Chapter XXIV

A strange feeling awakened Lucius and immediately realized that something had happened or was about to happen. Uriel also woke up with him, and they found Michael standing at the window looking outside. The three of them stared at Angela, and for a second she too opened her eyes and whispered, "Something is not right." They got to their feet and ran to the balcony. It was already midnight in Mondelay, the area was lit up with lots of torches. Officers were coming and going in the streets and on the wall. There was almost no one outside except the guards, and they notice nothing strange at first glance, but the feeling that woke them up was getting stronger and stronger did not give them rest. Something had to happen or was already happening.

They returned to the room from the balcony again. The only thing that illuminated the room was torchlight coming from the windows, so they set it in semi-darkness and because of this darkness, they discovered something they couldn't while on the balcony. Their eyes in the room glowed faintly red. The redness on the outside was almost imperceptible, but it was slightly visible in the darkroom.

"The redness will increase." Stated Lucius.

"Why do you think that will be the case?" - Michael asked.

"When we woke up, we were in the dark, but we noticed nothing in each other's eyes, so either it appeared after, or it was so weak from the beginning that we did not notice."

"What should we do?" - Michael frowned.

"We all feel that something is about to happen, so we have to warn the wizards." - Uriel noted and everyone agreed. They ran to the door and knocked on the door, but no one answered for some time. At last, they heard the voice of a servant approaching the door and cursing the children on the way.

"We want to see wizards now!" - Cried Uriel.

"You brats, are you crazy or what? It's midnight and everyone is asleep. Don't make me repeat and go to your beds now!" shouted the servant angrily, and hurried away from the door, but the youngsters would not give up so easily. They took chairs and started pounding on the door rhythmically.

After a while, they heard the voice: - "Enough! Stop this madness right now!"

Slowly the door opened, and they found themselves in the face of a young wizard who, as Lucius remembered, was called Rufus.

"What the hell" He yelled at the sight of them and jumped back, taking a combat stance. "I knew from the beginning, leaving you alive was a wrong decision." - gritted the wizard and waved his hand backward...

"Wait, listen to us!" cried children desperately. Rufus was a little confused by this, apparently not expecting reasonable verbal communication from red-eyes.

"Take us to Vittorio. We have something to say!" Uriel implored.

"Humph, why should I?" - Rufus asked hesitantly, remaining in his fighting stance.

"Something will happen soon, something terrible, please we should talk to him," - begged Lucius.

He hesitated for a moment, then cleared the way. "Walk in front of me! One wrong move and you are dead meat!"

They met Vittorio in the hallway, sitting on the floor with their legs crossed and the robe tightly wrapped around his torso. Red-haired wizard standing behind him. At the sight of the kids, she too jumped back warningly, as if preparing some spell, but Vittorio stopped her.

"Well, what is happening now?" - Asked the black wizard and looked at their eyes showing no emotion.

"Something will happen soon," Uriel said.

"And what makes you think that?"

"We don't know exactly, but somehow all four of us have the same strange feeling," replied Uriel.

"Interesting..." whispered the wizard calmly, then sat for a few seconds in silence, and then he addressed Rufus and the red-haired wizard, "Prepare for battle, warn the others, perilous night awaits us!"

When Rufus and Jahna left, the kids end up alone with Vittorio, though he did not order them to return to the room, only sat and watched their faces without emotion. Then the wizard got up slowly and headed for the main door.

"Something unusual is happening here that I can not quite understand. Hope I made the right decision when left you alive and you will be the key to explaining this mystery. Try to stay alive tonight." he said and left.

The thunderous sound of the bell broke mysterious silence, indicating the impending danger. The officers also immediately began preparations to repel a potential attack. Lucius and his friends were alone in the corridor and did not know what to do.

"What do you think will happen?" - There was concern in Angela's voice

"We'll probably see soon," Uriel said in a heavy voice."

"Let's get going anyway, we need to find some shelter." - Angela went to the door first, the boys followed behind.

"Should we go to the bell tower?" - Michael suggested to his friends.

"The bell tower again," Lucius thought, but still agreed. Probably it was the safest and highest place in the city they could observe the events from.

The wizard's house was quite far from the bell tower, so they had to walk for some time but noticed nothing suspicious.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The bell tower was almost empty, with both soldiers and officers heading for the wall, so they advanced without a problem.

"You were right, Lucius," said Angela.

"What do you mean?" - he could not understand immediately.

"The color of our eyes became brighter."

Lucius looked at her friends: Angela was right, her eyes were glowing red. Even the strange feeling that woke them up had intensified noticeably.

Youngsters sat there for some time but nothing happened. Somehow they got used to that strange feeling too and get a little sleepy.

"Maybe it will fade away as before," suggested Michael.

"Shh, listen,"- whispered Lucius frightfully. They heard a voice, the same one they heard on that dreadful night when Marcus burned the corpses, but it was way too louder now.

When the four of them reached the edge of the roof and looked down, they saw what was happening to the people under the influence of this sound. They fought with whatever weapon they could get their hands on; they desperately tried to kill each other. In a matter of seconds, the streets of Mondelay had already become a chaotic battlefield.

"Why do not they silence the voice?" Angela shouted in despair.

"It seems they cannot. Vittorio mentioned Marcus knew a lot more than him about this phenomenon. It seems nobody in the city could stop this bloodshed now. Thankfully, we got lucky to climb here. No one could reach us so easily at this height. Whoever is down, almost everyone is exposed to immediate death.." summed up Blondy.

Suddenly Lucius broke down... "Lily!"

Kids looked at each other frightened, it felt horrible to even think about, what might happen to their little sister.

"I must find her," said Lucius. The friends silently agreed and marched with him down. Angela also wanted to go with the boys, but Uriel persuaded her to stay, otherwise, she would slow them down and in that situation, every second was important.

They rushed down the stairs. Two severely wounded officers were lying in the courtyard of the bell tower. The boys grabbed their weapons and ran towards Livia's house.

Mindless townsfolk chased each other in the streets to kill each other. It was a gruesome scene to watch. Completely innocent people were dying. They reached Livia's house without using a weapon.

The voice that evoked dreadful emotions also affected the boys, but not so much as to make any of them mad. That is why they somehow coped with this horror in the right mind.

Livia's house appeared, and they soon found themselves in the yard, however before they could run to the door, a soldier armed with a sword attacked them and Uriel and Michael had to fight him.

The brawl did not last long. Although the soldier was twice the size of the boys, skillfully was much inferior to Uriel, so a few seconds after the attacker was lying on the ground wounded in both legs.

They found the door of the building open. Some servants were lying on the floor, some were still fighting with each other. Two of them chased the boys, but they kicked them out of the stairs and ran towards Lily's room. At the door, Livia was lying on the floor trying to get rid of the servant who was choking her.

First Uriel rushed at them, knocked out the servant with a head blow, and then leaned towards Livia to help her get up, but now Livia attacked Uriel. Michael had to tie her hands to keep everyone safe.

The children were out of bed, sitting on the floor with their hands over their ears, whispering something. Lucius rushed to Lily and picked her up, trying to calm her down. A little girl was trembling, repeating with a weeping voice - the braided man, the braided man. The brother whispered in his ear, then sang her favorite song and the girl calmed down a little. Lily stopped weeping, but she was still cold and trembling. Lucius hugged her hard.

The door opened, and Michael entered, bringing the unconscious Livia with him.

"She was getting wilder, and I had to knock her out," he apologized.

"You've done the right thing," replied Uriel, leaning over Livia's sister and trying to calm her down.

"What now?" - Michael frowned.

"We have to lock the door," Uriel replied.

"And what about Angela?" worried Michael.

"We cannot take Livia and the children there safely, so we have no other choice, to stay here until it's over. These mindless people could not reach her at the bell tower, cannot reveal themselves. Angela will be safer there." Blondy assured him. They placed two beds and some other furniture at the door. The next concern was to keep the other children warm, so they placed them close to each other and covered them with a mattress. After a while, the little ones no longer shuddered and became calmer.

The sound stopped abruptly. The boys looked out from the windows. People in the streets were coming to their senses. They looked scared and surprised, because of the circumstances they found themselves in, still, they helped each other to get up. Michael started waking Livia. She was no longer a threat. As she woke up, Michael told her everything that had happened. Lucius and Uriel were whispering something. The voice ceased, but the remaining silence felt creepier to them, and the strange feeling that preceded all this had not yet disappeared. On the contrary, it was getting stronger.

"It's dangerous to stay here," Uriel said, and Michael agreed. They quickly removed the beds and led the children outside, taking blankets and sheets with them.

"Wait, what about other children?" - Livia asked and then Lucius remembered that in this house, in other rooms, there were dozens of little ones sheltered by Livia.

"We can not take so many to the bell tower," said Michael.

"Well, what should we do then?" Asked Lucius.

"Let's lock them up in somewhere safer. We will take the key in case the voice appears again. At least older ones can not touch them until we are back." suggested Uriel. They agreed because they had no other choice and hid the little one in the underground basement with the iron door.

They wanted to see the wizards and warn them, that the danger had not yet passed. It was easy to find them; They were in all corners of the city, healing the wounded townsfolk. The very first encounter led them to Vittorio.

After a few minutes of walking, they found themselves quite close to the wall and found the black wizard right there. He was wrapped in a robe and was watching something, insistently. He heard their arrival before they could say anything, and without turning around, whispered,

"It's not a right time to talk"

"The danger has not passed. Something else will happen," Michael said.

"But thank you for letting me know," he said and turned to the red-haired woman standing next to him. "Assemble the knights. We will need their support as soon as possible."

Knights in red and white mantles appeared in a few seconds and circled Vittorio. The black wizard gave some order and the warriors also retreated a little, though they did not go far from Vittorio.

"Why not call other wizards?" Livia asked in a whisper.

"They are still treating the wounded people, and Vittorio knows that," Lucius replied.

"Let the girl go," said Vittorio. Lucius realized he was referring to Livia, though Livia herself understood and ran away from there. It was strange. The wizard did not order the boys to go. They were curious, but one dared to ask the question.

They stood like this for a few minutes. Nothing was happening, and then the melody reached Lucius's ear. It was a melody that was heard before he ran out of the Noble neighborhood, but now it was louder and heard somewhere here, this time very close. Lucius was blinking, listening intently. Maybe he could see.

"What is happening?" - Vittorio asked, only now Lucius remembered that only he and his three friends understood this melody.

Uriel quickly explained the matter to Vittorio.

"Get ready!" gritted the black wizard in such a voice that Lucius immediately realized he had noticed something. He looked up in the same direction and saw something peculiar himself. Someone was sitting on of the battlement of the wall, bent over, with his legs folded. Crimson smoke was rising from his body, leaving a riddle on how he got there...