I open my eyes and see myself in front of the castle, between the bushes. My castle. I look back and all I can see now is darkness. There is no sign of birds in the sky except for eagles, vultures and bats. A snowflake suddenly comes on my nose, which makes me sneeze.

"Bless you." Violet says.

"Let's make a move." Fleur commands.

"Warrior Luke to the rescue!" Luke says and the three of us stare at him.

He's now big, scary, with a sword in one hand and standing on two legs as he was before. "Whatcha looking at me for? It's the joy of being myself again!"

"Can we please concentrate?" Fleur asks putting her arms on her waists.
"Okay. Okay. Sorry." Luke replies.

"I'll take the weapons to few of the soldiers taking cover in the forest. I'll bring them here as fast as I can, so that they can help us out. Meanwhile, you try to get into the castle and find Evanthia and The mentors and the learners. Try stopping Alaric in whatever is his next plan." Violet says confidently.

"Okay. We'll meet you soon." Fleur replies.
Violet moves her wand around and chants a spell. Suddenly a chariot and a horse comes in front of us. We hop into it. I change Fleur's face and mine too so that Alaric doesn't recognize us and give Luke the mask grandma had asked me to give. I'm unable to change his body and soon decide to leave it. He wears the black mask and a hat and sits on the horse as the chariot driver. Violet wraps the weapons into a cloth and chants a spell on it. It becomes really tiny. She transforms into a purple bird like she usually does, holds the weapons in her beak and flies above us, towards the forbidden forest.

As the chariot moves closer to the castle, I chant the spell. "ValgadriumCastro spiti"
"Oh please work!" I hear Fleur whisper.

I close my eyes and chant the spell again and pray that it lets us in.

"Be ready to be electrocuted!" Luke shouts back at us. Fleur and Luke close their eyes too in the hope to survive.
The chariot seems to race through the protection layer and it moved towards the entrance.

"Phew! It worked!" Luke says.

"Cal, you're a genius!" Fleur exclaims.

"Not me, my grandma." I shriek with joy. "Don't worry Eva, I'm on my way!"
The guards stop us at the entrance. They ask us who we are. "We've come for the princesses. They had ordered some clothes and shoes from our country." Fleur answers.

"You'll have to wait. We shall have to confirm with the king if we can let you in." One of the guards says.

"You douchbag! How'd you think that we entered through the protection? We would have surely been electrocuted if His majesty hadn't given us permission." I say, trying to behave in a classy manner.

The gaurd looks around himself in confusion.

"But we do not have any bag. Still madam, you will have to..."
He clearly doesn't know that I just insulted him.

"Have to what? Listen to myself getting insulted? We're very close to the royal family. If his majesty gets to know that you've troubled us, then he'll probably fire you, or maybe even kill you." I say in a scary tone.

The guards look at us for some time and whisper to each other.
"You may go." One of them lets us inside.

We reach inside and walk through the corridors. Luke carries the bundle of clothes. The three of us keep our eyes open and look out for the sight of Evanthia.

Just at that minute, the two princesses turn up from somewhere and block our path. One of them looks younger than the other. I recognize them instantly and remember the day when I first saw them in this castle.

"Where do you think your going?"

"And who are you?"
"Did you take permission from father?"

"I like your dress! Where did you buy it from?"

All these questions make me feel like pulling their hair out and telling them to get to the point and demand them to tell me where Evanthia is.

But I do nothing of that sort as I don't want to take any risk. I simply put on the fakest smile I have ever given to anyone and say "Your highnesses, we were looking for you both! Good we saw you at the right time!"

"I'm sorry, but do we know you?" One of them ask.

"Oh god! Christella, remember, father was telling us that he'd buy us new dresses for our cornation day? I think these people have brought them for us." The other one says, her eyes gleeming at the bags of dresses that Luke's carrying.

"Um, yes! Yes! We have got the dresses your father ordered for you." Fleur says

At once Christella replies, "Okay then, I'll call for father right away."

"No! That won't be necessary your highness, because..."

Oh great! I'm unable to make up more lies. It's not that I'm running away from Alaric. It's just that I want to find Evanthia and ensure that she is safe before I face him.

"Because....because he's already been informed that we are here. In fact, he's sent orders that you can choose as many dresses as you want." Fleur covers up quickly.

"Really? That's great! I love father! He thinks so much about us! What are you waiting for Tellusida? Let's choose whatever we want!" Christella looks at her sister eagerly.

"Why does that man look weird?" Tellusida asks, looking at Luke.
Probably she's seen that he has his fur.
"Um... He has massive hair issues. Don't make fun of him, he's a very sensitive person." I whisper to Tellusida.

"Okay, let's see the dresses! Come on Inside and show us!" Christella says, signs to us and pulls Tellusida along with her.

We walk behind them and they lead us to a big room, probably their bedroom.

Fleur takes the bags of clothes from Luke's hand and opens it to show the dresses. She signs me. She princesses seem to love all of them and choose all the dresses.

"So, I was told that there is another princess in this castle. But I didn't see her anywhere from the time we walked in." I ask Tellusida.

"Firstly, she's not a princess, and secondly, she's going to die very soon. So, not much of a burden on us." Tellusida says.

I can't believe my ears. "What do you mean by she's going to die soon! Where is she?"

"Why do you care? It's not like she's your sister or anything. Anyways, by now father would have ended that misery." Tellusida says.

"Yes, he's going to pull out all the powers from her and her pendent and use it on himself to become immortal! She'll die, we'll kill her sister too and we'll rule the whole world! Not only this dimension, but all the other dimensions too!" Christella starts laughing. Tellusida nudges her with her elbow. "Shh. We aren't supposed to tell father's plans to anyone!"

I look at Fleur with a very worried expression. She gives me a calm look. I clench my fist and move forward. How can they plan to kill my sister? I'll not spare them!

Fleur holds my fist and pulls me back. She shakes her head and whispers "Wait for the right time."

"Why don't you try on these dresses? I'm sure they'll suit you." Fleur says.

"You're right. Come on Christella. Let's try them on." Both of them go, leaving us alone in the large room.

I turn towards Fleur and Luke. "We have to find her as soon as possible! Did you hear what they said? She's in trouble."

Fleur keeps her hand on my shoulders. "We haven't come so far only to save Evanthia, Cal. Our mission is to also destroy Alaric once and for all. We have to stick with our plan."

"Your right. But where could he have hidden Evanthia?" Luke asks.

"Only my pendent can find out. The problem is that it hadn't glowed from the time we've entered the castle, so I know for a fact that we haven't missed her out anywhere." I say.

"We'll have to split up and search." Fleur suggests.

"I have just the right thing for that." I say and take out three walky talkies I had brought from home and hidden amongst the dresses we had brought.
"What's this?"Luke asks me.

"There's no time to explain. Just remember that it helps us communicate with each other." I say and show them the way it's used.

They are quite fascinated and take one them each.