Mine to protect

In four hours, Adomas and the royal soldiers reached the dungeon of Capital City. Dismounting his black horse, Adomas made his way to the entrance of dungeon. At the entrance, the watch guards stopped the man and the soldiers behind him and one of the watch guards asked, "Who are you and why are you here?"

Adomas said, "We are here to take a prisoner with us on the order of the Lord of Versimoil. Step aside!"

"No, You can not take any prisoner without the prior permission of sir Envoy Egnatius Lightwood." said the other watch guard.

Not arguing further, Adomas pulled out his sword from it's sheath and in one go, he ran his sword through the guard's neck and his head fell on the dusty land. Seeing the horror in front of his eyes, the other watch guard quickly opened the long iron gate and stepped away.

Hearing some commotion coming from outside, the Head Guard came out of the dungeon. Noticing a man with bloody sword in his hand coming towards the dungeon, he frowned and said, "You are from Versimoil Kingdom but why are you here?"

"There is a girl, blue eyes brown hairs, we are here to take her to Versimoil Kingdom. Lead us to the girl right now." stated Adomas

The head knew if he said no, he will die this instant and if he let them take the girl, he will die later. He tried to convince the man, "I think there is some misunderstanding, there is no girl here in the dungeon as you described sir!"

Putting his sword at the guard's shoulder, Adomas tilted his head and said, "Are you sure? No girl! Think again before I behead you."

Gulping down, Even though he was sweating, the head guard shivered at the words of the royal man and he said, "Please don't kill me. I will lead you to the girl. Come this way please!"

Anneliese heard the sound of unlocking and opening of the iron gate but she didn't looked back and kept laying on the ground acting as if she is asleep. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching her and she squeezed her eyes shut.

"We are here to take you to the Royal Castle as per the Lord's order. Come along!" stated Adomas

Anneliese slowly turned to look behind and saw the man staring at her. She did not know who the man is and where he wants to take her. She thought to herself, "What if he is the Envoy's man and will take her somewhere alone and kill her?"

Anneliese said in low voice, "No, I won't go with you. I was arrested and I will stay here until proven innocent!"

Noticing the girl's state he couldn't understand why she does not want to leave this place but he didn't care and he said, "Either you will come with me on your own or I will take you forcefully! Choice is yours."

Seeing the girl not making any efforts to move, Adomas reached for the girl and putting her on his shoulder, he left the cellar.

Anneliese struggled to get free from the man but she had no strength left in her body. The man pushed her into a carriage and locked the door, she banged the carriage window but no one seemed to listen. In few seconds the carriage began to move, Anneliese looked out of the window and noticed the royal soldiers and thought to herself, "Why am I being captured by the royal soldiers and Which land these soldiers belong to? Ohh god where are they taking me now?"

After few hours the carriage stopped, the coachman opened the door and one of the soldiers, moved the girl out of the carriage. The sky has turned dark, Anneliese saw the one side of the huge palace, her eyes moved and caught sight of many guards and soldiers and it made her realize, pleading or struggling is futile here and she will need to escape from this place.

Adomas ordered the guards, "Take the girl to the Royal dungeon and put her into solitude compartment. Remember no one touches the girl until the lord arrives."

Soon Anneliese was taken in the underground dungeon and was locked in a compartment. Unlike the previous cellar, this place is packed with walls from all sides except for the small iron gate in the front wall. The compartment was dark except from the little light coming from the gaps in the gate. Anneliese traced the wall with her hands, unable to walk or stand, she set down in one corner. She had no idea where she was or why she was brought here! She has no strength left in her to face anymore physical or mental assault. She needs to escape from here anyhow! She decided in her mind, "Whenever someone will come and open the gate, I will try to escape then"

Far away in the Conclave's building, in a hall room where all the head members were sitting around the round table. Envoy Egnatius have already told the Conclave members about Haselburg town incident and the girl in the dungeon.

Hearing the Envoy's tale, Vincenzo remarked, "You did not think of informing the Conclave sooner when It's more than twenty four hours since you found out about the town and captured the girl!"

"I thought to inform everyone in today's meeting and so I did! replied the Envoy

Glancing at the other members, Vincenzo stated, "Dark Witches cast some sort of spells on their targeted towns so that no supernatural creature could enter the town in that period!" he paused and looked at the Envoy and said, "So if you are saying, you found the girl in the town that means she is not a Dark Witch or any other supernatural creature and the girl was telling the truth that she has nothing to do with vanishment of townsfolks!"

"How are you so sure that Dark Witches cast this kind of spells?" questioned Envoy Egnatius

"How is not important right now Lightwood! What's really important is, you imprisoned the girl in your Empire, who you possibly thought was a Conclave's culprit instead of informing the Conclave!" said Vincenzo in a serious tone

"I said I was going to let the Conclave know today and till then, I had to keep the girl somewhere, so I locked her up in the dungeon" Egnatius tried to explain

"Very well then. Let us hope, you did not touch the girl otherwise, I won't be very happy about it." said Vincenzo with a deadpanned look

Egnatius replied in a contrite tone, "The girl tried to run away so the Head guard had to punish her a little but she is fine!"

With an expressionless face and dead eyes, Vincenzo stated, "Now that we all are here, I want to make one thing clear. Anneliese Levine, the girl with blue eyes brown hairs, is mine to protect. And No one touches what is mine."

In the dungeon of Versimoil castle, Even after hours, no one came and Anneliese's hopes started to die. The thought of yesterday is like a nightmare for her and made her shiver in fear. She can still feel the pain of whipping on her body, she can still feel the disgust of the subordinate's touch and sickness from the prisoners eyes. Her body or mind, won't be able to take anymore pain now and with every passing seconds, her hope to escape this place is dying. Her body couldn't keep up because of not eating since yesterday and she passed out.