Midoria's Heart

Midoria's Heart 31 - Love's To Blame

Okay, so I'm going to my cottage for a while, dunno when the next upload will be, but I thought I'd leave you guys with this for now. By the way, this chapter marks the end of Part II

And Part III is shorter than the other two parts (which both coincidentally worked out to be 16 chapters. How weird is that? :P) so we're almost at the end of the story! Which is super exciting XD

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Chapter 31 - Love's To Blame

“There’s got to be something we missed” Jay muttered for what seemed like the thousandth time, but in reality was probably only the hundredth. “There’s nothing. We’ve been over this, time and again. We didn’t miss anything,” I snapped in reply.

My words were harsh, but I was exhausted, and desperate, and afraid. We’d camped out near Saríon, and had remained there for two days so far, trying to decide what to do next. The feeling of utter failure hung over all of our heads, but we couldn’t face going home yet. I didn’t want to see the eyes of my grandmother or our people when we told them there was no hope.

“Well, there’s no point in sitting around here for any longer. We know there’s nothing to be found here.” Jay insisted, refusing to be put down by my angry words.

“There’s nothing to be found anywhere, Blue Jay,” Lisimi pointed out, looking up from the fire she had been tending. “The Sword and Staff are gone. And we don’t know where the key is.”

“Well, then why don’t we try and find the men that Adelle saw in her vision; the ones who took the Sword.”

“Wow, what a fantastic plan!” Daniel put in sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “And where do you suggest we find them, or brilliant Blue Jay?” He glared skeptically at Jay, as though he expected the other boy to have no answer. But Jay looked him back in the eyes, fierce pride flaming in his own. “Knoxlan,” he stated simply.

I stared at him, feeling stupid for not having thought of that. Knoxlan was our kingdom’s badlands. Located in the north-eastern part of the kingdom, it was where criminals and those who had been banished lived. Rumor had it that Knoxlan was where Kamen was sealed as well, but nobody had any proof, and the so few had ever been there that it was hard to confirm the story.

It was the perfect place to look for the thieves, though. The only people who would want to do harm to our kingdom lived in Knoxlan, and I had no doubt that whoever had taken the Sword and Staff would be found there.

“No. Absolutely not,” Daniel practically snarled, glaring at Jay.

“What? Why not?”

“There is no way in hell we’re going to Knoxlan. Might as well knock on the bad guys’ door and say ‘hey, we’re here to deliver Princess Adelle to you!’ Do you have any idea how incredibly dangerous Knoxlan is? In case you don’t remember, or are just too stupid to realize, it’s where criminals live. They would eat her alive!” I gasped and glared at Daniel, opening my mouth to make an angry retort, but he ignored me. “So no. We’re not going there.”