Turn to Chapter 1Tamas stormed into the hall, with a butler and two bodyguards in tow. He was extremely obese, and had been out of shape for just as long as he had been king. How long that had been, he can't remember. Despite this, however, even the guards had to jog to keep up with his swift walking pace. Dressed scantily in undergarments and shorts, the only descent thing being a long green cloak, Tamas awoke to a cry of someone being in his vault. How could someone get into, and out of, the vault unnoticed puzzled him almost as much as the length of his reign. For stationed at every known entrance and exit of the vault were about three guards, along with another two inside.
When he came to the main entrance, he got his answer. All three guards stood there, rigid, but deathly white. They didn't even blink. Tamas reached out to touch one. The man's beard chipped off completely in one solid piece, chilling to the touch. The men were frozen solid, right where they stood, their black armor fused to their bodies. What in the name of Jennia could have done this? Tamas thought quietly to himself. Wait, what if the cutpurse... ? Without further pause, Tamas burst into the vault.
Inside, he found the other two guards, the same as the others, except pushed over, like a statue in one of those huge world-shakes. He also found two other people in the vast room, but they were still moving. Wodicka, his accountant, and Adler, who, among many other things, kept track of the items in the vault.
Adler spoke up first. "It seems almost like nothing is missing, oh Great Lord of Cornia," she said. "I've went through just about everything, but it seems like the burglar just broke in and left."
"Aye," the acountant agreed, "the varment was seein' if he could give himself a trap door. Of course, he was right." Tamas almost found it humorous how heavily Wodicka's accent was when he was half asleep. But this wasn't exactly time for humor.
Tamas doubted both their statements highly. He knew exactly what could have frozen those guards, and he knew that he was the only one who possessed the items that could do it. Or, at least, he had possessed it.
Sunlight shown brightly through the skylight as Tamas looked around the room. The only window in the vault provided enough light to illuminate everything without the aid of torches. Letting his mind drift, he pondered on how to get that window opened. He knew it could be done; he could see the hinges from here. Still, push as they might, the skylight would not budge. At least it provided good lighting.
The light and the burglar started to get his anger built up inside of him. Slowly, he kept it under control, barely. Lashing out tending to be one of his favorite things, and so he did it a lot, but if did so now, they might find out the meaning of the anger, and that would ruin him.
"You missed one thing, Adler," Tamas said, barely able to stop the heat building up inside of him. He must have let his mind drift quickly, for the two didn't look the least bit impatient. Of course, they knew better to look at all impatient.
Still, Adler was afraid. She had a good reason to be. "What would that be, your highness?" she said, in what seemed like the most timid voice possible.
But the quiet, scared voice only gave Tamas the spark he needed. He lashed out. "The bracelet, you fool! Can't you do your bloody job? Keep track of the treasure room! Can't you do that? Look! Look!" Tamas cleared the threshold between them, grabbed Adler by a fistful of hair, and spun her head to face an empty altar, pointing straight at the table and pulling back on her hair at the same time.
"You see that? You see that?"
"See wh. . . what, m. . . my lord?" The fear made her voice quiver.
"That's my point!" Tamas was on the verge of screaming, now. "There's nothing there! Yesterday, there was a bracelet on that! Guards!"
The guards, now almost as afraid as Adler was, ran over to his side the second he called. Adler was just repeatedly whispering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over, along with a prayer.
"Oh, Denosen isn't going to do you any favors, Adler. Tomorrow, you get the axe. Take her away." Tamas finally let go of Adler's hair as the guards grabbed her and took her out of the room. After watching her go out the back entrance, Tamas spun around and began to walk back towards the main entrance, his butler still right behind him.
"M. . . me Lord?"
Tamas spun around on his heel to face his accountant, who was still deep in the room. Tamas stooped over, as if ready to attack.
Wodicka took a timid step foward, and worked his mouth as if for wetness. "Me lord, may. . . may I question, why would he steal. . . ?"
Tamas snarled as he responded, "You may not," whirled around, and stormed out of the room as he had stormed in.
He ran around, in a too-large black shirt, too-small black pants, and an
almost unmoving, hooded, black cloak over his head, giving him the illusion
of being a shadow even in the bright daylight, as it was now. He ran down
the street into a narrow alleyway. After looking around quickly, he tossed
back his hood, revealing an worn, tough face, old yet without wrinkles. His
hair was mostly brown, with only spots of white showing. His smile,
however, gave him the exuberent look of youth.
He rolled back his sleeve, revealing a small, light gray armband. As he admired it, his mind drifted back to the night's adventures.
Ascending the wall was easy, and as he topped the building, he crawled toward the beacon of light. He still had trouble believing that a king would leave a skylight into his vault with the latch to open it on the outside. He opened it, and jumped into the room. The hard wood floor rung with the sound of his boots crashing against the ground, along with his feet as well. However, the guards stationed inside the vault had tight helmets, and were somehow unable to hear it at all. Despite this, he still sneaked quietly over to the altar, and froze the two guards. He quietly picked the locks of the main door from the inside of them, opened the doors quickly, froze the other two guards before they had a chance to react, and spun around. He closed the doors once again, and locked them. Turning around, he ran down the deserted hallway and out into the streets.
There was still something strange. When he decided to try for the bracelet, he had no clue how to use it. For some reason, he was confident he would figure it out when he got it. When he came near the guard, however, he realized there was no way he wouldn't be able to use it.
As he drew near the strange item, the strangest thing came over him. In his mind, a voice appeared. It most definately was not his. It was low, straight voice, words flowing out in a cool monotone. The words were in another language, yet somehow he understood them as if they were his own. They were commands, and they all seemed to have something to do with the object he was approaching. He tried to shake the voices out of his head, but they only became louder as he got closer. It seemed like it was also trying to stress one certain command. The command was...
A women, dressed in elegant close, jumped into the alley, startling the already nervous man. "Hey," she said, "where do you think you're..."
She froze in mid sentence. The shadow-type character whispered the same chant that the odd voice was pointing out before and was still tying to point out now. At the same time, raised his arm towards the lady. The armband glowed slightly. The surrounding light turned almost liquified, and shot out from the armband. It slammed into the chest of the women, and she turned to ice.
The voices just wouldn't go away. They continued to haunt him, shouting commands that he knew didn't have a pupose yet. With visible effort, he shoved them into the back of his mind, trying to ignore them for now.
He glanced back over at the woman. Cursing himself lightly, he gathered himself, turned and ran. He wish he hadn't reacted so quickly. She would have been useful.
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