Forced to marry the enemy prince in her sister's place

"Alright. Since we’ve all agreed to risk what little lives we have, we need to find somewhere safe." Astrid said.

They could all hear footsteps rushing through the building.

Augustus gestures for them to follow him, and they dashed through the left corridor. A few of their soldiers were stationed near the entrance, beside the temple.

"Any updates yet? " Augustus asked one of the soldiers.

"They have completely barricaded the left side of the castle, sir, with sacks of grain."

"What?" Adonis asked, befuddled.

"Yes, your majesty, sacks of grain."

Adonis looked at his lieutenant. "And why are we not able to get through a few sacks of grain, Augustus?"

"Your majesty..."

"You know what, it’s fine." Adonis said, "How do we actually catch these idiots?"

"Fight them head-on? " Astrid suggested

"I’m afraid that isn’t possible, mistress," one of the soldiers said. "They have explosives."

"Explosive?" Adonis asked, "The bombs? But we haven’t sent those to any other kingdom, how do they have bombs?"

"Is that really important right now?" Astrid said, exasperated. "What are these bombs anyway?"

"They’re explosives. Like the fire pots but much more lethal," Adonis replied. "This took Erindros many years of trial to perfect, and we haven’t exchanged them during trade with any other kingdom."

"So what you’re saying is someone sent them these bombs?" Astrid asked.

"That’s exactly what I’m saying, princess," Adonis retorted. "Unless our research was stolen or recreated, no one knows about them."

Adonis paced a little. "Who would do this?"

"This is not the time to dwell on who’s trying to sabotage you, prince, " Andrea said. "We need to figure a way out of this, or we would be playing right into their hands."

"Well, for one, we obviously can’t charge in there now and try to fight them," Astrid mused. "Why don’t we wait, see if they make any requests?"

"And then what?" Adonis asked. "The only possible thing I can think of, which they would request from us, is that we leave. How do we leave after fighting so hard to get here?"

"Calm down, Adonis." Astrid heaved a deep sigh. "Panicking will solve nothing for us. First things first, we need to find any other tunnel that we might have missed, just to be safe. Then, we need to find that salt mine and take control of it. If we keep waiting to find the royals, we’ll be stuck here for a long time. Send a few men out to scout. When they find it, send your best soldiers. Last but not least, we wait as much as we can, block their access to food, water, and the necessities. They’ll be out before you know it."

Adonis stared at her, his eyes filled with shock and admiration. "It really is ironic, how we’ve become more than acquaintances in this war."

"Count your lucky stars, then, prince," Astrid said.

"Well," Adonis turned towards Augustus. "You heard the woman, send our men to look around this castle. I’m sure there are many more secret tunnels we know nothing about."

"Yes, your majesty, " Augustus replied.

"And.... Send Silas and a few of our best men to find the mines." Adonis ordered. "Tell them to find it quickly."

He turned back to Astrid. "I need you to help me stop their food supply."

"And how do you propose I do that?" Astrid asked incredulously.

"You’re a smart woman," he retorted, "I’m sure you’ll figure it out."

"I don’t even know my way around this castle, and you expect me to magically know how to stop their food supply?"

"The kitchen is at the north end of the building, I think. Be careful, Silithran soldiers are crawling everywhere."

Astrid scoffed and looked at the girls. Andrea and Doris stared at the two motionless, while Lily shrugged.

"We’ll think of something, "Astrid said finally through a sigh. "For now, I need to sit down."

"I’m not trying to be imposing," Adonis said. "But I’d appreciate it if you thought quickly."

"Will you shut up, please?"

Adonis pressed his lips in a thin line.

"Thank you," Astrid huffed. "Girls, please, come with me."

They entered the small temple and sat on the floor by the south side of the room, their backs leaning against the wall.

"This has been a very eventful day." Lily detested the silence. It felt ominous in a place like this.

None of the other girls replied.

"So..." Astrid cleared her throat. "Any ideas on how we should do this?"

"There’s really no way around this except to find those passages," Doris said. "Trying to enter those areas of the castle is certain death."

"We could smoke them out," Lily chimed.

"Smoke out people who are ready to die?" Astrid chuckled. "They have explosives, remember?"

"Then we find the hidden passages instead. I’m sure one of them would lead us to the kitchen or storage room," Andrea said. "Don’t bother that pretty head of yours."

"These people are either too stupid or overly confident," Lily said after the room had gone silent again. "Why would they come back? They know they wouldn’t survive this attack. There is a slim chance of leaving this place alive. I don’t understand why they would do something so foolish."

Like a flint against steel, an idea took form in Astrid’s mind. "What did you just say?"

"What?" Lily asked.

"I mean, of course, coming back here was a stupid idea, right?"

Lily nodded, a little uncertain.

"Which means there’s something else at stake here," Astrid said. "We’ve already won the battle; their soldiers are down to a very minimal number, and we have men everywhere. Why would they come back?"

"I don’t really understand where this is going," Doris said. "You’re repeating everything she told us."

"But that’s it." Astrid insisted. Don’t you see? They didn’t come back here because they think they could take back the kingdom, I mean, unless they’re a bunch of suicidal idots, they came back because of something else."

Astrid got up and rushed out of the temple to meet Adonis, who was discussing with some of the soldiers.

"I need to speak to you," Astrid said.