12:10
“Folks?” Abe’s question drew the attention of the group. When they saw they had everyone’s eyes on them they pointed to the column. Or rather to the top of the column. “I think I know where the Prince and Princess are.”
Kim looked up at where Abe pointed. All she could see was glowing monitors with children and puppies and a single cow with a hat. The combined light of all the monitors made it very difficult to make out anything else, especially when combined with the relative void-like darkness of the rest of the space.
“How?”
As she asked the question she realized some of the darkness close to the column was moving. Kim tracked the wiggling dark back, back, back to Abe’s extended hand. Oh.
“Code?”
The blonde nodded hard enough it sent their longish curls bouncing all around their animated features. “Code!”
Ben leaned in to follow the path of Abe’s ink from their hand to the top of the column. “What’s stopping you from using that to just get us through this whole thing. Just rewrite this code as you call it?”
“Because it isn’t my code!” The look they gave Ben was full of ‘d’uh’. “I can see it, but I can’t alter it.” They paused to wrinkle their nose. “Well, that’s not completely right but its right enough that it doesn’t matter.”
“That doesn’t make much sense,” Patti muttered at Kim’s right.
Kim just shrugged and then pointed at Abe, directing her friend to pay attention to their other friend. “It makes sense to them,” she said from the side of her mouth.
“Okay,” Patti mouthed, then made a point of giving Abe her full attention. Even Sass, sitting on Patti’s shoulder now, looked intently at Abe.
“I can kind of write a query in code and if I get it right I get an answer back.” They bounced from heel to toe and back again while gesturing with the hand not sending ink into the air, “In this case it told me where the Princess and Prince are. At the top of that column. I’m not exactly sure if I’m interpreting this right,” a small frown marred their brow, “but I think that the nightmares that brought us here are theirs. Literally their nightmares. And they are, I’m pretty sure, asleep up there. All the computers are part of their dream. Or maybe they are their dream.” They looked to the side for a moment, their expression one of consternation. Then they looked back up and swept the group with their gaze. “This is just my interpretation. So I could be wrong. Not completely wrong but maybe I’m getting some of the details less than right.”
“Otherwise known as wrong,” Patti said under her breath.
Abe didn’t seem to hear or it didn’t impact them if they did as they continued on. “So, I think all of this is a manifestation of their dream. And maybe they aren’t up there. Maybe this is their dream too and what’s up there is what is making us be part of it?”
Siobhan nodded and hummed encouragement. “Go on.”
“One explanation or another, we need to go up there,” they waved their hand and the ink waggled, “to get to the Prince and Princess.”
“All right, then.” Ivan stepped back then started walking around the column of computers, making an occasional ‘uh, huh,’ or ‘yes,’ or ‘I see,’ under his breath. For lack of anything better to do, the rest of the crew followed in his wake like a family of baby ducks following their mama.
Finally after four circuits around the column Ivan stopped. “They are mechanisms. They have power.” He laid a hand on a monitor and then ran it to the back. “Which means we can disconnect the power.”
“Do we want to?” Siobhan asked
“I’m not sure. But what is disconnected can be reconnected so if I’m wrong, we just plug them back in.” He pulled his hand back with a cord looped over his fingers. “These all run to the top of the column as far as I can tell.”
“Can’t you just disconnect them from the back of the screens?” It was Dempsey’s turn to ask.
Ivan shook his head. “The cords seem to be integrated into the back of the devices. So, we need to follow them up to the top to disconnect them.”
Ben made a big show of cracking his knuckles. “Time to climb.”
He removed his jacket and draped it over the back of the nearest chair then jumped up on the desk. After a moment of assessing he leaned in and hooked his fingers over the top of one of the screens in the column and leaned his weight on it. When the device didn’t topple forward or pop out of the column he shimmied around the monitor on the desk so he could dig his toe into the space between monitors three down from the one his fingers held. Then he put his weight on his foot. There was a slight creak from the device but it held.
Ben looked back to the group and grinned then started a slow, steady climb up the column of screens.
Ivan leaned back to watch Ben’s progress. “Think it will hold me?”
“Only one way to find out!” Ben called back. “I mean your ass is pretty fat so–”
“Shut up,” Ivan grumbled with little heat. Then he took his jacket off, rolled back the sleeves of his button-down, and climbed up on the desk next to the one Ben launched from. He pressed on the side of the monitor. When it swiveled to the side he smiled big. Then he swiveled it back to the front before turning it again. Once. Twice. A big grin announcing his simple joy in the mechanism. Then he left it to the side and proceeded to climb up the column, which did hold his weight.
Being taller than Ben with a longer reach he proceeded up the column faster than his friend, topping the structure quickly. He hung there on the side for a moment then disappeared over the top. Ben was already out of sight.
“Wow.” In the stillness of the room, which was admittedly a bit less still with all the bodies moving and breathing and stuff but still pretty still, Ben’s voice carried easily.
“Wow?” Siobhan called back.
Ben’s head poked over the top of the column. “There are a lot of cords and they don’t want to come up.”
Dempsey hoped up on the desk Ben had used to get to the column and climbed up. He held himself at the top of the column then looked back over his shoulder. “Anyone else coming up?”
Patti raised her hand. “Me! Me!”
Sass peeped and then Patti was over the desk, albeit a bit slower than the others because it was high and she wasn’t as tall as the guys. Once she was on the desk and had access to the column she climbed up and disappeared over the top.
“Yeah,” her voice drifted down to where the rest of the group stood. “These are not budging.”
Siobhan leaned against the back of a chair and pitched her voice to carry. “Is there room for anyone else?”
There was a pause then Patti’s response came. “Not really. Four seems about the limit.”
“And the cords aren’t unplugging?”
“They seem pretty wedged in.”
“Have you tried wiggling them?” Gwen called up.
“We have tried wiggling them. And yanking them. And,” a short pause, “Ben has cursed them and their mothers. That didn’t work either.”
“Grease?” Dan called up.
“Tried.”
Kim considered it for a moment. She didn’t know squa or dooch about mechanisms or cords or whatever but she did know cords were made of stuff – what the stuff was didn’t fit in her understanding – and stuff burned. Or melted. Or otherwise went bye-bye when fire was applied.
She looked at the air then whispered, “Help?”
Two Air Ladies resolved into full form and gave her an assessing look.
“Could you lift me?”
The Ladies eyed Kim then eyed the air then eyed Kim again. One gave a tentative nod and then the other gave a much more exuberant one. A third Lady materialized and flowed around Kim’s back. One Lady flowed around her right and she felt a cinch at the waist as the other Lady flowed to the left and wrapped her arm around Kim’s side. Then there was a push at her ass from behind and she was suddenly a foot off the ground.
“Woooo.” The exclamation burst unbidden from her mouth as the Ladies lifted her. She threw her hands out for balance. Not that she really needed it as the Ladies had her firmly in their grasp but it just felt right. Like she had wings or something. A puff of air flowed from below her, pressing at the bottom of her arms and giving her a little extra loft.
She spared a look down into Siobhan’s suprised face before her attention was grabbed by Gwen’s delighted laugh.
“That is so cool!”
“It is!” Kim yelled into the breeze. “It really is.”
Her hair flowed behind her, tugging at her scalp, as the Ladies shot her for the top of the column. It didn’t take more than a few mikros and her head was clearing the line of the column and Ivan, Dempsey, Ben, and Patti in various poses of squatting and tugging at cords came into view.
“Hey, guys.”
Patti looked over her shoulder at Kim. “Are you flying?”
“Floating?”
“That is so cool!”
“It is.” Kim grinned and shot a look to the right and the left to encompass the Ladies there in a look of joy. “It is so cool.” Then she turned back to Patti and the others who’d turned to eye Kim’s floating form. Ivan moved across the top of the column on his knees to peer at the space below Kim’s feet
“How?”
“Air.” Kim shrugged. “So, Fire.”
“Fire?”
“Do you have any suspicion that destroying the cords instead of unplugging them would be bad?”
Her question seemed to lead Ivan in the direction she was thinking. He turned his gaze to stare at the cords then ran his hand along one, his expression intent.
“Let me–” He trailed off and his gaze went inward. After a few mikros he blinked and then focused on Kim again. “I think maybe you should try one and the rest of us–” he swept his hand to encompass Patti, Ben, and Dempsey, “should stay as clear as possible.”
“Okay. Definitely want to stay clear.” Kim focused her Magick for a moment and MF, the fire dog who’d become attached to Ben, formed from the air near his feet. It looked up at Ben, gave a crackling spark bark that didn’t crackle because stillness, then focused on Kim.
Fire usually didn’t appear the same way multiple times. It was fickle and liked to try on different suits as Kim called it. So it appeared as various animals, often as dogs probably because she liked dogs and she knew it would shift to suit the Magicker calling out to it. But those dogs were different every time. Sometimes a labrador. Sometimes a rotweiller. Sometimes, most often, as mutts that mixed various dog types. But MF seemed determined to remain MF and that was an interesting factoid. Maybe it was its connection to Ben? Eh. Moving on.
“Can you break that cord?” She indicated one of the cords closest to the center of the column and therefore farthest from Patti, Ivan, Dempsey, and Ben. The fire dog looked at the cord with cocked head, then looked at Kim before prancing over to the cord. It took the cord in its mouth and bit down. The smell of melting plastic immediately filled the air with ozone quickly following. Several sparks burst from the cord. MF absorbed them before they could travel and potentially zap anyone. Then the cable fell apart, one half laying loose on the top of the column and the other rapidly flying across the surface to disappear down the side of it.
Kim turned her head to look down at the faces of her friends, turned up to look upwards. “Did anything happen?”
“One mikro!” Abe bounced off out of sight around the column and Kim couldn’t help making a comparison between their capering and the movements of MF. It was more than one mikro before Abe came around the other side of the column and skidded to a stop next to Dan before craning their neck to look up at Kim. “One of the screens is black!”
That information in hand, Kim turned to look at her friends perched on the top of the column. “Why don’t you all go back to ground level and we’ll take care of this? Fire can handle this better if you aren’t up here at risk.”
Ben made a big point of grumbling then lay down on his stomach and dropped his legs over the side of the column. Then he disappeared down its side. Patti and Dempsey followed from different angles and then only Ivan was left up there. He looked at the limp half of the cord then at the probably forty other cords before looking at Kim.
“Be careful.”
“Yeah. Of course. Go.”
With that reassurance, Ivan let himself over the side of the column and disappeared from sight. Kim looked down, counting heads and confirming everyone had made it off the column before she turned back to look at the surface covered in cords. Then she let loose a small amount of her hold on her Magick and three fire dogs popped into existence with their feet planted on the rough pile of cords.
MF danced around, feet a’ flicking and barked several times, clearly giving orders to the other dogs. They in turn gave it indulgent looks before lowering their bodies to lay on the bed of cords. From beneath their forms smoke billowed up, carrying the smell of melting plastic and then a cloud of sparks burst around them as entirety of the cords smoldered and then fell apart. Melting plastic and ozone rose enough that Kim wrinkled her nose and wished she had control of her arms so she could cover it and her mouth.
It took about a mero for the pile of cords to shrink beneath their forms. The Ladies pulled Kim back a measure as the loosened cords snapped and flew across the surface, much like attacking snakes.
From below several voices called out as the screens making up the column went black. A few stray cords broke free and flew off the column. When the fire dogs were laying flat against the surface, the bed of cords completely obliterated they turned and looked at Kim. At her whispered thank you they burst into clouds of sparks and then disappeared, revealing a single cord still intact. MF, who’d remained when the other three dogs left looked at Kim and barked. She turned to look down at the group.
“One left!”
“Okay.” Ivan’s voice carried up to her. “Not sure what’s going to happen when its gone. You safe?”
“As houses!” she cried down then frowned. Why were houses safe? Before her brain could wander down that line of query she looked back at MF. “I think its better if you go. Just to be safe. I’ll hit the last one with a fireball.”
MF gave her a long assessing look then disappeared in a spray of sparks. After it was gone she looked to the Lady on her right and then the one on her left. “Can we pull back a little?”
They complied without hesitation. Once they were about three feet from the column she reached a hand forward. She called a flame to her palm then pushed Magick into it until it burned white hot. Then she loosed it in the direction of the last cord. As soon as the fire touched the cord it went up in a flickering mass of melting plastic and sparks.
She was glad they’d pulled back as the column of monitors disappeared. There one mero, gone the next. And the darkness of the room went with it. Light flooded in. Or maybe burst into existence. Whatever. It went from dark to light fast enough that Kim’s eyes burned and she had to blink fast and hard to clear her vision.
The stench of melted plastic and ozone was immediately replaced with a light, crisp scent reminiscent of an open window in the Spring. There was also the subtle scent she associated with fresh linen.
“Can you bring me to the ground?” She asked Air and the Ladies complied. Slowly enough that she didn’t hurl but quickly enough it was only a few mikros before her feet were gently impacting the ground. Ground that no longer felt like spongy composite stone but was instead wood. The difference, the feeling of ‘natural’ which had in it a small measure of element Magick, carried up from her feet to her legs and settled in her core.
Without her asking the Ladies flowed away, but not before gently caressing her with a breeze that lifted her hair and blew it around her form so a few strands went into her mouth and her bangs did a banging job of obscuring her view of the transformed space.
“Flying?” She turned as Gwen sidled up to her. “Why don’t you take me flying? I wanna fly!”
“Not flying, floating,” Kim corrected automatically. “And it’s still pretty new. Maybe some day?”
“Are you sure your air people would lift me?”
“I can only ask.”
“Okay. So,” Gwen drew her attention to the large bed against the wall across the room. To say it was large was like saying fire was hot. Or water was wet. Like the very largeness of the room was a fundamental principle.
At the same time she noticed the size of the space and the bed there, Kim noticed the sound. The stillness was gone and in its place was the sort of sounds she took for granted. People breathing. Energy buzzing. The crackle of fire from the candles in the elaborate chandelier overhead. That fixture had crystals. So many crystals that caught and amplified the flickering flames that danced on unseen subtle breezes near the high ceiling.
Focused as she was on the way the room sounded she picked up a muffled cry from the bed. The bed that was piled high with so many blankets and pillows and what-not to qualify as a separate bed lofted on top of the first.
“He–” She strained to hear. Then she slanted a look at Patti who was to her right. “Did you hear–”
Before she could finish the thought, Patti was off across the room and tearing at the top layer of blankets.
“There’s someone in there and they need help!”
Patti’s voice a rallying cry the group all descended on the giant bed and began tearing away layers of bedding. The blanket Kim grabbed must have been weighted because it was hard to pull from the bed. She’d meant to yank it, but the first hard tug felt like her shoulder was going to dislocate. If the rest of the blankets were this heavy, it was no wonder whoever was under all the bedding was crying out.
Adjusting her footing to get a solid base she sunk both hands into the blanket and pulled with a twist of her core to sweep the blanket away where she dropped it on the floor beside the bed.
“Hey!” Siobhan dodged the blanket and gave her a hard look. “Careful.”
“Oops?”
Siobhan’s “I’ll oops you,” drew a smile from Kim and a quick, “Sorry,” before she reached for another blanket from the slowly shrinking pile.
Bumping Kim with her shoulder before leaning in, Siobhan grabbed a blanket, pulled it from the bed, and dumped it on top of the one Kim tossed. As they grabbed and threw muffled cries came from under the bedding.
“It’s two people!” Patti cried.
Kim shot a look at Dan, “Hey.”
Dan looked at her from across the bed.
“Prince and Princess?”
He nodded. “Likely.”
It was Gwen that revealed the first face beneath the pillow she yanked free of the bedding. She leaned in and smiled. “Hi!”
Blue gaze, deep in panic, darted around before focusing on Gwen then widened. The pile of blankets shifted slightly as the person attached to the head attached to the face writhed to get free.
Gwen lay a gentle hand on the person’s forehead – person because they were still so muffled by bedding all Kim could see was the blue eyes and they were not enough to identify Prince or Princess. “Shh, we’re here to help.”
The person beneath Gwen’s hand settled and their eyes lost some of their mania beneath the touch of Gwen’s Magick. Gwen turned her head to look at the rest of the group. “Keep going. I’ve got this.”
Kim and the others went back to pulling and heaving and removing the bedding piece by piece. By the time the second face emerged they had a pile of blankets and pillows high enough to qualify for its own zip code. As they freed the second person’s face the Prince, because it was pretty clearly a male face emerging from the cloth, took a deep breath and then chanted, “We’re all gonna die!”
Kim stiffened and shot Prairie a look. Guess they knew where the song came from.
Gwen leaned over and smoothed her free hand over the Prince’s cheek. “No. You aren’t.”
Without the weight of the blankets against them, the second person was able to lift their hand and push free of the last blanket obscuring their lower face revealing delicate features with a pointed chin, narrow jaw, and high cheekbones. Their light blonde hair clung to their skin, evidence of how hot it must have been under the oppressive pile of bedding. Their rosy lips parted on a long breath and then they focused blue gaze on Gwen.
“Hello.”
“Hello,” Gwen whispered back.
“Thank you. I thought to die under there.”
Gwen grinned. “The song did suggest that.”
“Were we actually singing that? I thought it was in the dream.”
“It was. So were we.”
“Oh.” The blue gaze shifted from Gwen and trailed over the remainder of Kim’s group bunched around the bed. Dempsey stepped back and crossed his arms. Dan fished a book out of his pocket and began scratching a pen over the page he turned to. Ben fished a bag of cookies out of his jacket, ripped it open, and fished out a sweet. When he saw the Prince’s eye follow the motion he lowered the cookie.
“Hungry?”
The Prince wet his lips and nodded. The movement of his tongue drew Kim’s attention to his other features. He had the same narrow oval facial shape and delicate features as the Princess. They would have looked feminine if not for the thickness of brows that drew together over blue eyes.
“Famished.” There was a tone to the man’s voice that Kim could only call patrician. It spoke of the kind of money Kim figured she’d never have, but also, honestly, didn’t really aspire to. More money, more problems, right?
Ben sauntered over and held the cookie towards the Prince. Kim wasn’t sure why she was calling them Prince. They weren’t wearing a crown or anything, though that patrician tone did suggest generational money, the kind a prince or princess might possess.
Maybe it was because Dan set them up to find a Prince and Princess. Whatever, Kim was going with Prince until corrected.
The Prince extracted their hand from beneath the final blanket covering them and reached hand, palm up, towards Ben. Ben eyed the cookie then dropped it into the Prince’s palm with a small pout.
Ivan rolled his eyes and muttered in an aside to Ben, “You have an entire bag.”
Ben’s response was a narrowed-eyed glare and a slow lift of the bag out of which he proceeded to pull two cookies and shove them both into his mouth at the same time. As he chewed with marked aggression, he lifted his brows then flicked Ivan the bird with his free hand.
The Prince lifted the cookie to his mouth and took a much smaller bite than Ben. Which wasn’t a challenge as long as he didn’t shove it into his gob.
Gwen pulled her hand free of the Prince and Princess then asked the Princess, “Are you hungry?”
“I could eat.”
The Princess’ voice had a similar tone to the Prince’s. With their nearly identical features, equally glistening pale blonde hair, and that tone they were almost mirror reflections of each other. No question of a relationship. Made it a little bit awkward how close they lay in that bed, but Kim knew her discomfort with closeness didn’t manifest in others so how they lay was probably perfectly normal for siblings or even close friends.
Proving the point rattling in her brain, Gwen tilted her head at the surface of the bed and when the Princess nodded Gwen planted her ass on the mattress close to the Princess’ head.
“How did you end up under all that bedding? I’m guessing you didn’t do it yourself.”
“There was a girl. She was escorted to the throne room by our guards and explained she was looking for her friend. At first she thought Ned,” she nodded to the man lying beside her, “was her friend but she quickly realized her mistake.”
Dan hummed an interested hum and focused on the Princess. “Go on.”
“I’m sorry, sir, we were not introduced?”
Good golly. Kim had to throw the easy way the Princess pressed Dan for information, equal parts propriety and subtlest suspicion, into her memory for future use. Seriously that was the most polite call-out she’d ever witnessed.
“Or,” the Princess shifted her attention to encompass the remainder of the group, finally settling on Gwen’s face, “any of you.”
“Oh,” Gwen blinked. “Rude of us! I’m Gwen. The man you asked is Dan. Do you want me to introduce the others or prefer they do so themselves?” There was an odd formality in Gwen’s tone, almost like the Princess’ propriety was bleeding over Kim’s usually gregarious, and raucous, friend.
The Princess gave Gwen a gentle smile that felt like a benediction. “Please, you.”
Gwen turned to point at each of the group in turn. “Ivan. Ben is the one that gave your brother,” she paused on that waiting for the Princess to nod, “a cookie. Patti. Prairie. Siobhan. Abe. Kim. And the big one glowering at you is Dempsey.”
“It is pleasant to make your acquaintance. I could only wish it was under better circumstances.” The Princess brushed her fingers over the damp hair clinging to her forehead, smoothing it back. “I am Francesca. My brother is Edward but he prefers Ned.”
“Hello,” Edward who preferred Ned nodded regally at the group.
Gwen leaned towards Francesca. “Would you like to get up?”
“I would very much like to get up,” Francesca smoothed her hand over the blanket covering her collarbones and down. “But I fear I am not fit for company.”
“Oh,” Gwen blinked. “Could we help with that?”
“No. I can call my handmaid for assistance.” Francesca’s gaze went to the door far across the room. “I am surprised she has not come yet.”
“I’m sure she’s on her way,” Gwen said. “We can get out of your hair if you’d like.”
“Please, I assume you are here for some purpose other than freeing Ned and I from our confinement.”
“Yeah,” Ben drawled, “About that. How did you get trapped under all those blankets?”
What Kim really wanted to know was how they all ended up trapped in the Prince or Princess, or Prince and Princess’, dream because she was pretty sure that was what had happened. Then again the answer was probably “because ARFA” and she suspected the Prince and Princess did not know how Kim’s group had been pulled into the mess as she really, really doubted they had a clue they were part of a story told by a potentially crazy machine. What? If anyone could assume the relative crazy of someone, or thing, it was her, okay?
“We were hosting the young lady, I believe she said her name was Gia. We were waiting for tea to be brought in. When the door opened at first I thought it to be our servants but instead it was group of brigands lead by an older woman with a younger one who looked very much like her at her side. They attacked us. I have to assume Magick was involved because one moment Ned and I were sitting comfortably on our thrones and the next we were awaking under this crushing pile of bedding. I genuinely thought we would die from the weight of it!”
Francesca’s already pale skin went about five shades lighter. A film of tears obscured her blue eyes as she shifted her attention to Ned. He lifted a hand and pressed it to her cheek.
“We are fine, Frannie. These wonderful people saved us from that fate.”
Francesca, or Frannie, gave Ned a watery smile then turned her attention back to Gwen. “I am afraid I can give you no more information.”
Dan shifted. He flipped a page in his book, the sound carrying in a way that felt significant. Then he looked up and nodded. “A bandit queen captured Gerda.”
“So,” Siobhan clarified, “we can assume that was the bandit queen and she captured Gia.”
Dan shifted toothpick left to right. “Yes.”
Siobhan smiled at Francesca. “We’ll get out of your hair.”
When Francesca lifted her hand to her hair with a confused expression, Siobhan added, “We will leave you to get up without us being in the way. Thank you for the information.”
“It is us that owes you thanks. Is there anything we can do to express our gratitude?”
At Ben’s “money,” Siobhan shot him a look so deep in censure Kim was surprised he didn’t drown in it. Then she turned back to Francesca.
“Anyone would have helped. We don’t need any compensation.” She swept her gaze over the group. “We should get going.”
With another smile for the reclining Prince and Princess, Siobhan righted her bag on her shoulder and headed towards the door Francesca had drawn attention to. Halfway there she turned back. “Could you spare someone to show us the way out?”
Francesca frowned. “I worry for our guards.”
As if drawn by her concern the door rattled on its hinges then burst open and slapped against the wall hard enough it rebounded and almost smacked against the large man in a dark uniform who ran into the room holding a very wicked pike before him. Right behind him came a man and woman in similar uniforms holding equally wicked looking ancient weapons.
The three instantly ran across the space, weapons clearly ready for some impaling. Kim dropped back, ready to defend, as did the rest of her crew but the Kim dropped back motion was unnecessary as Ned halted the rush of the soldiers with a single imperious, “Halt!”
So commanding was his tone that Kim found her own shoulders straightening and her chin lifting as her back went so straight she could have had a string attached to the crown of her head.
“Regents?” The first man asked.
“These individuals saved us. Do not repay their kindness with an attack.”
The guy eyeballed Kim’s group like they’d spit in his eye and called his mother a foul word but he did lower his pike. “My Prince.”
“Show our new friends the exit, Nicholas.”
The guy, Nicholas Kim guessed based on that address, didn’t shift his stink-eye but he gave a stiff nod.
“As you will it, My Prince.”
With that Nicholas swept Kim’s group another look that suggested they were carrying hidden weapons, which admittedly they were, and were about to bust them out to hurt the Prince and Princess.
Kind of like shutting the barn door after the horse had run away but Kim got it. Seems like the guy had really failed in his job if brigands, as the Princess called them, had managed to get into the castle and attack. Nicholas shot a look at the man and woman who’d entered with him.
“Secure the Prince and Princess.”
“Sir!” The woman nodded and immediately shifted to stand beside the bed in a stance that said ‘bring it’.
Once the other man took up a similar position at the other side of the bed, Nicholas snapped, “Come!” before heading for the door without checking to see if Kim and her group followed.
They did. Follow that was. Through quite a few rooms with varying colors of walls and more long halls lit by torches until eventually they would their way to a set of wide wooden doors.
Nicholas turned and gave a sharp nod. “I thank you for protecting my charges when I could not.”
“Man,” Ben clapped Nicholas on the shoulder. He had to rise up on his toes to do so as the other man was considerably taller than Ben. “Don’t feel too bad. It’s kind what we do.”
Nicholas’ jaw shifted then he gave Ben a terse nod. “Still, you have my thanks. If ever there is something I can do for you–”
“Thank you,” Ivan cut him off. “We will.”
With that he turned to the doors and pushed them open, revealing a large courtyard and bright sunlight. He turned and looked back at the group, “Guess we’re looking for a bandit queen.”
Dempsey nodded. “Guess we are.”
Enter The Woods 