We got them!
Lucas tried to ease up so that his act would be believable, but it wasn't that easy. The person, who came inside was barely making any noise, besides his feet brushing against the wooden floor.
And so, he decided to pretend that he was having a nightmare since it was easier to do. Lucas felt the figure coming closer until they were standing directly above him. It took him a lot of willpower to suppress the urge and not turn to the other side but he succeeded in the end. Then he heard the rustling of the person's coat and knew, that a hand began to reach out toward him. It almost touched his hair and Lucas was sure about his exposure.
"I see you've arrived safely." Said Spottedleaf, who noticed what was happening and decided to interfere. The hand retreated immediately as if the person got caught doing something inappropriate or forbidden. "Yes, but let's not flatter ourselves, it was very easy since everybody has fallen asleep." A slightly deeper voice said.
'Dammit, I can't recognize who it is since it's a world from a book.' Lucas cursed in his mind.
"I'm flattered that I was chosen for such a trustful task and completed it perfectly," Spottedleaf said with a hint of delight. Only she and Lucas knew that it was fake.
'Maybe I could take a peek, and nobody would notice, since they're talking among themselves.' He thought and opened his eyes the slightest bit. He still could not see anything, and the person was staring his way and so he hurriedly closed them, hoping that they did not notice.
"I did confide in you, since you are the most capable person in the whole gang, but don't think that it means more gold for you." The man had said harshly. "Not in my wildest dreams would I ask that of you." The fox spoke in a surprised tone. "Good, now search this room for anything valuable, then meet the rest in the room of the treasure." He commanded, walked to the door and then his footsteps had paused- probably by the door- and murmured "Why is it a light colour?" and gone away with the squeak of the door.
"You okay, buddy?" Spottedleaf said after a minute of silence. "Yeah, I guess," Lucas said, pondering about the meaning of the man's words. When he realized what he could be hinting at, Lucas stood up rapidly, his eyes searching for a mirror. When he had found it, he rushed over to the wall it was hung on and stared, his eyes growing in shock as he realized his mistake.
"What? What's happening?!" The fox asked in a concerned tone. "My hair colour is not matching." He exclaimed. "It's supposed to be dark blue- which is Frellius' colour- instead of blond because people in the Moonlit kingdom have darker shades and lighter in the Sunlight kingdom," Lucas exclaimed as realization hit Spottedleaf.
"Ah, so this man thinks that you're a folk from Sunlight kingdom."
"Exactly! Or, something like that, and that's why I have to change it," Lucas said before he took his necklace into his palm and at that moment, his hair colour changed to the appropriate variation. "Anyways, who was that?"
"Dunno, I haven't asked, since it would be weird if we're really working together. He was tall, I would guess something between 5'11(180 cm) and 6'3(190 cm), and he had dark purple hair and dark green eyes. He also had a mask that he had put on before he left." She said and I got stunned for a while. "Leafy, that was probably Sebastian himself! But what was he doing up here? Shouldn't he be downstairs helping his men break through the door?!" Lucas started freaking out because he might have changed the plot, but mere seconds after he said those words, other footsteps sounded out in the hallway and before he could react, the doors swung open and there stood a teenager with golden blond hair and almost shining blue eyes, panting lightly.
"Frelly, we got them! We have captured them all!" Angelo exclaimed happily and ran up to Lucas. "That's really good news, what now?" the older asked. "Your father has called all the nobles who live in the castle into the throne room and wants to give his sentence upon them there and- "
Angelo paused as his sight landed on Spottedleaf, who was standing aside from us all this time. "Guards, there is one more!" He yelled as he withdrew his sword. She did not know whether to leave or stay, since she does not know the plot. She dashed towards the balcony after Lucas has mouthed 'Run' as he, also, brought out his weapon.
Spottedleaf jumped off the edge and disappeared into the trees below. Angelo, and the two guards, who rushed in, just stared down in disbelief, since it was quite a height. "She actually committed suicide." The teenager said in disbelief, but then he turned around, put his sword back into its casing and took Lucas' hand. "Come, we shall not miss the trial of those criminals." He exclaimed with a smile and they both ran down the stairs.
.
.
.
Their footsteps echoed through the hallway as they reached the throne room's entrance and changed their posture to one that suited princes. Lucas kept sneaking glances at Angelo since he did not know how to behave properly.
The nobles turned their heads towards the pair of boys, bowing as to show respect. Lucas gracefully sat on his designated throne beside his father and mother and Angelo positioned himself next to him on a chair the servants have brought in. The king waved his hand in a gesture known well for the guards and they brought all 27 men inside. They held two of them back by the entrance, while the rest was forced to bow before the royalty.
"These men have made our kingdom suffer, as they took gold, silver, and other valuable items from it, fuelled by greed. They had burned dozens upon dozens of houses to cover their tracks, but today their wrongdoing ends, thanks to my son, Frellius, and the prince of Sunlight kingdom, Angelo." The ruler, Jenesiel, exclaimed in a deep voice, praising the two boys.
They both stood up and bowed as it was appropriate. "We are happy to be of help to you, your highness." Angelo said and they returned to their previous positions. "My verdict upon those bandits is to hang them the day after tomorrow on Astair square." The king has made his mind known and suddenly all of them began to beg for mercy, but it was too late.
They were dragged out of the throne room and now was time for the leaders' fate to be decided. One of them seemed to give up all hope, kneeling before the king with his disguise being removed, while the other struggled against his chains, refusing to show any signs of respect towards anybody in there.
At last, it took three guards to hold him in place, but his face was yet to be revealed. Lucas sucked in a sharp breath as one of the three men reached out and took off his black mask. The crowd gasped, as they all recognized a face that awfully resembled the older brother of the king of the Sunlight kingdom.
Even Jenesiel with his wife gasped, as the room got filled with whispers, not being able to believe what they were seeing. The king wanted to say the words he had prepared, but his voice betrayed him as no words came out.
He then looked around and found that everybody was waiting for his judgement. He looked at his son and an idea popped up in his head. 'If I won't be the one to make the verdict, I won't have to blame myself.' He thought.
"I have decided to test my son's capability and let him decide their fate since he will one day rule this land on his own when I'll be gone. Now please excuse me, I've got some issues to take care of." The king said and turned to his son and his son's friend. "Listen to me well, son, he is the heir of king Galex's brother so you should think your judgement over very carefully." He said and Angelo gasped, while disbelief shone in his eyes. Lucas just faked surprise by widening his eyes then let the king walk away from the throne room, accompanied by his wife, with her hand pressed on his forehead.
"Coward!" Sebastian yelled after him, meaning that he clearly saw fear in the king's eyes. "Silence!" yelled one of the guards and hit him on the head.
"Do that again and I will personally fire and demote you to a peasant!" Lucas yelled because that guy wronged his favourite character. "Y-yes, prince Frellius." He saluted.
"What about beheading them, Frelly, hm?" Angelo tried to snake his way in Frellius' favour. "That boy is your country's enemy as much as he is ours since he's HIS son. Wouldn't it be a great opportunity to appease the Queen of Sunlight kingdom by doing this?" Angelo whispered like a snake into Lucas' ear, but the other boy was determined to do otherwise. 'I do not want to enrage Angelo's mother, since she suffered enough because of Sebastian's father, but on the other side, he did not want to kill Sebastian, since his rescue was the reason Lucas and Spottedleaf came here in the first place. In the end, he made a compromise.
"Lock them in one of the cells in the dungeon, I want to question both of them on the subject of any other members hiding out there that could endanger the kingdom."
The room got filled with sighs of relief but also disagreeing grunts, the loudest being Angelo's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Why did you do that? I thought that you’d agree with me.” Angelo said angrily. “Because I must think of my kingdom and not make irrational choices that could lead to riots. Imagine if somebody from his group, who we have not captured, would spread false rumours that the prince killed innocent people.” Lucas lied through his teeth. He couldn’t come up with a better excuse at the moment, and, from what it seemed, Angelo was not on board with the idea of letting Sebastian live.
“Don’t worry, if there are others of his kind out there, we will capture them all and then you will have what you wished for.” Angelo looked up at him with anticipation in his eyes. “Do you promise?”
‘Shoot, I had not thought this through, what if there aren’t any other bandits?’ Lucas thought, but then got reminded of his fox friend posing as one and decided to bet all his cards on her. “I promise that once every one of them is captured, we will let him be beheaded.” He replied and they shook on it. ‘I hope that I won’t regret this.’
.
.
.
“But- are you sure your highness? He’s a dangerous criminal and- “
“Are you saying that I’m fragile?” Lucas asked with clear annoyance in his voice. He got fully prepared with parchment papers, ink and goose’s feather to write down everything Sebastian might reveal. He had to keep up the illusion that he was indeed questioning him.
“No, of course not, I- the path is clear, prince.” The guard stepped aside and bowed. “Thank you. Don’t let anybody else inside, not even prince Angelo.” Lucas commanded and went down the stairs until he reached the dungeons. There he saw both leaders of the bandits in their separate cells. They seemed to be talking just a moment ago but got quiet when they heard footsteps approaching. Now they were facing away from each other, trying to see who arrived down here.
“Look, Damien, Princey has come to pay us a visit. What do we owe you for this favour?” Sebastian mocked Lucas and both prisoners began laughing. “Ha, ha, really funny,” Lucas murmured, not so confident to talk to them.
“Oh, are we perhaps shy? Is that why you were too weak to kill us?” Sebastian snickered, which got another chuckle out of the other man. This just enraged Lucas and he wasn’t exactly known for enduring mockery for too long.
“Shut your mouths before I will lose my patience, call my men to drag you out on the most crowded square, hire the worst executioner that exists in our kingdom and let you both be beheaded by dawn and believe me, I will!!” he shouted, and the criminals fell silent. “Jesus, somebody has a temper.”
“Don’t dirty the name of the lord.” Lucas reminded Sebastian, but instead of listening, he made a mocking face. “You talk like that annoying grandma from Glarville I had once met and that is something to say.”
Lucas frowned upon his words. “I heard that you burned that village to the ground. Is that why?” He questioned. “Hmm, that was one of the reasons,” Sebastian exclaimed and then he caught sight of his prison mate, who was gesturing to him not to anger the royal even more. He just rolled his eyes and shut his mouth.
Lucas glanced at each of them and then proceeded to sit down on the ground between the cells where neither of them could reach him. The men looked befuddled until Lucas looked up from the list of questions he had prepared specially for Sebastian. “So, are there any other bandits from your group that we had not captured?”
“Psh, why do you think I would tell you?” Sebastian ridiculed the question. “In fact, I had not expected an answered for any of them, so why lose time on them, hm?” Lucas said with a neutral expression. “See, so you can get up and- “
“So, let’s move on to a different type of interrogation. What is your favourite weapon?” Lucas asked with interest clearly showing in his voice. “I- what? What kind of question is that?” Sebastian asked, thrown off track by what the prince had asked.
“It’s a simple one. Just tell me what weapon you like the most and we will move on to the next one.” Lucas answered, now with a warm smile showing on his lips.
The bandit looked at the man in the other cell and he just shrugged. “Fine, I like bows and arrows the most, satisfied?” Sebastian answered with annoyance, and he glanced at the royal, who wrote it down. Suddenly he got reminded of an image that he had seen in one of the rooms. “Hey, Princey,” the bandit said, and Lucas looked up. “It’s my turn to ask questions. Why is your hair colour dark blue when I remember it being blond up in your room?” He asked and his inmate looked at him weirdly. "I mean, whenever we met before, it was always blue, so why the sudden change?"
Lucas has just paused. “Personal reasons.” He said, glancing at a suddenly interesting haystack.
“You’re cheating, you haven’t answered it.”
“I did, just less detailed.” Lucas defended himself. “You had also not told me why you favour bows.” They stared at each other, having a silent battle.
“I like them more since guns are too expensive and they’re hard to use and they load very slowly. Knives and daggers are a close-distance matter, and I don’t like that type of fight. I don’t use it until it’s absolutely necessary. Now you tell me why your hair changes colours and I’ll write it down for myself to do with it as I please.” Sebastian answered truthfully. At least that’s what Lucas believed since he trusted every word of what the prisoner just said. It was fair, to tell the truth too, right?
“Fine, I dye them dark blue because people would never accept a light-haired king or queen for that matter,” Lucas answered with the information he learned from the book. I mean, Frellius did not dye his hair, but Lucas did just this morning. That wasn’t a lie, was it?
Sebastian wrote it down on the piece of paper he received from the prince. “Makes sense, but tell me, do you not fear that the dust and dirt on the floor will stain your- wait, is that a sleeping robe?!” Sebastian started laughing hysterically while his cellmate tried to shush him.
Lucas blushed from embarrassment, got up and gave Sebastian a glare. “Well, see you tomorrow, because I have planned torture techniques for the questions I was refused to get an answer to.”
“You don’t mean that, Princey.” Sebastian exclaimed with a small hint of nervousness. Lucas simply turned around and started ascending the stairs.
“You- you do not mean that, right? Princey, give me an answer!”
Lucas silently chuckled to himself. Of course, he would not torture Sebastian or whoever mattered to him, but he won’t tell him that yet. Sebastian could take it to his advantage.