard my arm feels as if its vibrating. The King realises that I'm not joking anymore and his smile disappears. 

He swings his arm so fast that I have to duck down since I couldn't possibly blocked fast enough, he's fast. I am barely able to stand again when he strikes again, this time for my legs. I jump out of the way and go for his other side, but he's too fast. 

I can't win this.

He is too good. 

We keep circling each other trying to find his weakness, normally its easy for me to find but I can't find anything. 

"You have a very unique fighting style." The King remarks. "Is that so?" He nods. "I've only seen one other person fight this way. You hit something minor or easy to put in pain then go for large hits later on while they're distracted." My mouth hangs open and I stare at him in surprise. I stop moving. 

He found me out, that's it. I can't win for sure. 

I start circling again. "Who is that?" I ask. He smiles, and it isn't nice at all. "Nicholas." I don't remember ever watching Nicholas fight. Even when they were able to compete I was barely six.

"You can't win. Admit it. I found out." I glare at him for the umpteenth time tonight. 

"Not necessarily." I say. I have one my trick up my sleeve. I move one of my hands to the back of my thigh, ever so gradually so he won't notice. "You can never predict what one can do unless you've watched them fight in all of their styles." I keep talking to distract him from looking at my arm. I feel the leather wrapping around the hilt of my other dagger. 

"Hardly anyone has more than one definite fighting style." He says, as we converse I pull my other arm back up and decide to say one more thing. "Well, not many people have seen this side of me." He looks confused but I throw the dagger at his face before he can react. His eyes widen and he pulls out the dagger.

He stares at it in shock, while he's distracted I charge at him and put the sword to his neck. I pull my grandfather's sword from his hand and push him to the ground. I make sure my sword is still to his neck and look at everyone else. Thomas and Anthony look at the bloody dagger on the floor and back at me. Nicholas looks in pure shock at his father. 

"Very smart Alexia." The King doesn't sound as confident as before, I guess that's what happens to a King when he realises a sixteen year old Princess beat him. I look at Thomas and Anthony. "Take him to the palace prison then try to inform father." Anthony nods and pulls the King up. 

"How about you?" Thomas asks. "I'll be fine." He shakes his head and grabs the King's other arm. "Just because you beat him doesn't mean you're invincible." He walks away with Anthony, with the King walking reluctantly at their sides. 

I look at the remaining people, better make that person. All the knights who are conscious left and a few are still on the floor. "Uh, your helmet." I grab my helmet from Nicholas. 

"Thanks."

 I have never like the people of the Stonian Kingdom but Nicholas has never been mean to me. We used to be friends. Too bad his father's a traitor. Now we don't talk anymore.

"I never knew you would become one to like sword fighting." I smile at his attempts to start a conversation. "Well, you aren't the first." 

I put my sword away into its sheath. "I hope he rots away in your jails." He says. I look at him in a surprised way. "I told him he shouldn't have stolen the sword and he pretended to agree not to. When I found out that he lied I couldn't warn anyone about it." This is news. I thought that all of Stonia's royals hated us. 

"I'll take you to the palace. They won't charge you. You didn't help your father and you didn't fight any of us tonight." He looks wary at first but I grab his arm and walk into the maze. 

"Alexia!" Thomas' voice shrills through the still night. "Where are you?" I shout back. "I have no idea." I shake my head and drag Nicholas along as I run to his voice.

I find the three of them in a dead end. 

"I forgot that you didn't know the way. Sorry." I apologise. The three of them follow me with Nicholas next to me. 

"Why didn't you fight?" Thomas asks, his words sound like as if a snake would have spoken them. "Leave him alone. He didn't do anything. It was all him." I turn around and point to the King. "Traitor." The King snarls. "You are the traitor not me." Nicholas says back. "I didn't want to steal from our friends, you were just greedy." I jog to catch up with Nicholas. He turns to me.

"You look weird in an armour." I playfully glare at him. "I like it better than the dresses I wear, those are worse." He looks at me weirdly. 

"You have changed a lot since last met you." He says. "Yeah, well that was seven years ago." I solemnly. The five of us walk in silence to the palace, but when we enter the silence is quickly broken.

(A.N): So, new character, Prince Nicholas. 

That was a bit of a longish chapter, hope you enjoyed reading it.