PART I
By dawn the clinging of the swords came to a halt. The dew was rolling down the leaves and dripping into the soil off of the grass. Smoke fizzled out from the air. In my little house miles from the Capital Kingdom I heard the horns of victory.
I awoke when it was still dark, hearing the people retreating from our land. It was warm, middle of the spring. I walked out of my tiny house and looked onward to the horns blowing. There is so many that I could not imagine the blaring sound it would be at the Kingdom. When my bare feet touched the cool dewy grass, I felt a mixture of feelings. Thank God that the Kingdom was saved, but the death in the air filled guilt inside me. My oldest brother, Leo, fought in the battle. He was the chariot driver.  The Guard don't inform the families of the lost and the living until battles are over, causes “too much talk and hatred in the town” and we need to be “loving” and “united”.
When my siblings finally awoke from the horns, my older brother Caleb first, then my older sister Stephanie, then my younger sister, Claire. When we began our walk to the castle my older siblings were engulfed in a conversation. They were only two years a part so they get along well. I overheard them and Caleb said, "…not loyal at all. They can't be trusted."
"You're over reacting," Steph began, "We won you should be happy."
They went on with the conversation. Who's not loyal? Who can't be trusted? I've never hated the Royals, The Capital, or not trusted them. They've brought safety for all of me and my family. My mother and father, of course, is another story.
When we make it to the Capital entrance there were guards, looking exhausted as ever, standing watching over all of the civilians. It was strange walking through the Capital with no proper attire. The King and his royal family stood at the balcony about one story high. I stood by Caleb and Claire waiting for something to happen. The anticipation roared in all of us. Then the King finally spoke,
"Men, woman and children of the land, hush.” The echo of his deep voice flew through my ears. "We have a great announcement to make." The Queen, standing highly in her robes smiled as the King spoke, "Our land can shout victory!" The crowd yelled and cheered. Some clapped and some whistled. Caleb didn't, so I followed and stood still with him. The King swung his arms for silence. "The Rebels were defeated. And we will no longer be afraid." He pauses. "But! We have some requirements." I heard Caleb huff with his shoulders releasing. "There will be no more exiting the border. There will be no trading with different kingdoms. We're our own kingdom and that's final." The crowd was silent. No need for the King to hush them. We all were shocked. No communication from the outside world. No other people to share things with.
The King went on with a speech about how this will not affect us and "We will still stand tall!" and told us to be off.
Caleb stomped off with me and Clair's hand pulling us away. Steph shouted at him to stop. When we got out of the Capital, Caleb finally stopped and obeyed my sister.
"Are you mad?" said Stephanie, "If the Guards saw your anger towards the King, they'd kill you on the spot."
"See if I bloody care," he scoffed. "These sack of humans are no Royals. They are cheating, sliming dirt bags."
"Hold your tongue!" Steph growled.
His strut springs forwards and gestures to the Capital. "They pretend they're so pure and great, but listen, hear them-" he paused and points firmly "All that glitter is no gold." He said it so sternly I saw my father in him. He walked into our hut of a house. I followed him in and saw the pain in his face turn into anger. That's the first time I didn't feel safe in where I lived.
"You aren't mad," I say to Caleb. He flicked his eyes to me and I see the glimmer of the tears caress them. "I believe you." I concede.
He put his elbows to his knees and looked me up and down. "I need to find out what's going on in there." He mumbles half to me and half to himself. "I need get inside."
I thought of the possibility: getting into the Kingdom and seeing what goes on in there. My wild thoughts flew around my head like moths around a flame. It filled me with excitement as I imagined the thrill of sneaking into the King and Queen’s home. They have butlers and maids walking around doing things and all the people that are just invited to it, there's no way we'd get away with it. But something in my body made me want it more because I knew it'd be impossible. The curiosity was killing me.
"We could," I blurted.
He shot his neck up straight and widened his eyes. He let his elbows rise from his knees and let the palm of his hands rest on the chair beside him. "Really?" He asked unconvinced.
"Yes," I vomited up again.
"You," he pointed to me, "want to sneak into the Kingdom?" He was stunned and so was I.
"Yes." I replied. It was all I could say at this point.
“How?” he inquired.
I thought for a moment. My father always told me, and all of us, to think wisely and logically, never irrationally or act on impulsively. But look where that got him. Not here. Not with us. I didn’t know how to break into a huge castle and get through all the guards, and if we did, what’s after that? Just speak to the king and make him change things? Yeah, and I want to get my bloody head chopped off.
I hooked a strand of hair behind my ear and spoke confidently, “I have a plan.” I lied.
PART II

When we told Stephanie that we were going to go to the town. She didn’t believe us, of course, because she always thinks we lie, well mostly Caleb, and she said she wanted to come, too. We convinced Clair to wish not to come and make Stephanie not follow us. Clair did as she was told and helped us escape our sister’s lockdown. Even though she wasn’t the oldest she still acted like she was the boss because she was only eleven months younger than Caleb and she is super intelligent.
I told Caleb to follow me. I didn’t know why he was having so much trust in me, but I enjoyed it. Probably because I’m the one that got in the most trouble for doing stupid stuff like breaking into places and stealing things. I once stole a whole sack of bread loaves from a merchant. My mother made me take it back to them because she called it bad karma. Anyway, we made it down the giant hill that was our yard and passed the town to the Capital Castle – well, the front gate. It was gray stone and had red and white banners hanging from the balconies that the king and queen sit for their daily lunch. The castle was thousands of years old yet still beautiful looking. The stone was carved for many centuries before being complete. It took longer to make than it’s been around.
The guards were wearing black armor and a red scarlet ribbon on their chest where their heart would rest. The had helmets on that covered everything but their eyes. they carried a sword on their belts and a dagger in their boots, a shield on their backs. I stared them in the holes they called eyes and walked slowly passed them. When my father worked for the Kingdom and he would be summoned in he’d take me and Clair and I remembered there being a “workers entrance” basically where all the peasants entered so no one would see that low of rank walk into the castle. It was locked, of course, they’re not dumb, but I did know a lot of the workers – or did.
I gestured to Caleb to follow me and he did so. We walked all the way to the very back of the castle. It took about three minutes to walk all the way around. It was huge; bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. There was a door, not a very sturdy door. It was wooden and an off white color to somewhat blend into the castle. The lock attached to it was old rusted copper. The original copper color flashed as I moved it in my hand.
I looked to Caleb and furrowed my brow. He learned to fight with our father and after he went missing, it really sent him into high gear to protect us, and he learned from an assassin, yes, I was as shocked when he told me. I’ve seen him break wood in half larger in diameter than a log, so maybe he could break this little lock. I know its metal but it’s worth a try.
“Can you break this?” I said, jiggling the copper lock.
He took it out of my hand and shrugged his shoulders. He knew he could. He dropped the lock and I thought he wasn’t going to do it, but he took a couple steps back and raised his leg up and with all his force kicked right above the lock and the door came crashing – not just open – but completely down.
My jaw dropped, practically unhinged from my head. I couldn’t believe he did that. Well I mean I did, but why would he make that much noise?
“You stupid wanker, why would you knock the whole door down?” I whisper looking around harshly.   
His eyes widened more out of pride than anything. “You told me to break it.”
“The lock, you wit, not the whole bloody door!”
“Sorry.” He apologized and put both his hands up.
Caleb and I stepped inside and the placed smell like cut grass, baked goods, and cleaning products. The room was tones of beige and gray. Aprons laid on the floor and counter, they didn’t even give them a hook. No one was in there maybe all the workers left for the day, given a day off because of the victory.
When marched our way through the room and into the corridors it was a tad quiet, we heard voices far away and clinking of dinner plates and splashes of water. We must have been close to the kitchen. We walk swiftly but quietly through the hallways. We found our way to a fork in the hallways. We looked down each hallway and there were two guards at each end. I don’t know how they didn’t hear the door breaking, but they were still and unaroused. We peaked our heads down the hallway and panic filled me.
“Left or right?” I questioned.
“Right.” He nodded. “Right is always right.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and pursed my lips. This was a serious matter and he was going on a saying. “I don’t see much of anything over to the right. I see a big opening to the left.” He agreed with me and we formulated a plan.
We went back, got garments from the peasant’s supply closet, and came back to the fork. We calmly walked up the hallway and we got more than halfway through before the guard looked at us. We acted like we didn’t think anything of it and strutted passed the guards. They watched us all the way through the hallway and when we turned to go into the next big opening. I let my breath release as we entered the next hallway because the guards didn’t do anything. The big hall that we ended up in was amazing. It had a long wide red carpet down the center of it with chandeliers with diamonds and crystals twinkling through the lights. There were also two more guards down by two other doors. That’s probably where the king and queen are. I wanted to find more workers to get a bigger group. Still we didn’t know what we were going to do exactly, but we defiantly couldn’t do it on our own. We made our way to the kitchen. We entered and straight off the bat a member recognized us, as I recognized her. Her name was Martha. She has a deep skin tone and light brown eyes, they looked so caring and full of life even when she has to work in these conditions. It smelled like dirty clothes, sweat, and fresh bread. It weird combination. The food looked amazing, it looked like they were having some sort of dinner. It was elaborate and colorful, nothing like the food I eat at home. My mouth watered as Martha spoke to us.
“What are you doing here, darling?” she looked to Caleb and back to me. “Do you work here now?”
I shook my head and swallowed hard, “We sneaked in here, and we want to find out what happened in the battle. I’d like to know if our brother is alive.”
She shook her head also, more rapidly and harshly. “You need to leave. The Royals are having a grand dinner with other higher ranked people you can’t ruin this.” She places her hands on my arms and rubs them to calm me down.
“Martha, we need your help.” I pleaded. “Please.”
She glared at me and formed a frown on her face. “You can’t really be serious?”
“We are,” Caleb said strongly.
She flicked her eyes towards him then back to me with a face of disgust. “I didn’t know it was you that sneaked in here. The guards herd something in our cabin and took roll, and we were all here, they just went in there to check. They are probably–”
The doors busted open and three metal plated humans came rushing through the door their shields up and swords out. Panic and fright flushed through my body as they locked eye with Martha and us. They moved an inch and me and Caleb bolted. Martha was in the way of them and she was throw across the floor and tackled. My heart sank as I noticed they were hitting her. We pushed open the doors we once walked through and into the room with carpets and chandeliers. The red was no longer pretty it was sending anxiety and fear in my eyes and body. I heard the clinking of metal behind us and my heart beaded faster than ever. The other guards across the hall sprung to attention and pulled out their swords slowly, emphasizing the metal on metal sound the swords make. My hands sweated and my feet ached as we stopped suddenly in the middle of two death wishes. Caleb looked more angry than scared. I felt like my fear was showing and pouring out of every inch of my body, but when Caleb looked at me he didn’t looked worried. We both too a stance ready to fight. It looked like an insect to a hammer at this point. I remembered watching my father teach Caleb and hearing one thing he said. Mental over Physical. Meaning you just have to be smart enough to outdo your opponent not just beat them to a pulp. I screamed it in my head and felt heat rise in my cheeks. They walked slowly to us, thinking they’ve won so I had a moment to get Caleb’s attention, I nod my head suggesting to fight back. He nods back to me and we glare at the guards in front of us. They came to a halt about five feet from both of us. I stood straight and powerful – as powerful as a fifteen-year-old could look. They took a step. I took a step. Everyone, including Caleb, seemed confused. He took another step as I did. They chuckled to each other and Caleb followed along. Mental over physical. I shouted in my head. I kicked my leg up high and at the edge of his sword removing it from his hand and catching it, sloppily, in my hand. I sliced my finger in the action, but Caleb took that as a flag to start fighting. He kicked one of them in the chest sending one of them to their back and knocking one over to the side. I swing the heavy sword and clash it with his ankle. The others step closer, but I run right in between them. Because of their chunky metal armor they couldn’t get me in time. I run on the red carpet, the sound muffled from the softness of it. I was lighter and quicker than all of them, but I slowed down by the heavy sword. I crash with the doors that the two guards once stood and a bright white light blinded me. When my eyes adjusted I fixed my vision on where I was. The room had a wide round table. Everything was either white or gold in the room. There were different colors on everybody. I looked at everyone individually: The King, The Queen, Princess…then I couldn’t believe what I saw next to them.
“Father?” I breathed.
He stood tall with his hair long like the Royals wear it and in fancy attire and gold on every inch of him. He looked at me in shock, it almost looked frightened, but he seemed like he was going to cry. I saw his pale green eyes widen as Caleb crash in the room after me. He repeated me and was in the same shock. I dropped the sword making the bouncing metal sound echo through the silent room. I heard the doors open again with great force. In an instant I felt a wave of shock rush through my body and I hit the floor to my knees. I didn’t know what was happening. I heard a static noise and then it happens again. Caleb shouted and they did the same to them. My father stood there; silent, still, emotionless, of the fact that his son and daughter were standing right in front of him screaming in pain, help, and mercy.
I remember my father telling us to fight for what you believed in, but what if his own children weren’t something he believed in.