I wondered how long bird-man's anti-enchanting spell worked for I had a bad feeling I might need it, a lot.

Soon as I got onto my room, I closed the door and made sure that everything was quiet. I waited till the harpies started a conversation with themselves. Then, I started to work.

First, I ransacked my wardrobe and found a back pack. I packed a pair of shirts and an extra denim inside. That's when I discovered two long wrapped up packages leaning at the corner of the wardrobe. Puzzled, I took them out. One was the long bow I received from the elves. The other package was... a samurai sword.

It was beautiful. Even the sheath was beautiful and black as ebony. The sword was curved. Curious, I carefully drew it out. The blade shimmered. Andrew will love this.

The nymphs lost me that some on the presents I received from my coronation were inside the dressing table. So I dug in and found the Galaxy S6. Fortunately the box wasn't too big. I just stuffed it inside. Then I look outside jewelry and stuffed them inside too, in case of an emergency. I took the dagger that Zeus gave me for a present. Even though they confiscated all of Andrew's gismos, no one thought that I might have some.

I turned to Cleocatra.

'So,' I said. 'What else do you think I might need?'

Cleocatra stopped licking her paw and looked at me.

'Why... me of course.'

And then she jumped inside the backpack and poked her head out.

'Are you serious?'

'You're going to need an enchanted Siamese cat.'

Oh, well. If she say so. Then I dumped the Mystica book inside as well. Just in case I get bored.

Then it was time to commence part two of plan A.

I slung by backpack over my shoulders, hung my bow and quiver over it and held my samurai sword in hand.

I never felt good in my entire life.

But it only lasted for a few seconds.

Then I had to worry about a good distraction; something that will force them to come in a panic.

So I threw the flower vase over to the force field. I was hoping to force myself to screm but the vase exploded with such a blast that a scream escaped my mouth. I was standing behind the door when it swung open.

'Are you alright!'

I didn't answer.

'Hay, kid!'

'No one's answering.'

'Is she okay?'

'Stupid girl.'

'He'll kill us if something happens to her.'

The door slammed open, almost breaking my nose. Then I took a deep breath and held it. About four harpies rushed in. I saw the feathers on their head raise and lower itself as they stood with their back against me.

'Where is she?'

I slowly crept into out of the shadow of the door and tiptoed towards the opening. One of the harpies walked closer to the force field and picked up a piece from the broken vase.

'I think we are the fools here,' he said as he turned towards the door.

I bolted it shut.

'Hay! Open up.'

BANG.

'Move aside!'

'This thing is enchanted not to break you idiot.'

'Sorry,' I yelled back.

The key was still on the lock. I pulled it out. It will take some time for them to get out. As I hoped, all the guards who were stationed for us rushed into my room after hearing the commotion. I I was just hoping that Andrew's door too had the lock in place, and to my greatest annoyance, it wasn't even locked.

He opened up the door, with his arms folded.

'That was noisy,' he said. 'I already had a plan.'

'What? Befriend the enemy so that it will make things easy to escape.'

'It worked,' he mumbled, 'to some extent.' Then his eyes fell on the word in my hand. 'Where did you_'

'Some guy called Yamagato sent it to me,' I said proudly holding it out to him. 'All yours brother...'

He didn't even seem angry at me calling him brother. He just stared at the sword like a puppy eyeing a bone. He drew the blade and took an intake of breath.

'I think we'd better go,' I said.

'Why did they allow you to keep weapons?'

'I'm a girl,' I said. 'And no one expects girls to have weapons.'

He nodded. He rushed into his room and came back with a shoulder belt and with his new katana strapped onto his back.

'Bad plan,' he said. 'But it's good than nothing.'

'Sure,' I said as we ran along the corridor. When we reached the stairs, Andrew signaled me to stop and stay quiet.

'Now it's time to follow my plan,' he said in a whisper. 'Just follow my lead.'

'That's not a plan.'

Anyhow, we waited for the two harpies to pass by and we ran downstairs. We met a nymph along the way but she was too flabbergasted to respond. I smiled at her hoping she won't tell but I was sure she would remain frozen for a few minutes.

'We have to find Salzar,' said Andrew. 'They must have kept him somewhere.'

'He's a pretty clever dragon,' I said. 'Maybe he was not caught.'

'Tealiff sure must have captured him.'

We looked at each other's faces. The only place we could think to place a clever and fierce beast like him was the Imprisonatorium.

'Let's hope it's not that place,' he said.

'Let's hope,' I said back. 'But, does this place have ordinary dungeons?'

'It does,' he said. 'We only put the serious cases in the Imprisonatorium.'

'Like us,' I said.

Once we did the impossible task of reached to the ground floor another problem surfaced. How on Earth are we going to get out? The rooms were sparsely populated, but the same couldn't be about the ground floor. It was crowded, spacey and had a lot of guards.

'You do have a plan,' I said to Andrew.

'Don't you have one?'

'I didn't plan it this far,' I said.

We both stayed silent for a while.

'We have to find Salzar,' Andrew repeated.

'I know,' I snapped. 'Just lead the way to the dungeons.'

But getting there was the biggest problem. Fortunately, the fairies were still on my side. I asked them to push vases, create paranormal activities and scare the hell out of the people who were walking along the corridors just so that we could finally reach the dungeons. We definitely knew he was in there after we heard his roar.

Just then, someone's voice rang out through a bunch of speakers, "THE QUEEN HAS ESCAPED. I REPEAT, THE QUEEN HAS ESCAPED.'

'We don't have much time,' said Andrew.

'I'll distract the harpies,' I said. 'You get Salzar out.'

Andrew gave me a "are-you-crazy" look. But he simply sighed and said, 'Don't get caught.'

'Rodger.'

Then we split up. It didn't take long for me to find an army of harpies along the corridors. For a few seconds, we just stood there, staring face to face before someone yelled, 'get her!'

I ran for my life. Fortunately, the ceiling was too low for them to fly after me, so they had to run. On the other hand, I was not good at running. The marble floors weren't helping much either since they were so slippery that I almost slipped a couple of times. But running only led me to another troupe of harpies and I found myself completely surrounded.

I gulped. Gathering all the courage in the world that I can muster, I raised my voice. 'Hi there.'

The harpies stared at me as if I were crazy. 'Look,' I said. 'We can either do this the hard way or the easy way_'

'You and what army?'

They really should not have said that since a dozen of fairies staring swarming above them.

'Uh,' said one harpy, pointing up. They weren't doing anything but I sort of got what they were trying to say.

'Have a go,' I said.

The fairies attacked.

It even freaked me out. They tugged and pulled and pinched the harpies that they started to yell and scream. Feathers flew all over the place and I quickly squeezed through the crowd, punching one harpy in the groin when he tried to catch me. From behind my, Cleocatra spoke, 'Use your arrows girl.'

Oh, yeah. I have those.

But I can't shoot.

As I expected, the fairies were not enough to stop them. To my surprise, I felt a weight lift off my back. I looked over my shoulder and saw an army of frozen harpies. I mean, they were petrified, literally turned into stone. Behind me, licking her paws was Cleocatra. I stuffed her back into the backpack and started running. I kept on glancing back behind me that I bumped on something hard and wooden. The wooden wall flung open and momentum threw me into a golden spacious room; the council room.

My arrival was followed by a dead silence.

'Hi,' I grinned, waving my hand.

Bird-man, who was sitting on a throne which was never there before banged his hand on the armrest.

'Seize her!'

I turned over my heels and ran out of the council room. I was really expecting some crazy magic spell to pull me back in but instead I heard thunder from inside. Was that Zeus?

Then from above, I heard a dragon roar. I almost cried and I ran towards the nearest open space in the palace which was the breakfast room. Andrew and Salzar were waiting over the Nile. Salzar landed and I scrambled up the dragon. He kicked his tail and we set off. But the hassle didn't end there.

Salzar flew over the city. There was a storm brewing over the palace with lightning striking all over the palace. Despite that, small figure flew straight at us from the palace.

Harpies.

And to make things worse, yellow translucent hexagons were materializing over the city making a honeycomb pattern. It started from above the palace and kept on spreading around in a shape of a dome.

'Force field!' said Andrew. 'This is bad.'

Salzar roared and sped faster. But I have to admit, harpies really her pretty fast. Meanwhile, I was tightly grabbing onto Andrew's waist, who in turn was grasping onto Salzar's mane. The harpies gradually started to gain their way towards us. Salzar wasn't fast as he usually was, I guess he must have had it bad in the dungeons.

'Cleo,' I yelled over my shoulder. 'Can you petrify them.'

No one replied.

Did she fall off the bag?

'Cleocatra?'

'I can't,' a voice whimpered. 'Can't don't do flying.'

I growled in frustration. I removed the bow from my shoulders and plucked an arrow form the quiver. I pressed my thighs against the dragon, praying that I might not fall off. Then I notched the arrow over the bow string and pulled.

This can't be that hard. I mean, I've watched the Hunger Games a dozen of times.

Then I let go.

The arrow flew off the bow flew straight at the harpies behind us. It didn't trick anyone, but it did slow them down. Which was good. I didn't want to kill anyone. Yet.

'Keep shooting,' yelled Andrew.

'But_'

'Just shoot!'

Well, I really didn't need to aim. So I did. After a few wild shots, the harpies sort of got scared of how dangerously the arrows flew wherever they wanted. The harpies yelled each other, dodged and screamed as I shoot. It didn't take long for them to get far behind us. I was expecting the quiver to go empty by the amount of arrows I've shot but it didn't seem to run out of arrows.

I pulled the bow string.

'Duck!' I heard a harpy yell. 'She's going to shoot!'

I looked in front of us. The force field was almost complete and only a small space remained above the ground. We were flying dangerously low. I slung the bow over my shoulders again.

'Hang on tight,' said Andrew.

I slowly nodded my head.

'Fly over the Nile,' said Andrew.

Salzar turned and headed towards the glittering silvery thread. Soon, we were flying parallel to it.

'Come on, come on, come on....' Mumbled Andrew.

We were flying so low that my feel actually touched the water. Salzar whipped his tail again, gaining some more speed. Finally, we reached the end of the city.

'Duck,' growled Salzar.

But Andrew and I ducked, water sprayed all over us where Salzar had to squeeze under the force field. I closed my eyes and waited.

'We made it,' Andrew finally said.

Salzar gave out a loud roar and flew up, gaining altitude. We didn't speak as we flew away for Sightless. I kept on staring at the domes golden city which had my mom held hostage inside. What about the fairies? What about Zeus? Will they get into trouble? Of course they will. For a second, I doubted my decision of escaping. Maybe I could have done better under house arrest.

But I couldn't turn back now. I needed a plan. I needed to find a way to defeat Tealiff Taramen.

'Amethyst,' said Andrew. 'What now.'

'We head north,' I said. 'We have a kingdom to reclaim.'