Sorry about how late this chapter was! I was sick almost all week and then at a con! I'm going to try to get 2-3 chapters out this week so the story is where is was supposed to be before I got sick! Hope you guys enjoy the next couple chapters cause a lot is about to go down ;)))

I sat across a chessboard from Edgar who was watching me through lidded eyes.

"Nicolai I have you in checkmate again." He moved his piece forward and I sighed softly leaning back in my chair.

"You got me your highness. I never seem to be able to stand a chance against you." I saw a hint of a smile creep into Edgar's face at that.

"No one does." He cleared the board and began to set it up once more. "Soon Nicolai, soon everything will be in place. We will come and I will take back everything that's been snatched away from me." Slowly be placed the final pawn down on the board as he looked up to meet my gaze. "The false prince must die."

"Nicky! Nicky wake up!" I jerked awake at the sound of the voice which caused me to slam my head right into Gerner's who had somehow managed to perch over me.

"Ow...Gerner what the fuck..." I mumbled rubbing my forehead. The larger boy laughed.

"Looks like the princess finally awakes. Today's the big day. Do you have all your stuff packed?" I sat up and looked around suddenly realizing everyone else was already dressed and ready to go.

"Shit! I overslept! Why did no one wake me up?"

"Because Gerner tried and you just head butted him," Munny said with a snicker. "Don't worry though, Gani already packed your stuff. Just get dressed and we can leave."

-----

"As you all know these next two weeks are not only going to be the last of your training but the most important as well." We stood around Orla near the entrance to the town watching her. She had begun speaking to us almost immediately after we had exited the carriages and wouldn't let a single person pass until she had given us all the instructions. She didn't have to do much work to make sure every boy's eye was on her however, everyone had been dying of curiosity to know what this mysterious activity Orla had planned for us was. "There will be some changes after today. The ranking list will no longer be available for you to view." This earned a low gasp from the group. "These are the last two weeks of your training and we will be putting everything you've learned to the test to see how you can test your skills in a real situation. There are currently only 16 of you left. You will have to perform a task today which will be added to your final ranking and in exactly a week and six days from today you will compete in the final tournament." The crowd went completely silent again. We had heard rumors of a final tournament but it had never been officially announced. "You will go up against each other in front of a panel of advisors from the palace, great amounts of points in the final tournament will be awarded to the victor but only the panel of advisors will be able to know who is in the top. Do not concern yourself with the tournament at this moment, let us, for now, concentrate at the task at hand."

"About time." I heard Gerner whisper to Munny behind me. Orla held up something and I had to get up on my tippy toes to get a good look at what it was. What Orla held appeared to be some kind of vial with a green looking substance inside.

"Your number one goal is to protect the prince," Orla said, holding up the strange vial higher. "The number one threat to the prince is assassins." I felt my blood run cold at the words. "There are many ways to assassinate someone. You could stab them...strangle them or," she glanced down to the vial, "...poison them. Today you will have to stop a fake assassination attempt. Three groups of men are currently carrying three vials like these. You are about to be divided into groups of two. Your goal is to get the vial from the men and return it to me by the end of the night."

"Wait," a voice came from the group of boys. "Doesn't that mean there is going to be eight teams and only three bottles?" Orla nodded.

"Only three of you will be able to win the challenge and trust me, you will want to be one of the teams that does. Your teams will be selected at random for the challenge but at the end of the night we will be retiring to the local inn where you will be rooming with your normal colored team regardless of how many there are of you." She pulled out what appeared to be some sort of silk purse and then drew two slips of paper from it. "Team one will be Gani and Gerner." I heard Gerner give a little cheer from behind me. "Next team, Munny and Alexander." She listed off a few more groups and I waited to be called. I guess by now I shouldn't even have been surprised by who I got paired with.

"Emery and Nicolai."

"God fucking damnit," I muttered. A few minutes later and it was done. Everyone began to scatter off into their groups. I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"You got lucky Nicolai, I'm going to win this for us in less than a few hours." I slowly turned to face Emery giving him as much of a deadpan glare as I could muster.

"Right, because you have sooo much experience hunting assassins." I expected him to lash out at me for that but instead he just smirked.

"No but I do have a lot of experience spotting frauds. These men are just actors pretending to be assassins, we need to find the liars." People had begun to go off in a number of directions and I just shrugged and followed Emery as he turned beginning to move. I suddenly noticed someone standing next to one of the stands that had been set up along the street of some vendor selling fruit. He was a soldier and was wearing a symbol of some sorts...a white serpent entangling a crown. I grabbed Emery by the arm.

"Look there," I whispered, trying not the bring too much attention to myself. Emery slowly turned to look as well a slight look of confusion on his face.

"What?"

"That man over there. He's one of the prince's guard. Why would he be here?" Emery shook off my hand rolling his eyes.

"He's still a man isn't he? He probably just came to stop by a brothel or something."

"But-"

"Nicky would you please shut up? I'm trying to actually help us win this." I opened my mouth but he just shook his finger. "Nah ah ah, you can thank me later." I snorted.

"At least talking is a lot better sounding than some of the noises coming out of your mouth the last time we were alone together." This earned me a chilling glare from Emery.

"I'm giving you ten seconds to take that back."

"At least you said please this time when you asked me to shut up." Emery moved forward towards me and I instinctively went to block him when I suddenly realized he stopped and was looking past me. I turned around slowly to see Gani and Gerner approaching us. Emery's body seemed to relax when he saw them resuming his 'Emery the untouchable God' facade. Gani smiled when he saw me.

"So you two working on a game plan yet? Gerner is convinced there's clues left around so he thinks that he should just go around roughing people up until one of them gives us information." Gerner nodded, grinning.

"See the thing is, they can't expect us to just fucking guess who these guys are! They could be anyone! We gotta be careful about it."

Gani just laughed again at that. I loved Gani's laugh. It was light and sounded like bells, it was about as pure as a sound could get.

"I do agree that the men just can't be random. We need to look for some kind of symbols or hints." I suddenly became painfully aware that Emery was staring at Gani. The second I noticed it my stomach dropped. It wasn't like his normal stares, the ones he would give someone attempting to defy him to put them in his place...no this was something different. I knew that look....it was the longing kind that a man might give a pretty girl he was too nervous to approach. I had honestly never seen Emery and Gani interact much but I was starting to realize that if Emery continued to look at Gani that way for much longer that might not be the case. I felt a prick of something in my gut...I wasn't sure what it was. Protectiveness maybe? I didn't want Emery staring that way at Emery. I forced a smile and grabbed my new teammate for the day by the arm pulling him away.

"I would love you talk more but we don't want to take you both from your search! Good luck to the both of you." I continued to drag him away until we rounded a corner where we came to a halt and Emery turned to me hitting me with a glare.

"The hell was that for?"

"You tell me pervert!"

His eyes narrowed.

"Excuse me? I didn't even say anything!" He did have a point there. I didn't really have an argument other than the fact that I had thought he was staring at Gani with more intensity then I thought normal. After a few moments Emery finally figured he wasn't getting a response.

"Listen, you stay here, okay? I have a plan just..." he glanced around. "I'll meet you in that tavern in about an hour. Don't do anything stupid and just do what I say. Trust me I know what I'm doing." I nodded slowly. Emery gave me a wry smile before disappearing into the crowd. Shit, well I had just put my entire confidence in the one person I didn't trust a bit. Then again, Emery had no reason to play me. He had just as much as a reason as anyone to want to be victorious. Maybe (despite how much I disliked him) I had gotten lucky by being paired with him. He was top in the class after all. My train of thought was suddenly cut off when someone rammed into me. A hooded figure had slammed into me full force and the collision had knocked the man to the ground. I extended a hand to help him up which he took. I only got a quick glimpse of his long blonde hair and dark green eyes before he had pulled his hood back over his head.

"Ah...thank you," he said quickly. "I'll watch where I'm going next time," with those words he disappeared back into the street. That was...strange. I decided to just enter the tavern Emery had instructed me to go to. No harm just waiting there. I entered, the small building was bustling. A tavern maid must have noticed how awkward I looked standing in that doorway because she came over to me.

"Can I help you love?" I nodded slowly.

"Uh...could I get a table please?'

"Of course." She led me to practically the only free table left near the back which I graciously took. I decided to take a moment to look around, anything to pass the time as I waited for Emery to arrive. I wondered what he was doing. Was he investigating, questioning the boys in his posse maybe? Why wasn't I allowed to come along?

"Fuming?" I looked up and my heart nearly skipped a beat. A tall man wearing the Prince's sigil stood next to me. I swallowed hard, trying to appear as casual as possible.

"What's it to you?" The man just shrugged.

"I was just passing through and you seemed a bit down. Want me to buy you a drink?"

"Why's the Prince's royal guard here?" I asked slowly. The man just shook his head.

"Sorry kid, that is classified information. You're one of the Kingsmen in training aren't you? I can tell by the outfit."

"Adam my love there you are!" A shrill voice suddenly came from behind me and I was surprised to find a pair of arms suddenly draped over my shoulder. I looked up to find they were attached to a beautiful young woman.

"Wha...who are..." she pressed a finger to my lips turning to the man. "He's a bit slow." "This your girl?" the soldier said with a grin. "Lucky boy."

"Ooooh," the girl giggled flipping her long blonde curls in a slightly flirtatious manner at the man. "It's more like, on again off again. If you don't mind I need to steal him for a moment." She gave the soldier a little wink, "but feel free to stop by later for a chat." The man nodded.

"Oh believe me I will." With that he took the girl's hand, kissed it and then was gone. The second he left the mysterious beauty swooped down into the seat next to me.

"Okay dumbass, can you try not to be so obvious that you're a Kingsmen in training? Take off your jacket and put this on." She passed me a brown coat over the table rolling her eyes. "For fucks sake. You're going to ruin my plan." My eyes widened.

"Emery?" The figure before me...was Emery. Only Emery had somehow managed to change into a frilly pink dress and put on a blonde wig in the time we had been separated.

"Why did you...where-"

"Don't ask questions."

"Listen I think I need an explanation on what the hell is going on. I'm not going to just go along with this-"

"Shhh." Emery leaned across the table and put a finger to my lips. "Don't talk about anything involving Kingsmen or otherwise. We need to wait here for a few minutes. Just talk to me like a normal boy talks to a girl."

"But you're not a-"

"I KNOW! It's a little thing called acting, you might want to try it if you want to win this thing. By the way, from now on you can refer to me as...Agnes." I rolled my eyes at the name.

"You can't be serious."

"Do you want this plan to work or not?"

"And you dressing as a woman is going to cause this plan to work."

"Yes." I just sighed leaning back in my chair. What the hell had I gotten myself into by agreeing to go along with whatever this boy had come up with?