Chapter 38: Shock And Awe

Chapter 38: Shock And Awe

"Guard!" The king exclaimed, and the guards swiftly moved towards Raven's group and surrounded them from all sides.

Their weapons pointed towards them, and the brave men clad in golden armor were more than ready to throw their lives for the king and the noblemen. However, being commoners from down their bloodlines, even they knew that what they were doing was wrong, yet they had no choice but to raise their weapons against the hero and his party.

"All weapons down!" warned the general, a man the sizean of ogre slowly making his way towards his men from the dark. Equipped with darkened silver armor, bejeweled with violet gems over the artistic depiction of war on his chest plate, he carried the aura of a man who'd been weathered through countless battles.

Their faces all covered behind their helmets, masked their true feelings–but that was the essence of the royal guard–doing what's necessary, not what they deemed to be right.

"You really thought you could threaten me, you fools?" The king asked, snickering in the snarkiest of manners.

"Raven, cut this out!" Amedith whispered, growing a bit angst about the whole situation.

"Don't you dare, you really think he's gonna let us go alive if we put our weapons down?" Aria chimed in, walking up to the two while tightening the bandages around her knuckles.

"Shut up, Aria! We're not gonna win against this many guards anyways!" Though he kept his voice low, Amedith's tone was anything but calm.

Ignoring the two bickering beside him, Raven focused more on the thoughts of the guards. None of them wanted to do this, after all, they too had been subject to this tyranny at least once before, even their general, the masked dark knight–wanted the situation to defuse, and having actually been in battle he knew exactly how little of a threat the queen truly was.

"Give me a moment," walking up towards the guards in front, Raven looked right into their eyes through the gap in their helmets. Taking a step back as the dark mage approached, the guards didn't want to confront him, even though they had superior numbers. "Go ahead, kill me. I've died before and the goddess revived me. How do you think I returned from the Minotaur caves after being left behind by everyone else? Or did that news never make it to the palace?"

"As much as I hate to admit it..." Reaching into her quiver, Mel took out a handful of arrows and tensed them against the string of her bow. "He did come back, so I doubt the goddess will be happy about this, and if she revives us, I doubt even more that we'll be happy."

The guards quickly drew their weapons back and scattered throughout the room. Letting their weapons down as well, everyone from Raven's party loosened up a bit as well.

"Just go back with that monster pet of yours!" The king announced, however, Raven had other plans.

"Wait, I wanna ask you something," the king clicked his tongue in annoyance as he heard the mage's request.

"What?!" He barked, jerking his shriveled-up body forward.

"The murders that have been going on in the lower city," taking yet another step forward, Raven took out a flier that he'd been keeping in his breast pocket. "What have you been doing to stop them? The people demand an answer since none of the guards are doing anything!"

A flicker of recognition flashed before the king's eyes. He knew what Raven was talking about but somehow seemed reluctant to answer. Unaware of Raven's intentions as to why he was bringing up the murders, the rest of his party was just as baffled as the king. However, living in the lower city themselves they wanted the king to answer as well.

'If only I could read his mind too!' Raven thought, glaring at that staff in the king's hand.

"I'll look into it," muttered the king, knowing full well that there was no escaping from the question after everything that just happened. "You're free to stay with the guards at the barracks in the meantime, better you stay here so we don't have to waste more time waiting for your arrival."

With that said, the king was about to dismiss the assembly, but as the hall's entrance gates creaked open, everyone's attention was drawn towards the new arrivals. Cast in shadow by the blinding light from the corridor behind them, the frames of a tall woman, her daughter, and her son slowly made their way inside the halls.

"I apologize for the intrusion, but..." Wearing a wide smirk on her face, the bright amber eyes of the tall woman darted towards Raven and the rest. "How could I not when the heroes of our lands are visiting?"

'The queen...' Thought the entire Hero's group.