In The Welfare Of War 💔{ON HOLD}💔

2. Decisions

Chapter 2: Decisions (8,0K)

.~°~. .~°~. .~°~.

General Jace Wayland, protégé of King Valentine.

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Jace watched the scene with horror at the treason standing before him, still speechless about his discovery. The girl swiftly replaced the hood over her dark red hair and covered her mouth once again with her scarf before bending to pick up her sabre from the floor, as if nothing had happened. With all the will he could muster, Jace swallowed back his anger to have been fooled. It wasn't the time or the place to start ranting about an insubordinate girl who broke the law and the traditions.

With the agility of a cat, the girl leaped over the corpses now lying on the floor, and took Jace by the arm to lead him upstairs, when Jace finally snapped out of his stupor and recovered. He couldn't act like he just did, both their lives were in danger, and they had a keep to escape. Still, he pointed the obvious with a rising temper: "In case you didn't get it the first time I told you that, the way out is outside, not upstairs."

The girl sighed exasperatedly, clearly annoyed with Jace's attitude, and pulled on his arm a little bit stronger, forcing Jace to move where she wanted him to go. Jace reluctantly followed her as she led him up the tower. Once at the top of the stairs, Jace understood what drew the girl in this particular direction. They were in the weapons room. The girl closed the doors behind her as Jace walked to the window to glance at what was happening in the courtyard.

He saw mercenaries running all over the place, many of them gathering at the entrance of the tower where the girl and him were trapped in. Torches were lit all over the keep while he could hear diverse orders thrown around. A frown darkening his face, Jace looked at the wall surrounding the keep, too high to be climbed without equipment, and too far from the tower to be used as a means of escape; and with annoyance, he turned to the girl.

She was filling her quiver with arrows; and when Jace walked to her to confront her about her gender, she withdrew a rope from under her cloak and took a crossbow from the arsenal in display in the room before walking to the window. Jace watched her as she armed her weapon, noticing that she had tied the rope to the end of the heavy arrow that she was about to shoot; and when she did, he grabbed her arm and forced her to look at him.

"You're a girl," He repeated himself, pointing out the obvious once again.

The girl rolled her eyes, trying to reclaim possession of her arm, but Jace tightened his grip on her, reaching for her face to unveil her disguise and see from up-close how much he had been fooled by this traitorous girl. She glared at him, stepping out of his grip with a brusque move to free her arm before he could undo her scarf or her hood.

Then, she walked to the window, retrieving a mirror from her cloak and playing with the reflexion of the moon. Jace refrained himself from yelling at her, and clenched his jaw, checking the weapons and picking the ones that he knew would be useful in a fight, his eyes going several times toward the door.

Once he was properly armed, Jace walked back to the window to see what the girl had been up to, his eyes avoiding hers on purpose; and he saw that the rope she had attached to her arrow was her escape plan. The arrow apparently planted her way on the other side of the wall, because they could let themselves slide on it and pass through the wall of the keep. With a little frown, Jace tested the strength of the cord before glancing at the courtyard once again; and then he stated:

"The cord can't hold us both. It will break and we'll be food for the dogs...more like for the soldiers"

"I know," She said, her voice muffled by the presence of the scarf over her mouth. But still, Jace understood why she pretended to be mute during all those months. Her voice was gentle and delicate, like a summer chiming tremors of her voice were undoubtedly feminine. No one could doubt her gender after hearing her voice.