The Royal Revenge
Chapter 84: Underground Pool

Chapter 84: Underground Pool

"Where does that go, your highness?" the old man repeated his question.

Cordelia and Henry were obviously shocked to see such a passage. Elys’ face was stoic, but Aleksander knew she was curios as well.

The thick foliage of the greenery inside one room was quite amazing already, but a hidden passageway was all the more exceptional.

"This probably leads down to a secluded place. I could definitely hear some water gushing from down below, so I believe it must be a natural underground pool," the prince said.

"So, are we going inside that passageway?" Cordelia asked, turning her brown eyes to Elys.

"We have no choice, Cordelia," the prince said, a grim look taking over him, his eyes turning to the door they had barricaded just in case.

"Wait, if we go there, what of Teo? We had left him writhing in pain back in the throne room,"

"Fuck!" Aleksander cursed, "I almost forgot about that."

"We will have to leave him to the Eastern Kingdom’s mercy then," came Henry’s suggestion. "I do believe that these ’peaceful’ people aren’t going to touch and kill him themselves."

"They could hand the vampires over to the remaining werewolves pack," Elys said with a slight gloomy look on her face.

"And have them punished accordingly?" Cordelia asked.

"Yes," Elys nodded, "they wouldn’t soil their hands with such violence. They need someone else for it, for they swore to an oath of non-violence."

"Shh!" Aleksander shushed their conversation.

The prince’s ears twitched twice. It had caught up sounds from afar, some mumblings and discussions of what had transpired and the worsening relationship the East would have now with the West.

"They are getting closer, aren’t they?" Elys asked as she dusted herself and walked towards the passage.

She peered into the dark tunnel that led deep. It seemed okay, but she couldn’t help being a bit apprehensive.

"The Eastern guards are on the move. We don’t have much time," the prince answered.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Elys turned to her maidservant and then to Henry. The old woman knew what to do, and she will do what she can to keep the attendant safe as they descended into the tunnel.

One by one, they slid over to where the passageway was.

"Is it just me or are the walls moving on their own," Elys noted.

"Its not just you," Aleksander replied to her, his back tensing as he felt the walls slowly move in on them. "Shit, we need to hurry up!"

As the walls pushed in further, the four of them kicked their soles to start running for the end of the passage.

"What is this thing to even start moving on its own?" Henry complained behind.

"Stop whining and wasting precious oxygen you need to run fast," Cordelia told the old man. "Just run, Henry, run!"

Not a minute later, light could be seen at the end of the passage. Henry was almost running out of breath – perhaps Cordelia was right after all that he should have just shut up and ran.

"This way!" Aleksander said as he passed through, Elys on his heels, "Come on faster!"

Cordelia heard Henry wheezing behind her. In the darkness of the passage, she reached behind her and grabbed Henry’s hand.

She pulled him hard as she made one last push towards the exit, jumping out as the passage closed just a second later.

Henry collapsed into the floor. He squinted his eyes as they adjusted to the light. He still couldn’t believe they were able to survive something as scary as a passageway that wanted to crush them dead.

"What the fuck was that?" Cordelia asked as she looked back to see a wall of bare rocks.

"That was just crazy," Henry added.

"I can’t even start to point out how stressed I had been with it," Elys said as she stood straight and looked around. "Wait..."

The end of the passageway that connected one of the rooms of the Crystal Palace to what looked like a wide cave. The ceiling permeated filtered light from tiny holes from above ground, and Elys found herself gawking at its natural design.

Right in the middle of the earth’s cavity, a crystal blue pool was sparkling so enchantingly.

"A little lake under the earth’s surface?" Elys asked no one in particular.

"I told you all there was water here somewhere," Aleksander said proudly.

The princess stared quite a long time at the wide pool of blue waters that twinkled. She heard shuffling beside her. Elys turned to see Cordelia and Henry, as well as Aleksander walking towards the waters.

"We don’t have extra clothes, so I suggest lets just cleanse everything and let ourselves dry naturally," Aleksander suggested.

Elys was a bit weirded out that she should jump into the water with several layers of fabric on. The rest were slowly dipping in on the pool, washing themselves off their stench while she still stood at the sides asking herself if she should just leave a few layers behind for good.

’Maybe I don’t need to clean myself in this,’ she muttered to herself.

Aleksander noticed her hesitation, and he rose from the edge of the pool to sit beside her. He had stripped several parts of his uniform and was just wearing a white shirt and dark pants. His shoes were taken off, and the shirt stuck to his already wet body.

In a way, he looked so beautiful as he approached Elys, and yet she knew she shouldn’t really entertain such thoughts.

"Aren’t you going to take a dip and clean yourself from all the blood?" Aleksander asked.

"I will in a short while," came Elys’ short reply.

The prince was confused. Seeing as how Elys had started to calm down from their earlier banter, Aleksander spoke his mind.

"I guess it isn’t the right time to ask again why you have magic and why you healed me then?"

The princess only stared at him.

After several seconds, she responded by saying, "I will tell you what you need to know if you would treat me better from now on."

go, your highness?" the old man repeated his question.