Chapter 121

121 Chapter 121 : where are they?

Aiden run his hand through his lush red hair and sighed, his father was right to some extent, they were in a very tricky situation at the moment and didn’t have too many options. But using children? Really? Had it really come to this?

“I understand your difficult position father,” Aiden responded, “this whole situation makes me wonder if I would be able to do the same if I were in your shoes, you truly are a formidable king.”

“I wouldn’t call myself that-”

The Kaiser was cut short when the dinning room door swung open and one of the knights rushed in. The panic on the knight’s face and the large beads of sweat on his forehead made both Aiden and his father rise to their feet.

“What is it?!” The Kaiser ordered, feeling his own panic setting in.

“Your majesty! It’s the humans, they’re attacking Ervelon!”

“What?!” Stefan marched to the knight and grabbed his shoulders firmly, “how did this happen?! Where were the gaurds on duty?!”

“They are the ones who sounded the alarm your majesty,” the knight explained, “there are about three dozen men and they will infiltrate the city any minute now!”

“Damn it!” The Kaiser pushed the knight aside and turned to his son, “you have to stay-”

.....

“No father, I will go with you to fight,” Aiden retaliated, “these are my people too, I’m going to protect them.”

Stefan nodded and called for one of his gaurds, “fetch our armor and prepare the horses now!”

*

“aaaaah! Let go of me!”

“My lady please where are you going?!”

The three maidens desperately tried to pull Estel back to the bed but she used her magic to create a gust of wind, blowing them backwards.

“My lady please!” One of the midwives pleaded, “you’re very fragile right now, you have to lay down, please princess you could hurt the baby!”

“I’m not having this baby without Aiden here!” Estel screamed as she threw gashes of wind towards the women’s direction. “If you won’t get him then I’ll go find him myself!”

One of the midwives chanted a few words under her breath and the door that Estel was marching towards vanished. The angry eleven princess turned around and glared at the woman.

“Let me out of this place!” She yelled, “I am the lady of this house and I just gave you an order! Now let me out!”

“I’m so sorry princess,” the midwife spoke as she prepared to use her magic to hold Estel in place. She would have used a spell to knock her out, but she needed her awake in order to deliver the baby. “forgive me my lady.”

*

When Kaiser Stefan and Aiden arrived at the boarders of Ervelon, they found their soldiers already in formation in rediness for the battle ahead. There were lycan soldiers, dwarve warriors and elf and nosferatu soldiers as well, all led by their kings who were stationed bravely in the front lines.

Stefan and Aiden made their way to the front of the lines to join king Aragon, Dvalin and Edron.

“I hear we expect to engage only about three dozen men,” Stefan questioned Aragon who was adorned in silver elven armor with a sword on his side and a quiver of arrows on his back.

“Aye,” Aragon responded, “I suspect they are spies sent to scout us out and send word back to their kingsom of our location and our military strategy.”

“Hence we should leave no man alive,” Edron spoke with a blood thirsty grin. He, like the rest of his soldiers, wore no armor, he only curried with him a small dagger on his side. Being a lycan, amor would only slow him down, and his weapons were his fanged teeth amd sharp claws.

“We shouldn’t give them the chance to take back any information about us,” Dvalin commented as he pulled his double large swords from their sheaths. “I have been waiting to stick my blades into these selfish bastards for a long time.”

Stefan swayed his hand upwards and his long thin black blade moved out of its sheath and positioned itself in front of him. “It’s been a long time coming,” he spoke, “let’s send a message to these filthy humans that we are not the kind to cower and hide.”

Aragon pointed his sword forward and took a deep breath before ordering his men to charge at the top of his lungs.

The horns of war sounded and cries of battle echoed across the mountains of Ervelon. The Lycans transformed into large wolves and darted forward, the nosferatu spread their massive wings and swooshed towards the enemy while others moved swiftly through the air. The elves and the dwarves gave them cover from behind while riding on horses and large wild bores.

It didn’t take long for the sounds of clashing swords and tearing flesh to fill the air. The lycans and the nosferatu were merciless, ripping the enemy’s heads clean off their shoulders with their powerful wings, claws and jaws. The elves and the dwarves fired arrows and used their blades to pierce and skewer through the flesh of the enemy.

Mere minutes into battle and the number of humans had already halved, it was a one sided battle and the humans were on the losing end.

Aiden flapped his large black wings and sent some men flying with the gust of wind his wings produced. He moved from one human to another in a swift motion that was almost invisible to the human eye, snapping their necks with his bare hands and plunging his dagger into their throats.

“We’re outnumbered! Fall back!”

Aiden zoomed in on the man who was ordering the humans to retreat and swayed his hand forward making his dagger fly towards him, it plunged right into the human’s forehead. “Oh no you don’t,” Aiden rasped.

He pulled his hand backwards and his dagger pulled out of the man’s skull back into his palm, leaving the man to fall off his horse and land on a sharp peice of wood that thrust right through his chest.

He turned around and saw the rest of his allies finishing the humans off and felt proud. This was the beginning of a new dawn for them, never again would they fall victim to the selfish race of humans.

When the battle was all but over, Aiden walked slowly towards his horse passed the soldiers who were piling the bodies of dead humans and setting them on fire. He grimaced at the grotesque site, blood everywhere and the smell of death wafting in the air. Battle was not something he enjoyed, but he had learnt that it was something that sometimes could not be avoided.

As he made his way to his father and the rest of the kings, he saw a knight frantically trying to explain something to the kings, and the look of dread on their faces made his blood go cold. Had something gone wrong? Hadn’t they killed all the humans who had attacked? Aiden flapped his wings and landed where his father and the other kings were standing.

“What’s going on?” He questioned the men who were now fully panicked

“How could we have missed them?!” Stefan yelled at the knight.

“It seems a few went around our boarders your majesties,” the knight explained frantically, “it seems their mission was to catch the kings off guard, I’m assuming they thought you wouldn’t be in the front lines. They infiltrated Ervelon and raided the palace.”

“Which palace?” Aiden asked the knight. As far as he was concerned, the other kings lived in castles within the town and those could hardly be called palaces. There was only one palace in Ervelon and Aiden prayed in his heart that it wasn’t the palace the knight was talking about.

He lunged at the knight and lifted him by the shoulders, “answer me!” He bellowed in a menacing voice that managed to send chills even down his own father’s spine.

“The.. the marble palace your grace...” the knight muttered between strained breaths.

Aragon’s heart dropped, Aiden’s face paled, and Stefan, Edron and Dvalin’s eyes bulged.

Without a second thought or wasting anytime to hear what more the knight had to say, Aiden spread his large wings and zipped out of sight towards the palace. As he flew, his heart was beating wildly and threatening to leap out of his throat. He prayed his Estel was safe, please let her be safe.

If anything happened to her he was sure he would go utterly mad. After she had begged him to stay by her side that day countless times, he wished he had defied his father and been there when all of this happened. Gods please let her be alright.

The white palace came into view and Aiden almost lost flight when he saw the knights helping the maids out of the palace. There were blood stains on the marble floor and walls, broken pieces of furniture and a few dead humans and one elven knight laying on the ground.

Aiden landed and rushed passed the crowd straight toward his and Estel’s sleeping chambers, praying to every deity in existence that he would walk in there and see her beautiful face smiling up at him.

“My prince wait!” A voice called out to him from behind, but he paid no heed to whoever was calling out to him. His only goal now was to see Estel, to see that she was okay and safe.

“Your grace please!” The voice called again, and this time it was followed by footsteps running towards him.

Aiden kicked the door of his chambers open and rushed in, “kitty!” He yelled and scanned the room but it was empty. “Estel!” There was a heartbreaking desperation in his voice that he didn’t even care to hide.

The nosferatu prince moved through the room opening drawers and searching every corner until he stopped at their bed and instantly felt his heart stop. There was a pool of blood on the bed that trailed towards the doorway, he slowly followed the trail and noticed two small bloody footprints along with it, those were Estel’s beautiful little feet, there was no doubt about it.

He stopped where the trail of blood ended and noticed something shimmering on the spot. He couched down, picked it up and gasped when he noticed it was the betrothal bracelet he had given Estel, his beautiful wife to be.

A knight rushed into the room and saw the prince kneeling in a pool of blood with a golden bracelet in his hand. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and splattering on the stained floor below. When Aiden looked up, his eyes were crimson red and his pupil had become a narrow dark slit in his eyes.

“Where are they?” He rasped as his finger nails and fangs lengthened, “where is my wife and child?!”