Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Ahra bit her lip as she rounded the corner of the hall. She worried about her husband. He was planning something she just didn’t know what. She entered the grand dining room. Elihue stood with his back to her.

“Elihue.” She said. The older turned to his wife. Smiling at the sight of her presence. “Ahra honey, what are you doing?”

She stepped closer to her husband. “Are you ok?” she asked. Elihue furrowed his brows. “What do you mean?”

Ahra rested her chin on her hand. “I mean, you’ve been acting differently. You’ve been distant.”

Elihue clasped his hands together. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” he said.

Ahra sighed and clenched her fist. “I heard what you said to Jessepi. I know you’re planning to kill someone.”

If elihue was shocked he certainly didn’t show it. He faced his wife and smirked. “As always Ahra, you’re clever.” Ahra took a step back when elihue advanced towards her.

He back her up to the wall. Ahra’s eyes widened. “Elihue.” she said. Elihue ran his finger across her chin. The oxygen refused to go to her lungs. Elihue grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled. Ahra let out a scream.

She fell to the ground holding her head. Elihue bent down next to her, rcupping her cheek. “In due time, you’ll now my love.” He said.

“In due time.”

Enue waved farewell to Scarlet as he entered through the burnt gates of his kingdom. The remains of the fire were thrown into a pile. Families sat on the corners of where their houses used to be. The sight brought tears to his eyes.

Collecting himself he walked over to the family. The kids looked up from behind their mom, to the young king. He grabbed the mother’s hands. “Everything will be ok.”

The mother nodded. Enue let the woman’s hands go and smiled to the children once more.

The area round the kingdom was in shambles. The gate was torn apart, large branches laid on the ground, the air was fighting off the smell of smoke.

Running into the palace, Enue made his way to the library. People stared at him in shock, as he blew the doors open with an incredible force. He ran to the front desk and asked for Clipton.

Clipton was a librarian and Enue’s best friend. Surely Enue could trust him to keep this a secret.

Clipton arrived at the front desk and smiled at Enue. “Enue! -I mean my king to what do I owe this visit?” He bowed respectively.

“Clipton, formalities are not necessary.” Enue said. “Sorry. With everything going on and your father’s death…” he trailed off. Enue put his arm around Clipton’s shoulders. “Listen Clipton, I need your help.”

Clipton furrowed his brow. “With what?”

“I need every book you have on the Eclipse, moonlighters, and sunlighters.”

“May I ask why?”

“Let’s just say, I’m going to find out who did this.”

Scarlet sat a table with a map, a book and the pendant in front of her. She wrote down the markings on the pendant onto the paper. Then using the book to find matches.

The doors opened to the room and Dalina stepped in. “What are you doing?” She asked with her arms crossed. Scarlet turned her head. “Working.”

“On what?”

Scarlet huffed. “Finding my father’s kidnapper.”

Dalina let out a breath. “I know you want to find your father, scarlet. But as long as he’s gone, you need to take his place.”

Scarlet slammed the book shut and rose from the table. “Listen Dalina, I get that you’re my father’s maiden, but right now I need to focus on finding him, not running this kingdom!”

Dalina flinched.  “I-I’m sorry.” She stared at the floor.

Scarlet sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “No, I’m sorry. I-I’m just worried about my dad.”

Dalina nodded. “I understand. But Scarlet, the citizen’s need to know what’s happening.”  

Scarlet nodded. “Will you make an announcement alerting the citizen’s?”

“Certainly.”

Scarlet smiled and thanked Dalina as she left. She picked up her paper and looked over the contents. She then looked at the pendant, the markings were identical. Now she just needed someone to translate and bring it to Enue in the morning.

Clipton handed Enue book after book, asking questions in between. “So do these books have anything to do with what’s happening lately?” He asked. “Sort of.” Enue replied. “Scarlet and I- “

“Scarlet? Ask in Princess Scarlet; the heir to the Moonlight kingdom?”

Enue nodded. “What are you doing associating yourself with a moonlighter. Do you know what would happen if this got out?”

“I don’t care, let it get out. Scarlet’s helping me find who did this. And she may be my only hope to avenge my mother’s death.”

Clipton sighed and faced Enue. “I understand you’re upset about your mother’s death. But I’m just saying, you can’t trust the moonlighters.” He paused to think. “And besides, how do we know they didn’t do this?”

Enue sat the books on a nearby table. “That breaks the peace treaty my father sighed. An act of hate would lead to war.”

“Maybe that’s what they want, a war so they can take control.”

Clipton opened his mouth to say something, but Enue put his hand up. “Clipton stop, You’re my friend. And I don’t want to fight over this.”

Clipton nodded. “Sorry. But just be careful, if this is a trap.”

“I will.” Clipton smiled and continued handling Enue books.

After he received the books, Enue brought them to his bedroom. He found a book on the history on the Eclipsed nation.

Enue closed the book and stood abruptly from his seat. He needed to get to Scarlet.

Scarlet lay in her bed barely asleep when she heard a knock on her window. She got out of bed and pushed her curtains aside. She gasped at the sight of Enue sitting at her windowsill. Opening her window, she stuck her head out. “What are you doing here?” Enue swung his legs into Scarlet’s room. “I needed to talk to you.”

“Did you find anything?”  she asked.

“Yes.” He pulled the book out of his bag and opened to the page from earlier. “I found some information about the Eclipse.” He pointed to a section. “It says that after the fourth war world ended, an act of terror was inflicted on both kingdoms.

“They were burn to the ground. Just like last night.”

Scarlet looked up at Enue with wide eyes. “They call themselves Eclipsers,” He sighed. “From what I’ve read they’re powerful, extremely powerful.”

“So are we.”

“Yes, but they have powers greater than ours.”

Scarlet rested her hands on her hips. “With both our powers combined we can stop them.”

Enue stayed silent for a moment. “If we’re going to do this, we need a plan…and if we’re leaving we can’t leave our kingdoms unprotected.”

Scarlet nodded. “My father’s maiden could take over until I got back, what about you?”

“My brother is an excellent warrior. He should be able to watch it while we’re gone.”

“Great, so when do we leave?”

“As soon as possible.”

Scarlet peered out of the window. The sun was coming up. “We have to go soon. So you go pack and meet me in the forest.”

Enue nodded and climbed out of the window. Scarlet closed the window and began packing her things.

Ahra ran her hand through her long, thick blond hair. The bruise on her wrist were still red. Elihue opened  the door to their room and pushed her inside. She yelped as her back came in contact with the bed.

Elihue’s hand came in contact with her face, making Ahra scream. His hand found it’s way around her neck. Ahra’s body shook with fear. Elihue squeezed.  Ahra’s hands flew to her neck as she tried to pry his hands from around her neck.

Elihue laughed as Ahra gasped for air. He squeezed continued to apply pressure to her neck until her hands fell to her sides. He let go and felt her neck. He scowled slightly  as he felt a pulse. He covered her and left the room.

Enue threw his bag onto his back. His brother watched him from the corner of the room. “Where are you going?”

“I’m not sure exactly.”

Eliheu scoffed. “are you sure you can trust this moonlighter?”

“Absolutely.” Enue said. “I have faith that things will be well while I’m gone.”

Eliheu smirked. “Of course.”

Enue opened a box and pulled out a large paper. “When will you be back?”

Enue turned his brother. “When we catch the man who did this.”

Scarlet pulled out the map and looked over it. A few minutes later enue appeared. “Look at this.” She pulled out a map and laid it on the ground. “Where did these Eclipsers, attack?”

“The Northern woods.” Enue replied.

“Ok, so it’s obvious that they have reasons for attacking our kingdoms.” She pointed to the map. “Do see this marking here?” Enue nodded. “What is it?”

“Five years ago there was a kingdom here, it too was burnt to the ground.  I believe that this is the same group that attacked us.”

Their eyes met and they got off the ground. “Where do we go first?”

Scarlet looked at the map. “Gideon waterfall.” She pointed north. “It’s that way.”

They started to walk away from the woods. The air was slightly cool and moist. Scarlet and Enue carefully looked at the map.

The sound of the crunching leaves under their feet echoed throughout the woods. Enue turned to scarlet. “I have a question.”

“What?” She looked up from the map.

Besides you being the princess, why do you want to catch the Eclipsers. “They took my dad.”  Enue bit his lip. “Oh.”

Scarlet shook her head. “What about you?”

Enue hesitated before saying “They killed my mother.”

Scarlet put her hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry.”

Enue sniffed. “Doesn’t matter,” He turned to scarlet. “I can’t save my mother. But we can save your father.”

Scarlet smiled. “Thank you.” Enue smiled back.

Bam!

Scarlet and Enue were slammed into the ground. A deep growl echoed around them. Scarlet painfully got off the ground. She turned to Enue. She shook him. “Enue, Enue!” he lay on the ground unconscious. Scarlet put her fingers to his neck. There was a pulse.

Crash!

She yelped as a tree came crashing down. She rolled out before it could crush her.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“I know you’re here!” An eerie voice cried.

Scarlet turned her head to the right. She could see the man’s giant feet. He stomped around, knocking trees down with every step.

Scarlet silently ducked behind a bush and crawled over to the giant. She peered over the bush and held up her hand.  The giant stopped moving and sniffed the air. He had a smirk on his face. “The blood of a moonlighter.” He laughed.

She held her hand steady as she blasted. Flames burned through the bush. The giant laughed and held out his hands. The flames didn’t hit him. Instead the giant caught the ball of fire.

Scarlets eye’s widened as the giant threw the ball at her. Her body slid on the ground. She screamed as she felt the heat in her body.

The giant rushed over to scarlet's body. “Don’t know much about eclipsers, do ya kid?” He held up his hand that held a ball of fire. He laughed viciously.

The ball flew out of his palm. Scarlet covered herself as she waited for the impact.

It never came.

Cool air whipped around her body. She opened her eyes to see Enue. He held his hands out. Ice flew from his palms. The giant yelled as the ice froze his outsides.

He fell to the ground, shattering into a million pieces.  Enue let his hands drop. He panted as he helped scarlet off the ground. “Are you ok?” She nodded. “Thank you.”

Enue nodded. “We should go before more show up.” He took scarlets hand and pulled her away. His cold hands on her wrist made her shiver.

They stopped running as they neared a village. Enue let go of scarlets wrist. “Should we ask them for help?”

Scarlet nodded. They entered the village and looked around. The streets were filled with people. Children played alongside their parents. She alerted Enue and pointed towards them. They walked up to the family.

The parents looked up surprised. “Hi.” Scarlet said. She gestured to Enue and herself. “This is Enue and I’m scarlet, we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions?”

The mother looked at her husband. He nodded. “Ask away.”

Scarlet smiled. “Well, do you happen know of a group called Eclipsers?”

The mother stilled and looked to her husband.

“We cannot help you.” the husband said.

Scarlet furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”

The man stood from the pavement. “You have to leave. They’ll be here any minute.” He ushered them away; pushing scarlet and Enue.

Enue turned and grabbed the man’s hands. He stared him dead in the eye. “What do you now?”

The older man trembled. “I can’t say.”

“Why not?”

“They’ll kill my family.”

Enue turned to scarlet. “Tell us what you know and we won’t let that happen.”

The man scoffed. “What are you kids going to do?” he spat.

Enue pushed on the man’s chest. “I’ll have you know, that I am the king of the Sunlight kingdom.” The man smirked. “Do you really think that means something? They’re powerful. Your little sun powers won’t stop them.”

Enue growled and held up his fist. Scarlet put her hand on his chest and  pushed him away before he could throw a punch. “Calm down. We have to keep looking.”

“Listen to your girlfriend kid.”

Enue snarled. “Stop.” Scarlet whispered into enue’s ear.  Enue looked at scarlet and his eyes softened. “Fine.”

She turned to the man. “Thanks for your corporation.” She grabbed enue’s wrist and  pulled him away. “You should learn to control your temper.”

He scoffed. “I don’t have a temper.”

“Really. Because it looked like you wanted to tear that guy’s head off.” Scarlet said. “Enue shrugged. “he deserved it. He was a jerk.”

“He was scared. You should understand that we can’t force people to help us.”

“If it means finding my mother’s kidnapper, then yes we can.”

Scarlet halted. “So you’d put thousands of people in danger, just to find some killer.”

Enue sighed. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

“Well it sounds like you don’t care about other people’s families.”

“Scarlet I lost my mother-”

“And I lost my dad! Now, I’m sorry we can’t save your mom. But we can still save my dad and thousands of lives. But you threatening people isn’t helping.”

Enue bit the inside of his cheek “Fine.”

Scarlet let out a breath. “Thank you. Now can we continue?” Enue nodded.

Eliheu took a sip from his glass as he  looked out the window of his bedroom. The sky was darkening as the sun set. He could see where the front gates were burnt and torn apart. The door opened and Eliheu turned.

“Sir, the men are in position.” Eliheu smirked. “Great.”  He turned back to the window. “Where are the others, Tipith?”

Tipith gestured outside. “They’re waiting for the signal.”

“Good.” He sat his drink down and stood from his chair.

“How long do you want us to wait, sir?”

“Not long Tipith,”

He pressed his hand against the window.  “Not long.”

Reviews

[Chryiss]

I do like how this story jumps right into the action as I'm now very curious how it ends. Eliheu is obviously not to be trusted, and I hope I see Enue and Scarlet pair up *wink wink*. But I hope you can proofread your work. Perhaps it's just me, but I get a bit disgruntled when I see names not capitalized and words misspelled due to one letter missing. ^^''
Oh and one last thing, I love your choice in names! Eliheu, Enue, Tipith, Ahra, Clipton... and this is why I love reading fantasy stories, hehe.