Chapter 24

            It was the night of the big ball, but instead of getting ready, Prince Sunny was dressed in all black civilian clothes. He had ditched his security team and hopped on a train heading north. A book bag over his shoulder that contained any supplies he may need for Penelope’s rescue, and a quick change of clothes. The train was rather empty, and a weird energy filled the air. It felt like there was some big holiday going on that halted civilian life. Few people were out and about, and those who were, rushed to get home. You wouldn’t even have noticed there was a prince in a baseball cap riding on public transportation. After a several hour ride, Prince Sunny had finally made it to the last train stop of his journey. He had gone so far north, you couldn’t go any farther. He exited the train and looked around for the Silver Knight. Just outside the entrance, two horses waited next to a man in a royal guard uniform.

            “Yo, man, way to be discrete.” Said Prince Sunny.

            “What? I wanted the princess to see me as me.” The Silver Knight responded.

            “Oh, sure. Now I look like the idiot in civilian clothes.” Prince Sunny took off his black jacket, and black jeans, to reveal his outfit for the ball, already on underneath. An all-white suit with white threaded embroidery.

            “Wow. You look so nice. So fancy.” The Silver Knight said.

            “Now it’s a party. As if your uniform is so romantic?” Sunny responded. The Silver Knight secured his bag to one of the horses. “Hey, I thought you had ditched horseback?”

            “Changed my mind now that everyone knows who I am. We’re gonna need faster travel up the backroad of the mountain, so. It just made sense.”

            “I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.” Sunny laughed, as he hopped onto his horse.

            “Are we gonna do this back and forth jabbing the whole time?” The Silver Knight asked.

            “No, just until I run out of jokes.” Sunny responded with a smile.

            The Silver Knight untied the horses from their parking stump and mounted his horse. “Can we ride in silence? Enjoy the countryside?”

            “What do you mean? Everything’s dead. All I can do is admire the smell of cow poo on the wind.”

            “You better be glad that spring is almost here. Otherwise, this ride would be very cold.” The Silver Knight kicked his heels into the horse's side, and off they went, down a dirt road to the princess’s castle. Cold air brisk against their cheeks, with the sun low in the sky. Sunny trailing behind as the Silver Knight took the lead.

            “Hey, can I ask you something? I’ve been wondering, how come the volcano never erupts? Aren’t you guys afraid of that?” Sunny asked. “Ain’t it dumb to build a castle on a volcano?”

            “You, would think its dumb. That castle is of world-renowned architecture. And an eruption from that volcano is virtually impossible.”

            “Seriously? How could you know that?”

            “When the lava has an open-air source, the gasses that cause its eruption are easily released into the air. So they never build up, and no eruption happens. Also, this particular volcano has a dormant sister volcano, way on the other side of the valley. If, and that’s a big if, it erupts, it would most likely be the sister volcano, because she can't dissipate the gases.”

            “Wow, you’re like full blown nerd.”

            “The last time that volcano erupted, it blew off the top half of its mountain peak. Scientists say it was rare, and that she will never erupt again. Especially because she shares a magma chamber with her sister volcano.”

            “That’s kinda badass, can't even lie. I don’t know why it was abandoned then, its beautiful.”

            “It’s the way the castle was designed to utilize the volcanos heat, from the lava. To stay warm and all. It’s quite the design, but it led to faster erosion. Something about the sulfur or another, I can’t remember exactly.”

            “That’s some crazy lore, bro.”

            “Yea, listen, lets get a move on. We don’t have all day.” He picked up the pace and moved ahead down the dirt road. It was a relatively short trip from the train station to the princess’s castle. They stayed off the main road, and planned to approach the castle on the east side to avoid tripping the live cameras. This would get them to the maintenance tunnel faster.

            “You know the volcano is the scariest part for me?” Said Prince Sunny. As they slowed down to cross a shallow stream.

            “Really?”

            “Yea, I don’t know what I would do. How do you even protect yourself from that?”

            “Imagine how the princess feels living there.” The Silver Knight led the way across the gently flowing stream.

            “Who do you think princess will pick?” Sunny asked as the horses pranced through the water.

            “What?” The Silver Knight replied.

            “You know? We both come bursting through the floor at the same time. Who do you think she would pick between the two of us?”

            The Silver Knight stared back at him, sort of confused. “I don’t know honestly. I haven’t really given that too much thought. I look at it, more as she needs to be freed. If we do that, then we succeeded.”

            “You really haven’t thought about which one of us she would pick? Why is that so hard to believe?” Sunny responded.

            “For starters, I don’t look at the world the same way you do.”

            “And?”

            “And what? Sunny? What do you want me to say? I’m a glorified butler, I’m just here to set her free, not to take her as my bride. She’d be smart to choose you. You can provide for her in ways that I could never. She cares too much about her kingdom to marry me.”

            Prince Sunny looked out at the snow filled mountaintops, and realized he may have misunderstood the situation entirely. He had assumed the Silver Knight wanted the money and power. “I think I may have misjudged you.” Sunny responded.

            The horses climbed out of the stream, and the Silver Knight picked the pace back up. Sunny staggered behind him and took in the view of the valley they rode through. Everything was dead, he noticed. The grass was brown, the trees were still. He couldn’t image living in a place so empty. What do you even do all day if you can't go outside and enjoy the sun? He concluded that this was why the people of Alamora were so strange to him. The only view out here worth anything, is the mountain peaks. He had never seen them so up close before. Never realizing how big they actually are. Sunny caught up to the Silver Knight and continued the conversation.

            “For the record, I was convinced Penelope would pick you. I almost didn’t come, because I was so sure of it.”

            The Silver Knight looked over at him. “Really? What makes you think that? I don’t have anything to offer her.”

            “Yea, you do. You would allow her to stay in her own kingdom.” Sunny explained. “If she came with me, she would forever be split.”

            “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

            “Hey, so I was also wondering, if we save her under the radar, we can surprise everyone at the ball with her?” Sunny asked.

            “I’m not so sure about that. I don’t want to confirm any conspiracies.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean, if we sneak in under the castle with no live feed to explain her suddenly out of the castle, people would be super suspicious of how she got out. Nobody would ever believe us again.”

“What are we gonna do about it?” Sunny asked.

“I don’t know, I haven’t figure it out yet. I’m making this up as I go.”

“Oh, that’s really assuring.”

            The pair made their way across the last valley, and Penelope’s castle came into to view. “Wow.” Sunny said, looking at the view in front of them. A mountain sky scape that crashed into the sunset. “I’ve never seen it like this before.”

            The Silver Knight looked over at him with a smirk. “This is why I always show up at dusk. This view right here.”

            “To be fair, the king has your balls until five pm.” Sunny snorted.

            “Well. That a little bit too.” They set off down the final path that led them to the base of Penelope’s mountain. The Silver Knight looked off into the distance at the princess’s tower. Wondering what she was up to, and if today would be the day she gets her freedom back. They rode the rest of the way in silence, and the closer they got to the castle, the more serious the situation felt. They finally reached the base of the mountain, and approached the entrance to the maintenance tunnel. The Silver Knight jumped off his horse and released the bags of gear from their tethers.

            “You really think this is gonna work?” Sunny asked him.

            “I guess were going to find out. It’s never been done before.” All the Silver Knight knew, was what he was told. That teaming up with the Sun Prince would lead to Penelope’s freedom. He had no idea how they would do it. He was afraid the king may have set him up for failure, but he refused to acknowledge those doubts, and continued on with the plan.

            Sunny took the key from the necklace Penelope gave him and opened the door to the secret tunnel. With their gear on their backs, they climbed down the stairs, and entered the hall inside the castle. They passed the first set of secret doorways, through the cobwebs, and hung a right at the end of the hall to arrive at Penelope’s basement door. Sunny could feel his heart racing with every step they took. In the base of the tower, they opened the bags and pulled out the anchor launcher.

            Sunny looked impressed. “Is that a line launcher?”

            “Indeed. Military grade. This thing can launch an anchor two-thousand feet if you needed it to.”

            “Better put that thing on maximum power, just in case.”

            The Silver Knight agreed, and aimed it up at the center of the ceiling about fifteen-hundred feet above them. “The idea, is that it will lodge itself into the wood of her floor and then well climb up and cut through the floor. So I guess this is the moment of truth.” He took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. The cable shot through the air at an insane high speed, when it hit the ceiling, a loud ding rang off into the tower, and it bounced right back to them.”

            “HEADS UP.” The Silver Knight warned, to get out of its way as it landed back down at their feet. “Damn.” He cursed, and grabbed a pocket scope from the bag to get a better look at the ceiling. “It barely made a dent in the ceiling.” He shook his head in disappointment. “I’m gonna try again.” Sunny agreed, and the Silver Knight quickly retracted the cable. Aimed it back up at the ceiling, and pulled the trigger again. The anchor slammed into the ceiling with another ding echoing through the tower, and it fell right back down at his feet. He took another look at the damage through his pocket scope. “Dang it. I would have to hit the same spot twice to see if we could make it through the ceiling. I’m gonna aim for the brick this time.” He retracted the cable once again, and aimed for a spot just at the corner where the brick and ceiling meet. He pressed the trigger, the cable flew through the air, and easily punched a hole through the brick. But the anchor couldn’t attach itself to the brick wall, as they crumbled beneath the pressure.

            They dodged the falling brick as the anchor fell back down to the ground. The Silver Knight shook his head in disappointment feeling defeated. “I was so sure this was going to work.”

            “What do we do now?” Sunny asked. Just as the words came out of his mouth, they felt a jolt from the castle. Sunny’s eyes popped open. “What was that? Is the tower falling?” As the sound of another blast rocked the castle. Sunny in more of panic now, “Is the volcano exploding?”

            The Silver Knight pulled his phone out and checked Penelope’s live feed. “Somebody’s here. Blowing up the castle.”

            “What do you mean someone’s blowing up the castle?” They both looked through the live cams broadcasting to the internet. An army was at Penelope’s front gate. They had canons and troops as far as the cameras could capture.

“It’s Cybcernia.” Said the Silver Knight.

“How do you know that?”

“I knew they were coming to get Penelope.” They panicked, not sure if they should run, or try harder. Another distant boom rattled them deep in the castle, rocks shaking loose fell to the ground around them. “King Jacob is gonna demolish the castle to retrieve Penelope.” He explained with a worry in his voice.” The Silver Knight looked all over the interior of the tower, looking for some way to climb, but he fell short of any new ideas. He retracted the cable and shot the anchor back at the ceiling again. Another ding as the anchor bounced back to him. “That ceiling has got to be steel reinforced. Why would he put steel reinforcement in the floor?”

“If we don’t think of something fast, he’s gonna get her.” Sunny shouted.

“Ok. Ok. Let’s just take a breath and think for a moment.” The Silver Knight tried to stay calm. They stood in the silence between bombs desperately searching for a weak spot or a strong spot or anything they could utilize in the tunnel.

“What do we do?” Sunny repeated. “We gotta do something fast!”

The Silver Knight locked eyes on Penelope’s mailbox. The one they use to send Penelope her meals, and the idea hit him. He looked down at his anchor launcher. “What if Penelope saves herself?”

Sunny looked at him with panic in his eyes, not catching what he was saying.

“What if we send her the cable launcher, and a harness? And she saves herself?”

Sunny looked over at the mailbox and thought that through for a second. Then anxiously nodding his head said. “Yea. Yea, that’s it. Let’s do that. We don’t have any other choice.”

Prince Sunny inserted his key into the control panel and dropped the box down to them. The Silver Knight placed the anchor launcher into the box, and a tightly folded harness with it. Just small enough to fit. A stronger explosion rumbled beneath their feet. “I swear if he hurts her, I’ll kill him.” The Silver Knight said.

“Hold on.” Sunny said. He quickly grabbed a notecard and marker from his bag. “She’ll need a few instructions.” He quickly wrote on the notecard and placed it at the front of her delivery. “Ok. Ready?” Sunny asked.      

“Send it up.” The Silver Knight went to head out the tunnel, but Sunny suddenly froze.

“What? What’s the matter? Send it up?” The Silver Knight yelled.

Sunny looked at him concerned, lost in thought. “What if she’s too scared and let’s Jacob save her? What if she’s too scared to fall into the lava and waits for Jacob instead?”

The Silver Knight paused for a moment, realizing he might be right. It was her choice to make, but they couldn’t afford to think like that. “She won’t. She wants her freedom, more then how afraid she is.”

Sunny looked him in the eyes and accepted it was out of his control. He turned the key, and the mailbox lifted into the air. The Silver Knight turned around and ran as fast as he could out of the tunnel, so he could catch her on the other side. The Sun Prince, right behind him.