0033 Troubles in the Middle of the Night

"Sir Cardinal Joseph! Sir Cardinal Joseph!

They arrived! Come fast! They arrived!".

"Who dares to wake me up at this hour?".

"Sir Cardinal Joseph, they have arrived!".

"Your arrest will come if you woke me up for nothing!".

In a makeshift wooden hut, Cardinal Joseph opened the door furious to have his sleep disturbed, in front of him a would-be soldier was panting as he pointed in a direction, his eyes were wide, and even with the Cardinal's threat, he still behaved exaggeratedly.

"Ahh, I really hope it's important...

... I don't mind arresting half the camp if you woke me up for something any Father could solve...".

As he muttered, Joseph motioned with his hand for the would-be soldier to guide him, in less than ten minutes they reached the edge of the camp on the west side and in the middle of the night he thought he saw the sea in the midst of the fields, for there were several reflections of the moons making up and down movements like the waves of the sea.

"But...".

Before completing his sentence the ground began to shake slightly and the terrible sound of a large cavalry stomping all the way in a rush was reaching his ears, the whole camp woke up together and joined the Cardinal in watching the new arrivals.

Hundreds, if not over a thousand mounted knights wearing white armor with some blue parts were recognised, and the flag carried by some banners showed the symbol of the Marquis of Glianorio, an elegant blue and white bird.

Everyone waited patiently for the cavalry to arrive, who then took up position beside the camp, a little further back, some wagons loaded with supplies and other objects positioned themselves on the other side of the church camp and began to set up their own tents, the final group a different cavalry stood out.

His armor is gray with some red parts, and on his chest, a symbol of two open wings and the material looked like it was made of red ruby, their flags were black with designs of a pair of spread wings and two swords crossed over the wings, completing the red symbol.

"Look, is it the Princes?".

Two knights drew attention as they approached the church camp, one of them had Marquis Glianorio's armor, but his helmet was crowned with a white iron crown.

And the second had gray and red armor, just like the group with fewer knights, however, he also had a gray crowned helm with ruby stones decorating the tips of the crown.

"Sir Cardinal Joseph, right?".

"That's right Prince Marquis Carson...".

"Sorry for the delay and for bothering you at this hour...".

"Oh no, don't blame him Cardinal Joseph, it's my fault...

... I made him wait for me, Prince Carson is a good friend of mine, and he respected my request at the last minute...".

"Please Highness August, I cannot blame either of the two Princes...

... I can understand Prince Carson's presence, since he's commanding his father's cavalry, but to what do I owe Prince Duke August's visit?".

Cardinal Joseph was expecting the arrival of the Marquis de Glianorio's forces the morning of the previous day, a cavalry on the move at night could only represent a battle, and seeing a Prince Duke accompanying the cavalry made him think that some serious trouble had happened somewhere and he knew nothing.

"It's nothing important Cardinal Joseph...

... When I heard that Miss Jenany Owen, niece of the Duke of Alle, was going to participate in the mission, I took some of my father's men and came running from Taleno to find her, for that reason I asked my good friend Carson to wait for me, but I didn't imagine that the church camp was already up before the cavalry arrived...

... Could the Cardinal tell me which hut she is camped in?".

^"I can't believe I was woken up in the middle of the night by an excited Prince in pursuit?"^.

Prince Carson forced an awkward smile to his lips, while Prince August openly declared that he was stalking another Duke's niece, Joseph cursed the Prince mentally, he was furious to be woken up for such a trivial reason.

"Look Your Highness, I believe Miss Owen is sleeping at this hour, if she's not already around with all this commotion...".

With the Cardinal's answer, August began to search with his head for Jenany, Joseph did not know her personally and could only pretend to be looking with him, Carson yawned and wiped his eyes after removing his helmet, showing a young man with no beard, black hair, straight and very short, his brow was sharp as was his gaze.

"I don't see her... Cardinal, just tell me where she is and I'll leave you alone for today.".

"All right, let's go to my hut...

... Ask your men to set up their camps with peace of mind, we are still in the process of investigating the lands of Marro, is a weekend of holiday and festivities called 'The Memory of 100 Peoples', the citizens of Marro take the tribute holiday very seriously...".

At Joseph's invitation, the two Princes beckoned their men to continue setting up their camps, on the way to the hut where the Cardinal was staying, he began a brief report on the current situation directing his attention to Prince Carson, who was most interested in the mission.

Entering the hut, Joseph walked over to the table and began rummaging through his documents with the reports and status of each church group, as well as which side of the camp each should be on, meanwhile, he continued talking.

"And almost all the church groups we sent are already properly in their places, as well as the groups responsible for studying the situation in the City of Marro are already there...

... Here I found...

... Healer Jenany Owen, she's on Father Alcione's investigation team, they left the camp two days ago and are already at their specified points...".

"What? Did you let a Duke's niece expose herself on a dangerous mission?".

Finishing reading the document and reporting Jenany's situation, Joseph looked at Prince August, and upon hearing the report, the Prince went into a rage to learn that Jenany was on a royal mission, and not just playing participate, her eyes began to glow crimson red illuminating the inside of her helm.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Calm down August, let the Cardinal explain the details...".

Carson put his hand on August's shoulder making him calm down a bit, but August didn't say a single word and kept looking at Joseph waiting for a detailed explanation, and with that, Joseph turned the page to read the latest updates on Alcione's group.

"See, Alcione's group was properly formed because of her, the Bishop chose Alcione because he's a well-known scholar, he's a good leader for the mission...

... Also, her group is made up of beginners, like a Confessor named Alicia whom Jenany befriended, and at least half of the soldiers accompanying her are also beginners...

...The rest are just failures, people with low quality conduct, like the Envoy chosen for the group, the Bishop's justification was that he chose the safest area for her, and put other beginners to gain experience without taking risks, and the losers went together so as not to disturb the other groups...

... That's it...".

Hearing that Jenany was put into action by a Bishop, August softened his anger, after all if the Bishop was responsible, there would be no gain in causing trouble for a Cardinal who is not to blame, let alone would he want to buy trouble with a Bishop.

Finishing reading the Bishop's rationale for forming such a group, Joseph realized that Alcione's group update still hadn't arrived today, but before thinking deeply about the possible reason, August asked again.

"No Watchers in the group?".

"There are two with them, in fact, one seems to be an old friend of Father Alcione and the other is neither a veteran nor a beginner...

... But looking at the first day's report, I saw that the informant got a house from residents close to their point, maybe she's getting a better night's sleep than ours here...".

"I see, sorry for the inconvenience Cardinal Joseph, I'm going to gather my men and go meet her, where is she?".

Carson covered his face with one hand, apparently he'd heard about Jenany all the way to camp and was already tired of August chasing the woman.

Cardinal Joseph was left with a frozen smile, for the happiness of hearing the first part of the Prince's reply as he said goodbye was broken by his insistence on chasing Jenany with a cavalry during a secret mission in the territory of another Marquis.

Joseph put the document on the table and took a pitcher of water to offer to the two Princes, who denied the Cardinal's kindness, then he poured water into his glass at his side and drank, so he looked at the two young men in front of him and sighed.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Prince August...".

"How dare you?".

"I dare not, the question here is what did you bring? A hundred-man cavalry? Two hundred men?

And you want to run with them into Marro's territory, alerting potential enemies while we're still on an investigative mission...

... Letting you do that will only spoil everything, and if you insist on it, I'll have to ask you to sign the report and send it to Santo Felipe on your behalf...".

This time, it was August who felt his heart sink, if he doesn't dare provoke a Bishop, spoiling a mission coordinated by a Saint would even make his father hand him over to the church, and so he took off his helmet to pay due respect to the Cardinal for the first time.

His eyes were yellowish brown, his dark gray hair was short but wavy and spiked upwards, he was also a young man and had all the beard shaved with a smooth face, with a very attractive beauty.

"Sir Cardinal give me a hand here...".

Hearing the most respectful tone, both Carson and Joseph sighed, the Prince finally seemed reasonable and was willing to listen to others, not forcing his will over others' orders.

"You must be tired, get some rest, I promise as soon as some out of the ordinary news comes in, I'll let you form a group to chase Miss Owen... I mean, go get her...".

"Come on August, your men are much more tired than mine, you've been without rest for days straight, the horses won't last much longer like this...".

"All right, thank you sir Cardinal...".

Carson almost laughed upon hearing from the Cardinal about the pursuit of August, and to cover up he turned to leave and warned him of his weary men, happy, Joseph led them to the door, but before he closed it to go back to sleep, he saw August turn to look at him again.

"Cardinal Joseph, as soon as the sun rises I will come looking for you in search of news... Good night...".

Joseph's happiness disappeared to the point that he didn't even say goodbye to the Princes, he just wanted to sleep and now his head started to ache as he cursed the Prince of Taleno.

**************************************************

"Who's there?".

The two would-be soldiers moved away from the entrance to the corridor and little by little began to walk over the fallen bones.

The corridor was dark and three shadows emerged holding swords with frightened eyes, they were three other would-be soldiers who were probably also lost.

"Shit! Stop scaring others!".

"Yes, we almost killed you three! Where is your torch?".

Annoyed, the two started yelling at the trio who felt relieved to find two more friends, they quickly approached to explain themselves.

"Dammit, something put out our torch, we've been prowling in the dark for almost half an hour!".

"Yes! Those damn laughs, someone must be playing pranks on us!".

The two would-be soldiers looked at each other at the words of the other two, the third of them was still panting from being scared, and at the mention of the laughs, he started to look around uneasily.

"Do any of you know the way back?".

"Of course not, we walked non-stop when we were in the dark, the damn laughter was scary...".

"Heheheheheeh!".

During the conversation of the two groups, another laugh sounded, it was as if they were mocking them, but at the same time it was impossible to distinguish where it was coming from.

"Hihihihihi!". "Heeehehehehehehe!".

"Stop playing! We are soldiers of the Sigredio church!".

The five approached even more, the laughter did not stop echoing, the would-be soldier most scared of the four pointed to the ground on one side, attracting the attention of the others.

On the ground, a canine skull was half-buried, with only the top of its head sticking out, and in the eye holes, half-serrated black lids hid brown eyes, it was as if the skull on the floor was laughing and mocking their fear.

Upon noticing the five looking at him, the skull slowly sank into the cave floor, disappearing completely.

The scene was terrifying for the five who started to pray for protection, they turned around and started running towards the corridor they came from, but as they approached the entrance they noticed another canine skull half buried in the cavern ceiling.

Inside the eyes holes in the skull, eyelids opened again, and then the skull detached itself from the ceiling and opened its mouth showing several white teeth, the would-be soldiers halted their steps, fearing to approach the skull that was larger than the torso of their own bodies.

The skull just stood there with its mouth open, doing nothing, all the laughter stopped, and the would-be soldiers held their breath to be as silent as possible and be on the lookout for anything strange.

Bloorg! Aargh!

A ball of earth and dirt spouted from the skull's open mouth and hit the torch exactly in the would-be soldier's hand who held it above his head, illuminating the ceiling.

The ball of earth had enough force to break the would-be soldier's arm, flinging the torch away and extinguishing it at the same time, so darkness took over the place again.

"Hihihihihi!".

And several laughs echoed again inside the caves.

**************************************************

*"Angel! Come light the way!"*.

Leaving the cave on the other side of the precipice, Alberto called the angel who was waiting for the group, the angel approached and flew over the path approaching the big house.

Nearby, an Envoy guarded the entrance to the cave with two would-be soldiers, and soon everyone was outside enjoying the view of the house up close.

*"We will rest for 10 minutes and then we will enter the house."*.

Alberto sat on a broken log as he faced the house, Lucius sat next to him, and Jardel stood behind the two of them looking at the other Watcher on the other side.

Alcione and the two girls sat on another log, and Maycon pulled Jeffrey to talk a little away, the Watcher was between them all standing, watching Jardel from the other side.

Maycon and Jeffrey finished their conversation and with that he approached the girls and called for Jenany.

*"Jenany, could you come with me for a moment?

Maycon would like to apologize to you..."*.

*"Oh okay, let's go..."*.

The scene did not attract attention, the conversation was loud and clear, and the others simply ignored the small conflicts and resolutions between the young people.

The Envoy at the side of the cave entrance was talking to six would-be soldiers, and at the end of the conversation, he approached the group.

*"Sir Father, the other group got lost inside the caves, we still haven't found any traces of them..."*.

The previous monotonous silence was replaced by a silence of concern with doubt as to whether the missing group just got lost or encountered some danger inside the caves.