A Thief In the Palace (DISCONTINUED)

Heist

“You wanted to talk with me, Captain,” Daryll said as he entered my room. Cody followed shortly behind him and sat down next to me.
“Yes. I wanted to know what you had imagined when you offered me the position of captain,” I said, getting right to the point.
“I imagined lots of things. Taking over the world, and much more. But you’ve shown me everyone has a good side to them. Cody told me that your left hand was like shit compared to your right hand in swordsmanship. I think your left hand is rather impressive,” Daryll complimented.
“No. It’s not. It’s crap. Cody wasn’t lying. Once my shoulder’s fully healed, we’ll see if you can beat me with my eyes closed,” I said with a cunning smile.
“I’ll leave now. I’m sure you’ll want your shoulder rewrapped,” Daryll said as he stood.
“Oh, and Daryll, call me Sage. I don’t exactly enjoy fame. Sage or captain is fine. Make sure to tell the rest of your crew,” I called as he left.
“Of course,” Daryll replied. He looked so different. His beard was trimmed shorter and his hair was neatly slicked back. His face was washed and he had been wearing clean clothes.
I sat down on the bed when we got back to our room and let Cody get to work.
“Should I cut your shirt again or do you want to just take it off?” Cody asked as he stood.
“I’ll just take it off,” I said with a sigh. I was sighing a lot lately. Cody noticed that too.
I winced as he unwrapped my shoulder and washed it again. I closed my eyes as this all happened. I heard the door open and realized that someone was coming in. I slipped my right hand glove back on and waited. Cody was still beside me as we waited to see who it was.
The person who walked in froze in mid step.
“I’m so sorry,” Zaria apologized. She kept staring at me shirtless and didn’t meet my eyes.
“It’s fine. You can come in,” I said with a sigh. “Cody, do you know where I put my shirt?”
“How do you lose everything and be the world’s greatest thief at the same time?” Cody said with a sigh and a shake of his head.
“Did you need something, Zara?” I asked curtly.
“He’s in a bad mood,” Cody whispered.
“I can hear you, Cody,” I said. He gave me a weak smile and rubbed the back of his head.
“Yes. My father wanted to speak with you both about your first mission,” Zaria said. “He’s waiting in the throne room.”
“Thanks,” I said as she left. “Might as well go. I don’t have anything else I need to do.”

* * *

“Your Majesty, you requested us,” I called as I entered the throne room.
“Yes. Your first mission will take place as soon as you’re healed enough to go. I want you and your band of thieves to steal back one of our kingdom’s most prized treasures from our enemy. It’s a small globe that holds magic. No living human has magic today that we don’t know about. They’re often born with some sort of scar. A shape with a line connecting to a finger or all the fingers. A star says that they will be able to master all the elements and a circle says that they’ll master some of the elements, but not all of them. The other’s aren’t exactly important. Let us know when you are ready and we will fill you in.”
I nodded and left the throne room. I found Daryll a few minutes later and told him to get everyone in shape both physically and mentally. He didn’t have very many men following him which made it easier to hide and conceal us all. We had ten people in our group, not including Cody, Daryll and I. That makes thirteen.

A Month Later

I rolled my shoulder back and forth to get some of the strength back. I’ll be ready to go tomorrow. And for the rest of the day I practiced with my right arm. Lifted weights, sparred against Cody, fooled around, everything.
And then I entered the palace’s throne room.
“Your Majesties, I’m ready,” I said, defiance sparking in my eyes.
“We will fill you in on your situation and what you need to do,” King Anthony responded.
“No need. I already did. I’ve been researching for a while since I couldn’t use my right arm,” I said with a wry smile.
“Perfect, then I suppose you already know everything you need to know, correct?” King Anthony said. Zane and Zaria were both seated on thrones beside the king and queen and looking fierce and regal at the same time. Remarkable.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” I said. “We’ll leave tonight.” My eyes darted to Zaria and I saw a flicker of fear in her eyes. I glanced over at Zane and saw him fidgeting with his coat buttons. I mean, I guess we’ve gotten over our differences in the past month, but I still didn’t expect him to be worried about me.
“Daryll!” I shouted.
“Yes, Captain?” Daryll replied as he stepped out from behind a pillar.
“Go get them ready please. The other people in our group are Eddie, Lycan, Sable, Troy, Talon, AJ, Micah, Weston, Declan and Beau. Right?” I asked.
“Right. It seems you’ve managed to memorize all their names while you were healing,” Daryll said with a smirk.
“‘Course I did. I’m Sage. I can do everything and survive anything,” I said with a cocky smile.
“Let’s go,” Cody said. “We’ve still gotta get ready in case you forgot. Actually, we just need to remember our names while we’re there. Only you and I have different names since we’re famous. Daryll, meet us at the front gate.”
“Yes, Cody,” Daryll said. He silently left and I followed Cody out. He would be Luke and I would be Alex. Close to my true name but not the same.
“Ready for one of our bigger heists, Code?” I asked with a sly grin.
“Always am, Alec. Always am,” Cody replied with his own mischievous grin. I grinned back at him and we walked side by side to the front of the palace. We walked with our heads held high even though we had both changed back into our rags we used to wear. But they still felt comfortable and I felt back in my element. Before this I had rubbed dirt all over my face and then grabbed a barely damp cloth and wiped it off to add to the look that I really needed a job. We were going to invade their castle by going in as servants. Cody and I would go first and pose as brothers.
“Daryll, let’s roll. You all know the plan?” Cody asked. I yawned and then rolled my right
shoulder back and forth to make sure it still worked. It better still work good. If it doesn’t, then we might be in trouble.
We walked down the streets of the kingdom before grabbing a few horses and riding the rest of the way to the other kingdom. Before we got to the kingdom’s boundary, we let the horses go and walked the rest of the way. I pointed out a place where we would wait for each other until the time was right and the rest could come into the castle to infiltrate it with us. It felt good to pull off large heists like this after a month of not doing anything. My name will be known again as the greatest thieves in all the kingdoms. Excellent.
“We’re going in,” I said with a smirk. “It really is great to be back on the streets again. And stealing. This is one of our bigger heists, wouldn’t you say, Code?” I asked.
“Definitely. We’ve stolen from royalty before, but never infiltrated their homes to steal from them. This is a whole new level of danger with royals,” Cody replied with a nod. He grinned at me and I flashed a white smile back at him. We never saw Zaria or Zane before we left and I have to admit, I almost miss them both.
“Let’s go,” Cody said. I smirked and followed him as we wound our ways through the streets until we made it to the castle.
I stared up at the large drawbridge and my expression immediately switched to a frightful and weak little boy’s face who lived on the streets instead of Sage’s confident face when he steals. Cody followed me lead.
“Umm, excuse me, Sirs!” I called up, making sure to stutter.
“What do you want?” they shouted back.
“Umm, well, we were, um, looking for a job. We want to be servants. We have a family we need to provide for,” I stuttered. Cody was nodding so quickly beside me it looked like his head was about to fall off.
The guards looked at each other as they studied us. “Enter. Speak to the king about it.”
We quickly walked across the bridge, acting like we were scared of the guards. They were laughing behind our backs. I would get my revenge for that another day. Right now I have a mission to complete.
“What do you two want?” a voice bellowed as we stepped into the throne room. We dropped to our knees and started begging.
“We want a job, Sire! Please. We just want a job, Sire!” I forced myself to cry with Cody copying everything I did.
“You can have a job as servants. Go find the head servant. She can show you around,” the king ordered. Beside him was a girl, a boy, and a woman. The queen, princess and prince of this kingdom. And they were all sneering at us both. Before we leave, I’m going to cause a bit of trouble as soon as we’re out of the castle.
We quickly found the head maid. She had a name tag that said HEAD MAID. We told her the king said to show us around and she ordered a different servant to do it. She even showed us the treasury.
When she was done I had made sure to map out every exit and memorize everything about every place she showed us.
“Perfect, Code,” I whispered quietly. He nodded once and then started using a knife to chop up vegetables. I followed his lead this time. I wasn’t used to a kitchen. He must’ve been in the kitchen when he was younger and had parents. He must’ve enjoyed it too by the way he was cooking and moving around with grace. I almost envy him for having good parents, but to have parents and have them die is almost as hard as having parents who didn’t want you.
A couple days later we saw Daryll enter.
“The others are waiting for us outside. They don’t plan on coming in unless we need help. Have you located it yet?” Daryll whispered under his breath.
“Yeah. We’ll steal it tonight at dinner when everyone else is occupied. And get this, I’m going to cause chaos tonight,” I said with a grin. I turned away from Daryll sharply and faced Cody as soon as the head maid looked at us. I beckoned for Cody to follow me down to the kitchen to check everything out and make sure it’s all clean and ready. At least that’s what the head maid thought. No. I actually was adding a little sleeping powder to the food for dinner. Cody snickered at the little trick and then we quickly exited the kitchen without being seen and reported that everything was well in the kitchen and there was nothing to be worried about. We had the food tested for poisons and drugs and we could immediately serve it to the royal family in ten minutes.
While the other servants were getting ready, Daryll, Cody and I were changing into our other clothes. I was back in my dirty street clothes and they felt so nice. Dirty, buggy and disgusting, but they felt like home to me.
“Let’s go before they notice we’re missing. Daryll, lead the way. Cody and I will protect from the back,” I said. We silently ran around the castle until we found The Magic Globe. Globe of Magic? Eh. Who cares? It’s a mission and I’m not about to fail. Daryll grabbed the globe and ran, his feet barely making a sound. Cody and I followed him with Cody and I side by side in the back. Alarms started to go off and we ran even faster. I froze in place as the prince appeared in front of Daryll. I quickly slid a mask on my face. The prince punched him in the face, knocking the globe from his hand. I dove forwards and grabbed the globe before chucking it to Cody and knocking the prince’s feet out from underneath him. Cody ran forwards and leaped over his fallen body while I knocked the prince unconscious and Daryll and I chased after him. Cody passed the globe to Daryll and joined me in the back again. We always fought better together.
“Daryll, left!” I shouted. He nodded and slid onto the ground to turn sharply. He crashed into the princess and the globe flew from his hands. I dove forwards again and crashed onto my right shoulder as I grabbed the globe. I hissed in pain as I felt the wound reopen. I saw a little bit of black at the edges of my vision. I tossed the globe to Cody and we all got up and we ran for our lives out of the castle. We even managed to steal a few horses to ride. We grabbed at least ten horses to ride as we stopped for a few seconds to pick up the rest of the group. I rode behind Cody with the globe tucked away in my satchel. After we got back into our kingdom Cody forced me to get off the horse.
“I told you, Cody, I’ll be fine,” I argued.
“Take off your shirt, Sage,” Cody said. “I’ll cut it off of you if you don’t and then you’ll have to ride through town shirtless.” I flinched and sighed loudly. I took my shirt off and winced as I moved my right shoulder.
“After all that waiting you managed to reopen the stab wound,” Cody said. “Now you’ll be waiting again. Probably for twice as long. You’ve reopened the stitches. DId you think I wouldn’t notice the blood coming off of your shoulder and onto my clothes?”
“No,” I muttered.
“Put your shirt back on, we’ll do this back at the palace,” Cody said with a long sigh and an over exaggerated shake of his head.
“Jeez, Cody. Sometimes you’re such a mama bear,” I said with a scowl.
“That’s because you need it, full time, Sage,” Cody retorted. “And now Zaria’s going to be so sad and upset and worried that you got yourself hurt. Remember? She loves you. And you still haven’t told her how you feel.”
“Wait,” AJ said. He put his hands up in front of him. “You’re saying that Sage has a crush on Princess Zaria of Kingdom Wickered? Wait until news of this gets out.” He laughed.
“You know, AJ, I used to like you a bit. Now, not so much. If you even utter a word about this, I won’t hesitate to kill you,” I said, my voice as cold as ice.
The other men were shocked at what I had suggested.
“I’ve done it before to keep my secrets. You people aren’t even half of the people I’ve traded with. Can you guess what happened to the rest of them?” I smiled slyly through the pain I was in.
AJ punched my shoulder and I hissed in pain and barely controlled fury.
“You said we had a good leader, Daryll. So far he hasn’t done anything to prove he’s worthy of your old spot, Captain,” AJ said darkly.
“I haven’t done anything?” I said with a dark laugh. “I’m the one who got you all out of the dungeon. I may have put you all in there, but it was for a good reason. I’m the one who just risked my own ass to help Daryll. I’m the one who just reopened a stab wound. And I’m the one who will kill you in less than a second if you even say that again. I’m not someone to cross.”
“You’re eighteen!” AJ shouted. “How do you think you’ll kill me?! Hmm?!”
“Like this,” I shot. I grabbed a knife off of the table and threw it at him. It pinned his clothes to the wall behind him. I threw a few more.
“Now you’re helpless. I’m in full control. I always will be. Maybe Daryll wasn’t this cruel, but that’s because he actually had people around when he was a kid,” I said with a sneer at him. I raised my left hand and punched him across the face. His head snapped to the side.
“Once again, I’m not someone you want to cross,” I said. “Code, we’re leaving. Someone ride with him on a horse. I don’t feel like getting killed by someone like him. And Cody, I’ll let you treat me when we get back. As long as I don’t bleed out on the way there.”
“You won’t,” Cody said. “C’mon. Let’s get back.” He held out his hand and I took it. He pulled me up onto the horse’s back and snapped the reins. “Before you bleed out,” he murmured. I made no comment on that part. I’m a risk taker. I’m not going to regret it if I die. I have nothing to live for.

2988 words