Take Me Away

Chapter summary : Queen Tahira has a unexpected guest, while Shandaar and his group fight for the first time with the resistance faction…

Author’s Notes: The action starts in this chapter, finally ^_^. I think that this is where you can tell I was higly inspired by games for this story… but it’s meant to be action and fantasy flavoured with yaoi. Mmm… yaoi… *drools*

Take Me Away
Chapter 10 – Freedom?

Weeks had passed, and the castle barely had news of the search party; Shandaar’s whereabouts, as well as Ethan’s, were now unknown. The queen’s maternal instincts had woken up once again, and insisted that her son had to be found. More parties had been founded, and one of them just left the castle. She had every intention of seeing Shandaar alive. The man was a fighter and wouldn’t be brought down easily, yet she had a bad feeling about this. What if he had already been killed and his body was hidden somewhere? Where could he be? With who? Was he still healthy? The woman sat back down on her throne, holding her head with her hands. Hell. That’s what it was.

“Don’t worry, my Queen. They are bound to find him at some point…”

“I know. However, I am worried. It is not just the prince we are talking about – he is my son!”

Mothers breaking down were always heartbreaking… and the queen was no exception. Of course no one wanted the prince dead; he was a good boy who didn’t appear to have an ounce of mischief in his body, he was intelligent, good-looking, and promised to a nice princess.

As she looked up to the ceiling, she heard the door opening. A female knight with very long black hair and red eyes had entered the room and only by her face, the queen knew she wasn’t bringing good news.

“My queen, I was just informed by Sir Ethan Darby that the men who held Shandaar have been spotted in Fatshir. The problem is that we don’t exactly now where they’re headed. Could be Logas, Biron, Haiken… even Nael.”

For a second, the woman thought about the Renken kingdom, who hadn’t had contacted them for a while. Whispers could be heard in the room as everyone tried to spot citizens who responded to the descriptions – a man and a woman with red hair, and two other men, one with blue hair, one with green hair - and could be responsible for the kidnapping, but found none. And as much as she was a good queen, she didn’t know every single person in the empire’s vicinity, yet alone the castle. “Find me information of those men you are speaking about. I expect a report in 2 days” she stated, decided to find the leaders and at least lock them away forever. Maybe death sentence would get rid of further problems.

“Alright, my Queen. I shall return.” The knight left, accompanied by a few more guards.

Queen Tahira sat back once again on her throne, massaging her temples. At least, they had a trace of where they would be. Depending on their locomotion means, they could be everywhere in the empire, at least on the continent. The people inside the room had also calmed down and were planning diverse strategies. But this moment of peace didn’t last long… Half an hour later, a male servant came in the room,

“My queen, I have come to inform you of King Rasham Eldor, of the Renken country; his wife, Queen Datherine, and their two daughters, princess Hawa, soon-to-be wife of the Prince, and Princess Irisa.”

It didn’t take the woman a long time to get up once more. This time, she was rather annoyed. The King couldn’t simply warn her before and had to come here right away? At least he wasn’t aware that Shandaar had been taken away, there was always that. But how long would that last?? He’d have to be informed as well, and that wouldn’t be good fir their relations… oh no. “Let him in” she said reluctantly. “I do need to have a discussion with him… and him only. Take the Queen and the Princesses to the guest suites.”

The man scurried away, leaving the Queen alone with the few ministers and guards that were already in the room. Moments after, a curly light blue-blue haired man, wearing a golden and black outfit, sword safely sheathed, made his appearance. He was rather young, maybe in his late 40’s, and was accompanied by two male guards. Twins, as far as the Kadessan queen herself could figure out. She could say he was good-looking, but really… he was an arrogant man. His hobby seemed to be war with other countries.

“Queen Tahira! It is an incredible pleasure to be in your castle! I am truly honored to be in your presence once again.” The blue-haired man bowed deeply in front of the woman, who did the same in return. “I know I should have given a warning on when I was coming, and I am extremely sorry for the inconvenient it will probably cause. Something told me that I should check on my son-in-law. It’s been such a long time I haven’t seen the Prince, and I want to make sure he knows his wife. Where is the youth?”

The raven-haired woman swallowed hard. It wasn’t easy to tell that the young prince had been kidnapped by a resistance faction, but it had to be said. In legality, he needed to be aware of this fact. She hoped that he wouldn’t take it too bad and send armies to search for the man, but that was very improbable. “You see… I will be direct. There is no need for me to lie, after everything we have been going through. The prince has been abducted.”

For the second time, silence fell in the room. King Rasham didn’t know if the tall woman was joking or not, but after seeing the look on her face, he knew it wasn’t a joke. However, how to take this? “Hmph… well you should find him. We cannot wait all of our lives! So what are you waiting for? Have you sent-“

“Of course I sent parties; he’s my son!” The queen’s voice resonated through the room. She knew the other male’s temper was rather short, and that every event was used to declare wars and his reaction wasn’t far from what she expected. “However, you will be able to stay here until we find him.”

“I am grateful for the invitation, but I must refuse. I have other business to attend while waiting. But I expect details on this affair. If I must, I will send search parties as well, and I shall do so right away in my country. It’s quite a long road, but in due time, they shall be informed of this. I do not want something to happen to my son-in-law.”

She barely mentioned that it was better this way; having to deal with the Reken king would be a total pain in the neck. Instead she smiled politely. “Alright. In this case, I will have guards accompanying you to the royal dining room, as well as your family. You must be famished after such a travel.”

“I’ll have my guards do so, do not worry.”

Arrogant on top of this… “Do as you please, King Rasham.”

“Another thing you will not have to worry about. Guards! Take me to the dining room at once!”

-

Hours passed, and Shandaar was now waking up, still in his lover’s arms. “We’re getting close to Biron. We’re not gonna waste time around here…” He felt Kieran moving and opened his eyes as he stretched. “Dagmar, stop here for a second.” The carriage stopped a minute after. “You’re going to have to hide, Shandaar.”

“I could always use the far back of the caravan. Just give me a few blankets. Oh… and take my sword as well.”

The black-haired man got out of the vehicle and walked to the back of it, getting three blankets out of a crate. There was no way he’d sneak the other swordsman in there, for lack of hair, and the last thing he needed was a dead body… especially the one of his boyfriend. He gives them to the swordsman –who in exchange gave the sword over- and crawls behind two of them, and leaves a slight opening for air to come in so he wouldn’t choke. He knew it wouldn’t last if he didn’t make a single noise. There was a muffled “I’m ready” coming from the pile of blankets, signalling the others to get back inside, straight to the end of the town.

Dagmar, Raya and Kieran were greeted at the gate by a man and a woman, both wearing the royal armor and cape. The woman had bright red eyes and brown hair, while the man was silver-haired with purple eyes. It was the man who walked up to the driver, Dagmar, and began to speak to him. “Good afternoon sir, and welcome to the border. How can I help you?”

“We just wanna go to Nael. For 3. Our stuff’s at the back” he casually replied, keeping calm. At the moment there would be a nervous tone in his voice, the guards would decide to do a long search… and that’s something they wanted to avoid at all costs. The pink-haired girl was rather used to lie like that so obviously, remained as she was usual; giggly. The silver-haired guy was cute! As for the other swordsman, he decided to stay quiet, yet was grinning.

This time, the woman spoke. She had a strong Arabic-like accent; obviously a Nael native… “Anything to declare? Weapons?”

Kieran peeked out of the place he was sitting and handed “his” two swords up for the female guard to see. “Got those right here.”

“And I’ve got a pinwheel… and daggers… and probably a few shuriken… hmmmm…” The thief looked up at the woman as well, showing her the goods she had in her possession, while the bearded man agreed to be frisked. After all, he had nothing that would threaten, aside his axe, of course.

The female guard told the remaining two to get off for a second for a deeper search and went to the back of the caravan. Kieran felt his stomach contracting – if they ever fell on Shandaar, they’d sure risk their lives. It was a very dangerous operation, but it was needed. Once they’d be out of Kadessa, they’d be free to do whatever they wanted. The guards probably wouldn’t go as far as Nael anyways; even more, they had no rights passed the border, even though they were employed by royalty. Okay, maybe they would make an exception since the prince was missing…

“Everything in order in the back. Just a few crates full of food, empty ones, and necessary survival things.” Shandaar’s tension level fell down, but resisted sighing.

“And the big guy here is okay as well. Don’t think we need to check on the girl and the other guy?”

“Nah, gonna be fine.” The girl walked back to the front and motioned the group to get inside the caravan so they could take care of the following people. “Have a nice afternoon, sirs and miss. You’re free to go to Nael.”

The raven-haired male was the first one to hop back on, followed by Raya and the bearded axe man. Once they were out of sight, Kieran spoke up, turning to the pile of blankets. “You okay, Shandaar?”

He didn’t have to wait five seconds in order to see the prince’s face popping out of the material, a bit reddish. “Yep. But it’s warm already outside, imagine with the blankets. I think I’ll melt.”

“We don’t have too long to do, but at night, temperature gets lower, sometimes below freezing point. But we’ll do fine. Not the first time I’ve been here. Hey Dagmar! Stop so Shandaar can get back with me.”

The giant obeyed and stopped the horses, taking the time to get up and stretch as the silver-haired youth got off his hiding place. He saw both men hug and quickly kiss before they got back inside the caravan. Too cute… sickening cute. Seeing that they were all ready, he did the same and went back to his place, pulling on the reigns to get the horses moving again. “As Kieran said earlier, we don’t have a long time to go to reach Jaretak… forty-five minutes, an hour. You got some more time to snuggle, don’t worry.”

“Snuggling? I’m too warm for that… sorry Kieran.”

“I’m gonna survive” he answered with a wink. “In a few hours you’ll be cold and I’ll have to warm you up. And you know it.”

-

Jaretak was a nice place, quite busy. The place was made with white stones or cement coated with lime. Not of a lot of color, except on the people’s outfits, mostly women. Men wore white. The women had long, black hair for most, but Shandaar could easily spot strangers. People like Kieran, if they were more tanned, could have easily been mistaken from Nael residents.

“I suggest we play tourists for a few days. Y’know, try new food, new clothes, find new friends, visit cool places. Wouldn’t it be nice? And it would officially introduce Shandaar to the joys of travelling around the world. If he wants, of course.”

The silver-haired swordsman nodded, obviously interested. Indeed, he wanted to know more about different cultures, so what was wrong with spending a week here? Of course the royal army wouldn’t even think of searching here, which meant even less threats. “I find it to be a good idea.”

“Then it’s set, that’s what we gonna do! First of all, food, y’all agree with me eh?” the blonde giant asked, looking around for any sign suggesting that there was a restaurant or an inn. They would indeed need one. “Then we’ll search for an inn, and then we’ll have time to look around.”

For three days, the group looked around. Raya had bought jewellery, once of those being a nice, silver wristwatch, something she had been wanting for a long time. Kieran and Shandaar spent a few hours upgrading their equipment, and the remaining time, they could be spotted holding hands down the streets, where no one apparently seemed to care for the young gay lovers. This was rather new to the young prince, who had been confined to be with his boyfriend only in his bedroom, or in the field close to the castle. Dagmar too did a good upgrade to his axe and armor, had found a cool place to hang out. Other warriors hung out around and were highly interested in his tales, just as he was about theirs.

Shandaar didn’t get sick on the food, amazingly. It was quite spicy, a lot of meat, especially pork meat and its derivatives. They had found a nice little restaurant where they usually ate dinner, getting their breakfast at the inn, and their lunch on the streets.

Then came the time to leave the city, its pale buildings, lively streets and palm trees. After packing their new goods, they were back in the caravan to go to another place. The country being smaller, the outposts were more regular, separated by a few hours or a few days of sandy roads. Nothing like the week it took to reach some of the big cities in Kadessa; but yet again, they hadn’t taken the main road. In this country, they could do so without anything to worry. Never in his life Shandaar had felt that free.

About 10 minutes behind the caravan, the resistance faction was following them. 30 men and women, ready to take on the silver-haired man. Swords, bows and crossbows were their main equipment. Nothing fancy, but destructive. They’d have to be careful, since the prince was accompanied by his friends. At worse, if they all died, there were still some people left, including the leaders. For the first time there would be a fight, Kordell and Karali simply wanted to see what those were capable of. They had simply issued basic tactics to Radwan and Xylon, who would lead the fight.

Quickly, they were able to catch with their victims. The reaction was instant. The caravan stopped as Kieran and Shandaar yelled to Dagmar that they were being followed very close. At first they could only see 5 or 6 men on horses, wielding weapons… but soon, they were outnumbered. There was no move from the bigger group. At the head were a blue-haired spearman and a small swordsman.

“Well. Let’s see what we have here… Prince Shandaar Kandi, right?” the smaller man spoke as the group got out of their vehicle, armed as well. Bad start. He looked at the silver-haired youth, who was shaking his head. “Don’t even deny it. We’ve been following you since the capital.”

Shocked, Shandaar backed a step off, putting himself in a defensive stance. He regretted not having bought a buckler, now it would have come very handy. “I swear you’re mistaken… I’m not a prince… do you really see a prince in these rags?”

Xylon got off the horse, unsheathing in own sword. “When he wants to melt with the population, oh yeah, I’m pretty sure he’d do it. But that’s not my point. We want you, and only YOU to come along, and you won’t be hurt. Got it?”

The prince turned to face his friends, terrified, but doing a good job at hiding it. “Who are they?”

“It’s not like I know” the bearded man said, his eyes scanning the group. Now they were encircled by them. “Well kids, better get ready to fight back, ‘cause they don’t seem in the mood to issue a treaty for that.”

This time the spearman, Radwan, spoke. “Second warning… climb on the horse, princey. We don’t wanna hurt you.”

“I’m not going with you!”

“Then you leave us no choice. GET HIM!” The command had been given from the green-haired pretty boy and most of the attackers jumped off the animals, weapons unsheathed, ready to start an assault. And that’s what they did. Even though Dagmar, Raya and Kieran were used to being ambushed, they had never been implied with large corps like this one, since bandits were usually four or five per group. So these weren’t bandits, and they obviously wanted to do something with Shandaar. Now wasn’t the time to wonder why, however.

To the younger swordsman, it was a new thing to fight against women, his teachers being male, but soon he learnt not to judge books by their covers, as they were as deadly as the men. He also had never been to war himself, and killing was even less in his mind… yet he had no choice if he wanted to get back in town in one piece. When he turned his head back at his team, Raya had already wounded – or killed, he couldn’t tell from his spot – several fighters already, while Dagmar swung his axe around, hitting two women at the same time. Their bodies flew on a short distance. They didn’t get up after, and younger men were dragging them away.

Kieran had walked up to the blue-haired spearman, ready to attack at the second he’d make a move. “Tell me what business you have with Shandaar!” He was welcomed with a spear stab and side-stepped to avoid it, just in time. “Speak up!”

“That’s none of your business, kid. Now drop that toy.” The man was calm and determined. He’d bring the prince alive to his leaders, if he could ever get rid of the pesky adventurer… He stabbed in the guy’s direction a second time, was blocked, and tried sweeping his weapon at his opponent’s legs. Along with a slash, Kieran jumped in order to save his feet, landing about a feet away from his target, who had rolled on the ground.

When Xylon started to fight with their main objective, he realized why Kordell had given them a speech on how this man was dangerous. As he got closer, he could almost see flames in the blue orbs that looked him over, searching for a weak spot. The small swordsman barely wore any armor; a simple sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts were his only garments. His fighting skills seemed to be flawless… every blow he received was blocked, and he too had no buckler.

Most of the soldiers appeared to have run away, been killed or simply K.O.’ed by the thief and the axeman. Their respective weapons were covered with blood, and pieces of bodies could be seen every here and then. If they didn’t die by arms, the intense heat of the desert or blood loss would probably take care of them.

In a moment of distraction, mainly to check how Radwan was dealing with the raven-haired man who had decided to attack him, Xylon’s blade was taken away by a swing of Shandaar’s sword. Unable to really block the upcoming it, his forearms were slashed deeply as he tried to protect his chest. In pain he opened his arms anyways, and was slashed again. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the silver-haired youth’s sword raised above him with a deadly, murderous look.

Feeling something had happened, the spearman blocked the hit and sent Kieran flying a few feet from his position. “XYLON!” Fortunately, the other swordsman hadn’t given him another blow. He pushed his lover’s assailant out of the way as well, who landed on his back, giving him the chance to take a breath at the same time. This was much worse than training… His blood red eyes scanned the area. Most of his troop was unable to fight. There was blood about everywhere, but none on him or on his boyfriend. A good thing. He could see a few steps in the sand and a body at the end of the trail; the guy couldn’t have gone very far in his state. But for now… Xylon was the most important. Fuck the rest. He lifted the smaller figure in him arms, his eyes reverting to the prince, who was back on his feet. Now it was his turn to be surrounded. He could feel the adrenalin rushing to his brain, telling him to get the hell out of this hellhole.

“I swear that if he dies, I’m going to fucking kill you, whether my boss wants it or not, Shandaar” he spat, holding the man over his shoulder with one arm, the other pointing the royal heir with his spear. “We’ll see each other again, you can bet that.” He marked a quick pause before going back to his horse. “MOVE OUT! NOW!” The remaining forces did the same with the horses that hadn’t run away, while some helped others on their feet or carrying dead bodies.

As the faction left the area, Shandaar started to realize what had happened. The only good thing is that they weren’t from the royal army… Kieran went back to him and wrapped his arms around the slightly smaller frame in a protective hug. He felt sorry for his lover to have gone through such a thing. “Thank the gods you’re alright...”

“Alright is maybe a big word. I don’t think I’m wounded too badly, but… what’s happening?”

“No idea. Let’s just go back in town and make sure everyone’s alright. Then we’re off to the next one… Gurrensha.” That was Dagmar’s suggest after seeing the state Shandaar and Raya were. The girl’s outfit was full of blood and she seemed to be on the verge of tears… not of pain or sadness. Rage could be read on her face like in an open book. As for the prince, he was obviously freaked. There had been an attempt to his life, and he had almost killed someone. He wasn’t used to death… anyways not this way.

“Come on, let’s go, Shandaar.” His arms still wrapped around the youth’s shoulder, Kieran directed him to the caravan, while the bearded blonde man accompanied the thief.

~TBC~