The crown prince's residence was a grand, three-storey palace, about as big as our dormitory. It has a square structure with a courtyard in the middle and round towers at each of its four corners.
We were planning to get closer to it, but there were actual knights guarding the place. They were stationed in the towers and walked along the battlements as if waiting for an enemy to appear at any second.
"Man, no wonder all the prince's apprentices never get to leave this place alive..." said Arman in a low voice as we sat at the edge of the woods closest to the front gates of the crown prince's palace.
"Did you see?" asked Elliot. "Those knights actually have crossbows! They could just aim at us as soon as they notice that we're spying on them."
"What do we do now, Pat?" Cat asked me with a worried frown on his face.
"first, we observe."
"But we've been doing that for hours!" groaned Arman who rolled on the picnic blanket Elliot placed on the grassy ground. "Won't those knights get suspicion?"
"Should anyone question us, we could simply say that we decided to spend the lovely afternoon, having a picnic underneath the sun."
"But, how long do we need to wait?" asked Cat. "The sun is already beginning to set!"
"Do you see that group of knights on the battlements walking towards the left tower?"
"Yes," Cat and Arman replied.
"They are about to change their shift."
"Oh, since the clock tower just struck six, it means they're going to have dinner!" said Cat.
"That means, they would be busy for a bit as they give a status report to the new shift," said Elliot.
"They must have told the new guards that we've been staying here for more than three hours now," mumbled Arman.
"True, but the new guards won't notice it if some of us go missing."
"What makes you so sure?" Arman asked with a frown.
"Because they are knights and we are merely a group of silly students having a picnic." I stood up and straightened my clothes.
"Cat and I are going in," I told the other two. "Once we leave, I want you to wait for three minutes, then leisurely pack up all the stuff and go back to the dormitories. Try to do it as loudly as you can."
"What? You want us to just leave you two behind?!" Arman asked in disbelief.
"Are you sure about this, Pat?" worried Elliot.
"Yes. I usually do this when I want to visit the library in town," I assured them. "Grown-ups tend to look down on children, and a knight who just came to work has a couple or so rituals before they actually get on with the job."
I looked at the tower.
The two relieved guards had gone down a stairway. The pair had left two new knights behind while four others walked towards the towers at the back.
The new knights have now entered the tower.
They are probably brewing some tea or having a little chat before they decide to walk the battlements again.
"Let's go, Cat."
I held on to Cat's arm and led him behind a thick tree trunk. We both wore gray cloaks and pulled our hoods over our head. I then chanted a little prayer over him.
"Stay silent, the spell will break if you utter a word," I warned him. "Remember that we're only here to observe. We can't save anyone with the kind of security in this place, and we won't survive if you don't listen to me."
Cat stared at me with his big blue eyes and repeatedly nodded while covering his mouth with both hands.
"We shall be leaving now," I called out to our two friends.
"Good luck, and may the goddess guide you," Elliot told us, kissing his fore and middle finger together as a sign of reverence to the goddess.
"Go look for that friend of yours, Cat!" said Arman.
I chanted the prayer over myself next, before I took Cat's hand and walked him over to our picnic area. Our two friends remained sitting there, unable to notice us. Arman was even counting the seconds before they need to pack up.
We went on our way, walking along the edge of the forest's shadows, until we reached the path that led inside the prince's palace.
"Let's go back, I'm getting sleepy!" I heard Elliot call out from our picnic site.
"But our friends just left for the toilets, we should wait for them to come back," Arman answered him.
"We'll probably run into them on our way back."
Next was the sound of dishes being cleared and Arman complaining that there was no trash can around the place.
I looked at the tower and saw the guards on thebattlements,watching them pack their things away. It was the perfect time to cross the wide lawn.
Hand in hand, I walked with Cat in tow and kept my eyes on the open gates. We are really lucky that the resident of this palace thinks too highly of himself. It has been open the whole day, and we were hoping that it would remain so, until we leave after looking around the place for Lycan.
Cat's hand felt clammy in mine.
I bet he's really nervous right now, especially since we need to pass a yawning guard who's busy scratching a zit on his chin.
I heard him give a soft sigh when we went pass the portcullis and made our way to a lush garden in the courtyard.
We tried our best not to make a sound in the cobbled walkway. I looked around the area. There is a hall to the right with a grand staircase covered in a luscious red carpet. We decided to head there and check the rooms upstairs. We were on the second floor when we found two man servants pushing a cart along. I pointed them at Cat and we followed them together.
"Hurry up," the elder of the two told his companion. "They say his highness is in a dark mood today. I want to be out of this place before he returns."
"Why? What went wrong this time?" the other asked sarcastically.
"They said he didn't get the goddess' blessing," the elder said with a snort.
"No wonder there," the other chortled, "as if a monster like him would ever receive the goddess' favor!"
"Hey, not so loud, the walls have ears, you know. You won't get to find another job that pays as well as this one does."
"Hmph," the other replied as he stopped his cart in front of one of the rooms. "I'd gladly leave if he'd let me. My heart can't take much of this place anymore."
The older one took a ring of keys hanging from his left hip and opened the door. Inside was an ordinary room furnished adequately with a fireplace, a chamber pot, a table and a four post bed, and tied to that four post bed with a golden chain wrapped around his right ankle, was a tall, beautiful man with long silver hair.
"Dinner is roast salmon with chives and lemon," said the older servant with the cart as he took a golden dish and placed it on a table near the bed.
I noticed the man's chain was only long enough to reach his food on the table, not the fireplace, nor the door that was kept locked.
"Thank you," replied the man in a cool voice. "has anything new happened in campus?" he asked calmly.
"High highness asked for the goddess' blessing today," the younger servant told him.
"Yet he didn't receive any?" The beautiful man chuckled and drank from a golden goblet he was handed with.
"Please leave the dishes on the table when you finish," said the older servant, ignoring his remark.
"As always," the man replied. His carefree attitude tells me he's been here for quite some time now.
We followed the servants once more, going from one room to another until we came to a room with a red cross mark on its door.
"Brace yourself now, no guessing what he'll hurl at us this time," said the older one.
"I'm ready."
They opened the door, cautiously peeped inside, and quickly closed it again.
We heard something crash and shatter on the other side.
"See if it's safe to come in now," the elder asked his companion a minute later.
"You do it!"
"I already did it the first time!"
The younger servant sighed and peeped inside the room this time. There were no more crashing sounds, just a chain of explicit words that would make your ears bleed.
"Yeah, yeah, you keep shouting the same curses all day, well, have we dropped dead yet?" they mocked the person inside. "Now look here, it's either you eat your food or you starve to death, we're just doing our jobs, you hear?"
"Damn you! Vile demons who sold your souls to the devil! I shall kill you as soon as I kill your master!" said a hoarse voice from inside.
Cat and I took a cautious peek, careful of any flying debris that might fly out, and saw a room much like the others, but this one was full of broken furniture, as well as pieces of broken glass all over the floor.
"Hand me a broom, Tom, we need to clean this place. His highness would get out heads if his new found pet tries to cut him again."
My eyes widened when I looked at the bed.
Crouching at its farthest corner was the neophyte Darius.
His blond hair was matted with blood and there were bruises on his face. He wore a long nightgown stained with blood as well, and his golden chain was clasped on his left ankle, since his right was bandaged and bleeding.
I have a bad feeling that he tried to chew it off.
"You could be sure I'll kill him this time!" Darius spat out in a ragged voice. "I'll never let him touch me again! I'll kill him before he does, then I'll kill you next!"
He was raging mad.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Why don't you just kill yourself right now and save us all the trouble?" they mocked him.
"I won't die before I kill all of you bastards!"
I looked away from the scene and saw Cat crying silently behind the door. I guess I shouldn't have let him look inside the room.
The apprentices in the previous rooms we've been to seem to have already accepted their fate. Some of them, like the first one we met, were already indifferent to their situation. Others tried to beg once, but no more, while a couple simply wept while the servants placed their food on their table.
I begin to wonder, just how long does it take to kill all the fight from a person?
How long until you realize that you are stuck in hell?
I looked back at the filthy room. Again, I entered his chamber, and quietly made my way to his bed. I reached out and touched the end of the chain tied to one of the posts and said a silent prayer.
Darius' eyes rolled wildly at my direction.
I froze, thinking that my inconspicuous spell has ceased working, but his eyes went pass me.
I hazard to reach the end bound to his feet, and said the same spell to weaken its lock.
Darius kept still.
Slowly, I moved away and made my way back to the door where I said the same spell on the doorknob before pulling Cat away with me.
I pointed towards the staircase going down.
Cat shook his head vigorously.
He didn't want to leave yet.
I sighed and pointed upstairs.
He nodded back at me.
But how would we be able to look at each and every locked room without the servants' help? When waiting for them to cater to every room would take up too much time?
They haven't even finished cleaning Darius' room yet.
Cat pulled me by the hand towards the stairway. We decided to go upstairs and try our luck there, but what awaited us, was worst than what we saw in Darius' room.
We tried all the doors in the hallway, which was of course, all locked, until we went round a corner and heard two other servants talking inside a room.
"He's just asking for it," one said while shaking his head. "He gives them food in golden plates with silver knives and just tells us to leave `em on the table, when he knows damn well the state of mind these kids are in..."
"You mean, the state he's put them in?" said his companion.
I told Cat to stay outside as I peeped inside the room and saw a pale young man with long brown hair wearing a long ruffled blouse stained in red as he bathed in his own blood.
He stared lifeless at nothing, sitting with his back to the foot of his bed, his two wrists ragged from the tarnished silver steak knife still hanging from his left hand.
There were still tear marks in his youthful face.
"How many is it now? Three? Four?"
"This is the 6th."
"Haa... and classes haven't even started yet."
A deep sigh.
"What a waste... what a waste..."
"Just grab hold of his arms, I'll carry his feet."
"In a minute," his fellow servant replied, rubbing his hands together. "Let me just have a taste of this fine nobleman before we take him to the basement," he said with a grin.
"Are you mad?!" the other looked at him in horror. "His highness will kill you if he finds out you touched one of his pets! Be him alive, or dead!"
"Who's gonna tell him?" the maniac knelt before the fallen neophyte and grabbed his knees apart. "Aren't you curious just how good a noble tastes like? I bet they're better than the most expensive whores in the brothel, even though they've already croaked!" he said with a laugh.
"You really are crazy!" his companion laughed with him, yet he just watched as the madman pulled his manhood out and started assaulting the corpse.
"Shit... he's starting to get stiff already!"
I watched in horror, unable to pull my eyes away as he grunted with every thrust.
The lifeless body slid to the ground. His tear stained face tilting to the side, his glazed eyes, staring straight at me.
"Bastards!"
I snapped back to reality as a curse came from the doorway.
"Who's there?!" asked one of the servants as I saw Cat turn away.
They were about to head outside the room when I slipped right out and pulled the door behind me.
Not that it would be of any help, but it was enough to use a sprinting spell and pull Cat towards a dark alcove, several doors away.
We watched as the two servants rushed out of the room and look around the hallway.
"What the devil's name was that?!" one asked the other.
"The hell would I know! I don't see a soul in sight!"
"Not a soul indeed!? It was probably a ghost! One of the hundreds who died here or killed themselves! I tell you! This damned job is gonna drive me mad!"
The man ran towards the staircase after saying this, leaving his crazy companion behind. It seems he'd had enough of this place's madness.
"Hey, wait, you bastard, where the hell are you going?!" the other ran after him while pulling his trousers up.
I waited for a while before I looked down at Cat who has been shaking beneath my cloak.
"Are you okay?" I whispered to him.
He merely nodded while he kept his mouth tightly covered.
"It's okay, they are gone now. But the spell over us had already been broken. I would need to cast it again..."
I chanted the inconspicuous spell once more.
I was almost done with Cat when I noticed something shimmer at the corner of my eye.
I turned to the left just in time to see a shining blade rushing towards us!