They formed a long train; the wagons filled with children and baby dragons - pulled by unicorns - and the thousands of people who carried sacks of their most precious belongings through a wave of noise and disorder. A week had passed, and yet Brimstone was still not fully evacuated. Rackety wagons with cages rolled past, in it were men and women whose wrists and feet were shackled. Those were the prisoners residing in Pennik Corner, Valek knew, and they too were carried to safety despite being rapists, murderers, and thieves, the most vile scum, because they were still their scum.

While they disappeared into the woods, Brimstone had transformed into a ghost town. No sounds but his own could be heard as Valek strolled through the deserted streets, and once he truly comprehended the absolute silence it made the hairs of his neck rise. It felt akin to when he'd first arrived in Brimstone, when King Jerrik's curse had turned everyone into mindless sleepwalkers and the dragons into stone, only this was even worse.

Darko Drazik and his soldiers rushed back and forth with buckets containing dragon blood. As they poured, the cobbled grey pavement turned a shiny crimson. The twins and Darko had succeeded in completing their tasks, but that didn't mean anything as long as Ysella and Tsega didn't succeed in theirs. It all depended on them, and he was very well aware that, aside from being the most crucial, their part was the most difficult one as well.

Over in the realm of Valais, dark steep towers loomed above Tsega and Ysella and stretched so tall that they touched the drifting clouds. They couldn't quite tell where the mass of stone and peaks ended, nor where it began, and it was at least twenty times bigger than Castle Raverik, even bigger than the castle Ysella had grew up in, but also much uglier. Imposing as it were, it appeared sinister and barbaric, much like King Jerrik himself.

"How do we get in?" Ysella asked. "How do we even get close enough to the king to discuss battle tactics?"

Tsega stared at the castle. "We don't." She glanced at her apprentice and smiled. "Come, let's get to know his home a little better." She pulled the hood of her black cloak over her head and dropped close to the ground. "Follow my lead."

Ysella imitated her and pulled the hood over her head, then kneeled and slinked closely behind her. Like a duo of rapid shadows, they darted from corner to corner and inspected and memorized each and every window, door, bridge, and tree that connected to the castle. Once they had reached the final wing, they spotted a loud horde up ahead, swinging swords and flinging against one another, and recognized it as the army's training ground. The training soldiers stretched as far as the eye could see, and they knew there had to be more soldiers here than there were even people living in Brimstone.

"This is insane..." Ysella whispered. "There's so many of them."

Despite having witnessed great battles and tons of bloodshed, the size of the army she looked at made Tsega swallow. "Good thing Lord Valek said there won't be a fight. They will get slaughtered, even with your father's forces combined."

"What's the next step?"

"There's a tiny problem with the next step." Tsega slapped away a spider from her knee and let out a deep, frustrated breath. "My plan was to bring a message to the army's commander without standing out to the other men, but as you can see, there's no way you and I will go unnoticed." She frowned and peered at the large, open field. "Heck, there's not even a place to hide."

Ysella nodded. "So, what's plan B?"

"We find someone else to pass the message."

"Who?"

Tsega narrowed her eyes and observed them for a long moment. Then, she nudged her head. "That one." Pointing, she showed Ysella a stumbling young man, scrawny and weak, carrying swords and armory. Every now and then laughing soldiers slapped him on the back of his head, or threw him a dirty rag. "He's their target of humiliation and mockery, and no matter how hard he wants to be accepted, he never has and never will. Therefore, he has very little reason to harbor loyalty and honor towards his own." She smiled and nodded. "If we play him right then we'll be set."

"And, if we don't?"

"Then we are all royally fucked." Tsega rose up. "Wait here."

Ysella watched her sneak towards the training ground, hiding behind carts and walls, and come to a halt. Once the young man passed her, she pulled him towards herself and a long discussion followed. Then, they separated their ways and before long she was back beside her.

"And?" Ysella asked.

"I took care of it, I'll tell you later. Come on, let's get inside the castle."

Earlier, they had found a window that led to a storage closet, and a few moments later they stood inside. Tsega poked her head through the door opening, occasionally pulling back inside when someone walked by, and eventually she dragged a woman by the arm and covered her mouth with her hand to keep her from screaming. Not soon after, two tied up women were mumbling through their covered mouths, undressed, and Ysella and Tsega had changed themselves in their dresses.

"I'm so sorry," Ysella told the hostages. "I promise you, we'll untie you before we leave."

"Ysella... stop comforting the enemy and let's go and do what we came here to do."

"One second." She brushed the hair away from their widened, terrified eyes. "There, much better, isn't it? Don't worry, this will only take a second and then we'll cut those ropes and return your dresses, which are very lovely might I add, and..."

"Ysella!"

Their tapping heels echoed through the halls as they acted as normal and comfortable as they could manage, but neither of them could shake the fear to be exposed, feeling as if it was much too obvious they didn't belong there. Each friendly nod and smile to them was returned, and whenever people approached they made sure to look at the floor, but both their hands were trembling of the nerves. Even Tsega, who had the assassination of one of the greatest emperors in history on her record, felt like she'd walked right into the lion's den.

After they heard a group of servants mentioning that they were on their way to the king's sleeping quarters, they followed them and soon arrived in the room where the king slept at nights. Ysella found it a rather hideous room, lots of red and wood, the ugliest white patterns on the walls and carpet, and even the red velvet curtains drawn around the bed lacked any appeal. But the only thing that truly caught her eye and even shocked her was the crib beside the king's bed, made of dark wood with a white canopy, it was no doubt meant for an infant.

"Tsega... Why does he have a baby's cradle there?"

She twisted her face into disgust and shook her head. "Pretty sure I don't want to know. Seeing as he's not a father, it can't mean anything good."

It left a bad taste in their mouths. Ysella didn't dare ask again what the next step was, since even she herself had gotten tired of her constantly asking that same question, instead she just followed Tsega's lead and quietly hid with her in the wardrobe, and watched the empty room while waiting.

When the door creaked open, a young man identical to Lord Valek stepped inside. Inside his arms he carried a baby, whom he laid in the crib. For a moment Ysella was terrified that he'd go into the wardrobe to change into his nightwear, but instead he stripped down to his boxers and dived into bed. Once they heard him snoring, Tsega carefully opened the wardrobe with Ysella following her closely, and quietly approached the sleeping king. Reaching underneath her skirt, she drew the katana out of its holster and pierced it inside the sleeping man's heart, sending him to a sleep he'd never wake up from again.

What they saw next, however, made their blood run cold. A dark shadow climbed out of his mouth, for a while the black cloud hovered above them, but then it poured inside the baby's mouth. They walked over to the infant and saw his eyes turn bright red for a split second.

"It's a demon," Tsega whispered. "King Jerrik was possessed by a demon all along, it wasn't him but the demon doing these evil things." She pointed the katana at the baby. "And, now it's inside the baby."

"No!" Ysella grabbed the baby and leaped away. "You will not hurt this baby. We'll cure him, we'll get the demon out."

"But, you don't understand." A tear rolled over Tsega's cheek. "You can't cure them. Trust me, I've seen it before, and I tried. This baby is dead anyway, as of now he only serves as a vessel for the demon. That's the only reason the baby was here, it served as an insurance for the demon in case King Jerrik would die and it'd need a new body. We can't save it anymore, its innocence has been turned into evil."

"It not evil, it's just a baby." Shaking her head, she took a blanket from the baby's crib and wrapped it around him. "If you want to kill this baby, you'll have to kill me first. I am taking him home to Brimstone, and I will find a way."