Enemy closer

"What are you looking at?!" yelled Alec at the gatekeeper who wouldn't stop looking at him suspiciously. " Don't you know that the wine should be done with, in less than a couple of hours? The master needs them," he said boldly, displaying authority like he was an elite member of De voe's followers.

The gatekeeper shrugged, then he let Alec pass.

"Are these grapes going to carry themselves?!" he said to the keeper, " Don't just stand there, help me carry them".

Alec looked back, Tobin and the others were still at the gate. Tobin has been trying to convince them.

"Hay you!" called Alec, "Those slaves have tons of work to do here, unchain them at once, so they can take these baskets of grapes inside."

On hearing this, the gatekeeper preventing their entering had no other choice but to let them pass. Tobin unchained all of them and led the inside. They all went straight in and took positions at the manufacturing hall. Tobin secretly gave out test tubes containing the sleep potion, to each of them. The last group was waiting outside with carts, to transport the potioned wine to the palace. Tobin made sure to put each of the comrades in charge of a production group, to ensure that no barrel of wine is exempted, or without the contents of the potion. The mission was progressing smoothly as planned, everything was perfect. And as for the real workers, there was nothing to worry about, because Alec warned them specifically to cooperate with his comrades.

"Please don't draw the attention of De voe's men, because of what you see," he secretly warned them, "We're here to get you all out of here, do your best by cooperating with us."

They got information that Tobin's parents were taken by night to the palace. They had to add the potion to the wine, deliver it to the castle, and rescue all hostages when they were sure every one of the men are asleep, including De voe. Right now they were done with adding the potion. They began to transfer the liquid into barrels.

"How is the work going, is the wine done already?" asked a supervisor.

"Yes I think they're doing the finishing touches," answered Alec.

"I made sure they don't stop to get some rest because the master needs to have a taste quickly," he added.

"And so do I," said the supervisor, as he grabbed a cup, and took some of the wine.

Alec became worried, if the man fall asleep there all of a sudden, they might be caught. He lured the already dizzy fellow, out of the hall, to an empty room, where he locked him up. He sent Tobin to inform the rest of De voe's men in the building, to come to have a taste of the wine, persuading them that it tasted so sweet. All the men came into the hall one after the other, to partake in the tasting. They made sure all the men were in, including the gatekeepers.

"But shouldn't we wait till the master tastes in first before we go ahead and do so?" said one of them.

"Nah, I don't think that's important right now. And perhaps, there isn't any rule that prevents us from drinking before the master, is there?" said Alec persuading them.

"So who's with me?" he asked them grabbing a cup.

"Well I'm with you fellow," said Tobin grabbing a cup of his own.

And like that they all agreed to drink some wine. De voe's men all drank the wine. Tobin and Alec, kept their cup close to their mouths, pretending to be drinking the contents. As time passed, the men gradually fell into very deep sleep, one after the other.

"It's working," said Tobin, in excitement and surprise.

"Let's get to work," announced Alec.

The comrades began to bound the sleeping men to the pillars with chains. The hostages helped too. They put all the barrels of wine in the carts waiting outside and sent them to the palace.

By dusk, news reached them, that the guards in the palace were all asleep, due to the wine they drank. Alec, Tobin, Ruby, and some other comrades set out to go to the palace for the main task. Getting there, they met by the entrance, the sentinels, lying on the floor, in a deep sleep. The palace was so big, so they split up themselves, searching for Tobin's parents, and the girl Zain spoke to them about. At every corner, they saw the sleeping men. As Tobin came out of a room he had gone in to check for his parents, he began hearing footsteps approaching from the left corner of the passage. Slowly he crouched to the edge of the wall and peeped to see who that was. He saw a man staggering towards him. The man was holding a broad sword in his hand, and staggering forward, moving from side to side, like a lost boozer. Somehow the sleep potion didn't work to its full capacity on him. Tobin rushed out towards him. He sluggishly held up the blade at Tobin as he saw him, but Tobin knocked it off his hand effortlessly and delivered him a resounding blow that took out his light. He met Ruby coming his way.

"Have you detected where they're locked?" he asked her.

"Not a thing," she replied.

"Let's go check out upstairs," he told her.

They both went up the stairs, to search. There was a long corridor lined up on both sides, with doors. They checked each door, one after the other, searching for Tobin's parents. Some of the doors they tried were locked. After the search, they were about to get on to another part of the building, but something seemed to be holding Tobin back.

"Come quick Tobin, we don't have time," said Ruby to Tobin who lingered behind, like they forgot something.

Tobin didn't seem to hear her at first.

"Tobin..." called Ruby.

"You go on, I want to check something," said Tobin to her.

"I'll wait then, go check out what you want to check," said Ruby

"Shhh..." whispered Tobin, "Do you hear that?" he asked.

"What, you hear something?" asked Ruby.

"That sound," replied Tobin.

He could hear the low sounds of clanging metal. Ruby could hear them now too.

"I hear them," she muttered, "Must be coming from one of the locked doors."

"You check this row for which door the sounds come from, and I'll check this one," suggested Tobin.

They both put their ear by the doors, to hear where the metallic sounds were originating from.

"Got anything?" asked Tobin, as they listed for the generator of the sounds.

"Nothing here," she replied, "You?"

One last door remained unchecked. Positioning his left ear close to the border of the door, Tobin finally found the source of the noise, but there was no way to get in, the door stood stiff, and sealed.

"Someone's in here, I think the person was trying to signal us," he said to Ruby.

"Then kick the door open," she replied, "Be fast".

Tobin kicked the door, but it didn't open. He tried again, this time harder than the first one, but still no success. He kicked more and more, but it still wouldn't move. He kicked five times in a row, but only ended up battering and bruising his limbs.

"Stop, you're only hurting yourself," said Ruby.

"They're in there, we got to get through," said Tobin.

He went three steps backward, then returned with full speed at the door.

Thud!

He bounced off the sturdy door and found himself on the floor.

"Warned you," teased Ruby.

He was still lying on the floor.

"Got any better idea?" he asked her.

"I saw an axe inside one of the doors I checked, can it be of help?" she stated.

"You mean you saw an axe?" asked Tobin, "Then why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Ruby scoffed.

"Didn't I tell you to stop," she said.

"Alright just go get it," he said.

With the axe, only two strikes flung open the door. Lo and behold, chained to the wall inside there, was Tobin's mother; Rael. She sat there, with a thick rope tied to her mouth, restricting her speech. She was struggling to tell him something, but her mouth was sealed.

"Oh no," muttered Tobin, seeing the way his mother was chained up like a wild beast, and her mouth sealed, like a griddled horse.

He quickly loosed her free from the chains. She looked so stressed out, sweating and glaring around like someone in a death zone. She was agitating furiously.

"I've missed you so much," said Tobin.

He embraced her, feeling the abnormal shiver of her body.

"Hay there's no need to fear, I'm here now, I'm here to take you home," said Tobin.

His mother; Rael was struggling to say something, Tobin had forgotten to lose the rope tied in her mouth.

"She's trying to tell you something, untie the rope," said Ruby.

Tobin quickly untied the rope.

Cough! Cough! She coughed drily.

"This is a trap," she said, breathing heavily, "De voe knew you were coming. He've prepared to do devious things to everyone of you. There's no escape from..."