Saved By The Mad Duke
Chapter 154: The Fire Birds

Chapter 154: The Fire Birds

Valon quickly shut the window and rushed towards his other desk, positioned to the left wall of his lab. Once he stood before it, he unwrapped his long fingers, allowing the bird to fly out of his fist once again, exposing a small piece of damaged tinder tied to one of her legs.

The prince untied the tinder from the bird’s leg, examined it with his keen eyes for a couple of seconds, then shifted his green gaze to the intricate formula written on the surface of the desk in white chalk.

"Let’s see what you have to tell us."

The moment Valon placed the tinder onto the formula, its writing turned bright blue for a split second, and before he knew it, instead of the damaged piece of tinder, the prince saw a dozen of tiny snowflakes rising up in the air.

Stretching his thin lips into a canny smile, he exclaimed traumatically,

"Got you!"

***

"With all due respect, you were not supposed to act without the Holy Church’s permission, Your Highness!"

Sarith marched into his own study, his footsteps resembling those of a mad titan. The sight of Prince Valon, ever so nonchalant, fidgeting with his personal collection of rare quills, made the paladin even more angry than before.

Taking the seat behind his desk, Sarith offered Valon a somewhat stern look which the latter dismissed with a careless shrug of his shoulders and an arrogant grin,

"The Holy Church’s approval takes too long to be granted, Your Reverence, I could not possibly wait that long when I have already come up with a perfect plan; besides, when it comes to The North and Duke Tillian Valentine... As you have already seen with the necromancer witch, unexpected things can happen, spoiling our intricate arrangements at the most inappropriate times."

While Sarith was still utterly irritated by the second prince’s unauthorized actions, he had to admit, mainly to himself, that his words held true. However, no matter how true they were, a sense of reason still had to be impaired to Valon. Thus, the paladin pressed on with his reprimand,

"The laws exist for a reason, Your Highness. While I understand your impatience, I still urge you to never do anything like this again."

"Yes, well, it was a one-time occurrence, Your Reverence, a very urgent matter if you please." The prince sent another careless reaction Sarith’s way, which only made the paladin even more irritated. Furrowing his thin orange eyebrows, he asked,

"What did you do, Your Highness?"

Curling his thin lips into a wide grin, Valon answered,

"I used the fire birds to start the forest fire."

"Fire birds?!" Saritht could not conceal his bewilderment.

Valon nodded and proceeded to explain,

"Yes, I cloned a dozen of fire birds with the help of alchemy, then tied a piece of tinder to their legs, and set them flying towards The North. As you know, fire birds’ wings catch fire when they are flying for too long, and I calculated it perfectly; when they reached the forest, their wings caught fire so they sat on the branches to rest and the branches caught fire too. This caused the forest fire that prompted the mage to use their magic."

The paladin took several moments to gather his thoughts. Then, when the moment of clarity finally hit him, he leaned against the back of his chair, and said,

"What a clever plan indeed... So, what kind of magic was used to put out the fire then, Your Highness?"

"Snow magic."

"Snow magic, huh? A very rare kind in this kingdom... Very well; I am gathering the order today and will leave for The North as soon as possible."

"Please do, Your Reverence."

Prince Valon rose to his feet, a wide grin spreading across his lips. As he was about to exit the paladin’s study, the man suddenly paused, turned around, and nearly sang,

"Oh, yes, Your Reverence... Do say hello to Duchess Valentine for me, please. I am sure she misses me dearly."

***

Aideen could barely have her eyes open now. The bright light of the rising morning sun was blinding and although she still could not completely comprehend the full potency of its brightness, the warmth of its long rays that touched her pale skin was almost seething now.

Leaning against the wooden wall of the house, the princess rubbed her eyes and tried to focus once again,

’Goodness... Have I fallen asleep? What time is it? Has Tillian finally made his way back?!’

Feeling utterly lost, she wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and was about to enter the house to check on the Raven Knights when she heard a peculiar noise coming from the easter part of the village.

’Horses? The sound is familiar... The Raven Knights?!’

Aideen could not help but feel utterly bewildered. The grasp of sleep was still rather tight on her and she could not shake off the feeling of confusion as she started walking towards the sound of approaching hooves.

Once the horses stopped before her, the princess’s eyes began to desperately look for the one person she was dying to see the most, and finally, to her enormous relief, they landed on the seemingly lifeless figure of her husband.

"Tillian!"

Rushing to Sir Hester’s horse, the lady had no idea what she was going to do if her terrifying assumptions came true, but before she could even touch the Duke’s body, Sir Noah stood right before her, shielding the view with his towering form.

"No, Your Grace, you cannot!"

"Why not? Move, please, I have to see him!"

Ignoring his lady’s words, the knight placed his strong arms on Aideen’s trembling shoulders and said in a somewhat cold voice,

"My Lady, please. His Grace was wounded during the battle with one of the beasts... I do not think you want to see that... Please, the doctor is already on his way."

Aideen’s vision became blurry once again. Still trapped in Sir Noah’s arms, she hopelessly watched as two other knights pulled her husband’s limp body from the horse and carried it inside the house, her eyes frantically running over his uniform in search of anything that would indicate a source of horrible damage.

Covering her mouth with both hands, she wept silently,

’No... It cannot bee... No... ’