Chapter 13

The final chapter

Tamillia led the way through, Reno and I followed closely behind her and following us were the pirates and court members. It was a long tunnel, and it was narrow. Reno clenched onto the side of my shirt as we walked through in the darkness. Finally, we reached the end, Tamillia held out her hand and the slide open. The court, pirates as well as I took a step back.

“This is my world; we are father technologically advanced than you are. So I won’t be taking a lot of you through. Some will have to stay behind” she said. We began to whisper amongst ourselves. The pirates yelled, none of which wanted to pass through anymore, and instead decided on only the captain passing through.

“Let me go as well” Ari pulled on my shirt, I held my hand up to her and shook my head. “why?”

“Because, this isn’t someplace we have been before. To be sure you’ll be safe stay behind” she reached out, but I pulled her back before the courts could see. “Not here” I warned. She nodded, understanding and pulled away herself.

It was finally decided that ones to pass were Tamillia, father, Zane, the captain and I. We pushed through the doors and found ourselves in a foreign world. “Don’t speak” Tamillia warned “I’ll do all the talking and be careful with your reactions to my world” she paused and looked at my side. Zane stepped forward, tapping my shoulder.

“Who’s the girl?” he asked, I looked down. Reno was clenching onto my shirt, and Zane pointing straight at her. Tamillia lend forward and whispered as not to be heard by the others.

“While we are here they will be able to see here” she said, then pulled back. Reno nodded, and pulled away from me. We gave them a random story about how Reno was Tamillia’s lost sister and gave her a separate name, so they wouldn’t draw questions of the story I told of her death. Her name here would be Corial.

“Where are we heading?” Zane asked, after Tamillia finished her story.

“To the center of the village, no one should be around the area” she led our way to the statue, it was a dragon. Right next to it was a tower. We all starred wide eyed at the buildings, they were tall and metal. The windows were perfect glass and the attire of the people was so different. Tamillia led us to the back of the dragon and opened the back of it. However, we were suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice. I shot my head up to meet face to face with the king and Alys.

“I’m surprised, you managed to deceive us” Alys smiled, she was squatting on the statue head while she held her finger up to me. “Now, if you would open the seal and allow us to take Karil’s treasure that would be great” she had such an innocent smile, but I knew better.

“Alys, what makes you think we would give it to you?” Tamillia hissed, her smile faded and she faced her cousin with fiendish eyes.

“I wonder; will you be as foolish as our fathers and take the treasure to that other world?” Tamillia continued to stare at her; the court remained silent as well. Eventually, the king stepped forward to interrupt their silent argument.

“There is no use arguing, we will kill all of you if you don’t open it. Aris” he was inviting me, everyone, enemy and alley alike, watched me. I looked over Tamillia’s shoulder, it was a key hole, but no one held the key. Tamillia stepped aside and I got to work. That was when it happened, I immediately remembered something. Something important, I turned away from the lock and stared at Alys.

“Is there a reason you want it so badly?” I asked; she gave me a discussed face.

“Why ask so suddenly?”

“I just remembered something, that’s all” I smiled at her; Tamillia even looked at me with confused eyes. I pulled out my tools and went straight to work, immediately remembering what was behind the door. A story told to me long ago, by my mother and why she had the key.

“What is it you remember?” Alys lend over the statue until she was directly over me, I held my finger up.

“I can’t tell you that” the door opened, I reached my hand in and felt around for what was inside. I pulled out a piece of paper which had a red stamp on it.

“What’s this?” Alys snatched the paper from me and read it over and over to herself. “What is this!” she threw it at me.

“The mine is one thousand feet under” I replied. “This is the gift of the story”

“My father never told me a story!”

“No, but he did tell it. The girl he told the gift to was not you, but the old man wouldn’t be able to tell the difference would he” I passed the paper around for everyone to view. All it was, was a stamp. Alys clenched her teeth while I explained. “That does explain how my mother ended up with the key” I put my head down, uncovered a lever from under a few rocks. I pulled it; the ground shook as a staircase was revealed. The king and his men broke ahead in front of us, Alys being sure to keep a close eye on us.

“The story was told to your mother?” Tamillia asked over my shoulder, quietly. I nodded to her and began to explain.

“A long time ago, my mother told me she was serving an old man at an inn. He was on the verge of dyeing and he knew it. Once my mother served him his drink he told her the story of the treasure he hid beneath the tower. He had meant to tell Alys once he was able to return to this world but he didn’t make it to the portal after hiding all the maps for Alys to find. There, he gave my mother the final piece, the key” Tamillia nodded, slowly following all I was saying.

“How did the key get back to the castle?” she asked

“I’m not sure” I shrugged; we came to the end of the staircase and to another set of doors a long time after that. The king opened it, Alys lingering closely behind. Upon opening the door I was filled with a sudden sense of impulse. From ceiling to floor, were gold, diamonds, amethyst, jewels, and every valuable ever.

“This here treasure is ours” the salty captain yelled, we turned around to see that the king was loading barrels full of the gold.

“This mine doesn’t belong to our world” Tamillia approached Alys who was sitting like a queen on her treasure.

“Think about it Tamillia, their world is so under developed. Why not take it for ourselves and start up our world again?” she jumped from the tower of gold and landed in front of Tamillia.

“Our world is gone, you know that” this argument got the attention of the king.

“I hate to be the one to break this up, but my kingdom will be taking this treasure” he drew a sword and aimed it at them. Alys gave him a sly smile and laughed.

“You fool! I knew you would take it all for yourself. You were merely a servant in collecting the maps. However, I didn’t count on Aris to solve the puzzle all on his own” her expression gave me an impression of a demon.

“Really now, you and what army?” he asked, Alys thinned her eyes and smiled back at him.

“As if I need an army?” those few short words were all remembered right before I was knocked back into the wall. Blood slipped past my cheek, I tried to refocus my vision. Alys was using her powers; she threw herself at Tamillia who was holding her own against her. The king crawled over to me, got up and threw his sword to me.

“While those two are fighting, we might as well solve our problem” he slid the blade across my skin, I didn’t flinch. I took the sword I had taken from the treasure and fought against him.

We each swung at each other, dodging and striking, I took the most scratches. As I looked around, the others were fighting the king’s men. I flung the sword straight at his face, he dodged it and I missed. He lunged in and cut my leg; I fell over and rolled over getting back up behind him and sticking his back.

Zane was fighting two guards, he was swinging and using the same technique I was. The same technique father taught us. Reno, I could see, was hidden away from view.

“You should focus on our duel” the king hissed, after noticing I was watching my brother fight. He dug the sword straight into my chest; I fell down and kept my grip on the sword.

“Not, bad” I gasped for breath. Alys let out more wind and everyone was set back and crashed against the stacks of gold. Tamillia seemed to be winning, she had pinned Alys against the wall and threw an axe into her side. She fell and the wind settled down.

“Aris!” Zane yelled; the wind had knocked out his opponent. I looked up to see the king walking over to me. He had a fake sly smile plastered on his face.

“Looks like you will die today” he laughed. I laughed along with him; slowly he stopped to watch me on the ground fighting over my blood loss.

“That’s funny, because today I’d prefer to stay alive” I smiled, threw myself up to him with all the strength I had left and inserted the sword right through his heart. He coughed and looked at the blade in his chest wide eyed. Blood covered my face as he coughed it up; he laughed and began to pull the blade out. I let him have it, falling to the ground and hearing a thump beside me.

“It would appear so” he laughed, those final words before his heart ceased to beat. I rolled over; Alys was unconscious on the ground as Tamillia went around healing everyone. When she came to me, my heart was just barely beating. However, I woke up and gasped for air. We had won; the treasure was ours, almost.

Alys woke up and sat in her spot, giggling to herself. “This court is quite impressive” she hissed, wobbling to her feet. “This world was dead a long time ago, considering this my defeat” she mumbled. Tamillia walked up to her, placed her hands on her side and she fell to the ground again.

“She’s gone, forever” Tamillia said, the court got up and brushed their wounds that were now healing fast. She sighed and the members all met up with each other. The captain hit my back and congratulated me.

“You took that king out!” he cheered, I looked down at the dead body and sin filled my soul. I might have been a thief, but that was the first time I had ever killed someone. Tamillia met back with us where we sat.

“This world doesn’t exist; it was dead a long time ago. That’s why Karil and Arnold went to another world for the answer. Only a few families were alive after the wars, and Karil wanted to start over in another world. Some disagreed with that and he buried it” she finished.

“What was that?” Zane eyed her with a stern look.

“That’s what I know; it is why I came here as well. The treasure is yours, it’s from your world after all” she said, and opened another door to the side. “This door will lead you straight to the treasury in the kingdom” she explained. Everyone went to work moving the treasure over though the door, being sure to leave a bit for the captain. The salty pirate nodded to me and gladly accepted it.

Once the treasure was in the queen’s treasury we walked back up the stairs to the gate we left the others at. Ari was over joyed with our success, as we explained the treasure was in her vault. We rode the length back to the castle.

“There was no gate to heaven” Reno pouted behind me, I laughed at her.

“I promised I would get you there, I didn’t lie, I will” I patted her on the head and Tamillia smiled beside her.

 

Back at the castle, my clothing was checked for treasure. I had taken nothing, nor had I given anything for Reno to hide. The queen was now the richest ruler and our kingdom the wealthiest. Ari sat proudly on her thrown. The celebration was even in the village; soon it was a huge festival.

I lend over Ari’s thrown and smiled to her. “Why didn’t you take anything and run?” she asked. I lowered myself on her chair and watched her expression change to confusion.

“I’m a thief” I began “But I think I prefer this life” I was being truthful; I sat next to her, in the kings thrown and got comfy. “I was, you know”

“You were?” she jumped up with shock “Well, I know that the entire court was expecting that” she gave me a sour face.

“I changed my mind a while ago” I waited for her to respond, she kept silent. “I decided that I wanted to stay here, with you if that’s ok” she turned to me and nodded.

“Of course, you’ll always have a home here” her smile was so sweet, I smiled along with her. Zane walked up to us and kneeled to her.

“Why is he sitting in the kings thrown?” Zane demanded. I remained silent as he waited.

“I’m thinking of marrying him” Ari replied quickly, the entire court ended up hearing this as she had screamed it with a lot of pride. I sunk into the chair thinking I would be executed for this.

“A thief as our king?” the duke slurred, he had been drunk since the moment we arrived.

“Of course, I am the queen; I can change the law if I wish. He is a member of my court after all” she stood up to face them all. “Everyone!” she got their attention “Aris Torium is your new king” the court laughed, but applauded me on becoming king. I raised my head, Ari smiled. Out of complete mindless thinking I got up, lend and kissed her. The court cheered, in that moment I had received a lot of fame.

By the upcoming days the village discovered that I had found the treasure and was to marry the queen. Ari and I were wedded a year later, and I was in rule of a whole nation. Not entirely, Zane’s my personal advisor. He makes all of my decisions for me and Ari looks them over. All I have is status as well as being the Royal Thief and I’m just fine with that.