When their picnic was finished up and everyone was happy with a full belly, the trio decided it was about time to head back. Pretty soon, everyone would know about how the princess went out of the city with her new guards, so it would be best to get back soon and mitigate the damages.
Getting back to the city was easy; the brush from before was already pushed aside, and then it was just a matter of retracing their steps. The princess was taking the lead this time, with both guards just behind and to either side of her. As soon as they were approaching the city, they were already getting stares. As they walked in, they could all hear the whispers around them.
“Did the princess leave the city with those two?”
“Isn’t it dangerous out there? Bandits, creatures, foreign agents..?”
“Man, those guards must be something.”
That last comment had Colm and the young man puffing their chests full of confidence.
But there was a crowd gathering quickly, and it made the entire trio uncomfortable. The young man took up a position right next to the princess and cast a glare out at the crowd while Colm curved himself around Nikita to protect her. The griffons around them backed up significantly at the overtly aggressive notions, and the trio hurried on through.
They had a ways to go before they made it to the castle, but they were confident they could get there with little enough trouble. After the crowd dispersed, they weren’t inclined to form up again, and the way forward was generally unhindered.
“That there is why yer dad didn’t want ya out here, I reckon,” Colm said.
“Royals out here in public is a rare occurrence, so it always garners attention,” Nikita said. “Foreigners usually have it easier since no one wants to anger them and cause trouble for the whole kingdom.”
“Makes sense,” the young man said. He was still scanning the area around them every few seconds for anyone getting too close.
The young man paused once and put out his hand, stopping Nikita and Colm. His eyes were firmly glued to their collective left, but when Colm and Nikita looked over, nothing of consequence was there. Nikita looked up at the young man with a worried expression.
“Umm, uhh,” she said. She didn’t know what to call him. “I’m sorry, human, what’s your name?”
“Hang on,” the young man said. “I gotta check on something. Colm, keep her close.”
“Got it,” Colm said. Before the princess could recommend another course of action, the young man walked off to check out whatever it was he saw.
On the other side of the street they had been walking down, there were tables and umbrellas for outside seating at a restaurant. The smell of delicious, cooked meat hung in the air and dazed the young man for just a brief moment, it was so good. Shaking his head, he snapped out of it and resumed his search.
The griffons around him all stared at him as he checked the whole seating area. He told them to simply go about their business, but when someone as significant as the human guard to the princess was checking out the area around you, it wasn’t easy to pretend nothing was going on. After several minutes of checking, nothing came up, so the young man stepped out.
“Weird,” the young man said. “Must have imagined it.” When he made his way back to Colm and Nikita, Nikita huffed at him.
“What was so important over there that you had to run off like that?” Nikita asked. “We were rather exposed.”
“First off, I didn’t run,” the young man said. “Second off, I’d make a comment about you two being exposed together, but I like my jaw not being broken. Third-“ the young man had to dodge a quick swipe from the princess- “I thought I saw a very unfriendly guy over there. Couldn’t find him, so we can just keep going.”
“Alright,” Nikita said.
“Also please don’t hit me with those talons,” the young man said.
“Maybe if you didn’t deserve it…” Nikita muttered.
“I thought it was funny,” Colm said. Nikita backhanded him in the jaw, eliciting a hail of laughter from the young man. The trio continued walking, unaware of what lay behind them.
Yafid leaned against the side of a building to catch his breath. He couldn’t fly because it would have been way too obvious, so he was forced to sprint away from his lunch table to avoid being spotted when the young man came walking over.
He had seen Yafid for a brief moment, very brief, but just enough to recognize him. Yafid immediately bolted, operating on the hope that the young man would just chalk it all up to not being able to tell griffons apart very well. It seemed to work pretty well, as the young man had simply left when he couldn’t find Yafid in the crowd.
He was still formulating his plan, but if the young man had found him there, it would have fallen apart completely. No doubt there would have been a fight or confrontation, ending in either Yafid being forced out of the city or into a cell. He would have to hope for exile, as at least he could go elsewhere for that.
He thought about what he might be able to do to hide himself better. He could always buy feather paint, put patterns on himself to hide his identity. If he covered parts of his head and wings, the young man would be none the wiser until they exchanged words. If he wanted, he could assassinate him easily that way.
But that was the coward’s way of fighting. Yafid had to prove he was better. Anyone with a little talent can kill from the shadows; it takes skill to kill your enemy when they know you’re coming. That was why Yafid was spending his extra time hunting foreign agents trying to prevent the coming royal matrimony. They would certainly try to kill the young man from the shadows, possibly succeed, even, and Yafid couldn’t have that.
Up until the young man had seen him, he was actually pursuing an agent he knew was trying to kill the princess and anyone protecting her. With that quick escape, though, it looked like the agent had escaped, meaning that he was probably pursuing the trio right now. And Yafid couldn’t risk going near them now, not while he was obviously Yafid.
It was quite the predicament; hopefully, the young man was more attentive than his casual demeanor as he left the city earlier let on.
The trio continued walking. They were almost at Nikita’s home, where she would be safe and sound. Now was when the young man was finally starting to feel some level of regret for taking her outside where they weren’t supposed to go. It was something of a problem with him, not heeding conventional wisdom until he personally understood why he should.
When they arrived at the ground-level doors, the guards saluted and opened them up for the trio to walk in. At first, they thought they had made it back scot free, like they could just walk to Nikita’s quarters as if nothing happened. Then, King Yakesh appeared on the other side of the doors, and the trio’s hearts sank.
He walked out and the young man and Colm stood with the straightest backs they could. Nikita looked away and slumped down as her father came up to her.
“Why were you outside the city?” he asked. Before Nikita could answer, the young man had what he thought was a brilliant idea.
“We believe the castle may have been infiltrated,” the young man blurted out.
Nikita and her father spun their heads toward the young man in surprise. Colm kept calm, but couldn’t help but wonder how the young man thought this was going to work out.
“My castle?” King Yakesh said. “Compromised? What gave you this notion?”
“Last night, I believed that I heard some strange scurrying outside the princess’s door,” the young man began. “I woke up Colm to keep watch in my absence, and went to check. The scurrying was quick, but I was able to run after it fairly quietly and keep up.”
“I don’t see why this matters,” the king said, growing frustrated.
“When I got very close, the scurrying went into the servant’s quarters,” the young man said. “I was quite lost by this time, but simply followed the noise. When I entered the quarters, I found several servants disturbed and awake, plus one missing.”
“A servant, missing?” the king asked in shock.
“Yes. And their uniform, plus any tools that had been in their box,” the young man lied, praying he was right.
“Sweet Ra, this could be bad,” King Yakesh said. The young man had no idea he had been holding hi breath, but taking air into his lungs had never felt so good. “I’m glad you saw fit to investigate. But why did you leave the city?”
“We weren’t sure if the infiltrator might make a move in the castle, or if another might be outside,” Colm jumped in. “We felt it would be safest to take her to an area where the only other beings would be definitively hostile and we could attack indiscriminately, should someone arrive.”
“Hmmm…” King Yakesh said.
“We went to the river with food so we would be able to stay out there for as long as necessary,” the young man said. “No one came out there, and we formulated a plan on how to proceed while there.”
“That is good,” King Yakesh said. He looked to his daughter. “You must have been terrified.”
“They never told me what was going on,” Nikita said. Her guardian duo began to sweat. “They simply said we would be going for a picnic.” The King looked to the young man.
“We wanted to avoid scaring her and having her give away our knowledge that there are enemies in our midst,” the young man said. “So yes, we lied to her.”
“Smart moves,” King Yakesh said with a smile. “I’m quite glad I chose the two of you to guard my daughter.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” Colm said with a bow of his head.
“Come inside, let us get you to your quarters,” Yakesh said to his daughter.
The trio followed the king inside, silently giving thanks to everything there was that their lie had stood its ground. Now, it was only a matter of time before some investigation came along and caused some trouble, but the young man and Colm would think of something in the meantime. Plus, their word was stronger than those of servants, so they had that advantage.
There were several lifts that they had to take so that Colm and the young man could come along as they went to Nikita’s quarters. The lifts were huge and transported the royalty plus guards, servants, and other castle workers. There was a specific space for the royalty and relevant parties, but they were still surrounded by unknowns. The king was noticeably uncomfortable with it.
The trio, however, was not. This fact was not lost on the king, who was staring at them the entire time. Their calmness in this situation amazed him; they must have been quite the seasoned warriors.
“How can you remain so calm?” the king finally asked of the young man.
“It’s all about keeping your cool,” the young man replied. “Guy show lose their heads in battle tend to lose their heads for good.”
“Ha!” the king laughed. “I’ll have to remember that one.”
The same group was on the same series of lifts up to where the princess’s quarters were located. It acted as a sort of shield, Colm was thinking, against anyone who might try to bust through and attack Nikita. He wasn’t about to let that happen; this was the last lift, and they were so close.
But while they were so close to their target, so was someone else.
Several griffons fell sideways, shoved away, as one griffon wearing a management uniform drew a knife and lunged at the king and princess, screaming something in some foreign language.
While the attack was entirely unexpected, the young man and Colm were more than capable of responding appropriately.
Colm jumped to a position between the attacker and the royalty while the young man went directly for the attacker. The griffon saw the young man coming and tried to swing the knife around for a slash at his throat, but the young man caught the griffon’s wrist with his hand and twisted it into an arm bar. From there, he yanked the griffon closer and kneed him in the gut while wrenching the knife from his talon. The griffon fell back and the young man handed the knife to Colm.
“Not very good, are you?” the young man asked.
Before the griffon could respond, the other guards on the lift swarmed him and threw him on the ground to start beating the living daylights out of him. The young man let them do their thing and went back to the king.
“There’s our intruder,” he said as if he had known all along.
“Well, that was most impressive,” King Yakesh said. “And you, pony. Very fast action, putting yourself between us and him.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” Colm said.
The young man watched the guards still beating the attacker and let his mind go to work. While he would love to think it was his natural intuition that led to the apprehension, it was nothing more than blind luck in reality. He had guessed someone infiltrated the castle, and he was right; that meant that there were probably more around, since he hadn’t though of that. And that there were probably agents throughout the city. How many enemies could something that was effectively a city-state have?
“This won’t be the end of it,” the young man said. “And the sudden nature of this leads me to believe we need a new strategy.”
“Well, your strategy has worked so far,” King Yakesh said. “Whatever you deem necessary, you are free to pursue.”
“Thank you,” the young man said.
That was both a good thing and a bad thing; he was now allowed to do whatever he needed to do to keep Nikita and him and Colm safe. The problem was, he never actually knew anything about that. Hopefully he would learn quickly, or this entire situation could fall apart a lot faster than he could pt it back together.