Children of Fey and Night: Chapter Four

The Legion of Thieves 

Children of Fey and Night

Another Thief

Maximilian Martell

"I'm telling you we should call Xaro." I suggested to Dawn. "He's the only one with enough diplomatic skills to get Lissa out of here."

"No I can get Lissa out of here." I just need to find the exit, then we'll be able to break here out of here." Dawn retorted. We had been walking around the tunnels of the Fairy Kingdom for almost an hour. We had been given an armed escort out but we had slipped away to find Lissa. We had turned into the corridor that we had first arrived in. We could see the curtain of tree roots serving as the entrance to the throne room.

Dawn and I stopped dead as we heard footsteps echoing through the tunnel. Dawn unsheathed her knife as I removed my chakrams from my wrist. I pulled my arm back, ready to let my chakram fly, when Lissa burst through the curtain. We stared at each other for a few second before we all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank the titans." I breathed putting my chakrams away. "We though we'd have to break you out of here."

"Stavo per rompere fuori." Dawn boasted. "Oh and before I forget." She reached into her inside pocket and pulled out a long, pointed object: Lissa's stake. Lissa took the stake from Dawn and flipped it in her hand a few times before looping it back through her belt. She beamed at Dawn and the girls embraced for a moment.

"Alright you two let's got get all mushy." I teased. The girls separated and Lissa stuck her tongue out at me. I looked around and quickly realized we didn't have a way out.

"Hey!" A deep rumbling voice  shouted behind us. I jumped and spun around, fumbling for my chakrams. When I turned around I saw two massive figures standing at the end of the tunnel. They were so tall their heads barley missed the ceiling. The bloke on the right wore a pair of XXL jeans and I breastplate made of tree bark. His hair looked like the head of a dandelion and his face looked like it had been hit too many times with a frying pan. The other guy had green, seaweed-like hair, and a huge nose. He wore a camouflage jacket and possibly the largest pair of board shorts ever made.

"What are you humans doing here?" Dandelion head demanded.

Dawn and Lissa gaped at the duo, unable to speak. I quickly took the lead. "We have just come from a meeting with your Queen. She instructed us to go to her daughter's room to look for any clues as to where she may have disappeared to. Now if you two gentleman would kindly escort us we can get this investigation underway."

The two looked at each other then back at me, Lissa and Dawn did the same. "Quick march men! Time is of the essence!"

"R-right! This way please!" Seaweed hair stammered. They turned awkwardly and walked in the opposite direction of the throne room.

'What did you do?" Dawn asked as we followed the pair of what I guessed were Ogres.

"Nothing I just made up a story on the spot." I stated. It was something I had done numerous times on heists. It was stroke of luck these two had shown up. We needed to gather more information about the princess and her room would be the best place to start.

We continued walking through the endless maze of tunnels until we came to a pair of heavy oaken doors. Something was carved into the door in a language I didn't recognize. I turned to the ogres.

"What does that say?" I asked pointing at the writing.

"It is the name of our princess in our ancient language: Alyssa Morganna Rain of House Fey." Dandelion head translated.

"Thank you... I don't believe I caught your names." I said scratching my head.

"My name is Marinus and this is my brother, Gwydion." The ogre with green hair said introducing them. I made the quick introductions and thanked the brothers again. We shook hands and they departed. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the double doors. I tried to push the doors open but found they were locked.

"Ho avuto questa." Dawn said shoving me out of the way. She knelt down in front of the lock and pulled out a few tools and set to work on the lock. A few seconds later we heard the lock click and Dawn pushed the door open. We walked into the bedroom and gaped at the sight before us. Alyssa's bedroom was bigger than my penthouse!

A king sized bed was on a raised dias against the back wall with a curtain of rose petals drawn back. A waterfall cascaded into a pool of clear water. A large vanity with enough makeup to fill a department store was set up next to the pool. Opposite the pool was a massive television, larger than the one in the commons room at HQ. Next to the TV was a pair of double doors that lead to a walk in closet.

We fanned out and started looking for anything that could tell us where Alyssa may have disappeared to. Lissa inspected the vanity, noting several pictures had been removed from their frames and some makeup was missing. I searched around her bed, finding nothing out of the ordinary except a laptop charger that was still plugged into the wall.

"Anything in the closet Dawn?" I called inspecting the bed side drawers.

"More clothes than I could wear in three years and more jewelry than I could fit in a duffle bag." She yelled back.

"Anything unusual?" I shouted.

"That's not unusual?" She asked.

"Come on Dawn. We're looking for clues." Lissa shouted.

"Okay... umm sections of clothes are missing but they could just be getting washed... Some jewels are gone... Hang on there's another door... HEY! MA CHE...!? Oof!" Dawn screamed. There was a crash and Lissa and looked up.

Someone was standing at the doors to the closet. He was dressed in all black with a mask covering his face. A backpack was slung over his shoulders. Was he a burglar? Di he kidnap the princess and comeback for her stuff? More questions ran through my head before I spotted Dawn sprawled on the ground in the closet.

My eyes flashed back to the guy in black, my chakrams already fully formed. Before I could do anything Lissa charged at him, her stake raised over her head. The man in black grabbed her wrist and flung her across the room where she handed in the pool with a splash. As he made a break for the door I threw my chakrams. They flew through the air embedding themselves in the doors just above the hinges. That bought me a few seconds. I ran over to the pool and help Lissa climb onto dry land. She coughed and waved me off, telling me to go help Dawn. I stood and looked to the closet, Dawn was rolling on the ground trying to stand. She looked eyes with me and silently told me she was okay.

I pulled the pendant off my necklace and it morphed into my spear. The masked man kicked one of the doors and it flew off it's hinges, my chakram clattering to the ground. He ran down the hall and I charged after him. This guy was fast, I considered myself in good shape but I quickly found myself falling behind. Finally I caught him at a dead end with a locked door. My spearhead glowed with violent light as I leveled it at the masked figure.

"End of the line mate. Drop the bag and put your hands on your head." I ordered. He turned around and charged me. I shot three beams of light from my spear hoping to knock him over. Incredibly he managed to dodge my attacks. I raised my spear to attack but he grabbed my shirt and flung me against the wall, hard!

My vision went black for a moment as I lay there on the ground. When my eyesight came back I was alone in the tunnel. I sat up and rubbed the back of my head: No blood, that was good I guess. I shook my head looked around, the burglar was no where in sight. I stood up and my spear disguised it's self as a pendant again. I took a step forward and something crunched under my foot. I looked down and found a folded piece of paper. It must've fallen out of the guy's pocket when I tried to blast him.

I open the paper and after reading it once my eyes flew open. I raced down the tunnel back to Alyssa's room. Dawn was sitting at the vanity holding a pack off ice to her head. Lissa was drying herself off with large fluffy towel. Marinus and Gwydion were nervously standing against the wall while Hawker and a handful of other Sprites buzzed around the room. Hawker spotted me and flew right in front of me, mere centimeters from my face.

"What is the meaning of this?" He demanded. "You three were supposed to be escorted out of our realm hours ago!"

"Yes, well we got separated from our escort and happened across those fine ogres there who were escorting Lissa out." I explained. "We had them bring us here to the princess's room to search for any clues of the where she may have gone.

Hawker threw his hands up in exasperation. "Did you find anything?"

"As a matter of fact we did." I retorted and explained the encounter with the burglar. Hawker demanded the paper I found but I explained this was an ongoing Legion investigation. Only members assigned to the mission and the High Master were allowed see evidence pertaining to the ongoing case. At this point Dawn and Lissa had come to stand beside me.

"Fine, I'll have team escort you out." Hawker growled.

"Oh don't bother we'll show ourselves out. Right Dawn."

"Certamente." Dawn said placing and hand on my shoulder and the other on Lissa's. I felt a cold shiver run up my spine as we were sucked into the shadows. Moments later we were standing outside HQ's front doors.