Chapter 3 Moon Festival #2
Every arrow pointed toward the royal procession.
Blood Under Moonlight
The explosion had barely finished echoing when training took over.
Caelan stepped in front of Rowan before conscious thought could catch up, one arm pushing the prince behind him while the other drew his sword in a single smooth motion. The polished steel flashed beneath the lantern light as panic swept through the square.
"Royal Guard! Defensive formation!"
His command cut through the chaos.
Years of relentless drills transformed confusion into discipline. Guards closed ranks around the King, Queen, and Crown Prince while civilians scattered in every direction. Some soldiers rushed toward the burning building, believing it to be the source of the attack.
Caelan knew better.
The explosion was only the distraction.
A sharp whistle pierced the air.
"Archers!"
A volley of arrows descended from the rooftops.
"Shields!"
Heavy shields rose just before the arrows struck, filling the square with the deafening sound of wood and steel. Several guards grunted as the impact drove them backward, but the royal family remained protected.
Another wave followed almost immediately.
Not random.
Timed.
Disciplined.
Whoever had organized this understood military tactics.
Smoke rolled across the square, turning the festival into a maze of flickering shadows.
"Captain!"
Lucien fought his way toward him, blood running down one sleeve where an arrow had grazed his arm.
"The western rooftops are compromised."
"How many?"
"At least twelve."
Too many for hired killers.
Too organized for common mercenaries.
This had been planned for months.
Caelan's gaze swept across the rooftops.
The attackers weren't firing wildly into the crowd.
Every arrow targeted escape routes.
Every movement forced the Royal Guard exactly where the assassins wanted them.
Someone knew the palace security protocols.
Someone had studied them.
Someone inside the kingdom had helped plan this.
"Move the King!" he shouted.
"Take him toward the southern avenue."
"What about the prince?"
"I'm staying with him."
Lucien hesitated only a heartbeat before nodding.
"As you command."
The older captain immediately redirected half the guards toward King Aldric and Queen Elara, creating a second defensive circle around them.
Rowan remained surprisingly calm despite the panic unfolding around them.
"People are trapped."
His eyes had fixed on a collapsed merchant stall where several children cried beneath fallen timber.
"We don't have time—"
"We'll make time."
Before Caelan could object, Rowan was already moving.
The prince ignored the chaos surrounding him and knelt beside the wreckage, helping lift heavy wooden beams while frightened parents pulled their children free.
Caelan cursed under his breath.
Brave.
Compassionate.
Entirely impossible.
He positioned himself beside Rowan, intercepting another incoming arrow before it could reach them.
"Your Highness."
"One more."
A young Beta boy remained pinned beneath a broken support beam.
Together they lifted it.
The child's mother pulled him into her arms, tears streaming down her face.
"Thank you."
"There isn't time," Caelan urged.
"The attackers will regroup."
Rowan nodded reluctantly.
Only then did he allow Caelan to guide him away.
A horn echoed somewhere beyond the square.
Not one of theirs.
Another signal.
The assassins were communicating.
"They're coordinating," Caelan muttered.
"What?"
"This wasn't meant to kill everyone."
He looked toward the surrounding buildings.
"It was meant to isolate you."
As if proving his point, three masked figures suddenly dropped from a rooftop directly ahead.
Each carried twin curved blades.
Professional.
They ignored fleeing civilians completely.
Their only target was Rowan.
Caelan stepped forward.
"You stay behind me."
The first assassin attacked without hesitation.
Steel met steel.
Caelan turned the strike aside before driving his elbow into the attacker's ribs hard enough to force him backward.
The second closed from the left.
Caelan pivoted, his sword tracing a precise arc that knocked both weapons from the man's hands before delivering a swift kick that sent him crashing into a stone fountain.
The third never reached him.
Lucien intercepted the attacker with a powerful shield strike.
"You've got enough problems."
Caelan allowed himself the briefest smile.
"So do you."
They fought side by side for only seconds before another explosion rocked the square.
This one closer.
Much closer.
The street beneath them trembled.
A nearby balcony collapsed into the crowd.
Smoke thickened until breathing became difficult.
Through the haze, Caelan caught movement on the rooftops.
Not retreating.
Repositioning.
"They're herding us."
Lucien followed his gaze.
"Toward the palace."
"No."
Caelan's eyes narrowed.
"Toward the eastern bridge."
Understanding dawned instantly.
The bridge narrowed to barely twenty feet across.
Perfect for archers.
Perfect for trapping a royal escort.
"They know our evacuation routes."
Lucien's expression hardened.
"Someone leaked them."
"There isn't time to find out who."
Another arrow struck the stone beside Rowan.
Too close.
Far too close.
Caelan grabbed the prince's arm.
"We're changing routes."
"The bridge?"
"We're not going near it."
"But the palace—"
"They'll expect us there."
He made his decision.
There was only one path the assassins couldn't predict.
One route so old that even most Royal Guards had forgotten it existed.
"Follow me."
He led Rowan away from the main avenue instead of toward it, weaving through narrow side streets hidden behind merchant warehouses.
Several guards followed.
Others remained behind to slow the attackers.
Every intersection confirmed his suspicions.
More assassins waited ahead.
More arrows.
More coordinated attacks.
They knew exactly where the royal family should have been moving.
If Caelan had followed standard protocol...
They would already be dead.
They reached an abandoned chapel tucked between two ancient stone buildings near the old palace district.
Its weathered doors hung crooked on rusted hinges.
Most people barely noticed it anymore.
Caelan pushed them open.
Inside, moonlight filtered through cracked stained-glass windows onto faded stone floors.
Rowan looked around in confusion.
"This isn't the palace."
"No."
Caelan crossed the sanctuary toward an ancient marble altar.
"My predecessor showed me something here years ago."
He pressed against an almost invisible carving beneath the altar's edge.
A low grinding sound echoed through the empty chapel.
The altar slowly shifted aside.
Stone steps disappeared into darkness below.
Rowan stared.
"A tunnel?"
"The oldest escape route beneath the capital."
"I've never heard of it."
"Almost no one has."
Caelan picked up an old lantern resting nearby and quickly lit it.
"We move now."
The remaining guards entered first to secure the passage.
Rowan followed.
Caelan stepped inside last, pausing only long enough to pull the hidden mechanism closed behind them.
The heavy stone settled back into place.
Darkness swallowed the entrance.
Only the lantern's warm glow remained.
The tunnel smelled of damp earth and forgotten history.
Water dripped steadily somewhere ahead as the narrow passage descended beneath the city.
For several minutes no one spoke.
Only hurried footsteps echoed through the darkness.
Finally Rowan broke the silence.
"My father..."
"Commander Lucien will protect Their Majesties."
"And if—"
"They're alive."
Caelan's answer came without hesitation.
He needed Rowan to believe it.
Truthfully...
He didn't know.
The attack had been too large.
Too coordinated.
Too precise.
Every instinct told him this had never been a single assassination attempt.
It was something much worse.
Someone wanted the kingdom leaderless.
After what felt like an hour, the tunnel widened into a forgotten underground chamber where fresh air drifted through narrow cracks in the ceiling.
Caelan extinguished the lantern and climbed a short ladder leading toward a concealed stone hatch.
Carefully, he lifted it just enough to look outside.
Dense forest.
Moonlight.
Silence.
They had emerged several miles beyond the capital walls.
Safe.
For the moment.
Rowan climbed out beside him and turned back toward the distant city.
Even from here they could see smoke rising above the rooftops.
Festival lanterns still floated into the night sky, their peaceful glow standing in heartbreaking contrast to the fires consuming parts of the capital.
Somewhere beyond those walls, the kingdom still fought to survive.
Somewhere beyond those walls, the royal family had vanished into chaos.
And somewhere inside that burning city, those responsible for the attack were almost certainly celebrating.
Caelan watched the distant flames, his jaw tightening.
The enemy had achieved exactly what they intended.
The Crown Prince had disappeared.
By sunrise, rumors would spread through every village and every neighboring kingdom.
The capital had fallen into chaos.
The Moon Festival had become a massacre.
And the future king of the Moonbound Kingdom was believed to be dead.
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