The Adventures of Emily Tual Book Four: The Rising

Gabriel, Jasper and James were riding past the Black Hand fortresses. Gabriel looked at the closest fortress. It was very quiet there. He wasn’t sure if there were anyone there or not. In all of his years, he had never seen a fortress so quiet before. There weren’t even Black Hands by the gates. What would possess the Black Hands to abandon the fortresses? It was part of the reason why the Resistance had to disband and escape. Why wouldn’t the Dark Lady want her forces at the fortresses anymore?

“I don’t like it.” Jasper said. “These fortresses are supposed to be protecting the Dark Lady’s palace. Why would they be empty?”

Gabriel shook his head. “Obviously the Dark Lady has plans for something big.” He answered. “A very big dangerous plan.” It didn’t help that they still didn’t know who the Dark Lady was. None of the survivors from the empire could ever say who was behind the dark shroud. They only spoke of Victor leading Black Hands on raids and attacks.

Jasper looked ahead of them. “If the Dark Lady is amassing her forces at her palace, it’ll be a lot more dangerous for us to try to get Seraphina out of the dungeons.” He told Gabriel. He looked at James. The boy didn’t seem to recognize the fortresses. Whoever had done the memory wipe spell on James had done such a good job that James couldn’t even recognize one of the most feared places in the entire empire.

Gabriel knew that Jasper was right but he couldn’t give up on Seraphina yet. He had to save her from whoever the Dark Lady was.

The Dark Lady’s Palace

Victor was standing by the throne in the throne room. Before the throne were different generals of the Black Hand. Malachi and the Camazot were at the front of the group of generals. The Camazot was human size. He was only ever human size in the throne room. The rest of the time, he was really large. The generals were all kneeling before the throne. The Black Hands that stood guard in the throne room were also kneeling. Victor was the only one not kneeling to the Dark Lady. None of them could see the Dark Lady. There was a shroud of darkness all around her. She didn’t want anyone to see who it was behind the shroud.

“Are our forces ready to take the other kingdoms?” The Dark Lady asked. The darkness around her grew darker as she asked that.

The Camazot looked up at the Dark Lady. “Our forces will soon be ready.” He answered. “Once we finish infusing dark magic to their weapons, we’ll be ready to march.”

The Dark Lady stood up and walked down to her generals. Victor followed her closely. The Dark Lady looked at the generals. “My father, even though he was powerful, never thought big enough.” She told them. “He was content to staying within the borders of his little empire.” The Dark Lady then walked to the window. “But we will march beyond our empire, extend our borders and take the other kingdoms. We will keep marching until we have covered the entire world.”

The generals didn’t do anything. They had heard this speech before. The Dark Lady always spoke of this plan but they knew better than to remind her of that. The last time a general had reminded her of that, he had been killed quickly. Even the Camazot kept quiet.

Victor liked seeing them all being so quiet. It made him feel superior that he could speak whenever he wanted. He was the right hand to the Dark Lady and her lover. He looked at the generals smugly before looking at the Dark Lady. “What of the reports of Gabriel and Jasper coming here?” He asked. “Should I send a small force of Black Hands to eradicate them?”

“No.” The Dark Lady replied. “Let them come to save their precious Seraphina. Them saving her will ensure that the trap will happen when the time comes.” She turned around to face Victor and the generals. “Have our forces be ready to move out within the hour.” She demanded. “I want the palace to be empty if they are to save Seraphina. Victor, you will lead our forces to the border for a massive invasion.”

Victor frowned. “What will you be doing?” He asked.

“I will be ensuring that they save Seraphina.” The Dark Lady answered before laughing. She vanished.

There was silence in the throne room. Victor turned to the generals. “You heard the Dark Lady.” He told them. “Get ready to move out! We need this place empty before my brother gets here!”

Outside the village by the Dark Lady’s Palace…

Gabriel, James and Jasper hid behind a wall in an alleyway and watched the giant army of Black Hands marching away from the palace. Victor and several generals were in the lead. The only noise that could be heard were the boots of the Black Hands hitting the ground at the same time. There were banners of the Black Hand scattered throughout the marching army. Gabriel had never seen such a large army like this before. The Black Hand army here was larger than all thirteen fortresses put together if he had to take a guess. The Dark Lady had been quite busy after all recruiting and capturing young men to serve in her army. There was no sign of the Dark Lady though. She must have still been inside the palace. That would complicate things a bit.

Jasper silently muttered a curse under his breath. “They’re getting ready to invade the neighboring kingdoms.” He said quietly before looking at Gabriel. “What should we do now? The kingdom of Maltha needs to know what’s coming.” He knew that Gabriel wanted to save Seraphina but it would be pointless if they didn’t have a safe place to take her to after saving her.

Gabriel nodded. He knew that Jasper was right. He turned to Jasper and James. “You two go back to Maltha and try to get to their king first. Warn him of what is coming and tell him Seraphina will soon be there to help. I’m going to get Seraphina before the Dark Lady can do anything to her.” He told them.

Gabriel snuck through the village quietly. He didn’t want to alert any of the Black Hands that he was there. He looked up at the palace every once in a while. He had never seen the palace before in his entire life and now here he was about to break into it to get Seraphina. He hoped that the next time he had to see this place, it would be under better circumstances and that it would be him and Seraphina ruling the kingdom from it.

Gabriel reached the last building before ducking down quickly. The army of Black Hands was still marching through the gates. There was no telling how large the army was. Gabriel sat down and placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. He would be ready to fight if any of the Black Hands saw him.

After an hour or two of sitting restlessly, Gabriel saw the end of the Black Hand army marching through the gates. He stood up quickly. The gates were closing already. He had to get through them before they were closed. He ran as fast as he could and made it in right before the gates boomed shut.

Gabriel looked around him. He was in a giant courtyard. There were a few fire pits around the courtyard. The fire pits were still burning. There were no Black Hands though there so he ran across the courtyard to a large door. He looked around again. No alarms had gone off yet so either no one was left in the palace or they didn’t see him. He opened the door and snuck into the palace.

From her hiding spot, the Dark Lady watched Gabriel walking through the hallway. She smiled to herself. Gabriel was doing just what she wanted him to do. She disappeared into the shadows.

Gabriel walked through the silent hallways. He had his sword out and ready to attack if he came across any Black Hands. All because there was no sign of them didn’t mean that they weren’t there. He soon reached an old wooden door. He had a feeling that he had reached the entrance to the dungeons. He opened the door and, after looking behind him one last time, went inside.

Gabriel rushed down the stone steps. He was sure now that he was reaching the dungeons. He came into a stone hallway that had iron cell gates. As he was walking down the hallway, he looked into each cell. He saw mostly skeletons chained to the wall and decaying bodies. It looked like the Dark Lady didn’t really care for her prisoners. Gabriel silently hoped that he wasn’t too late with saving Seraphina.

He came to the last cell. His eyes widened. Seraphina was chained to the wall. Her clothes were torn and tattered. The armor Gabriel remembered her in was gone. No doubt the Dark Lady had Seraphina stripped of all weapons. Gabriel was surprised that Seraphina was still alive considering how badly bruised she was. Gabriel looked at the cell gate and his eyes glowed. The gate became unlocked. Gabriel rushed into the cell to Seraphina. His eyes glowed again and the chains holding Seraphina released her. Seraphina fell into Gabriel’s arms.

The Dark Lady watched Gabriel carry Seraphina out of the dungeon cell. She smiled wickedly. Everything was going just as she had planned for it to. Soon it would be time for the next phase of her plan to be carried out. She vanished as Gabriel carried Seraphina away.