Little update: A big thanks to those who are following this story so far! In case you are wondering, this is a self-written story (an amateur attempt I know) during the days when I was fascinated by the stuff about knights, castles, kingdoms and sorcery, you get what I mean. For those who wish to check out the previous chapters, here's the link! With that let the adventure continue!
Chapter 40
"The crystal tower?" asked Malcolm.
Ignoring Malcolm's question, Rak told Moya, "This place is not safe. Ariton has taken over this tower. We should not stay here."
"But where else can we go? Back to the tunnel? No way!" Moya complained.
Malcolm suggested, "Well, I'm sure we can find places to hide in this tower. I have yet to settle scores with Ariton too."
Rak and Moya agreed. When they realised there was no one in the tower, they sneaked into the kitchen and grabbed some of the leftovers and food which Selera had stored. Then, they searched high and low for a suitable hiding place, eventually deciding on the storeroom.
"The amount of clutter in the room can cover us all," said Rak, who knew the tower more than any one of them.
Meanwhile, Maltov wondered through the crystal tower. After facing endless rows of grey walls, he was glad that there were crystals to admire, books to read, and much more things to do in this tower. He laughed to himself when he saw the three of them scrambling for places to hide. If only they were invisible like him, he thought.
He was walking past the main door, when all of a sudden, the door opened and the Perisher stepped in. Faced with the hideous monster that was a few heads taller than him, Maltov guessed that he was the Perisher. As the Perisher could not see him, Maltov decided to follow him.
Step by step, the Perisher went all the way up to the top of the tower. When Maltov stepped into the room, he had a shock of his life. A large portion of Doria came into view and he saw a large number of units fighting in Iglius. In addition, there was a lot of smoke in the area, possibly due to burnt buildings and infrastructure. The emitted smoke rose and dyed the morning sky into a gloomy grey colour.
Was this the final assault that Moya and Rak always talked about? What was he supposed to do now? Was his dad, the King of Doria, still alive? Images of the endless possibilities and outcomes appeared in his mind. Then the silence of the room brought him out of his virtual world.
He turned around, and realised that the Perisher was nowhere to be seen.
A few days later, Zareth gathered the ex-soldiers at the stone wall in Drogo. Zareth started the impromptu meeting by asking individuals to report on what they had seen or experienced so far.
One of them reported, "As of last night, half of Iglius has fallen to Ariton's forces. However, I believe the barracks will be sending more soldiers to Iglius today. It's a tough call to predict the winner but certainly, advantage is on Ariton's side."
"I see. Anyone else has any updates?"
The man who sat at the far right spoke, "Zareth, we have noticed that an increasing number of troops have been moving from the castle to Iglius for the past few days. If I'm not wrong, the batch that they are sending over today will be the final one. There aren't any left in the castle."
"Is the King still in the castle?" asked Zareth.
The man replied, "We have no evidence that he left the castle, unless he went out via a secret passage."
Zareth pondered for a while and threw more questions to the group.
"Has the Perisher shown himself yet?"
"No, though we have enough reason to believe that he's putting up in the crystal tower."
"No soldiers in the castle yet the Perisher's whereabouts are unknown. Not looking good."
"You mean the Perisher is going to bypass Iglius and go straight to the castle?" asked one of them.
"The battle has been going on for nearly a week. If the Perisher wanted to take over Iglius, he would have joined in the battle. In that case, we have to inform Brad and his ambush team to pay extra attention. Speaking of them, how are they doing?"
"Zareth, I spoke to Brad yesterday and he told me that things are progressing smoothly. Furthermore, he said he had sent Wayne and another group to guard the north gate."
Zareth did not say a word, but intuitively, he knew where the Perisher would be heading.