Lady Dhampir
Chapter 298

Perhaps because she was now alone with Blanche, Milena felt the need to be even more careful than before. She kept taking breaks in-between the houses, trying to be as good as Lucian while evaluating the risks before moving again or not. On her shoulder, Blanche the weasel would let out a little snapping sound if she felt it wasn't safe yet for Milena to come out of her hideout. She remained hidden in the hood though, as spotting a silver-white animal would probably be a dead giveaway for their enemies. Milena was shocked by the number of men pouring down into the streets. Weren't they worried about completely depleting the Royal Castle of its guards? She tried to sneak peeks towards the ranks of men running down the main roads. From what she could see of their uniforms, Briseis had been completely right. They had recruited knights from neutral families too, and even brought more soldiers that were usually stationed outside of the Capital. The Kingdom of Solaris was small enough that most of the other cities weren't much bigger than villages, and most of them were within a three-day journey from here. They had probably taken the time to gather back all those men in preparation for when Rayan and his army would come back... At least, they most likely hadn't expected so many rebels down the streets. Milena regretted she couldn't have said a few words to her friend Alexis before she was sent to the forefront of this battle, but they had already said everything that needed to be before her capture, and moreover, both of them were fighters. They knew that the time had come for less talk and more action...

After another street, she stopped again, catching her breath. It was harder than she had thought. They had parted ways with the others far away from the Castle, and although they were getting away from the downtown battle, there was a lot going on over here too. She glanced up, beyond the roofs of the closest houses. She could see the Castle's wall, and its top behind it. Only a bit more, and she would be there. Passing by this wall and sneaking into the Castle would be the hardest part. All she had to do for now was to get to the point of rendezvous with Raelius, and hope he would be the bearer of good news...

"Let's hurry," she muttered to Blanche, her lips releasing a little cloud of white fog.

Before she made a step, Blanche growled.

"You!" Shouted a voice behind her. "What are you doing outside? Citizens have an order to stay home! Hands up, turn slowly towards me!"

Milena obeyed first, slowly raising her hands to the air, but she didn't turn around. The hood was still hiding all of her head, at best, this soldier knew she was a woman. She looked down at Blanche, who had already shape-shifted into a small species of feline, growling with her head out of the hood. From the voice, that guard was about ten steps away from her, and probably had his weapon out. Sword or g*n, that would be a huge difference...

"I said turn around, woman!"

Milena exchanged another glance with Blanche. This time, her friend shape-shifted into a snake, and smoothly slid down her shoulder, quickly going down on her waist and to the folds of her coat. Milena slowly turned around, bending a bit forward to hide her face to the best she could, acting like a scared woman. She was so close to the Castle gates, if she was stopped here, everything would have been for nothing... Luckily, the man didn't seem to have noticed the snake getting down in the snow. Milena matched her steps in turning around to the sounds Blanche made on the crisp snow, until her friend had disappeared.

"... Who are you?" Frowned the soldier, confused. "Identify yourself!" "Now."

Blanche jumped out of the snow, while Milena dived towards it. The soldier barely understood what was happening before seeing a beast jump at his face, fangs first. Milena took his sword out of his hand in a swift movement, while Blanche savagely bit his face and throat, preventing him from screaming. He died in just a few seconds. Milena grabbed the white wolf by the collar, pulling her away from the poor man with a sorry sigh. She had hoped to provoke as little bloodshed as possible, but this couldn't be helped. They were at war again... While Blanche, back into her cat appearance, was [*****g and cleaning the blood off her nose and mouth, Milena quickly buried the body under piles of snow. Sadly, the fresh white snow would soon be saturated with red again, but at least, it would buy them a few minutes before anyone found him. The whole thing had barely lasted more than a few minutes, but it came like a huge blow to her. This body found so close to the Royal Castle would definitely alert the security. "Blanche, let's go now."

Her friend jumped after her, still as a cat, and quickly ran ahead of Milena, away from the body and towards the Castle again. This time, they didn't have time to be cautious anymore, they had to keep moving, as quickly as possible away from the dead man. Milena was still holding on to his sword she had taken from him. It was a regular weapon for a Royal Guard, not so special, but it would make a decent and well-balanced extra blade in case she needed it. She had been lucky the man hadn't used a firing weapon. It could have been a much worse outcome for Blanche and herself...

Another explosion suddenly resounded, and they threw themselves against the closest wall. This one was much closer. Milena frowned, growing even more nervous. The explosions were meant to notify her how the rebel army was progressing or retreating. From how close this one was, she judged Alexis had probably won a lot of ground downtown. However, her goal was to draw the Royal Guards away from the Castle, not for the rebel army to get to it just yet. Although she'd definitely be instructed to help take over the Royal Grounds later, for now, Lady De Carseus was the lead in getting the attention away from the Royal Castle. Milena was familiar enough with both military techniques and Alexis' style to estimate she had probably faked a sudden progression forward of her troops. This would entice the Royal Guards to consolidate their defenses and fight even harder to get the rebels away from the Castle. Nothing could make soldiers more confident, eager to fight back and prone to foolish tactical mistakes than letting them believe they were winning after getting close to a brutal defeat. If Milena's suspicions were right, from there on, Alexis would gradually make the rebels retreat further back to draw the Royal Guards away, and only counter-attack properly once she felt far enough from the Castle, and sure to inflict considerable damage. This signal meant now Milena's best window to cross over and get to the Castle was opening.

She and Blanche got back on their feet and resumed running side by side without even glancing at each other. The smell of powder was starting to fill the air, and Milena had a strong suspicion that one was manufactured by the De Pristin family... Weapons merchants were definitely the first ones reaping the benefits in times of war. The explosions were visibly throwing the Royal Guards into disarray. The closer they got to the Castle, the more they could hear men shouting confused orders, people running around and random gunshots fired. The explosions' dark smoke was hindering the sharpshooters normally positioned on the wall. It should have been a clear day without any snow fall for any long-range shooter, but now, they were incapacitated by Chartiana's family bombs. They weren't meant to be very strong or damaging bombs, so Milena wondered if they had made them produce more smoke on purpose. It was definitely an advantage for her too, as it hid her presence from most of the watchguards. Everyone positioned on the walls had their eyes drawn to the battle, most likely no one would notice a single silhouette running in the narrow streets. With this confidence, Milena kept running, trying to manage her strength while being stealthy and fast, following after Blanche. Finally, she hit the wall. The dark stone felt strangely familiar under her fingers. She ran against it, heading for the closest entrance. There were only two known ways to enter the Royal Castle; the servants' entrance, and the main one, used by all the soldiers and the official guests. Milena was naturally aiming for the first, which she had never taken before. Of course, she could have tried climbing up the wall, or through some secret entrance, but both were much too risky. In fact, she expected their enemies to be expecting spies any minute. All the secret ways into the Castle were, ironically, almost too obvious for her to take. The servants' entrance would be the second most obvious, but it was still much better than the main entrance, which was an absolute no-go. It would be crowded with armed Royal Guards by now...

Luckily, Milena also had some experience in sneaking away. She had learned from her husband and Lucian, both the very best in this area of expertise. She and Blanche hid behind the closest building to the servants' entrance, watching the movements for a few seconds.

"My dear!"

She jumped in surprise, barely repressing a scream.

"Raelius!" She protested, as low as possible. "For God's sake, warn us when you arrive... I almost screamed!"

"Oh, sorry Love, I really tend to forget that part... Are you alright?"

He cupped her cheeks between his hands, glancing all over for any fictional injuries. Milena sighed.

"I'm alright," she said. "I just had an encounter with a guard, who's now dead and buried under a pile of snow.... What about the others?"

"Your hubby dearest just joined the army with that spunky De Nova young woman, I like her by the way."

"I like her too, Lady De Nova is quite the spitfire of a woman. What of the others?"

"Oh, the usual. The battle is raging downtown, women of your area are all so strong-willed, this old man is quite impressed."

"Lady Silvra left quite the impression on our generation. What else?"

"What else!" He exclaimed. "There are fires, gunshots and battles going on all over, what can I say! Also, they refused to give me a g*n, can you believe that."

"You've never used one, Grandpa. Trust me, it takes training to manage to shoot anything accurately, even more so in the midst of a battle..."

"Young Lady, I may not have been born when guns were invented, but this handsome ancestor of yours was still the best crossbow shooter in all the land! ...I mean, the land we had then."

Milena rolled her eyes.

"Just ask Chartie for a crossbow then, I'm sure she has some deadly ones in store somewhere... Did you check on Raphael and the babies?"

"Of course I did! I even dropped by the Manor, but it's still as dead and as guarded as a gold-filled vault over there, looks like they expect you to show up any minute."

Milena scoffed. No wonder. It had been centuries since the Manor had been entirely deserted, without a single member of the De Crescent family in... Then again, it had been a while since the last time their family had faced such difficult times. "Grandpa, I really need to hurry up there now."

"Yes, yes. That Artsein Lady sent me ahead to message one of her cousins, they will be waiting for you once you get to the Royal Library."

"That's good," nodded Milena.

"Now, what do you need me to do?"

"Both you and Blanche should create a distraction at the main door, get the attention as far away from the servants' entrance as possible."

"I checked there just minutes ago, my love, that servants' entrance is guarded by six guards. ... Are you sure about going there?"

After a hesitation, Milena nodded. Six men was a bit much for her to handle, but if they managed to get some attention to the main door, she could hope for at least two of them to get over there. Four men... Yes, she could probably handle this. She turned to Blanche, now back in her wolf form, and crouched down to face the wolf at her golden-eyed height.

"Just like when we were children," she smiled. "We need something big and loud."

The wolf wagged her tail, in a very dog-like way, and rubbed her head against Milena's hand. Milena gently kissed her best friend's head.

"See you in a minute," she chuckled.

She watched Blanche run in a different direction, the white wolf effortlessly jumping and moving around in the snow. She watched her go towards the main gate until she was completely out of sight. Then, Milena stood up, grabbing her g*n in her free hand, and turned to Raelius.

"Can you give her a hand?" She asked.

"Making a commotion is my speciality, Love," he winked at her.

The next minute, he disappeared. Milena took a deep breath, and walked back to the edge of the house's wall, the very last spot before she could be seen from that entrance. From what she could see, Raelius had told the truth. She could see four men inspecting whoever was coming in or going out of the place, and all of them looked quite alert too, watching their surroundings. Even worse, all four of them had guns in their hands. Milena sighed; This one would not be easy...

Just a couple of minutes later, she heard the commotion Raelius had promised; men shouted loudly, and waves of gunshots followed. Her heart panicked a bit, imagining Blanche under the fire. Still, she didn't have a minute to lose either. Milena walked into the middle of the street, right after a little group of female servants. The women were speaking between themselves about the events, visibly nervous and in a hurry to get back inside. Two of them were carrying heavy baskets, while the others were empty-handed. Milena walked right behind them, adjusting her pace to make it look like she was part of the little group, only at the back. The women didn't even notice her. They arrived at the gate, where the Royal Guards were visibly alarmed by the gunshots coming from the other end of the wall. One of them was doing the checks, looking inside the baskets and asking a couple of questions, but the four of them she could see kept sending glances towards the other side, trying to figure out what was going on. Milena briefly took the risk to glance up; she could still only see four of them. Either the other two had gone to see the situation, or they were out of her field of vision. She hated the uncertainty, but she didn't have a choice now. Taking deep breaths, she kept close behind the women, a hand on her sword, the other on her g*n.

"You, are you with them?" Asked one of the soldiers, spotting her behind the small group.

Most of the women were gone inside already, and the second they looked back, Milena knew she had to act right away. She was just in-between the four guards, right behind the last maid of the group. She jumped on the first guard, sword first, piercing his throat before he could say a word. The man was impaled on her blade, still alive and eyes wide open in shock. Behind Milena, she heard the others gasp. She immediately spun round, sending the guard flying off her sword, and kicked the closest one in the stomach, before raising her g*n. She fired one, two, three, four times in the opposite direction without stopping. The third guard was shot dead in the head with the second bullet, and the fourth got one in his dominant arm, dropping his sword. Milena then turned around, using her sword again to stab the second guard she had left alive. She didn't have time to stop or check if they wanted to give up; she was like a black flame dancing in between the guards. She knew the speed of her action would determine her success or failure, so she gave it her all.

Within a handful of seconds, the four men were dead, and she rolled on the ground, ready to fire if anyone came. She heard a gunshot above her head, and found the young man positioned on the wall; she fired back, and unlike him, she didn't miss. She heard a thump behind her; she turned around, ready to fire, but the other watchguard was already dead, and had fallen off the wall, his throat sliced open. Definitely Ruby's work.

Milena smiled, happy to have her bodyguard back in her shadow. She slowly stood up, very careful of her surroundings, but the only ones left were the shocked maids, standing there with their eyes and mouths opened wide in horror. Milena glanced at them. Their faces were familiar, but that meant nothing.

"...Leave."

Her word resonated like a warning. The women exchanged glances, and after less than a second, made their decision, and ran back outside the gates, dropping their baskets. Milena sighed, and glanced around again. She was still on edge, and if she was honest with herself, feeling a bit sick too. Her body was not ready for so much intense action so soon. She stretched her shoulders a bit, and ran towards the servants' entrance of the Castle, ignoring all the confused stares on her. She really didn't have time to wait and see if the servants would sound the alarm. Truthfully, she hoped they wouldn't, and if many seemed to recognize her purple eyes, no one moved, screamed or ran out. She pushed a door, getting to one of the food storages, and waited for a second, recharging her g*n in the meantime.

"Love! You made it!"

She glanced up, and to her surprise, not only Raelius was there, but in his arms was a bundle of silver-white fur stained with blood.

"Blanche!" Milena exclaimed, taking her off his hands.

"Big news," said Raelius. "Turns out I can actually take a White One with me when I... When I jump."