No Need of a Puppet
I slept well, for the amount of panicking I did after Madam Dorthy left. The match helped tire me out, to the point that I didn't dream of anything.
Now I was standing in front of the school at a gross time, 5:30 am, it was way too early in the morning. We didn't specify the time, but we knew we needed to come early enough.
"You're determined aren't you, should we wait on His Highness?" Jonas pulled up in his truck with a duffle bag hung from his shoulder. I looked one more time in the parking lot for Elias, but still didn't see his ride.
"We can set up, we still have to wait for Lieutenant Jones." Stepping up the concrete steps, l led the way to the lieutenant's classroom in silence.
Stepping into the unlocked classroom, I flicked on the lights, since it was dark in the room. "Thud," turning at the noise, I raised a eyebrow at Jonas's disregarded bag.
"Is that how you always treat your stuff?" I asked breaking the silence, pulling out a water bottle from my bag, I took a couple of drinks.
"It was heavy." He grumbled before taking a seat in the corner, the far corner.
For thirty minutes we sat in silence, waiting for either Elias or Lieutenant Jones to show up, and finally our teacher did.
"How long have you been waiting? And are you warmed up?" Both of us evaded answering the second question, but Jonas spoke first.
"Been waiting for about a half an hour, should we get started?" The lieutenant narrow his eyes at the youngster, then focused on me.
"We'll warm up, then start the match. Was Prince Elias in the parking lot?" I asked and he shook his head, negative.
"Then you should start warming up." With that command, both of us started doing stretches and started getting prepared for this match.
When we were ready, the lieutenant laid out two strips of white cloth.
"This is for?" I asked point my finger at the cloths.
"You are going to each have one cloth on your arm, the first one to get the white cloth wins that match, you will also have to fight in the center box, if stepped out of bounds, the other wins automatically. Understood?" He pointed at the boarded 80 by 76 area on the ground, the space of a king size bed.
"Understood." Both of us tie the cloth on our non dominate arm, and we were finally ready to fight.
"Miss Willow, what encouraged you to practice swordsmanship?" Noticing his motion to make small talk, I circled him, looking for any openings.
"It started out a dream, and became a reality." Smiling at the boy, we both rushed in, to clash them together into a hold.
"How young did you start? It seems you're at master level." Dodging to the left, I hit his side, while reaching for the cloth.
"I suppose you can guess." I muttered, while pulling off his cloth and holding the wooden blade at his neck. "But I started at a young age." He looked to his shoulder to my hand a couple of times and widened his eyes.
"Rematch, we have plenty of time." Nodding my head, I let him re-tie his cloth on his shoulder again.
"Tell me Jonas, do you want to participate in the tournaments?" I asked, while watching him thinks his move through, my cloth was on my right shoulder and I will have to watch out for his lunges.
"I'm unsure how to feel about this tournament, I was shocked when Father decided to sign me up." He took a fake front step then rushed to my left, turning to clash with his blade, I managed to prevent him taking the cloth.
"Hmm, interesting." Swiping his leg from under him, I brought my blade once again to his neck. Reaching behind him, I yanked the cloth off, once again.
"Let me guess, another rematch?" I saw his face turn beat red, in embarrassment. As I held out the cloth to him he didn't take it instead he smacked his wooden blade on my wrist.
Widening my eyes in shock and anger, I pulled off my cloth, and stood in a defensive stance.
"Fine, this is the last match, whoever admits defeat, loses." I waited for him to fall in my trap, as we circled each other.
Jonas took a step to the right and then rushed at me, dropping to the ground and rolling, I stood up to meet his blade. Sweat was slightly dripping down his face, while I had nothing.
Pushing him off, I took advantage to the way he fell with gravity, however, just when I was stabbing him in the heart, he got me in the side.
He smiled at the strike and spoke, "Lady Willow, I was going easy on you first, now you'll see how this opponent fights." Taking advantage of his opening, I ducked and sliced the blade across the neck, causing him to flinch.
Lieutenant stood at the edge and saw how the light in Rebecca eyes burned with dislike and power, he saw how the boy realized he messed up by leaving himself open.
Arrogance and being to full-of-yourself, can really cause you to lose your life, the boy thought that he would win, because she would be injured enough to admit defeat, instead he was beheaded.
The boy dropped to his knees and dropped his wooden sword, indicating that he was defeated.
"Huh, boys are all the same, did you really think that a daughter of a duke, of a high class would be defeated so easily, if I was, I wouldn't have asked for a duel." Looking at the brunette boy, I thoughts about what I wanted.
"I shouldn't have underestimated you, because you are a lady. Let me be of use for you." I narrowed my eyes at the boy, he was useless for me.
"I have no use of a puppet, but let the Councilor know that he shouldn't mess with the Willow household." Dropping to one knee I looked straight into his eyes. He nodded and picked up his belongings.
"Thank you for the match, maybe we'll see each other in the tournaments." He patted my shoulder, and I felt a prick, but ignored it, thinking it was a mosquito.
"We might." Watching him pack his things quietly, finished the rest of my water bottle, still waiting for Elias to show up.
When Jonas left the classroom, I was at peace again, slightly feeling tired I leaned against the wall.
"Lieutenant? Do you think Prince Elias is in trouble?" Pulling out my phone from my bag, I looked for any messages and there was none.
"He must have slept in late, I'm sure he'll arrive. I don't think he wanted to be in the same room as the son of his enemy." I nodded an understanding, but still couldn't help, but worry.
"I hope s—" The door slammed opened and the Prince looked haggard. His hair more messy than usual and his clothes looked ruffled, like someone grabbed them.
When he took a step forward, I smelt the heavy metallic scent of blood and that meant there was a huge wound.
Rushing over to the boy, I pulled the shirt off his shoulder, and a huge knife wound was gushing blood, even worse, it was poisoned.
"Quick, I need an antidote for him, looking over at Jones he rushed to grab an antidote that help clear his system.
Letting him take a drink, I had the lieutenant hold Elias, while I treated his wound. Lightly cleaning the wound, Elias sucked in a breath of air.
"Who did this?" I asked, while dapping some antiseptic on the wound.
"Ugh," Elias reaches out and grabbed my free arm, for something to hold, and I allowed him. "I don't know who it was, they were masked, even my new driver was in on it." I took started wrapping some gaze to stop the bleeding to prevent further infection.
Watching his eyes loose brightness indicating that he had passed out.
My vision blurred, as I held him up, when Jones went to grab a cloak, so we could sneak him back out of the school yard.
I leaned against the wall, for balance, I could tell that this merely wasn't exhaustion, we had both been poisoned.
"Rebecca, set him down and drink this." Setting Elias down gently on the ground, I was mid reach before I collapsed to the ground, my body burning up, and slowly loosing couscous.
The lieutenant was shocked, somehow both of these students were poisoned, and they had no clue who. Picking both of them up, the lieutenant rushed to his car, to deliver them to Duke Willow's residence.
Calling the man, while driving down the interstate, the Duke picked up. "Yes Edward?" He asked.
"Ryan, send a doctor to your estate, both Rebecca and Elias have been poisoned." Ryan hung up and immediately called for a doctor, his daughter was not accustomed to poisons, however Elias was.
She was in grave danger.