Chapter 6 - The Siege of the Keep
BANG!
The gunshot shattered the night silence.
Elara lunged forward, slamming her body into King Cassian just as the lead bullet whizzed past his shoulder, shattering a marble statue behind him.
"Traitor!" the captain of the guard roared.
Vane’s loyal mercenary guards immediately opened fire with their crossbows, catching the king's men by surprise. Screams filled the garden as steel met steel in a sudden, brutal melee. Chaos erupted under the pouring rain.
"Get the King inside!" Captain Vance shouted, suddenly bursting into the garden through the cellar doors, his armor covered in blood, having fought his way through Malachi's men from below.
Vance grabbed Cassian and Aurelia, pulling them toward the heavy iron doors of the central keep. Elara followed close behind, dodging a swinging sword as a rogue guard lunged at her. Vance slammed the massive iron doors shut and dropped the heavy oak bar into place, sealing them inside the main castle keep.
Outside, the sounds of battle raged, but inside, the high vaulted grand hall was eerily quiet.
"Are you hurt, Your Majesty?" Vance asked, panting heavily as he leaned against his sword.
"I'm uninjured... thanks to her," Cassian said, turning to look at Elara with a mixture of shock and profound gratitude.
Elara collapsed onto the marble steps, clutching her ribs. Her hands were torn and caked in dried blood, her clothes soaked through. Aurelia immediately knelt beside her, wrapping a velvet tapestry around Elara’s shivering shoulders.
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"Why did you save him?" Aurelia asked softly. "He ordered your execution."
"He was tricked, just as you were," Elara said quietly, looking up at the young king. "And because a kingdom needs a living king who learns from his mistakes, not another corpse in a bell-lined box."
Cassian knelt down beside Elara, taking her dirty, blood-stained hands into his own. "I owe you my life, Elara Veyne. And I owe my sister hers. I was a fool. I trusted the men who raised me after my father died."
"Your father didn't die of fever, Cassian," Aurelia said, her eyes burning with anger. "We saw his tomb. The inner stone was scratched to pieces. Vane killed him too."
Cassian’s breath hitched, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his sword. "They murdered my entire family... and made me sit on their throne while they did it."
A heavy thud rattled the iron doors of the keep. Vane’s men were using an iron battering ram from the courtyard.
"They have the outer court," Vance reported, looking through the narrow iron spyhole. "Vane has brought in his private guild mercenaries. He knows if dawn comes and the city gates open, the common people and the city garrison will tear him apart. He has to kill us all before sunrise and claim the witch murdered the royal family."
"How many men do we have inside the keep?" Cassian asked, forcing himself to stand tall.
"Eight loyal royal guards, myself, you, the princess, and the grave-digger," Vance replied Grimly. "Against at least fifty mercenaries."
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"Then we make our stand here," Cassian said, drawing his gilded sword.
"No," Elara said, standing up despite the pain in her body. "We don't fight them with swords. We fight them with the dead."
