Year 2016: Capital, Accambus
I was rattling my teeth as panic slowly feasted on my mind. The time in Accambus was three hours ahead of the time in Malaysia. And in just another few hours, this city would be awoken by the first ray of dawn, and the artificial sun would slowly emit its streaks of light all over the city, starting from a lenient and dim red, to a warm and intense white. And my rate of success to escape unnoticed would plummet instantly. Not to mention that my not even bucket list of tasks was still at a completion of zero percent.
In fact, I only had two tasks. One, to look for Ina, my first-class mentor, and prayed that she would offer me some intel regarding Elliot’s disappearance. Second, to sneak into Prince Elliot’s chamber to search for clues.
Haziq and Rong went to visit Hank’s contact to see what they could discover while I infiltrated into the castle.
They had tripled the number of guards. I had stolen a guard uniform to stay undiscovered in plain sight, and there were two guards obstructing my path into Elliot’s chamber. They had been the impediment for my progress advancement in the past five minutes. And they were making infrequent conversation about plenty of insignificant stuffs, like the chilly weather, and the new hot servants. My mind automatically filtered them out, until they chattered about TSDA.
Due to the distance, and their soft whisper, I had to have my senses to run in full efficiency so that I didn’t miss a word.
“Those imbeciles from TSDA regard themselves as some nobles. I was there when they arrived.”
“Did the president come?”
“Of course, the old and obstinate woman from Shambhala. She just disrespected the King in front of everyone. She didn’t even bow when she saw the King,” the man groaned.
“You’re talking about the most powerful woman in the world.”
“Yeah but, what she did was just impolite.”
“Why did she visit Capital I wonder?”
The man scoffed. “Believe it or not, the King requested for her presence.”
“For?”
“For Prince Elliot, he wanted TSDA to help finding the prince. But that old ugly lady, she immediately refused without hesitancy. ‘It has nothing to do with TSDA’ she said. Must be out of her mind to tell that straight in the King’s face.”
“She’s one...” The conversation that followed circled around more swearing and cursing to demean the president. Her name was Kaelen, the president of TSDA. She was old, uncanny, and cunning. I only met her once in HQ, and the bad vibe from her was overly overpowering mostly due to her RBF. And the fact that the King requested for her help was a miracle itself because the King detested TSDA last time I checked. Perhaps, desperation could drive men to do hateful things even to themselves.
The moment I revealed myself from the dark corner and strode toward them, they stopped their conversation. Their defensive eyes never left me as I spoke, “The captain wants to see both of you, and he ordered me to stay watch instead.”
“Passwords?” asked both guards at the same time.
“You’re joking,” I replied with an extreme level of calm, with a stain of annoyance adorning the side of my face.
“C’mon, there’s no need to be so serious,” one of them said.
“He is at the South Wing,” I said, harshly. There was no password or anything as such when guards changing shifts four years ago, and I was fortunate they didn’t implement it after Elliot’s disappearance as well.
“What did we do exactly?” asked one of them, as his countenance stiffened in anxiety.
“I don’t know. He never explained to me. Both of you better hurry, he doesn’t seem happy.” And they scurried away, as simple as that. I had secured myself roughly ten minutes in the room before they realized it was a hoax.
I stepped into the chamber once they were out of sight, and I was greeted by pure darkness. I fumbled my pocket and took out a small flashlight to shine a light at a small and narrow corridor in front of me.
“Who’s there? Show yourself,” a silky voice spoke. I didn’t expect I was exposed so quickly. I scanned my surrounding, looking for a spot to hide, but there was only wall and dead end. The only way was forward. I leaned back against the wall and moved sideways surreptitiously until I reached the end of the wall, I halted, ready for an ambuscade.
“Move one more step and I will pull the trigger,” the strange voice said as my head was met with a gunpoint before I could react.
I was immobilized, to find a pair of swelled and widened irises, which were between a mix of cobalt and red, reviewed me. I absorbed the details on her face within an instant. The tiny freckles on her cheeks became visible in the dark at this close distance. And the wrinkles adorning her forehead were easy to spot as she creased them harder.
I was already standing graciously, ready to do a curtsy bow, with my mind telling my conscience that I didn’t just try to knock out the Queen of Accambus. She spoke once she retained control of her spiked emotion. “Ting? What are you doing here?”
“I...ugh...” I stuttered, my face paled, as I was placed in a tough situation without knowing how to explain myself so that I wouldn’t get into trouble. “To find Elliot,” I blurted. Then I brought myself to my knees before the queen. “Forgive my rudeness, my Queen.”
Her hands were wiping away the dried tears that blemished her cheeks. She sniffed before she spoke again, “You shouldn’t have come. You no longer have a place here. The guards will arrest you if they see you.” Her gravelly voice sounded feeble, as if lethargy had drained it completely dry.
“I know, I’m not...scared,” I said, as bold as my voice permitted. “I’m here to find Elliot. Tell me. Is he really missing?”
She could barely nod her head, but I took it as a yes because she was literally holding a picture of Elliot with her other hand just to soak it with her own tears. I didn’t need to see it with my own eyes. Her reddened eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“Do you know where I could find Ina?” I asked, was still on my knees.
“Please, get up,” she ordered as the tip of her fingers lifted my chin with a slight thrust. I peered up at her as she carried on, “She is not in the castle. She followed the King to a meeting in Archadia. They will only be back by tomorrow.”
“It isn’t a political meeting, is it?”
This time, she nodded her head for more than several times. Her morose gaze looked up as her heart sank into anguish, her shoulders shuddered dismally. “It’s just an excuse so that Ina could infiltrate the foreign land easier, to look for Elliot.”
“How did he disappear?” I asked again. I had so many questions, and was fidgety enough to stand up and started pacing up and down.
“We don’t know. All I knew was he disappeared in the castle seven days ago. We only found out...that my son...was missing...the other morning...when he didn’t attend his usual training with Ina.” She ruptured into tears. “I’m...sorry.” She took a swerve so that her back was facing me instead to conceal her vulnerable grief.
I stood still, lowering my head before I squinted at her. “I will help you find him. But you need to tell me all the information you have regarding his disappearance.”
She swiped the freshly brewed tears off her face and calmed herself by regulating her breaths. “I know you love Elliot very much. And I appreciate it. But I don’t want you to risk your job to look for Elliot. I know TSDA doesn’t want your presence in the bottom of the ocean.” Then she veered to face me. “You’re a good kid, Ting.”
I wasn’t swayed by her offer. Not for a moment. I stared blankly at her emaciated feature. She was so pale that she looked like a waxwork in the candlelight. And I knew I couldn’t turn my head away and looked the other way, acted as if nothing had happened. And however meagre my contribution was due to my lack of ability and resources, it couldn’t stop me from helping.
“Elliot used to look up to me,” I said, was all of a sudden emotional. “He thought that a twelve years old kid like me standing up for a fight with the most perilous man in the world was heroic. That was why...”
“He begged the King so that Ina and Jack could be his mentors as well.” The side of her cheeks wrinkled up as she smiled at the reminiscence. “I remember the King had a hard time saying yes.”
I cleared my throat. “Prince Elliot and I are both Ina’s mentees. She had already lost me. I don’t want her to lose Elliot too. And Elliot is my friend.”
“Ting...” She sighed as she walked past me, sitting down on the side of the bed, eyes flooded with immense sympathy. Her hand reached for Elliot’s pillow, clutching it with her inflexible fingers until it had deformed. “I’m glad that you think of Elliot as a friend, truly.”
My focus didn’t drift away from the Queen. Her brows furrowed, and her strands of red hair were caressed by the cold wind. When her fingers tentatively reached for her temples and rubbed it, as if to relieve the drowsiness in her head, she spoke, “They told me that it wasn’t a kidnap. Elliot is a good fighter. There would be signs of struggle or fight in the castle, but we couldn’t find any. One of the guards told us that Elliot ran out of the castle the night before. He didn’t stop him because he didn’t know it was him. And by the time he realized, Elliot was already gone.”
“But...why would he run away?” I asked, half intrigued, and half dumbfounded.
“I have no idea. It’s been seven days. We’ve searched everywhere, every corner, every city in Accambus, but there is still no sign of him.”
“He ran away...all by himself.” My larynx managed a soft whisper to myself. I was still very sceptical.
“Oh...and,” she suddenly rushed herself to a yellow ochre drawer beside the bed and opened it, hands rummaged through a pile of papers and letters. “I think someone left this message for him before he ran off.”
Then she pulled out a piece of crumpled paper that were obviously torn to pieces before and mended back with tape and slid it into my hand. “This was torn to pieces and left in the trash bin. Ina dug it out and restored it with tape.”
I shone my flashlight at it. As I stared into the still legible words, my brain broke down, due to my mindless effort to fathom out the array of bewildering words within such a short time called second. I examined the Queen carefully. Her cobalt eyes were troubled. And her voice was somewhat thick with dejection as she continued, “It’s TSDA...”
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