The City In The Clouds (Part 2)
882 Words
After a while, Belle saw something strange; up ahead, the clouds were incredibly dense and far spread out, and they shimmered pink and purple. There were three such clouds, incredibly large and arranged by elevation, like stairs. The middle cloud was the biggest, while the topmost cloud was the smallest. Belle also spotted few objects floating around that looked very small from the distance; she soon realised they were floating ships, with the same glimmer as the clouds.
“I’m guessing that’s Bluegate.”
“You guess right. It’s strange though; I don’t remember the city being divided in three.” The air started to become less difficult to breathe.
“It’s beautiful.” Belle covered her eyes from the bright sunlight. “It’s astonishing how it even exists.”
“Ender doesn’t deserve to rule this city.”
Belle slumped her shoulders. “Come on, Axel, don’t ruin the moment. Just forget about kings and assassinations for a second, and enjoy the view.”
Axel sighed. “Alright. Just saying; we have a mission to do.”
“I know, I know. Just… Be quiet.”
“Fine, take your time. It’s not like we have two obnoxious twins to save.”
“Nevermind, you ruined it. Let’s just get to the entrance.”
The dragons soared towards the entrance, their scales shining in the sunlight.
They got closer to the entrance. It was a golden platform extended from the main road.
“They sure do have a large supply of gold,” Belle remarked.
“The Auremians must’ve pitched in a fair bit. I doubt they did it willingly, though.”
“I always heard there wasn’t much inter-racial tension in this city.”
“You’re right. That’s the one good thing that came out of the war. In most places, humans and nonhumans live in peace; especially in Bluegate. But that just means Ender makes them all suffer equally.”
The two landed their dragons onto the platform. As the dragons slowly hovered and landed their giant claws on the platform, Belle gazed in awe at the giant buildings, clean streets in some distance with very few people walking around, organised pathways, no homeless people, no creatures running around; and most notably, everything was quiet. Belle’s ears had become attuned to the sound of noise, chatter and yelling so well that the silence of Bluegate felt serene and unnerving at the same time. Everything about the place seemed to be better than Rayfort in every way imaginable. Belle had never left Rayfort prior to this; hence being there in Bluegate was very overwhelming.
“It’s a hell of a view,” Belle said, grinning.
Belle took a deep breath and exhaled. The air was pure and free from the usual stench of Rayfort.
Axel examined the city. He hated to admit it, but Bluegate was indeed a beautiful city. After living in Rayfort for half a decade, returning here felt pleasant; something he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Albeit just for a moment, Axel forgot about the twins or the king and soaked in the scenery. The buildings and streets in front of him were as new to him as they were to Belle; most of the city was destroyed in the Great War and had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Axel began thinking about his parents; how they would sometimes walk with him across the streets or train him in large green fields. The memory of his parents brought back the familiar pain, and snapped him back into reality.
“I’m sorry, but we should get moving.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Belle hopped down from the yellow dragon, then petted its lower jaw. The dragon closed its eyes and made small grunts.
“Oh no,” Axel said, looking down at the platform. Belle turned around and saw them too; dead bodies of guards sprawled around on the platform, about five of them. They all had stab wounds in the small openings of their golden armours. The golden platform they were standing on was a bit lower than the ground, almost as it was attached to the side of the city; hence the dead bodies lying on the platform were probably not visible to the bystanders going about their lives.
Belle crouched and examined one of the corpses. “The wounds are still fresh. This took place mere hours ago.”
Axel noticed that there was a note next to one of the dead guards; a square yellow page with words scribbled in a hurry. He picked it up and read it. It said:
“Axel, Belle.
Guards on alert. Assassin. Change.
Wear disguise. Head to Eco. Square. Don’t raise suspicion.
J&L”
“That’s not good.”
“Change? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.” Axel looked around and spotted two sets of clothes lying on the ground, miraculously without a drop of blood on them. One was a grey shirt with long sleeves and trousers while the other was a green dress with full sleeves and a surcoat.
“Not a big fan of the disguises,” Belle said. “But they will help us blend in.”
“Eco. Square means the Economic Square,” Axel explained. “It’s a bit far from here, in the lower clouds. We should hurry.”
Both of them cast spells to transform their armours into the disguises. Their armours and weapons lay on the ground. Axel made them disappear into the void.
He turned to Belle. “Try to blend in.”
She chuckled. “That’s rich, coming from you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You do not blend in. And you forget: I’m a spy.”
“Training to be a spy.”
“All the same, I know what I’m doing. You should follow my lead and stay quiet.”
- Writer
