The King's Mistress

Chapter 219: Look Out!

"If you were to arrest the Queen of Cair right here, right now, do you know what you’re inciting, Consort Agnes? You’re inciting war."

A cold chill ran down Agnes’ spine. She had not considered that. She had almost forgotten Sierra was a newly crowned queen. When she received the news of it, she was stunned.

Knowing full well what it meant for her position, the one she had fought hard to keep, Agnes knew she had to do something. She had to secure her own future. So, she enlisted the help of some acquaintances who shared a similar goal.

Sierra sensed a shift in the air, Opal did so too. For just a split second, Sierra swore she saw Agnes’ eyes change into a shade of gold, and her nails sharpened into claws.

’Look out!’ Opal’s voice rang in Sierra’s mind.

Agnes was still a distance away from her moments ago. Yet now, she was right before her. Sierra quickly sidestepped, narrowly dodging Agnes’ attack. She no longer looked human, she looked like a cross between a beast and a human.

Sierra barely caught her breath when Agnes lunged at her again. The guards in the room did not aid or hinder both of them. All of them watched in shock at the battle before them. There was limited space for Sierra to maneuver around.

Eventually, she ran out of room to run and Agnes landed a direct hit on her.

"Argh!" Sierra winced in pain as she dropped one of her swords and clutched her abdomen that was now drenched in blood.

Opal was not having it. She immediately shapeshifted into a larger form, though not as large as the one she used before. She hissed at Agnes, putting distance between Sierra and her. The guards were stunned by the creature that appeared out of thin air.

Most of them ran out of the room in shock and horror. Agnes did not care, it almost looked as if she had gone berserk.

"You always ruin everything! I’ll kill you, Sierra Bancroft, I’ll kill you!" Agnes lunged forward.

It seemed as if her form was constantly changing. The more they fought, the less human she became. Sierra never knew Agnes had such power within her. Something felt off. She remembered Roxine’s warning.

’I can’t hold this form for much longer,’ Opal told Sierra through telepathy.

Opal had done her best to defend Sierra, but it wasn’t enough. Agnes was too agile, her quick moves and slashes injured Opal. She could not heal properly either, not without being close to a water source.

’Opal, return to me,’ Sierra called out through their mind link.

Shifting back to her snake form, Opal slithered over to Sierra, who’d made it to the door during the right. Once Opal was in her possession, Sierra made a run out of the room and into the open courtyard.

Opal was bleeding out from her wounds and she needed to get her to safety. There, they could devise another plan. However, before they could get very far, Sierra felt searing pain on the back of her head.

"You’re not going to get away! Not after what you’ve done!" Agnes yelled.

Sierra cursed beneath her breath as she collapsed onto the ground. Her vision began to blur. Sierra sensed a foreboding presence near her. She wanted to look up, to see who it was. But another hit to the head caused her to black out. The last she could hear was Opal calling out to her through the mind link.

~

Alistair looked all around him. The last thing he remembered was hearing voices around him. Something about a conspiracy against him. He was in an unfamiliar space, all in white. There was nothing to ground his direction.

"Where am I?" he wondered to himself.

"Sierra!" he whispered her name, as he remembered what he was supposed to do.

He was supposed to be on his way to Cair, for Sierra’s coronation and their wedding. What was he doing in this vast infinite space? As he kept running, hoping to find something to point him in the right direction, it soon became clear that there was nothing.

Alistair stopped in his tracks, gasping for air as he looked all around him.

"Sierra!" He yelled out at the top of his lungs.

"Alistair!" he heard her yell his name.

Her voice sounded strained. It sounded desperate.

He pinpointed the source of the sound and ran in that direction, all while calling out Sierra’s name. But no matter how far he went, he did not seem to be getting any closer to her. He did not get any further either.

"Sierra! Where are you?!"

"Alistair! I’m here! Where are you? Alistair!" Sierra’s voice echoed all around.

The next time Alistair opened his eyes again, he realized he was no longer in that dreamscape of nothingness. He was back in reality. His head was muddy and his vision was still a little blurry but eventually everything came into focus.

"Your Majesty, How are you feeling?" Dygo asked as he looked down at him.

Vy heaved a sigh of relief as she ended the healing spell she had cast when Alistair stirred awake.

"I... you’re... Sierra..." he tried to get back up on his feet but to no avail.

He felt as if all the strength he had left his body. He could barely sit up straight without support. He also felt a cool surface beneath his fingers. That was when Alistair realized he was lying on a crystal bed.

It was a bed carved out of rose quartz, used to accelerate healing.

"What happened?"

Shadow guards were keeping watch around them. Alistair realized they were in a hut.

"You’ve been out for a while it seems," Vy explained. ƒrēewebnovel.com

Based on the information she had gathered from the shadow guards and from Alistair’s condition, Vy was able to piece together a rough story. She explained her hypothesis of the situation to Alistair.

He listened intently as he recovered his strength. He recalled the incense he had smelled in his room, realizing it was likely the culprit that resulted in the fiasco they were in now.

"This is all my fault," Alistair confessed through gritted teeth, "I should have been more careful."

Vy shook her head, "It isn’t and there’s no use blaming yourself now. We need to find Sierra as soon as possible. That should be our goal."

"Sierra? She’s here?" Alistair perked up immediately upon hearing her name.

He recalled the mysterious dreamscape he was in mere moments ago. It served as a strong reminder that should things go awry, they may be separated forever. He was not about to let that happen.

"She went to save you, thinking you were in the King’s Quarters. But you were moved away by your shadow guards. They could not convince her to leave with them so she remained to stall the soldiers."

Vy glanced over to the shadow guards who were patrolling the hut outside, "Based on what they’ve told us, Sierra has been captured. But we don’t know where they’ve placed her."

There was still so much uncertainty about the situation it was getting frustrating. Alistair knew what he had to do. He had to go back and rescue Sierra. He owed her too much. He missed her coronation and their wedding.

He had a lot to make up for.