Chapter 14: Plotting

Later in the evening, the five guests were called on for another banquet. It seemed that the royal family could not get enough of their magic tricks in so short a time. It was clear enough when the sultan requested them to do it again tonight.

Elise materialized bouquets of flowers for each of the sultan’s wife at the opening of their performance. The ladies gasped in excitement, especially the queen. She beamed widely and picked up the bouquets to smell them.

“These flowers smell so fresh and sweet!” she commented and thanked Elise.

The same as the night before, the queen was seated next to the successor of the sultan.

Elise bowed to the audience and stood by as Diana took the floor to show her own magic. She managed to materialize a white canvass, and by her magic, she drew something that looked like a meadow with wild flowers, distant trees and blue sky. Then she made it into a 3D-like animation, where the children were happily playing hide-and-seek.

Eric shook his head. “That’s boring,” he complained and waved his hand to change the canvass into a large flat screen television, which earned a gasp of awe from the audience.

Diana pouted her lips and stood next to Elise. Eric then turned on the TV and showed them a Crusade battle scene that was going on in “Kingdom of Heaven” movie.

All the “ancient people” dropped their jaws as they watched the battle scene. Radu’s heart was beating too fast as he watched segment. He was excited but afraid that those people would come out of the screen and charge at them. He prepared himself to whatsoever that might happen next.

Kent flicked his fingers, and the television vanished in an instant. The audience seemed to snap out of a hypnotic daze and turned their gaze back to the performers in the middle of the vast hall.

Kent instead materialized a male and a female who would dance while they were hanging on a thick cloth. The aerial silk dancers left the audience in awe, and they could not stop clapping their hands. Their mouths were ajar as they watched the breathtaking performance.

After the dance was over, the dancers and the two hanging cloths vanished into thin air. The five foreigners bowed to their audience when the performance was done.

“That was very, very interesting and entertaining!” The sultan’s voice boomed inside the great hall. “I have never seen anything like it.” He clapped his hands vigorously while he remained in his seat.

The foreigners joined him at his table and ate with him.

“Thank you for the great entertainment, foreigners,” the sultan said in a low voice.

They nodded at the sultan.

“It’s nothing!” Eric said with a wave of his hand, grinning.

After the banquet, the royal family members bade the foreigners goodnight and retired to their respective bedchambers. So did the sultan himself.

Radu and the Jinn also walked out of the great hall to retire for the night.

The five foreigners went back to their room as well to rest and plan on their next course of action. It was not right to just stay there in the royal house and become entertainers. They couldn’t be like that without doing anything for their real mission.

They had to make their move to see the real Dracula.

When they were inside their room, Diana spoke in a low tone. “I feel something that Radu is plotting on something.”

Elise nodded in agreement as she observed the same thing. “Right. I read his soul tonight. He wants to use us against his enemies.”

Eric’s face twitched as he heard it. “He’s really bad. He already has the Jinn. What’s he going to use us for anyway?”

“He wants to increase his powers.” Kent simplified it logically.

“So what are we going to do now?” Mazoi asked Elise.

“Maybe we’ll try to sneak into his room. I’m sure he’s talking with his Jinn right now. I seem to hear them talking. At this rate, my powers should not be exposed so much to the Jinn. I don’t trust him.” Elise put up the shield on each of them and cast a spell on it so that even spirits would not see them loitering around the royal house.

They quietly went out of their room and found their way to Radu’s bedchamber. And yet, the door was locked. They exchanged glances at each other and wondered how they could get in without being noticed.

“The windows,” Kent whispered.

They hurried outside and quietly started to get closer to Radu’s large windows. It was fortunately open with the curtains slightly swaying because of the night breeze.

They could not hear anything in their current position.

“Elise and I will get inside,” Kent whispered. “You wait here.”

The others nodded although Eric wanted to protest.

Kent helped Elise to perch on the waist-high windows and climbed inside the room. Kent quickly followed her afterwards.

Radu’s voice was so low that Elise and Kent had to get closer to him and the Jinn, who stood facing each other in the middle of the room.

“You have to do anything in your power to make those foreigners under my command. I have no doubt that my brother would fall easily in my hands when that happens,” Radu told the Jinn.

“I would try to do that. However, I know one of them is the most powerful.”

Radu stared at the Jinn with a little bit of confusion. “How powerful? Which of them is the most powerful, Jinn? Tell me!” he urged.

“I do not have any idea how powerful she is though. She is the youngest of them all,” the Jinn’s creepy voice uttered.

Elise’s head whipped at Kent in alarm before they both looked at the Jinn with awe. He was surely an evil one. He was able to pin-point which of them was the most powerful.

A couple of moments later, they saw that the Jinn’s eyes turned red and watched in their direction.

‘It’s impossible!’ Kent thought with a trace of fear reflected in his eyes. His heart was beating so fast. Without any second thought, he immediately grabbed Elise’s hand, and they began to retreat slowly.

Kent was afraid for her. He would certainly protect her if the Jinn would want to harm the girl he liked the most.

The Jinn followed them like a predator while Radu was startled at the Jinn’s behavior. His eyes quickly followed the Jinn.

The Jinn waved his left arm, and the shield was taken away like a piece of cloth and revealed Elise and Kent who held hands as they were backing off.

Elise, through her mind, took out one of the sheets of stained glass of Radu’s windows. She flipped it horizontally and pushed Kent to step on it, and it flew outside. By her powers, she also made the others ride on it as she tried to retreat herself. She jumped off the window, and Kent caught her by the arm that she stretched out.

The Jinn turned into a big bat and followed the flying stained glass sheet. The Jinn’s eyes, however, were clearly seen as red even in the dim moonlight.

The young foreigners gasped as they watched the Jinn follow them into the night while Radu went to the window to observe them, as much as the dark night could allow his eyes to see.

“I must have her powers,” he murmured in the air.