The Royal Revenge
Chapter 67: Strong Winds

Chapter 67: Strong Winds

"This has got to be a joke," Elys muttered as she scoured every single angle of the bell in her hand. "What is a bell if it won’t even ring?"

"Looks like this is the end of our diplomatic trip then," Aleksander leaned backwards, easing himself into lying on his back over the carriage’s roof. He stared at the gloomy skies of the Eastern Kingdom, thinking what else were they missing.

"Maybe its broken, your highness," Cordelia said, "let me see it. Perhaps we can find a way to tinker with it and make it ring."

Elys handed over the tiny bell towards the maidservant’s open hand. Cordelia peered into the slit of the spherical bell, and then jingled it near her ear to see if there was even the faintest of sounds that would come out of it.

"Still nothing?" Elys asked.

Cordelia shook her head in confusion. "I could sense the ball inside while I ringed it, but no sound was ever made even as it bounced all over inside the bell’s walls."

The old woman shook the bell vigorously, then slowly, and then tried to jiggle it in patterns. She looked a bit silly to the attendant beside her, but Cordelia persisted. They must see to the end of this puzzling thing they discovered.

Henry heaved a tired sigh, "Oh, leave it be. Maybe we are just reading in too much into this. Maybe that’s just something the past visitor left behind after they unknowingly sped into the deep cliffs."

"That is quite gruesome, Henry," the princess commented. "Alright, lets give that bell a rest and look for something else, shall we?"

Elys stared into the distance and searched for any clue as to how they could reach the other side.

Running at full speed and trying to jump was definitely out of the question. The distance that separated the two cliffs was just too wide. Not even a vampire could do such a feat.

"Is anybody capable of levitating or flying here?" Elys called out to the knights behind the carriage.

"No, your highness," one replied.

"That wouldn’t be me," another said.

There was a unison of mutterings and mumblings that all rounded up with the answer being an obvious ’no’.

"Even if there was one of us that could do that, this blasted magic inhibitor would just cancel our magic out," Aleksander said as he raised his hand as if to reach out into the heavens and grasp a tiny wisp of grey cloud. "It’s useless, don’t even think about magic at this point."

The skies were getting lighter by the minute, and Henry dug out his pocket watch to see it was just a few hours shy until the sun rose. Cordelia kept on ringing the soundless bell, a slight gust of wind building up from their east.

Just as everybody were starting to lose hope, the wind suddenly blew hard. Elys tried to grab her wayward locks back in place, but some of them still blocked her view. At first, she thought the strong wind was just a one-time thing, but then another came, and this time it blew harder.

"Princess, come over to the carriage," Cordelia offered her hand for Elys to grab, "the wind is quite dangerous in places like this."

Elys moved closer to the carriage, but the horses started to become jittery.

"Woah, what is happening with them?" Henry asked as he pulled hard on the reins. "Calm down, you lot!"

Another strong wind blew for the third time, and it even brought a storm of leaves with it. Elys’ dress and hair were whipping all around, and she found it difficult to move where she stood.

"Princess!" Cordelia screamed for her, "Grab my hand, Princess Elysianne!"

Elys reached out for Cordelia’s hand, but the horses were spooked out by the winds that they unintentionally made the carriage back up. Henry let out an undignified scream, whilst Cordelia held on for dear life as one of the carriage’s wheels slipped over the edge and made them lose balance.

"Get off of the carriage!" Elys yelled over the howling winds. "It’s going to fall down!"

Cordelia was about to jump off when she noticed Henry still held the horses’ reins in his hand. It looked like he was too stunned and afraid to even move a muscle, and the old woman groaned in exasperation. She grabbed Henry by the scruff of his shirt, and she hurled the man forward.

"AHHH!!!" Henry screamed in freight.

By the time the old man landed to the ground, Elys helped him up and he recalled the prince had been lounging on the carriage’s roof. The horses were slowly slipping backwards, and the knights that were behind the carriage were forced to back up as well.

The attendant searched, but the prince was nowhere in sight.

"Where is the prince?" Henry asked frantically. "The prince is gone, no!!!"

The attendant kneeled in grief as he immediately assumed that the prince had fallen off the cliffs. He was about to bawl his eyes out when he heard a laugh being stifled beside him. Henry raised his head and saw the grinning face of the prince, his raven hair a mess from the wind.

"You are so dramatic, Henry," Aleksander said as he combed his fingers over his disheveled hair, "get up and dust yourself. And while you are at it, wipe off the snot on your face."

Henry scrambled and promptly did as he was told. He didn’t care if he had just been a bit embarrassing – he was just happy to know that the prince was alive after all.

The winds continued to blow hard, and Cordelia grabbed the princess to her side so they could support each other as the winds hit them.

The horses weren’t too lucky.

As they fidgeted and backed up more, the carriage’s wheel slipped further away, tipping the whole car to the side and bringing the poor animals with it as it tumbled down the rocky ravine.

Everybody dropped to the ground, and as the winds continued to blow hard, they heard what seemed to be giant wings flapping in the air.

Elys raised her head to glance at the skies, and just as they suspected, menacing pairs of avian eyes stared down at them.