Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Oathbreakers

Chapter 19

Oathbreakers

Lucy held her breath as each of the weird-looking dudes from earlier emerged from the northern woods one by one.

Was this the princess’s royal guard?

If they were supposed to be protecting her, then why did she look so terrified of them?

Two small lights glowed blue in the dark behind the ice princess. Each of the lights split in two and shot at each of her wrists, catching her completely unaware.

“Oh come on!” she yelped as the small electrical lamps on the black bands glowed red. “Not again!”

“I’m sorry, princess,” said the tallest of them all. He dropped his hood and revealed a bald, tattooed face. “It’s just precautionary.”

Seriously, who wears robes and caped armor in this day and age? Aren’t they supposedly from a planet far more advanced than ours?

Why was their fashion still stuck in the middle ages?

And did they just cuff their own princess? She didn’t look happy about it.

If they had turned on her, then…

So she was telling the truth, after all. She was actually trying to protect Alex.

And it was her who’d broken Alex out of whatever prison these guys were holding him in.

What in the world was going on here?

And why the hell were they after Alex?

“No!” yelled Aiden. “Give him back!”

Aiden was right beside her a second ago. But now, he was already past the ice witch and deep into enemy territory, heading straight for Alex.

How in the world did he get there so fast?!

“Aiden, no!” Lucy screamed.

But Aiden couldn’t hear a thing. Or refused to listen to her even if he did.

Dammit! Sometimes he could be a real stubborn brat!

Aiden made a run for it, albeit with a limp. The robot blob prepared to enter battle mode.

None of the weird dudes even so much as flinched. They weren’t at all threatened by Aiden or the blob.

When he was about a good twenty meters away, something big and burly cut him off.

He wasn’t particularly tall himself; he’d be about five feet and ten inches at best. But he easily towered over the five-foot-one Aiden.

“Now, now, where do you think you’re headed, young warrior?” said the burly dude mockingly. “You didn’t think we would just let you have him, did you?”

“Of course not,” said Aiden.

And with that, he opened with a straight punch, aiming below the burly dude’s broad chest.

“Ho, ho,” he chuckled, easily pivoting out of the way of Aiden’s attack. “You don’t mess around, do you?” He revealed his square teeth in a wide and sinister smile. “I like that!”

Aiden switched to throwing a flurry of punches at the burly dude in quick succession, but he was way too slow for him. The brute dodged each of his attacks effortlessly.

“Ah, kid!” His face lit up as he continued to dodge the slow punches. “I can tell you’ve got heart! Your leg’s busted, but you’d still give your all to protect your friend. Now that is respectable.”

“Just… shut up!” Aiden shouted as he continued to miss. “And take a hit… like a real man!”

The burly dude suddenly stood still. Aiden’s punch landed square between his chest and abdomen.

The brute did not budge. Aiden yelped in pain as his own attack hurt him more than it hurt his enemy.

The robot blob transformed into what looked like a transformer with a bazooka. He was about to fire, when Clark’s whispered voice startled Lucy, “Blob, no! Stand down!”

Clark fell silent as he sent the mental command to blob, who, after a split second of hesitation, angrily powered down.

Was he finally listening to Clark? Or had one of the enemies managed to hack and disable it, somehow?

If that were the case, it had to be that bald dude who did it. He seemed to be the most powerful of the lot, and their leader. She must find a way to take him out while he’s distracted.

The burly dude swiped his leg behind Aiden’s and knocked him off balance. As Aiden hit the ground on his back, the brute dug his fists straight down into his belly.

“Aiden!” Lucy tensed up and prepared to charge.

“Kormac, that’s enough!” yelled the princess.

But Clark’s watch buzzed sharply on her wrist. “Lucy, wait! We don’t want to escalate this.”

“We need to do something, Clark! Aiden is literally getting hammered!”

“The brute’s just playing with him,” Clark explained. “If he wanted to kill Aiden, he would have tried it already. And trust me, if he’s ever in any real risk of death, I’ll fry the brute’s brains before he can land the finishing blow.”

“You can do that from here?”

“Of course I can,” said Clark. “But what happens after? We cannot take these guys, I’m sure of it. And that there on the princess’s wrists, that’s a pair of magic suppressing cuffs. Which means she can’t help us either!

“So… we need to avoid all-out war. Let the brute toy with him for a little, while Aiden cools down.

“Besides,” Clark’s tone turned curious, “I do want to observe this.”

The brute named Kormac slowly stepped away from a grounded Aiden. He looked satisfied, but also a little confused. “So… had enough?”

Aiden got back on his feet with immense struggle. “I’m just warming up,” he coughed.

The brute smiled. “Here it comes then. I promise I won’t go easy this time!”

“Clark!” Lucy pleaded him.

“Relax!” said Clark. “Aiden’s not done yet.”

The brute charged him. Aiden was panting. He looked like he wanted to move out of the way, but…

But he couldn’t.

“Kormac, stop!” yelled the princess, as Kormac the brute was about to meet his target.

But then… it all happened too fast.

Kormac pounced and connected with an unmoving Aiden. But in the nick of time, Aiden seemed to have moved out of the way.

Because the charging brute was expecting contact but didn’t find any, he was caught off guard and lost balance. He then slammed into the ground behind Aiden with a thud, dragging dirt and snow along with him, completely disoriented.

Aiden slowly turned around, limping on his bad foot and massaging his injured arm. Now, it was Aiden who towered over the downed brute.

What. Just. Happened?

Had Aiden pulled off a fancy, last-second dodge that caught the brute completely off guard?

No… it wasn’t anything like that.

It was exactly like that night against that psycho gunslinger. When the bullets simply passed through him.

Was this his super power? Turning unhittable—untouchable, even—if only for a few seconds?

“Incredible,” Clark breathed.

The guard holding the reins to Alex’s ice-bed burst into laughter. “No way!” He slapped his forehead. “Has the great Kormac finally been bested? By a child?!”

“Never!” said Kormac playfully, climbing back to his feet and spitting dirt out of his mouth. “I don’t go down that easy!”

There was a hint of scorn in his tone, though. Despite trying to seem all non-chalant and sportsmanlike, he really didn’t like it when it was him on the ground.

“Stop it now,” yelled the princess. “Stop with the stupid, boyish, tomfoolery!”

Kormac didn’t seem to take his princess’s commands seriously. With a manic smile on his face, he prepared for another charge.

Aiden looked at his bull of an opponent nervously. He wasn’t sure whether he could pull the same move off twice in a row.

“Clever tricks can only take you so far, young warrior,” said Kormac. “Ready or not, here I come.”

He was about to launch. But was stopped from a loud sound of cracking, shattering ice slabs.

And the sound of a body dropping to the ground with a loud thud.

All of the princess’s royal guard split away from Alex’s ice bed, which had a hole in the middle now.

Alex picked himself up from the ground, and with immense struggle and seemingly in excruciating pain, he finally managed to stand straight on his own two feet.

“Knights!” commanded the bald leader of this pack of weirdo guards. “Take positions around the target. Dale and Chet, ready the aural prison.”

Wow. They genuinely seemed terrified of Alex.

Guess they saw what he could do, huh?

Hot puffs of steam shot out of Alex’s red-hot body. His t-shirt was halfway through melting away.

Shit. Was he about to burst into flames once again?

Was that good or bad for us?

Alex managed to take one step forward with extreme difficulty. Hot steam continued to blow out of his body.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Then, he managed to barely utter three words in a croaked growl: “Don’t… hurt him!”

The puffs of white-hot steam suddenly stopped. His body stopped glowing and his eyes rolled back, before he lost all balance and fell forward, about to slam his face into the hard ground.

“I got you,” said one of the guards who’d been awkwardly silent thus far, as he caught Alex in both arms right before he made contact with the dirt.

“Damn, you are still so hot!” The guard gently put him down on the ground, while rapidly placing his palms on and off on Alex’s body one by one, as though juggling a hot kettle with bare hands. The grass in the small area around Alex’s resting body resting was scorched.

The royal knights dropped their guard and tensed-up shoulders.

“Malti!” boomed the robed leader. “I thought you said he wouldn’t come to for a week!”

“Forgive me, Master,” said the guard named Malti. “I’m just as surprised as you are. His body was healing at a snail’s pace just a few minutes ago.”

“Clearly not,” said the guard who’d been holding the reins to Alex’s ice bed. His ice whip was now melted away, along with the bed.

“I need time,” said Malti. “Time with him… to figure out what’s happening to his body.”

The Master clenched his cheek in a small grin. “That you will get plenty of, on our way back.” He waved at his subordinates. “Come on now.”

“But our battle was interrupted!” said Kormac the brute.

My god, thought Lucy. Can you believe this guy?

“Enough, Kormac!” boomed his master. “You wanted to test their mettle, and you have. Now stand down.”

“But it’s not over yet. It was just starting to get fun!”

“Silence,” said the Master. “It is time to go. We have what we need.”

Lucy didn’t know what to do. Aiden was in no condition to fight. She had no idea how she’d measure against these literal alien wizards without having any idea of what her powers are, or when will they wake.

If Clark and Blob didn’t have an ace in the hole, then this was it.

They were going to take Alex. Off planet, this time.

And we can’t do anything about it.

Then came the princess’s voice with newfound confidence, “Do we really, Master Korne?”

She stood in the middle of the arena now, facing her master with a confident grin; her hands free of the magic-suppressing cuffs.

Master Korne slowly turned to face the princess. “You seem to have learned new tricks, Kairin. Tricks I don’t remember teaching you.”

“Perhaps,” said Kairin. “Or perhaps I made new friends.”

The robot blob woofed.

“We thought the cuffs used some arcane magic at first,” Clark whispered to a confused Lucy. “Which they may still, I don’t know. But the locks were just tech. And if it was just tech, well…”

The blob wagged its tail excitedly, perhaps in response to some virtual head-patting by Clark.

“So what now?” asked Master Korne. “You intend to fight me, and your old friends, in defense of your new? In defense of this?” He disdainfully pointed at Alex’s unconscious body.

“I intend no such thing,” said Kairin. “I respect the decades of experience and knowledge and wisdom you have over me, Master. I respect you and I always have. And I know I cannot best you.”

Master Korne’s expression remained unchanged. He was waiting, patiently, for Kairin to make her point.

“But in all your great wisdom, you seemed to be missing something,” Kairin continued. “Something crucial.”

Master Korne’s eyes slightly narrowed. “Enlighten me, Princess Kairin.”

“You grew up with my father, Master Korne,” said Kairin. “You know, better than anyone, how stuck up he is about his rules, and his laws!”

“Do not speak ill of Cahrim’s laws, princess. They are sacred!”

“I only speak ill of my father’s laws,” said Kairin.

“Your father’s laws are Cahrim’s laws!”

“Exactly,” said Kairin. “And you of all people should know: He does not take well to traitors… or oathbreakers.”

Now Master Korne’s expression changed. He immediately fell silent; his hurting eyes staring deep into Kairin’s.

“Father!” shouted Kormac the brute; who, apparently, was the Master’s son. “What is she talking about?”

“How are we the traitors?” asked Dale with the ice lasso, unconvinced. “We’ve done nothing but follow your command!”

The other two, Malti and Chet, remained quiet.

“Father, is this true?” Kormac gently asked the bald leader, which apparently was his father.

“Why don’t you tell them?” asked Kairin. “I know my father just as much as you, Master Korne. You know how he will see everything that transpired here.”

Master Korne’s eyes dropped to the ground. Everyone waited with bated breath for him to speak again.

He finally raised his head again. “You speak true, Princess Kairin.”

The rest of the guards were in uproar.

“This is madness!” cried Kormac.

“She’s bluffing, isn’t she?” said Dale, moving from disbelief to denial.

“She’s not bluffing, you dumbass,” the knight who had been listening silently so far finally spoke. His face a striking resemblance to Dale’s. A twin? “Master Korne just confirmed it. Now, please, remain quiet and listen!”

Master Korne, with his eyes still locked on Kairin, took a deep breath in. His expression was kinder now. “I only kept it from them because it has nothing to do with them. They broke no oaths. They followed my command, and that is all.”

“Good luck convincing my father of that,” said Kairin. “No way is he buying that argument. ‘Grown Knights they are’, he’d say.” She mocked her father’s voice. “‘They should have known the difference between a simple command and an oathbreak!’”

“‘Is this how they expect to defend the Kingdom or act upon the battlefield?’” She went on to really shoehorn in the point. “‘Mindless drones, the whole lot of them!’”

“Oh krishctik!” yelped Dale with both his hands on his head. “Oh we’re so screwed now!”

“Calm down you twat!” His twin brother threw a small cone of ice at him.

“Only I can convince him,” said Kairin decisively. “And I won’t return home with my hands cuffed. Not that you’re ever catching me off-guard a third time.”

“Surely, you are not that naïve yourself, princess,” said Master Korne. “To presume that you can change your father’s mind.”

“I know I can,” said Kairin. “Because I know how. I will give him the one thing he always wanted—me on the throne of Cahrim. I will give up all my work, and my pursuits that he thinks are so unworthy of me, and I will focus only on the Kingdom. I will rule Cahrim right by his side.

“Now you tell me, Master Korne, if that won’t convince him of anything I want.”

Master Korne the wise was silenced. His eyes had now turned even more painful.

Was he actually sad for Kairin?

“Very well,” he continued in a deep voice, “Surely you want something in return.”

“I will help you fulfill your mission of bringing me home,” said Kairin. “In return, I want you to help me fulfill mine, first.”

“And what is that?” said Master Korne. “Your friend’s freedom?” he pointed at Alex again.

“Yes,” said Kairin. “But that’s just part of it. And you are not to pursue him, or harm him or his friends here, in any way.”

“Granted,” said Master Korne. “What else?”

Kairin gulped before continuing. Her tone was now pleading rather than demanding. “Something terrible is going on here, Master Korne. This planet and its people… they are in grave danger.”

“What do you expect us to do about it?”

“Stand with them in defense of their home,” said Kairin with a determined gaze.

Master Korne’s eyes narrowed again. “And continue breaking our oaths?”

“Hey, you’ve already broken them once,” said Kairin. “It’s not like you can be punished again for the same crime.”

“And besides,” Kairin continued, “if you help me do this, there will be no punishment at all. You have my word, Master Korne.”

“I don’t doubt your heart, Kairin,” Master Korne kindly. “I only suspect that it might be in the wrong place.”

Kairin smiled and broke into a small laugh. “Says the man who gave the command to take down the ape!”

“I don’t understand, Father,” Kormac cut in. “How are we traitors now?”

“We are not traitors,” explained Master Korne. “We are oathbreakers.”

“But how?” Kormac pushed on. “We did the right thing. We took down the demon ape!”

“And that is exactly why,” Kairin told him. “Your mission was to locate me and bring me home, unharmed. It was not to interfere with the demonic invasion of Earth.”

“And killing the ape was doing exactly that,” Malti breathed as the realization hit him. So these were the guys who took down the demon ape! Not Alex and Kairin.

“Correct, Malti,” she smiled at him proudly. “We have a pact—or, at least, my father does—with the Demon Worlds, as I’m sure you all already know. Malti and Jovar know this is one of the major reasons why I ran away in the first place.”

“Your father has his reasons. The pact is meant to maintain peace and the balance of power—” Master Korne began.

But he was cut off by Kairin. “It’s a load of yak dung and you know it!” Master Korne’s lips pursed in defeat. “You know it, don’t you, Master Korne? You don’t believe in this false peace any more than I do! That is why you gave the command to kill the ape. You could have just grabbed me and fled instead.”

Master Korne glared at Kairin with painful eyes.

“But in your heart, you knew it was the right thing to do,” said Kairin. “The problem, however, is that you falsely believe that my father would spare your subordinates and punish only you. And I’m telling you, Master Korne, that that is where you are wrong!”

Master Korne was silent. Kairin had figured him all out perfectly.

Damn she was smart, thought Lucy. What luck to have her on our side!

Master Korne closed his eyes and hung his head. He was surely going over everything in his head, carefully weighing all angles.

What will he decide?

Lucy must prepare for the worst. She must think of some kind of a contingency.

Everyone stared at him in tense anticipation. No one dared utter a sound.

Finally, Master Korne raised his head. “Very well, Princess Kairin. I, along with my fellow Knights of Cahrim, will defend Earth against the demons. We will answer their call for help. We will ensure—to the best of our capacity—that they are capable enough to stand against whatever it is that’s coming their way. You have my word.”

Kairin let go a huge sigh of relief and dropped to her knees. She was smiling, as sparkling tears escaped her eyes and turned to mist in the cold air. “Thank you, Master Korne!” she cried. “Thank you!”

Malti smiled and began tending to Alex. Kormac and the twin knights, Dale and Chet, dropped their shoulders and eased up.

“Phew,” Clark whispered to Lucy. “Looks like we can ease up too.”

“You sure?” Lucy asked him.

“I’m sure,” said Clark. “Cahrim Knights never go back on their word. So no brain-frying lasers needed this time around.”

“Thank god,” Lucy breathed.

“Rise now, dear princess,” said Master Korne kindly. “You must not be the one kneeling.”

“I would if I could,” said Kairin, smiling and panting. “I have… no strength left.”

Master Korne smiled at her and chuckled. “You have so much of your father in you.”

“I think he would have argued much better.”

“Perhaps,” said Master Korne thoughtfully. “But you got the broad strokes right. You are his heir after all.

“But remember Kairin, he would be arguing for the other side. He won’t be happy with whatever you plan to achieve here.”

“I know he won’t be,” said Kairin. “But that’s fine by me. He can add defying interplanetary political pacts in my list of disappointments.”

“Is that what we’ll be doing here now?” said Malti as the other knights gathered around their kneeling princess.

“I’m in!” Kormac told her confidently. “It sounds badass.”

“That’s all that matters in the end, isn’t it?” said Chet to Kormac.

“Hell yeah brother—” Kormac raised his fist at him.

Chet waved him off. “To you.”

Kormac opened his raised fist and dismissed him with a wave. “Forget it. You won’t get it.” He turned to the other twin. “Dale, you feel me, right?”

“I don’t know much about pacts and oaths man,” said Dale. “All I heard was we’ll get to slay some demons.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” They slapped their palms together in an arm-wrestle handshake. “And Jovar, what about you? Wait, where’s Jovar?”

He only now seemed to have noticed his friend’s absence.

“He hasn’t returned yet,” said Malti. “From the tower.”

“He shouldn’t be too far,” said Kormac. “He can fly through this town much faster than any of us!”

“And yet,” said Master Korne. “He’s not here.”

Kormac shut up. “Yeah…” It finally seemed to be getting through to him. “Well, then, something must have distracted him. I wouldn’t be too worried for him, he can look after himself.”

But Master Korne didn’t seem convinced.

Kormac walked over to an injured Aiden, rested on his butt with his knees bent. “Sorry if I went too hard on you, little guy.” He extended his arm to Aiden. “But I did give you the thrill of real combat, now, didn’t I?”

Aiden grabbed his arm and allowed him to lift him up. “You sure did,” he said weakly.

“You’ve got heart, young warrior,” Kormac told him. “Your technique though… now that needs work. And your decision making too; I mean, you never jump a big guy like me with a broken foot. You never jump a big guy like me with or without a broken foot, you hear me?”

Aiden chuckled, rubbing his injured arm. “I hear you.”

“Good bluff though,” said Kormac, “coming at me straight while also keeping that neat trick of yours up your sleeve. Now that was good thinking.”

Aiden glanced at his feet nervously, uncomfortable with the praise he didn’t earn, and confused about what he’d pulled off back there all the same.

“Come see me,” Kormac told him. “Later. If you’d like some real combat training.”

“You got it.” Aiden gave him a firm nod.

A lone figure pushed through the northern woods forcefully. He seemed to be wearing the same kind of medieval-futuristic knight clothing that the others had on, except Master Korne’s robes, of course.

The figure walked toward the group with a slight limp, grasping one of his injured arms with the other. On his way, he almost tumbled and lost balance. But he promptly caught himself and began walking straight.

“There you are!” Kairin seemed to have just noticed him. “I’d like a word with you, Jovar!” She spoke playfully, as though she hadn’t yet noticed the man’s injuries. “Those arrows were way too powerful and too damn close! There was no need to get that serious!”

The injured knight was finally close to the group, and Kairin’s expression switched to that of horror.

“It wasn’t me…” said the injured knight coughing blood. “… who shot at you. It wasn’t me!”