23

My whole body felt light and I could not control my movements.

"You can do this," He uttered with a smile, and without knowing what pushed me, I turned to Adriel and said,

"I am ready."

"Good," he said.

"Now make sure to shake your hand at intervals," he added.

" Alright I'll do that," I retorted, but those words were not coming from me, they came from whatever it was that controlled me.

"Now go!" 

Even before he said that I left them and headed for the Tersians.

"What is wrong with me?" I asked myself, within me I was scared but I could not stop being confident on the outside.

When I got near the captives from behind, I tried to stop myself, I forced my legs to stop moving, my instinct was to run away but I had no control over my own body.

"Help us please," An old lady who looked very tired and miserable begged me, and that drew the attention of the knights who were nearby.

"Hey!" One of them called and instead of running away from him, I ran toward him with a clenched fist. When I got close to him, I delivered a punch straight to his face but the pain I felt on my knuckles made me wince and I shook my fingers around to ease the pain.

"Fool!" The knights yelled and more of them gathered up, the knight I punched grabbed my hands, twisted them, and pinned me to his chest with my hand on my back.

"How did she untie herself?" One of them asked.

"I don't know sir, she wasn't among those we took away," another one replied. 

The knight who asked the question came closer to me, he had short blonde hair and his height made me stare at him like I was staring at the fruit on a tree.

"Who are you?" He asked me.

"The handmaid to the princess of Aeradon! What have you done with the Princess? " I yelled at him and was surprised at myself, the boldness I had even though I was surrounded by five knights was incredulous.

"Ha ha," He laughed and brought his face close to mine.

" Handmaid to the princess, have you come to save her?" He asked me with an evil grin that spread across his face.

"Where is the princess!" I shouted again and I heard someone amidst the crowd of captives say "She is going to get herself killed."

I was slapped across the face and I winced in pain which also surprised me because I had a very low pain tolerance.I would have screamed if I was in control of myself at that point.

"You want to see the princess huh? Take her to meet the princess and tie her up along, I would love to see how she saves the princess then," he mocked me and laughed hysterically.

However as I was carried away by two knights, I wriggled my wrist at intervals like Adriel said and the chalk poured out to the ground.

They took me further into the forest until we got to a tent next to an enormous tree surrounded by tall grasses.

"You have been spilling this chalk on me, why do you even have this bracelet?" One of the knights took the bracelet off my hand and threw it away, farther into the tall grasses.

He opened the tent and suddenly I felt myself again. I was in control of my body and all my fear rushed in at once. My body trembled like someone who had emerged from a cold winter storm without clothes on. 

"Sage!" The Princess's voice called me from the corner of the tent, I stared at her with pity because she looked horrible.

Her hair was scattered all around her face,and bruises all over her body and she looked very weak. I wondered what they had done to her. 

The knights took me to the corner opposite the princess, and tried me up with a thick rope, they doubled the knot to make sure that I wouldn't escape.

"Now you can save the princess, or at least try," one of them said, and they all laughed at me.

"I don't know what she was thinking, Aeradonians are fools," the second knight implored and there was another round of laughter.

I sat there and was speechless for about three minutes, I pondered on the concluded episode and I was amazed at myself.

"Why does staring into Allesio's eyes give me such unbelievable boldness?" I asked myself.

I stopped thinking because I was not sure what to conclude about that situation, so I looked at the princess who barely said a word.

"I am so sorry my princess, we panicked when we couldn't find you and we were not sure how you left," I stuttered.

I was not sure if the princess was happy to see me or disappointed in me. I wasn't able to decipher the meaning of her facial expression because it looked undescribable, I only thought she was stressed.

"Did they hurt you, my princess-

"Do I look fine to you Sage?" She Interjected and that took me by surprise.

"Yes, they hurt me, can't you see it all over my body ,Sage, can't you? What were you thinking about coming here alone? You thought you could save me?" 

I wanted to tell her that I came with Adriel and Allesio but that would have been wrong because it was against the rules to Interrupt the Princess.

"I wouldn't blame you, besides there was nothing you could have done, I blame my father for entrusting me with the wrong set of people to protect me," she spoke to me and I sensed the pain in her tone.

That was the second time I heard something similar to the statement "there was nothing you could have done" the king said it to me as Allesio and I wondered what happened that was beyond our powers to control.

"Do you know exactly what happened to my princess?" Even though I knew she was not happy,  I wanted to know.