" You mean to say the year when all the three women went missing? and the search party for Lady Vilmon and the Agnartic princess never returned. But what were they doing here? We Posei family didn't give hands in the search at that time."
Alex kept thinking about all the possibilities to answer Juliet's question. He also knew that the Posei family never liked to be involved in a war against the great Esbertrazian clan. They were totally in support with Lady Vilmon but it was the elders who asked them to stay put from the war,
Alex thought of all the ways but could not link the secret passage to any of the other clans.
" Juliet, can you think of any person knowing the secrets of all the clan areas apart from the respective clan elders."
The plan of VilmonArk and its route maps were made by the enchantress. It was her reign and she personally designed each plot. However, after the war, under the rule of the great lord, clans were introduced and he gave the most beautiful clan to the Posei family as they were naturally gifted. He made sure that no clan members will know the area secrets of the other clans. The Salian clan was given the largest territory with the power of taking the final decision when some argument was raised amongst the clans.
The Agnartic clan was the farthest, it was located on the barren side of the VilmonArk followed by the land given to Dagardians, that is why they got the best place to construct arenas and polish their battle skills.
" The Dagardians, it is..."
Alex and Juliet came to realise what was the major mishap that happened after the great lord died and the Esbertrazian clan went to their own space. The Dagardian family was given the sole right of safeguarding all the important persons of each clan, including the family of clan heads and even the residences of all elders. Hence, guards got migrated after proper training and thus, they blended inside the respective clans.
" So after the war, the core world had commenced their plan very well, does that mean.. in the clifftop manor assassination, the core world had used the clans as their puppet to kill the great shadow guard of the great lord."
Alex was also thinking the same but he didn't want to upset Emmy anymore, so he didn't disclose his doubts to Juliet.
" Juliet were they behind Lamia who stole their precious jade or the powerful warrior of the dark clan, we don't know yet. Let us not waste any more time, I guess, this path is going to tell us more things than what we thought was true till now."
Alex moved inside the gap and there was a small chamber with no windows but only a door. On the walls, only blood was smeared with a message,
" HELP!!!!"
Alex touched the blood-stained walls and it gave him an eerie feeling as those messages were directly asking him for help, what had happened here, what made the mighty A-guards of the different clans to be this hopeless as they got down to their death and even while taking the last breath, they asked help.
" These messages are so confusing, all the guards who came for the expedition were well-trained A-guards but they were squashed like an ant."
Juliet looked at the remnants of the skeletons and some bones were crushed very badly. She could imagine the torment and pain these bodies went through, amidst the bones, Juliet found a token. She took it and cleaned it, but after seeing the token which she had collected, she wanted to scream.
Juliet quickly poked Alex and tried to speak. However, due to anxiousness, no word could be heard from her mouth. Alex saw her condition and then his attention went to the token in her hands. Even his eyes opened widely after seeing the token, he took the token in his hands but it weighed more when they realised that this was the token of Esbertrazian guard leader who was in charge of finding their lost princess.
" It can mean only one thing, that the core world still had people inside the Esbertrazian clan, they had infiltrated all the clans and they sabotaged the shadow guard while siding with the enemies. "
Juliet wanted to warn her friends as soon as possible but first thought of completing the mission. She took long breaths to stabilise her racing heart, even Alex was finding it difficult to believe that the core power had laid their vile plan along before.
Why were they waiting?
Who was the supreme heir for whom the whole core power world was waiting patiently?
Alex didn't know when they could find the answers to these questions, the hunters had laid the trap long ago and they were still trying to find who were the hunters laying inside the same trap.
Finally, coming out of the great shock, Alex and Juliet decided to go further. Surprisingly, the door was not locked, he pulled the door and got the next shock of his life.
On the wall across them was a pair of hands hanging, beneath it there was a message written.
" THESE BLOODY HANDS REPRESENT THE FATE OF A RENEGADE"
" The one who was killed might have discovered the people who treacherously changed allegiance but who can be it to handle such a powerful and vicious army single-handedly."
" I'm sure whoever it is, that person is on our side I guess."
" What a wishful thinking, Juliet!!"
Alex laughed it off but as a woman, Juliet got her attention to the pair of hands hanging over on the wall.
" Hey Brother-in-law, look here, these hands are of a woman, I am sure, see this ring, this was the work of the finest of the great jeweller who was named as the 'Gold Beader'."
Alex rushed to the spot where Juliet was pointing, he looked at the ring which hadn't lost its lustre. He removed that ring and his action had made the decayed fingers withered down.
He remembered a girl ranting over his ears about this ring and how she wanted this particular ring to be on her wedding ring. He thought of once the woman, talking about how she had ordered this ring for herself on the account of her engagement and she wanted Alex to fetch it for her. That day when he reached the shop to meet the infamous ' Gold Beader', Alex was mistaken by the craftsman to be the fiancee of the woman but he didn't bother to correct the busy jeweller. On her engagement day, Alex saw how happy she was and that was the last day he saw the owner of these hands alive.
Judging Alex's reaction, Juliet narrowed her eyes, it felt like her brother-in-law knew these hands closely but who could be it?
" Brother-in-law, do you know whose hands these are ?"
Alex shivered at that thought, he never thought that the person had a hand in the whole massacre staged. He took the ring and gave it to Juliet.
" This is Agrona's hands, this was the ring she specially designed for her engagement. I remember fetching it for her just days before the fated day."
" Wow, so one is down.. "
In contrast to Alex's emotions, Juliet was totally happy after knowing that the haughty first princess of the Agnartic clan was dead. She put the ring safely in her pouch and decided to check for any other clue. But now it was a total dead end and she got flustered. Alex stabilised his emotions and started helping her out in checking the place.
" Juliet, look, the odd-shaped stones form something but I'm not able to decode it. Check these stones."
Alex pointed out to the odd-shaped stones which made Juliet smile broadly. The next moment, she asked Alex to move a bit away from the wall with strange stones. After Alex moved away, Juliet squatted down and sat in a meditating position. After a few minutes, Alex heard the sounds of waves crashing and soon his saw, violent waves coming their way.
Alex remained calm as he completely trusted his sister-in-law and his brother. Mike had already given Alex an idea of how powerful can Juliet be when she is in close premises of water bodies.
The violent waves suddenly got floated in the air, and in turn, started crashing over each odd-looking stone on the wall. Even with the splashing of water, Alex clearly saw strange symbols appearing on the stones which got splashed with water.
At last with the final splash, the last stone showed the symbol and the wind whooshed down the gap formed by the opening of the wall. Excited Alex looked at Juliet who was gasping for air.
Alex quickly opened the water bottle which they had prepared and gave it to Juliet. After drinking water, Juliet relaxed.
The wall gave way to a flight of stairs in the front and instead of pungent smell, they were welcomed with a pleasant odour.
" It is Lamis's odour."