The time stood still as both princesses and Kate tried to recognize the person in black, but they didn’t manage to even blink when the shadow was already in front of them.
“Kate?” They heard a soft whisper.
“Ahh!” Conny inhaled deeply in surprise while Beata started sobbing again.
Only the oldest one managed to keep her calm and reprimanded them, “Shh! Keep quiet!”
“I finally found you!” Nick whispered again.
“What took you so long?!” Kate replied while trying to sound angry.
“Seriously? No ‘hello’, no ‘is uncle and Steven alright’, just a straight punch to the face?” Nick grinned and the girls could even see his white teeth in the dark.
“Steven!” Conny whispered and tried to suppress her tears.
“They are fine and waiting for me in the city. We don’t have much time, so Kate, debrief me quickly on your status and all the other relevant information you have.” Nick crouched close to her and pulled her down in the crouching position as well. It didn’t have any practical rationale, just felt safer to stay lower to the ground and whisper softly like that.
Kate was startled from his swift actions, but quickly woke up when felt his breath on her own cheek and ear.
“The five of us were transported from the pirate base to here in a rush and now we are stuck in this room for several days. We haven’t really seen anyone, only some servant women brought us water and food. Few hours ago an old creep that looked like a dead man came in and said that he’ll be having a royal feast tomorrow and then laughed and left. Afterwards the servants came to wash us and dress us up in new clothes, saying that we have to be well prepared for the emperor.” Kate looked at Nick in panic. “Is the emperor going to eat us?”
“F*ck!” Nick coursed and bit his thumb, trying to calm down. They were completely out of time and he had to think of something fast. It wasn’t possible to bring all of them out now and even if he saved one, the whole city or even the country would be on lockdown within hours.
“Wait, five?” He realized that he missed an important point. Pirates did bring five girls away back then, but he forgot about the others while concentrating on his friends.
“Mhm.” Kate nodded and pointed at two beds on the other side of the room, “The other two girls are over there. Isabel is very weak and might die any day, at least that’s what the old servant said.”
Nick quickly went towards one of the beds.
“That’s YunYun, she is tied up and we are not allowed to release her.” Kate explained.
“Why?” Nick asked while looking at the small body on the bed that was staring back at him without blinking with a piece of cloth in her mouth and her hands and legs tied up.
“She killed four pirates while we were transported and bit off the nose from another servant in the palace.” Kate replied.
“A good girl!” Nick exclaimed, “I like you! I’ll try to get everyone out, so please be patient for a bit more, all right?”
There was no deeper meaning in his words, but a young girl has a different understanding of words ‘I like you’, especially when said by a savior in a hopeless situation. YunYun blinked and didn’t react, just shuddered a bit when Nick patter on the shoulder.
“That’s Isabel.” Kate pointed at the other bed, “The pirates … they did … some bad things to her after she tried to jump off the ship when we were transported to Berin. And since then she is like that – she doesn’t eat or speak. Just sits or lies on her back and stares in one spot. It's like she died inside already.”
“Kate!” Nick called her over after checking the girl and whispered, “She is dead on the outside as well. Her body is still warm, probably just passed away.”
Even though his whisper was soft, it seemed that Conny and Beata heard his words and started to sob again.
Nick sat down on the floor near her bed and started thinking.
“Nick, get us out of here!” Kate knelt next to him.
“Why do you think I came here?” Nick glared back at her, “I can’t bring all of you out like this and even if I do, we will be caught within hours. Let me think for a bit.”
Kate finally panicked. All this time she had a silly hope that someone could come and save them, but if one looked at this rationally – they were captives in the emperor’s castle in the middle of a foreign country and continent! How in the world could they get away? It was already miracle for Nick to appear in this room, but in reality escaping was a fools dream.
Her lips trembled and after remaining strong for so long she was on the verge of a breakdown, when Nick put his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “I have an idea. But you all have to work with me here, it’s a high risk play, but if we do everything right, we’ll be soon on our way out.”
Then he looked at her for a moment, “Can you keep yourself together for a bit longer?”
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He didn’t know what the girls have been through, but was certain it hasn’t been an easy time for the ‘flowers of Aurora’.
When Kate nodded, he continued, “Great! You will inform the others, including YunYun. It’s important that we all work together.”
Then he moved even closer to her and in a barely audible voice whispered, “No one can find out she is dead until I come back. If needed, sit on the bed and pretend to talk to her when someone comes in, I don’t care. I’ll be back in two, maybe three hours, but definitely before the sunrise. While I’m away, take off her dress and shoes and cover her with a blanket, we’ll need those items later. I’m dead serious and your lives depend on it, do you understand me?”
Kate heard him and, although didn’t understand at all, she still nodded.
“Good! Tell the other girls to rest – tomorrow will be a hard day. And don’t do anything stupid!” Nick knocked a finger on her forehead with his last sentence and went towards the window, looked around and then stealthily disappeared.
The room was silent for a minute and then Conny whispered, “Kate! Will he …”
“Shh!” Kate interrupted her and jolted back to reality. Then went closer to the sisters, “He’ll be back soon. You two try to get some sleep if you can, I think he has a plan and we need to be strong.”
“But you …” Connie tried to say something, but Kate interrupted her again.
“I have some things to do, but whatever happens, don’t make a sound!”
Then she moved over to the tied up YunYun, “That was our friend I’ve told you about and I think he has a plan. I hope you won’t make any trouble as well.” She whispered.
YunYun nodded and Kate went over to Isabel's bed and began to carefully take off her dress. The royal sisters watched her in confusion, but kept quiet. Everything that happened during the last ten minutes still felt surreal and it was hard to believe they had any hope.
Meanwhile Nick dashed back through the castle’s hallways. He figured was easier to sneak around here, rather than trying to get on the rooftop and proceed to the barracks from there. He had a crazy plan in mind and had way too little time. He had to grab the token, run to the city and then come back again. And it all had to be done till the dawn that was few hours away.
He silently almost sprinted through the hallway – this time he didn’t need to find anything in particular, just a safe way to leave this building as close to the barracks as possible. After taking another turn, Nick entered a random room with a servant sleeping in it and carefully went out the window. The night was still dark and cloudy and few minutes later he was back on his bed in the barracks.
Then he quickly changed into his regular clothes, took the token and prepared to leave when he heard soft sound of the bell again. He barely managed to return before the guards from the previous shift came back and it was exactly as he expected – two tired figures appeared in the doorway and looked at Nick’s dressed figure in the middle in the room with a surprise. But when the youth didn’t say anything and left, they shrugged and went to their respective beds.
When Nick ran over the large plaza towards the gates, suddenly a figure, dressed in full black appeared in front of him.
“Where are you going?” The man asked him in low voice.
‘As I thought, the sudden movement of the token immediately alerted the Qi master on duty.’ Nick thought and ‘honestly’ answered, “I forgot to leave my fathers medicine back at the inn, it’s important that he gets it, but I have to be back before dawn. Otherwise I’ll be in trouble.”
“Medicine?” Qi master got confused.
“Yes!” Nick pretended to take out few simple healing herbs from his bag.
The man in black nodded and disappeared again.
Nick immediately ran towards the gate, showed token to the guards and continued his way over the bridge.
‘They obviously are doing some background checks, but if I disappear after few minutes, it doesn’t matter what they find.’ He inwardly grinned and passed the second guard squad on the other side of the bridge.
The Riverside inn was only a minute or two from here to his right, but Nick continued to run straight ahead in the same direction as he came from the castle. He caught up to a random carriage that was still going somewhere this late in the night and slid the castle’s token in one of the baskets that were stacked at the back. Then he darted away between two buildings, hid behind few bushes and took off his outer clothing again. Right after, just to be sure, he put on some of the ‘stealth powder’ again and quickly returned to the inn while hiding in the shadows.
Steven and Clayton were still awake and waited for Nick’s return. Seeing their expectant faces, Nick couldn’t hold back, “I found them and they are fine for now.”
“For now?” While Steven was overjoyed, Clayton immediately caught the crux of the matter.
“Yes, but I have an idea.” Nick grinned, got closer and told his plans while quietly whispering.
The eyes of his friends grew wider and faces more shocked the longer they listened. This plan was crazy, but currently they had no other choice since there were only few hours left till the sunrise.
“The girls are located on the third floor around here in this building.” Nick pointed at the map, “Every two hours the watch is being changed and it’s initiated with a bell sound that rings on the plaza closer to the barracks, but inside the big building I might not hear it. Steven, did you figure out how to signal me about the upcoming watch change from the outside?”
“I did!” Steven nodded, “Today I rented two separate rooms with a river view, one on each of the castle’s sides. At this side it is in a two storey building on the second floor. You’ll easily recognize the building since it has four small spires on each corner of its roof. I will light up the light when the shift is about to change.”
“Not a bad idea.” Nick acknowledged, “But let’s do it this way. Starting tomorrow night you’ll keep a light lit up in your window at all times and add another when the watch is about to change. That way I can immediately spot your location and don’t need to search aimlessly around in case it’s a cloudy night like this one. Unfortunately you might have to do this for more than one night, but Clayton will call you when we’re done.”
Then he turned to the Kate’s uncle, “You’ll have it even worse. I need to you be at the boats from tomorrow on. You hid them right outside the city, correct?”
“Yes. Although it’s quite far, I can describe you the location – I bought a small shack there as well. But are you certain we have to go south by the river?” Clayton didn’t like the idea.
“Definitely. There are some weird security measures in the castle and maybe in the city as well. Running around with a girl at night can cause too many unnecessary variables.” Nick explained, “Alright. Now for the tricky part. Clayton, from the three of us you’re the one who knows the city the best. I need you to show me the way to the most expensive barber shops and we have to leave now. I have very little time! While we are on our way, Steven, maybe you could start with your signal system and I’ll try to check it out already while sneaking in.”
They quickly finalized everything and left the inn. Steven directly ran to his new residence, while Clayton gave Nick a short tour around the city center. The latter didn’t find what he was looking for in the first barbershop, but the second break-in was successful and he went down to the river after Clayton carefully explained him how to recognize the spot where the boats were hidden.