there, locked away.
“John saw him last week. It’s a long shot but…” She shrugged and then stood up, clearly not wanting to discuss it any longer, “I’m going to bed. The mayor gave us the bedrooms up here so consider yourself lucky.”
I got up from the table as well, eager to take a shower and go to bed. Ellie walked over to the door and then stopped.
She looked over her shoulder, “Thanks for coming, Lana.”
Then Ellie was gone. With a yawn, I headed into the shower and then curled up into bed. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep or not – but I was asleep in moments.
I woke up hours later to Ellie hovering over my face, waking me up. I mumbled something and sat up.
“Hurry up,” She snapped, “Seriously, get up. We have to go. Now.”
“What’s going on?”
“More wither skeletons are attacking. We have to go now before the portal is covered in them.”
Quickly, I got out of bed, grabbed my weapons and took off with Ellie. I thought we were going to go down the stairs and out the front door but Ellie had another idea. She opened the window and began to climb out of it.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“Shortcut. The portal is in the city hall. Across the street.” She called back to me as she began to climb down the side of the house.
I stuck my head out the window and looked around. I could see wither skeletons in the street. They were fighting the soldiers. Ahead of us was the city hall.
“Great.” I mumbled under my breath as I slipped out of the window and climbed after Ellie.
We both landed in the garden. We hurried towards city hall. Ellie and I both took down three wither skeletons on the way over. I couldn’t believe there was another attack on the village. Were other places being attacked? What about the End City?
I told myself not to think about it right now and pushed it out of my head. I had to focus on the task at hand and nothing else.
We crossed the street and entered the grounds of city hall. It had been badly burned in the fires from yesterday.
“What if the portal is gone?” I asked Ellie as I took down a wither skeleton.
If it were gone, that would mean we would have to travel to get to Liam. That would take too long. Ellie didn’t answer. We burst into the city hall. It was empty. Quickly, we crossed the main room and Ellie yanked open a door to a hallway.
Down the hallway we went and then into another room. There we stopped. In front of the portal, which was luckily still together, was a wither skeleton. It turned to look at us and brandished a large sword.
This close, I equipped my own diamond sword. Ellie held back with her bow and looked at me.
“Guess he doesn’t want us to go through the portal,” I said.
Wither skeletons are always fast. They move quickly and attack hard. But, somehow, this wither skeleton seemed even faster. It darted forward and attacked with its sword. I managed to block it just in time but stumbled backwards. Ellie let an arrow fly but the wither skeleton was fast enough to block it with his own shield.
I kicked out with my legs. But it was like hitting iron. The wither skeleton’s legs barely felt my kick. Instead, it brought its sword down. I rolled out of the way as the sword smashed into the wooden flooring.
Ellie fired another arrow but the wither skeleton blocked this too. It was too fast. How in the world did it move so quickly? The other skeletons hadn’t been like this.
I scrambled to my feet and tried to attack again. This time it slammed its arm into me and sent me flying across the room. I crashed into the wall. For a few seconds, my vision blurred.
Ellie was grabbing something. With my vision blurred, I couldn’t tell what it was. The wither skeleton was coming towards me. I was trying to get to my feet, getting ready to ward off its attacks.
Then an arrow slammed into the skeleton. Almost instantly, it was covered in head to toe with ice. It slowed it down and had it stuck to the floor. I got to my feet and looked over at Ellie. Of course! I had forgotten completely about the magical vials she could use in her bow.
Wasting no more time, I struck out with my sword. I cut down the skeleton almost right away and it turned to ash and ice on my feet.
Ellie lowered her bow, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I think so, anyway.”
“Here.” She tossed me something – it was another vial and was a bright pink.
“What is this?”
“Something that John and I have been working on. Think of it as like a health potion. It should help you.”
“Geez, what have you guys been doing the past year?” I said, uncapping it and making sure it didn’t smell weird before drinking it.
Ellie watched me for a few seconds after I drank it and I looked back at her, “What?”
“Nothing. We’re still testing it and I wanted to see if you were going to faint or something.”
“Wow. Wonderful. Thank you.”
She ignored me and went over to the portal, making sure that it was okay. Then she took a step back from it and motioned for me to come over. I walked over.
“Alright. You want to go first?” Ellie asked me.
“Sure.” I lied – I hated going through these portals.
“Wonderful. Don’t overthink it.” She said and before I knew what she could mean by that, she was shoving me forward through the portal.
Everything swirled purple around me and I could feel that awful humming in my ears. After a few seconds, I was spit out of the portal. As always, I landed clumsily. At least this time I managed to stay upright.
A man looked up in alarm from his desk. The portal was in a different spot than last time I had tumbled through it. It seemed to be in someone’s office. The man got to his feet and hurried over as Ellie came through the portal.
I’m sure we made quite a sight. Both of us were dirty from the fight through the ruined city hall. I knew I was covered in dust and dirt from slamming against the wall. Ellie’s bow was glowing a bright blue from the vial she had put inside of it.
The man sputtered, “Ellie – what is this?”
“Hey, George,” She said casually, “There’s an issue back home. Wither skeleton attack and my brother is missing. Is the king around?”
The man, George, looked annoyed with her, “You can’t just ask for the king whenever you want. We’ve been through this.”
“Come on, George.” She leaned over and playfully hit him on the shoulder – leaving a streak of dirt on his clean shirt.
He looked down at it in horror. I glanced at Ellie and narrowed my eyes. She definitely wasn’t improving anything here.
“We’re friends, right?” She tried again.
“No.”
“Can you pretend we are friends and get the king? My village is under attack and my brother is missing.” She snapped, losing her patience.
I looked over at George, “If not the king, then someone who can listen to us about the attack on the village.” I tried to smile but I think I just scared him more.
George scampered out of the room and Ellie sighed, “Such a pain.”
She went over and sat down in a chair, curling up in it. When she felt me staring at her, she opened her eye.
“Liam is going to take forever. The king moves slowly in everything. You should catch a nap. Or write in your little journal.”
I sat down on a couch. I wasn’t feeling that tired so writing felt like the best bet. Now that I am all caught up, all we can do is wait for Liam. It’s been at least an hour –
Later that night
Liam entered the room without warning. Ellie was curled up in the chair like a cat. She was even snoring a little. I woke her up quickly and she jolted awake, looking around. When she saw the king, she got to her feet and tried to curtsy.
Liam sighed, “Ellie, please. We all know you aren’t one for proper protocol.”
“I thought I’m supposed to curtsey. John told me.” She said.
r /> I got to my feet and did a quick bow to Liam. I hadn’t seen him since everything had been going on with his brother, Marketh.
“Lana,” He said in surprise, “I wasn’t expecting to see you here. How is Gareth?”
“He’s good, Your Majesty. Ruling the End City fairly.”
“What brings the two of you here today? George said something about an attack…”
Together, Ellie and I told him what happened. When we finished, Liam was looking at us very seriously.
“I want to speak to Marketh,” Ellie said, “John came to see him recently, right?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Did he say anything? Anything at all about leaving or Marketh telling him something?” She asked.
“No, not that I can recall. Are you sure you want to speak to him?” Liam asked, “I mean…”
We all knew what he was thinking. Ellie hadn’t ever gone to speak to her dad before. In moments like these, I forget that the king is technically her uncle. There is a tenderness to his words as if he doesn’t want her to get hurt.
“John is missing,” She said, “I need to speak to him.”
“Alright. I’ll have you guys taken to see him. Are you sure you don’t want to eat or something first?”
Ellie shook her head, “Afterwards. Thanks.”
We were taken out of the room and down the hallway. The castle looked the same as the last time I was here. The time before that, I had been chased around by guards. Even now, if I saw a guard glance at me, I could feel my muscles tighten. I guess some instincts don’t ever go away.
Liam had to go because he had another council meeting. I swear, the only thing the king does is sit in meetings. In any case, we were taken down to the dungeon by two guards. I