Chapter 26

The next morning Ven had Brutus join him in relieving Nikita and Natalie from their shift. Ven smiled as he looked at Brutus getting overwhelmed by the scope of everything, it was a nice feeling to see someone else have the same reaction he had the first time he had come to the Palace.

Natalie and Nikita welcomed the sight of Ven as he entered the ballroom. Ven had Brutus borrow Nikita’s shotgun until he got his own equipment. It wasn’t a gun he liked using, but he accepted it nonetheless without complaints.

Ven sent a message to Aaron again, a little irritated the man hadn’t replied yet before taking his position next to Brutus. Things were coming together now, but it would be a good idea to arrange a team training session soon, get everyone comfortable with working with each other. Right now, they were merely talented individuals. He also needed to find an opportunity to talk to Natalie, find out how she was doing. So much to do, so little time.

As Ven was standing thinking of all the things he still had to do, the ballroom doors opened and in came two people he had seen recently, Vassillissa followed closely by Divya. Today Vassillissa wore a burgundy-coloured dress with black embroidery.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Lilliana as she gestured towards an empty seat.

“I am here as a messenger today, Ravendra is holding a meeting in his room, he wants you there in an hour,” said Vassillissa.

“He could have called, he didn’t have to send you all the way,” said Lilliana.

“I asked him to send me, I get restless if I sit in one place for too long,” said Vassilissa.

“Why is he suddenly calling a meeting?” asked Liliana.

“That’s a surprise,” said Vassillissa as she acted coy.

“I see, in that case please tell Ravendra I will be there in an hour,” said Lilliana.

An hour later Ven was quietly following along as Lilliana’s guardsmen led the way to Ravendra’s quarters. As they got closer, Ven recognized the large door he and Peter had entered the last time he had met Ravendra. As they reached closer the two leading guards signalled for the rest to stop, moved to the side and bowed. Brutus looked towards Ven to see if he needed to bow as well, but upon seeing that Ven was still standing he decided to follow suit.

“We shall await here, my lady,” said one of the guards as Lilliana and Audrey departed from the group.

Audrey shook her head at Ven to signal he and Brutus didn’t have to follow them inside. As the door closed behind the two ladies, a sigh of relief was released by Brutus.

“I thought we might get to meet His Majesty; I can feel my heart in my throat!” said Brutus as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.

“I’ve been working for Lady Lilliana for years now, I’ve never had the honour of meeting him. This is the furthest people like us can dream to come, the door to His Majesty’s room,” said one of the guards.

“How long should we expect to be waiting here?” asked Ven.

“Can’t really say for sure, they don’t really inform us about that. We just wait here till they come back out, but usually at least half an hour, it mainly depends on what they are talking about,” said another guard.

“So, we just stand here doing nothing until then?” asked Brutus.

“Welcome to guard duty,” said a guard as the other guards started sniggering, “It’s not a glamourous job full of excitement, but it pays well.”

“Good thing I have my phone with me,” said Brutus as he pulled out his phone.

“I would put that away if I were you, we’re on guard duty, we shouldn’t be distracted by our phones. If you get caught with that, you can be sure they will put it on your permanent record, and they will bring it up every time your name gets evaluated for a promotion,” said one of the guards, “It happened to one of my friends, poor guy.”

Panicking Brutus immediately put his phone back in his pocket and stood at attention, making the other guards smile mischievously. Ven could tell Brutus was being teased and was sure it was something the guards had made up, but it was experiences like these which made you connect to your team, so he stayed quiet and tried not to smile. He hoped he could get chemistry like this in his team.

After being teased for a while, Brutus finally caught on to what was going on and laughed at how gullible he had been. As he attempted to tease the senior guardsmen back, the door to Ravendra’s door opened and three people walked out, Rendall, Lilliana and Audrey, all with angry looks on their faces. Sensing the mood, Ven, Brutus and the Guards stopped smiling and stood stiffly as they waited for orders.

“Audrey, you can have the rest of the day off,” said Lilliana as she shifted her gaze from Audrey to Rendall.

“Thank you, my lady,” said Audrey with a curtsey as she stepped to the side to make more room for Lilliana.

“Ven, it’s about time we had a sparring match, that sword will rust if you never use it! Audrey and your underling can watch from the side,” said Rendall.

“Yes, of course,” said Ven guessing this was an excuse for the three of them to be together.

Once they came to the training grounds, Ven sent Brutus to the kitchens to get something to eat as it was almost lunch time, while he and the Knight Captain had a light spar, it was clear Brutus wanted to stay and watch but he saluted and left.

“He’s a well-trained lad, doesn’t argue,” commented Rendall as Brutus left.

“He is. I am guessing you want to tell me what happened at the meeting,” said Ven.

“Yeah, it’s one of the reasons,” said Rendall as he looked towards Audrey.

“When we got to the meeting, Ravendra started off by telling Vassillissa who I really was. It’s information only the most trusted of our allies know, for him to tell that woman this so soon, I am afraid to even imagine what else he has told her,” said Audrey.

“It only got worse from there, although the nobles have always been a part of Ravendra’s court and acted as his advisors, his closest advisors have always been Audrey and me. He has planned to announce Vassillissa as one of his advisors in the coming weeks. He claims she brings a new perspective to the table, one we are currently lacking,” said Rendall irritably, “This woman has far too much sway on Ravendra, I don’t like it!”

“Do you suspect she has a gift which is letting her do that?” asked Ven.

“It can’t be ruled out, we haven’t been able to get a blood sample to test if she is gifted, she is avoiding all check-ups. Which on its own is kind of suspicious, why would she do that?” asked Rendall rhetorically.

“We need to protect Ravendra from this woman, he can’t see it, but there is something off about her, my instincts are screaming she is dangerous. If she didn’t look the way she did, no one in their right mind would let her come close to Ravendra,” said Audrey angrily.

“Well, just because you two have a gut feeling she’s dangerous, it doesn’t mean you can kill her,” said Ven jokingly.

A silence fell as Ven said those words, with Audrey and Rendall looking at each other awkwardly.

“You can’t be serious?! Just the other day Lilliana was talking about the chaos which might ensue if this Vassillissa died or broke His Majesty’s heart!” said Ven.

“That would depend on how we handled this situation,” said Audrey.

“This is treason!” said Ven.

“We haven’t decided what we are going to do yet,” said Rendall as he gave Audrey an angry look. “But we need to decide soon, if Vassillissa is indeed a danger to Ravendra and Nagiri, we need her out of the picture. If she isn’t, she can do whatever she pleases.”

“Why are you even telling me any of this? I am a nobody,” said Ven.

“You remember the man who kidnapped you and your partner?” asked Rendall.

“Yeah, I doubt I’ll forget Samundar any time soon,” said Ven.

“We got him to talk, and did he have things to tell us. He was working for Shor, but in return for us not killing him, he offered us information about a secret project which has been going on in Nagiri for years,” said Rendall.

A shiver went down Ven’s spine, it couldn’t be, they knew? They had finally found out; how much time did Ravi and others have before they brought the hammer down on them? They must not know about his allegiance with them, or they wouldn’t have been talking so freely with him, he had to play things right, he couldn’t give himself away now!

“Secret project?” asked Ven.

“We’ve known for years there is a group which is trying to undermine everything we do by spreading false propaganda about us, attacking and stealing shipments of valuable goods, assassinating some of our best, I could go on and on about the stuff they have done. What we didn’t know is everything they have been doing has been a build up to kill Ravendra, with this goal in mind they have been planting spies in the UTF for years now and we have no idea who these people are! Samundar isn’t a part of this group, so he couldn’t tell us more about what precisely this so-called secret project entailed, but they were building up to something, that much is certain!” said Rendall as he punched a nearby wall.

“Ok, so there is a group that has wanted to assassinate the King for a long time, but what does it have to do with Vassillissa?” asked Ven.

“Everything! They have been planting spies amongst us for ages, but the fact that Ravendra is still alive means at some point they accepted that the plan wasn’t working, and they needed to figure something else out. So, they started this secret project where their goal was to find a woman who looked like Lady Vassillissa, as she would be irresistible to Ravendra, and it is this woman’s job to marry and then kill Ravendra!” concluded Rendall passionately.

“That theory of yours sounds insane,” said Ven, “You’re assuming so much! You have no proof whatsoever!”

“I don’t need proof! A woman that happens to look exactly like Lady Vassillissa shows up at our doorstep, Ravendra is telling her our most guarded secrets and he wishes to make her his Queen! By right she will be the next leader of Nagiri should anything happen to Ravendra! If that isn’t enough to convince you, do you remember Bill from the Honour Guard meeting we had? It was his job to dig up whatever he could on Vassillissa, he and his team have been haven’t been in any kind of contact since they left! Our only choice is to eliminate Vassillissa before they get married,” said Rendall.

“Why are you even telling me any of this? I could be a spy for all you know,” said Ven.

“You aren’t, Samundar had ties with this organization which wants Ravendra dead, as such he wouldn’t dare kill one of their agents. I’ve heard the story from Rendall, and I just have to look at your scar to know you were almost killed,” said Audrey as she pointed to Ven’s forehead.

“We don’t have many people that we can trust right now, and I’ve looked into your team. Almost all of them are people that would not have made it into UTF if you hadn’t taken them in, I was hoping that you would find one or two when I told you to look outside the UTF, but you did better than I expected,” said Rendall.

“My team and I are a bunch of amateurs,” said Ven.

“We have to play with the cards we are dealt,” said Audrey.

“What are you going to do if His Majesty finds out what you two did?” asked Ven solemnly.

“He won’t know it was us, he will never find out!” said Audrey.

“How long have you two been considering this? All of this doesn’t sound like something you thought of today,” asked Ven.

“After Samundar told us of the secret project and spies, we have been on guard to react to any kind of attack. We knew we needed people we could trust, and through your actions, we knew that you were that someone. You remember Rendall told you of too many coincidences happening recently? So, for my safety, you were placed as my bodyguard. We had planned on you being our backup in case things went wrong from the start. Why do you think both Rendall and I have been so nice and friendly to a man who has just joined as a Knight? We knew we needed your help!” said Audrey.

“You’ve been planning this from the beginning?” asked Ven.

“Not planning, we couldn’t plan as we didn’t know what would happen, we were preparing countermeasures,” said Rendall.

“Let’s say you manage to hide it was you two who orchestrated Vassillissa’s death, how are you going to keep His Majesty from completely breaking down when he finds her dead?” asked Ven.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to see my friend broken,” said Rendall with a deep sigh.

“Ravendra is not weak! He survived the death of Lady Vassillissa, he will survive the death of this imposter!” said Audrey confidently, “Are you with us?”

“I need time to think about this, I can’t answer right now,” said Ven, things were spinning out of control too fast, he needed to talk to Ravi or Natalie and figure out what to do.

“I am afraid time is a luxury we don’t have. We need your answer right now” said Rendall threateningly.

"If I say yes, and we go through with this but fail, I want a guarantee no harm comes to my team,” said Ven as he stalled for time.

“A noble request, but if we fail, I am afraid there is no saving any of us,” said Rendall.

“Which is why we have no choice but to succeed, we are all taking great risks here for our great nation and King!” said Audrey, “I’ll ask again, are you with us or not?”

“You two are asking for a lot from a giftless man,” said Ven as he tried to think of a way to get out of this situation.

“Stop stalling and answer now,” said Rendall.

“Give me a minute to think at least,” said Ven.

“You have a minute, start thinking,” said Rendall.

Would these two let him walk out of here unscathed if he said no? Probably not, they wouldn’t leave a loose end, and if he said yes, he would probably be put under surveillance to make sure he wasn’t lying to them. But what if he used their plan against them, they wanted to get rid of Vassillissa, but what if he used them to kill Ravendra instead, would it even be possible and was it something he wanted to go through with? So far, he had just been going with the flow and hadn’t really thought about what he wanted to do, but that time was over, whether he helped them kill Vassillissa or Ravendra, either way he had to kill someone and live with the consequences.

“I am in, but I have some questions,” said Ven.

“I knew you would make the right choice” said Rendall joyfully, “What do you want to know?”

“Besides us three, how many people know of this plan we are hatching? And can I tell my team?” asked Ven.

“You can tell your team; it will be impossible to work efficiently if you keep them in the dark. To tell you the truth, we aren’t that many, but there are certain Knights besides Barbra in the Honour Guard I trust with my life, I am sure we can count on them,” said Rendall.

“Which means you think the Honour Guard might have been infiltrated by these spies?” asked Ven.

“We have to assume the worst,” said Rendall.

“Since you have thought out so much in advance, have you also thought of how we’re going to carry out this plan of yours?” asked Ven.

“We are going to blame our hidden enemies of course,” said Audrey.

“Why would they want to kill Vassillissa, they have nothing to gain from it,” said Ven perplexed about why Audrey would think it was a good idea.

“Because she wouldn’t be their target, she would just be caught in the crossfire, depending on the situation we will make it look like they were trying to assassinate either Ravendera or me,” said Audrey smugly.

“You need a location with a lot of people and chaos for that idea to work,” said Ven.

“Both have been presented to us by Vassillissa herself. The wedding rehearsal will be attended by a decent number of people and the security will be stationed outside, not in the room where they are getting married. A couple of gunshots or a small explosion would be enough to cause panic and people running for the exits. With people running out, it will be close to impossible for the guards to come inside, in this pandemonium our assassin takes his shot,” said Rendall.

“That could work, but how would you put the blame on this outside group?” asked Ven.

“We use Samundar’s confession,” said Rendall.

“He has already told us they have spies planted amongst us with the goal to assassinate Ravendra, this was just that. A failed attempt on his life and unfortunately Vassillissa died in the crossfire,” said Audrey.

“You guys make this sound easy, but there are a lot of things which have to be done for this to work, and quite a number of things which could go wrong,” said Ven.

“But of course, which is why we must start preparations to carry out the plan immediately. This is but the beginnings of a plan, we have the benefit that there is a lot that needs to be prepared and put in place before they hold their wedding rehearsal,” said Rendall.

Did anyone see this coming? I was trying to keep it sudden and as a surprise so hopefully you guys couldnt see it coming. I was considering posting two chapters today, but with how long this chapter is, I think I'll stop myself.

I hope everyone is doing alright, I know the corona restrictions are being lifted in many places but there are ofcourse still places where that is something which cant be done as the number of new cases is very high.

So, as always stay safe out there and take care of yourselves!

Anderoth