Crowns of Heritage

Chapter 20 - Surrounded

(SAGE P.O.V)

After resting for a while, we started crawling in the tunnel again. I could hear the sirens above us still going off. We crawled for a while and my knees were starting to hurt again and it seemed like this tunnel was going to go on forever.

“Once we get to the surface stay close to me”, Sylvester said. He was in front of me, while my mother was in front of him, and the woman was leading us.

“Are we almost there?”, I asked, getting exhausted.

“Yeah, just a few more meters up”, the woman said.

“How do you know where you're going?”, I asked curiously, it was dark and I could hardly see anything ahead of me.

“We've been speaking people out of the dungeon for years.”, the woman said.

“How come my mother was down there so long, if you were doing that”, I asked, starting to get a little upset.

It became silent for a moment.

“That's because I wasn't in that part of the dungeon.”, my mother explained.

I was confused, “What do you mean?, Where were you?”I asked curiously.

“I was inside of Prince Marshall's personal prison. Unexpectedly, I was moved to another part of the dungeon.”, she said, “I guess when you arrived, he placed me in the same area. Meaning he already knew you were my daughter."

“We're here”, the woman said, and pushed her hand up against something and pushed it out.

“Where are we?”, I asked ,while Sylvester grabbed my hand and pulled me out.

“It's a safe house”, the woman said.

We crawled out of the tunnel. We were standing in front of a large two story cabin.

“Follow me”, the woman said.

We followed behind her and she opened the door.

After we entered the cabin, She made a right turn, and started walking ahead of us.

When we followed behind her, and she led us to some spiral looking stairs inside of the cabin.

We followed after her, going up the stairs one by one.

We ended up inside a large room that was empty, and had a black door on the left side of the room.

“You two canuse that room for now until it's time for us to move again”, the woman said, pointing at the black door.

I noticed my mother expression had changed, as she titled her head to the side. She started to walk towards the door.

“Mom, are you sure about this?”, I asked, while feeling uncertain about all of this.

“This looks familiar”, she said, opening up the door.

Sylvester, the woman and I followed her after she entered the room.

“Why did she say it looks familiar?” Sylvester whispered to the woman, but I heard every word.

“I don't know, you ask her?”, the woman shrugged her shoulders.

They started bickering at each other and I got annoyed. Fine "I'll ask her myself", I mumbled.

I walked up and went into the medium-sized room, and watched her look around.

“Mom?”, I called out to her. “Why did you say this place looks familiar", I asked, curiously.

She turned around and looked at me, she had a sad expression on her face.

“This is where I had you and your sister”, she said, with tears coming down her face.

“It was also the last time I saw you two”, she continued on.

I rushed and engulfed her in a hug and started balling my eyes out.

“I'm here now mom”, I said.

We hugged and cried for a few minutes, and I could hear the woman whispering to Sylvester. He left out the room and gave us some privacy.

The woman stayed in the room, and I noticed she looked a little emotional.

“Why are you crying?”, I asked, while still hugging my mom.

The woman wiped her tear and cracked a smiled

“I always heard stories from my mother about a woman, who fled the palace and was in labor. She helped that woman give birth to twins. Every night, she would pray and hoped those babies grew up well.”, the woman said whipping her tears.

She paused for a moment, and started to speak again, “When she found out that woman was arrested and locked up in the palace dungeon. My mother died with a broken heart. So I became a knight just so I could break that woman out. Who knew I'll be breaking out her and her daughter, she said, and smiled.

My mother walked up to the woman and gave her a hug.

“What's your name?”, my mother asked,

The woman hugged my mother back and said, “My name is Asiana Williams”.

(ROSEMARY P.O.V)

I was awakened by a loud ringing sound. I looked up and Yeshiva leaning over me ringing a little bell.

“What the hell are you doing?”, I asked, while rubbing my eyes, while feeling annoyed.

“Training begins in 30 mins”, he said, ringing that damn bell again.

I looked at the time and saw it 5:30am”, I instantly got pissed off.

I pulled the cover off me and got out of the bed. I stretched my body, because it was feelin a little stiff. I looked over and saw Yeshiva covering his eyes.

“What's your problem?”, I said, looking at him.

He pointed at me and moved his hand up and down. I totally forgot I fell asleep in my undergarments. He continued to keep his eyes covered.

“Hurry up and get ready”, he said, he turned around and walked to the door.

“Idiot”, I said, while smirking.

I laughed a little, and walked over to the bathroom to take a shower. Since he woke me up so rudely, I decided to take my time.

20 minutes later, I got dressed and walked out of the room. Yeshiva was standing by the door waiting.

“So what kind of training am I doing”, I asked.

“I'm going to show you how to hunt down a human being”, he said looking at me with a smirk on his face. “And how to handle different types of weapons”. He added.

I was kind of excited and freaked out at the same time.

While walking down the stairs, I saw Cena, Kenai, and Jemas standing by the front door with their arms folded.

They noticed us and Cena was glaring at me again with that bitchy face of hers.

“Why are they here?”, I asked Yeshiva, looking over at him.

“Say hello to your targets”, he said pointing at Cena and Jemas.

“Targets?”, I asked, trying to understand what he was saying.

“Cena and Jemas will be your prey, you have to hunt them down.”, he said.

I looked at Cena and I couldn't wait to smash her face in.

“Let's head to the mountains”, Jemas said, walking out the door.

We walked over to Yeshiva's truck.

I sat in the front seat, while Cena and Jemas sat in the backseat together.

I could feel the tension in the air as we drove towards the mountains.

I had to remember that I was going to be dealing with professionals.

An hour later, the sun started to rise, and we finally arrived at the entrance of the mountains. Yeshiva drove through and parked his truck in front of a small building.

"Are you ready?", he asked me as we were getting out of the truck.

“It's all day training”, Yeshiva said.

“If you want to find your sister, you need to know how to hunt and how to kill someone.”, Jemas said.

I nodded my head and we started to walk up a trail that was two miles long. We entered the forest and arrived at a blue building.

It was a medium sized cabin, inside had a few beds and a cot, with a little fridge and a small bathroom.

“This will be our resting place.”, Yeshiva said.

Cena and Jemas started to change into some green clothing and wrapped a belt full of items around their waist.

“Go change into this”, Cena reached out her hand and gave me a pair of clothes. “It's so you can blend in with the surroundings and camouflage yourself”, she said.

I went to into in the little bathroom, so I could change my clothes. After coming out, Yeshiva walked up to me and reached his hand out.

“this is a dummy gun, the bullets aren't real, this is for your shooting practice.”, he said and tucked it inside my belt.

“This is a military combat knife, only use it when necessary, in case you come across a wild animal or a suspicious person.”, he said,

I nodded my head, to let him know him I understood everything.

After Yeshiva helped me with my gear, Cena and Jema left the cabin went to the location, I was going to be hunting them in.

“Are you ready to learn how to shoot?”, Yeshiva asked me.

I nodded my head and Yeshiva turned around and walked toward the door, and I followed behind him.

After walking a few yards from the cabin, I saw an that was built like a obstacle course.

“Wow, this reminds me of track practice, and when Sage would have her archery practice,”, I said, looking at the different target signs.

Yeshiva smirked, and leaned down in from of a large black container. He pulled out a small box and walked over to me.

"These are dummy bullets, I'm going to teach you how to shoot.” ,he said.

“Is it the same as archery”, I asked.

“It's different from archery, but having good eyesight is important when you trying to shoot your target.", he stated.

He grabbed my arm and started pulling forward, "Now, let's have some fun", he said.

(PEYTON’S P.O.V)

We stood in the entrance of the building with guns pointed directly at us. There were around ten men standing on the opposite side of us. The guards on our side also had their guns pointed towards the men.

Masiro still had Prince Moises across his shoulders. Fortunately, he wasn't showing any signs of backing down. He turned around facing one of the guards that was behind us.

“Stick your arms out”, he said to the guard.

The guard reached his arms out just like Masiro said. Masiro then placed Prince Moises into the guards arms.

“Put him back in bed until I'm done with this.”, he said.

I heard someone cock their gun, “Don't you dare move.”, he shouted.

Masiro turned around again after placing Prince Moises into the guards arms. I saw the excitement on his face. Honestly, I could see where the girls got their craziness from.

"Hand over Prince Moises”, one of the men said.

All of sudden, Masiro ran towards one of the men. He tackled him, causing the man's gun to go off. The men were caught off guard when Massey ran out the building, shooting one of the men in the head.

Suddenly, everyone started firing their guns at the same time. I ran and grabbed one of the guards guns, started shooting towards the nearest man.

Five out of the ten men were lying on the ground dead, and four of the men escaped during the gun fire. Masiro walked up to the man that was wounded, he was lying on the ground holding on to his chest and groaning at the same time.

Masiro stood over him and placed his gun on the man's forehead.

“Who sent you?”, he asked.

The man held his chest and started to cough up blood, “it was….:, he paused trying to gather enough strength to talk. “We were paid to ambush you by a guy named Brian.”, he managed to get the words out.

Masiro looked at the man and then shot him in the head.

“I'm going to skin that son of a bitch alive.”, he said, stepping over to the man's body.

We walked back inside of the building and I saw bullet holes everywhere as walked through the building. I started running into the room where Prince Moises was to make sure he didn't get hit by a bullet. I entered the room. I saw Prince Moises holding on to one of the guards shoulders trying to stand up and walk.

Masiro walked up to him and picked him up once again and left the room.

“Now let's head back”, he said, and walked out of the room.

(SAGE P.O.V)

After the sun came up, Sylvester and Asiana left the safe house to get rid of evidence. The Kingdom was now on lock down due to us escaping the dungeon.

Asiana told us the place was secluded and set outside of the palace walls. She said once the coast was clear, they were going to move us somewhere else.

After being in deep thought, I walked away from the window I was looking through. I walked into the room my mother was in and found her looking at some herbs that were left in the storage room.

I looked at the small amount of herbs and mother was picking them apart.

“Mother”, I called out to her, I was getting use to calling her mother. I still consider Peyton as my mother as well.

I walked closer to her and she smiled.

“What's wrong, why are you tearing the leaves off”, I asked, curiously.

She gestured her hand for me to come sit where she was.

“This herb right here is called Sage.”, she said,and picked up another one. "This one is called a Rosemary.”, she explained, while smiling.

She continued to pull the herbs apart, and sorted out the remaining herbs that lied on the table.

“When I was younger I always wanted to name my daughters that”, she said. “Your father, of course wanted to argue with me about it”, she laughed a little.

“I heard from Peyton,, I mean Marianna, that you were a herbalist, and a captain of a special squad, I mentioned.

She cracked a smile for a moment.

“My mother's body became weak after she had my siblings and I. When she would get sick, your grandfather would show me how to make her some herbal tea to soothe her pain”, she said.

I looked as she rubbed the herbs in her hands.

“One day, I made some poison tea by accident after mixing the wrong herbs together. My mother was also a mercenary and she was very skilled, when it came to making poisons. She knew not to drink it just by the smell. My father was furious when he found out, but I did it unknowingly so he didn't punish me for my mistake. My mother started teaching me how to make poisons.”, she said.

She placed the herbs in my hand and started telling me the different names of them one by one.

A few minutes went by and I learned about 100 different names of herbs and the effects that they have when mixed together, I was enjoying our conversation

“Hey sage”, she called my name.

“Yes mom", I answered.

“Would you like to learn how to make poisons?”she asked me.

I nodded my head and she took out a little bowl from under the cabinet. She put two herbs together and squashed them together. After a while the herbs turned into paste. She showed me how to do it and then made me do it on my own while she watched. She separated the paste and wrapped inside a cloth she found while scooping around the room.

“If you ever get the chance to get near any type of weapon, whether its a knife, sword or bow and arrow, apply it onto the weapon." she said.

I nodded my head in understanding.

“For now, that's all I can make”, she said, while placing the herbs into a container.

Suddenly, we heard a noise coming from outside the room. My mother got up and put her hand up gesturing for me to stay back. A few seconds later Asiana came into the room covered in blood, holding her right side.

“Hurry we have to go now, The guards are coming this way.”, she said looking behind her.

Asiana pulled out and sword and some arrows and had a bow behind her back. When I saw it my eyes lit up.