"How could it be? See, they are retreating from here!" Ophelia tried to stand up and point at the knight and mercenaries who were running towards the exit with her trembling fingers.
Grief and relief was filling her at the same time, she did not know how they would survive even if they would be left alive now that their palace was burnt and they have lost their parents.
"Do not be a fool. If you notice, half of them are leaving while the rest just vanished. Come, we have to find the secret passage before they come here.`` Before Ophelia could react, Olivia had already started pulling her towards the exit.
She frowned as she did not understand why her sister was behaving like that? Was she trying to set her authority once their parents were gone?
Feeling insulted and with the desire to go and see her parents, Ophelia was about to jerk Olivia away when she heard the sound of knights coming towards them and her eyes widened.
"That.. that!" She fidgeted as she tried to look back but even if she was not able to see anything, the sound of the footsteps were too close and they would not be able to run away or fight with so many of them.
"It should be here!" Her words brought Ophelia back to her senses and she noticed that they were in the library.
"We can hide behind the store books. No one would check there!" glad that Olivia had chosen a good place to hide, Ophelia tried to look for the best place to hide but with her lack of control over her body, she almost fell when Olivia let go of her hands.
"If you want to stay alive, then you better listen to me and stop using your mind!" The harsh and cold words of Olivia with her hollow eyes did not help the scared girl who was already trembling with fear like a dry leaf in the tempest.
But what choice did she have except nodding her head. Once receiving acceptance, Olivia let go of her sister's hands.
She knew that Ophelia was scared but if she would waste her time in consoling her and explaining her plan, they both would end up dying either by fire or by the mercenaries.
She was sure she had seen her father using one of the books here. She scanned the whole shelf again and pulled many books but none of them worked.
The fear of getting caught and killed with no chance of taking revenge for their parents was not letting her concentrate either.
"Where did it go, where did it go?" she whispered slowly as she pulled her hair out of frustration. If the palace would not have been burning, she would have set it on fire by herself with her frustration and anger!
"They have closed the doors!" Olivia's head snapped back to the door when she saw it was locked from outside and now the mercenaries were burning all the books they could from the windows.
They could hear the laughter of the knights that were celebrating their success. Most of them were already leaving as they were sure there was no way two helpless girls who had done nothing in their life by themselves would be able to save themselves from the fire.
All of the servants and knights have died. So there was no knight in shining armour who would help the damsel in distress.
Their crude laughter and whispers of joy burnt Olivia to the core whose hands clenched into a fist and her desire to survive only increased with the way they tried to trample their family.
"We can not escape from here!" whispered Ophelia in a voice full of helplessness and vulnerability.
She had already accepted her fate as she closed her eyes and gave up struggling. What was left for her to live anyway. Her parents, her empire, her friends, her position everything was gone..
Even if she survived she would be taken as slave in the other empire or worse, would be captured by the soldiers.
Wouldn't dying here be better?
"What in the world are you thinking there? Huh?" Olivia shook her sister who was on the verge of fainting and dragged her towards the book shelf.
"Start pulling all the books in the third row!" she shouted as she started from the other side.
"Oli! We do not need to try so hard. Dying may sound painful but it might be…" the words died in her mouth looking at the glare of her sister.
Her warm sister was looking devoid of any emotions except for the will of taking revenge.
She wanted to tell her to let go when her eyes widened with shock.
The wall that looked strong enough to not break even if many knights hit it at once opened making a secret passage for them to walk out.
"This.."
"This is our way to go out and plan for our revenge!"