LIGHTS OF THE OTHER WORLD

Chapter 15: The Search

I heard noises at a distance as I gained consciousness. Then Violet asked someone, "Do you think she'll wake up?"

Luke asked, "What happened to her?"
"That's not important. She'll be fine. But how do we tell her?" Fleur asked.
By now I was worried. I slowly opened my eyes and got up. "Tell me about what?", I asked demandingly.

"Cal, you need to rest," Violet said.
"How long was I unconscious?"
"A day. " Luke replied.

"Wait. Where's Evanthia?" I asked, looking all around the room.
"Cal, I'm sorry. " Fleur said.

"Evanthia! Evanthia! Eva where are you?" I exclaimed as I got up from the bed and ran outside the tent. My face was sweating as I tensed up. I looked everywhere. "Callidora, stop! Listen to me." Fleur said.

Behind every tree, every shrub and every rock.

"Cal, please. You won't find her here!" Violet said.

She was right. I couldn't find her.
By now I was getting worried sick. Anger and fear plunged through my mouth. "Then where is she?" I held my head.

"Cal, look at me." Fleur pulled me towards her. "Alaric took her away to his castle."

"What? How did that happen? Why didn't all of you  protect her?" I felt rage running through my veins.

"A sudden storm occurred. We couldn't see anything. I just saw him grabbing her hand and then they just disappeared. And Grifford..." Violet couldn't continue as she burst into tears.

"What happened to Grifford?" I asked, confoundedly.

"He tried saving Evanthia from Alaric. But he just took his neck and choked him to death." Fleur completed.

"Noooo!. Not him too! Like losing Rhiannon wasn't painful enough. To make it worse, my sister is held captive now." I said as I wept.

"She's your sister?" Violet asked curiously.

"That's what Alaric said. He said that grandma kept us away from so many years." I said.

"The past cannot be changed. I know that we have lost Grifford but we cannot let his sacrifice go in vain. We will bring Evanthia back. Not only her but also everyone he has hurt. We will take revenge. We will burn down everything he loves and cares for." Fleur announced.

"Let's do it!" I answered.
"Yes!" Violet replied.

                       ***
That night, none of us slept. We planned our attack on Alaric. It was indeed a great one. Fleur had informed us that the soldiers who Rhiannon had ordered to come, were assembled in the Concillium. We thought of a plan in which we were going to trap Alaric in his own castle.

Next morning, we went back to the Pura Concilium, where we saw a troop of soldiers waiting for us. We all heaved a sigh of relief. We gathered them and ordered them to come with us. As we walked towards the castle, we assigned roles to everyone. Violet was to do the spy work for us. Luke was supposed to find us a way inside the castle. Fleur and I were supposed to free all the people that had been captured. Evanthia and I were supposed to kill Alaric using the new powers we had got. All of us together were supposed to burn the castle. It was simple. Well, not that simple but each one of us were confident that this time, our strategy was going to work.

As we entered the area which surrounded the castle, we found ourselves in partial darkness. The whole place was surrounded by black clouds, as darkness swept over our heads. Around these clouds were bats. We could hear owls hooting and also wolves howling.

"This place is scary! We better move fast." Violet exclaimed. We started walking faster. Fleur stopped for once.

"Fleur, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Shh! Can you hear that?" She whispered. All of us grew silent.
We could hear the growling of a wolf. It was coming from the bush.

"Stop moving all of you," I whispered. The wolf came out of the bush and growled with anger.  I took out my sword to kill it. Luke stopped me. "I can understand animals. He's a Bellendian who has been turned into a wolf. He doesn't know that because his longtime hunger has overpowered him and truly turned him into a real wolf." He said. "No wonder he's glaring at us like that!" Violet exclaimed.

"Well, he's definitely going to eat us alive if we don't do anything! What do we do? What do we do!" Luke started panicking.

"Well I have an idea!" Violet said. She quickly turned into a bird and flew away.

"That's your idea?" Luke remarked sarcastically. Just then, Violet flew back with a rope in her beak. She flew around the wolf so fast that it was nearly impossible to see her. The next moment, we saw the wolf trapped in the rope, it's mouth and legs tied. Luke's jaws dropped after seeing that. Fleur and I started laughing at him.
Violet turned back to her normal self and said proudly, "Never underestimate the power of a common bird!"

Soon, we had reached the castle.
As per the plan, the soldiers hid at a distance so that they wouldn't get caught and they could protect us at the same time. Violet turned into a bird and spied around and had a close view of all the guards present there. Luke dug burrows and went in search of routes we could probably take. When they came back, they led us safely into the castle. It was enormous. Huge chandeliers hung from the ceilings. There were big doors that led into bigger rooms.

The master bedroom in my house wasn't as big as each of the rooms in here was. The castle was truly one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. Somehow I felt that I was in the right place. It felt as though I was connected to it. My thought was only concerning how I was supposed to destroy this heartening palace. Violet checked around if anyone was ahead of us and informed us at regular intervals. We searched for the prisoners but we couldn't find them. Suddenly, we saw someone coming towards us. We quickly hid behind the curtains. How I wished I could have a disguise and go through every room without any trouble. As quickly as I thought about it, my look changed to that of the maids present there.

"Oh my god! Look at you! What a perfect disguise!" Fleur exclaimed so loudly that I had to cover her mouth in order not to get caught.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Luke whispered.

"I didn't know that I could do that either!" I whispered back.

"Guys, someone's coming!" Violet warned as she flew down to us.

"Stay here. " I said as I walked out as a new character.

"What are you doing?" asked a guard with a grave voice.

"N..nothing. Just wipe...just wiping the curtains. It looks really dirty." I replied waveringly.

"Oh is that so? Then why is there no cloth in your hand?" He asked.

"Um." Suddenly, I felt a cloth appear in my hand. "I have it? I have it! I have the damn cloth!" I exclaimed. I was so surprised at what I was doing these days that for a moment I forgot where I was.

"Okay. Okay. I get it! You don't have to act crazy!" He said.

"Hasn't Alaric...I mean, his majesty allotted you do some work to do as well?" I asked.

"Okay. Fine. I'm going. Don't complain to him." He said as he walked away hurriedly. "These maids nowadays act as they've never seen a royal cloth before!"

Fleur and Luke came out.

"That was awesome!" Luke said.
"Thanks!" I exclaimed in astonishment caused by my act.

We walked ahead and then we decided to split up and search for them.
Violet and I went in one direction whereas Luke and Fleur went in the other. 

We hoped that this time, our plan would not let us down.