Chapter 3 A Plan Enacted

"Do you not find it odd, Yoshi, that there has been no commotion? I have to go see what's wrong. Something has obviously happened to my father."

Kenshin's feet were already moving towards the halls. Yoshi pulled out the blue gem again and massaged it; he stared at it and then caught up with Kenshin.

"Here, look at this," said Yoshi all the while he was holding his staff muttering Auzurel undoing the enchantments he had placed upon Kenshin's father soon after he had arrived at the manor.

Just as Kenshin was about to peer into the gem, he was stopped by Samuel.

"How many times do I have to tell you—who is this?"

"He's my friend."

Samuel raised a questioning eyebrow, "I haven't seen him before." He shook his head and returned to the urgency of the situation, "Look, young sir, I must tell you something…" Then the servant whispered the last sentence in Kenshin's ear, "Your father; he is nowhere to be found. He's not in the Green Courtyard or any of the others. It is as if he has vanished into thin air, but we only found one thing," Samuel then handed him a slip of paper.

Kenshin looked at it, but he could not make out what it said. "It's in some foreign language."

Yoshi looked over Kenshin's shoulder at the paper, "The ancient language…" thought he.

"Now tell me again, young sir, who is this stranger?"

"It is none of your concern. As long as he is my friend, you needn't worry about it."

Kenshin turned to his friend who had said nothing since Samuel had arrived, "Why did you hand me this gem?"

Samuel took one look at the gem and quickly grew frightened, "Why he's an elf. Are you mad! How dare you bring one into your father's household?"

"I know that!" spat Kenshin. He walked up close to the servant glaring at him with tyrannous eyes, "If you tell anyone, I will torture you until you rather that you were dead. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes," responded the servant timidly.

He sped off in the other direction. Indeed, the ever modest and calm youth was acting strangely.

"What was that all about?" asked Yoshi curiously and then he just as quickly went on to other pressing matters, "Can you not see it? The gem shows that your father is locked in a dungeon; the paper is a ransom note"

"Yes, I see it now, but why would he be locked in a dungeon?" Kenshin gripped the staff he held a little tighter, "I'm certain that my father has amassed many enemies by now. What does the note say since you seem to be able to read it?"

Kenshin was again wary of the elf.

"I can translate most of it. It seems to be about some type of trade for your father. He is locked in an abandoned castle. The kidnapper wants three hundred pounds of gold for his return. That is all I could translate."

Kenshin let out a sigh and closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate: What has made you so angry Staff; I can feel it. Can you not feel my calmness? Let it wash over you. Let it cool any misgivings from the past and let it rejuvenate. Why are you not responding? Your intense pain has nearly overwhelmed me. You have led me to scaring off that servant who only seeks to help me…

Then he opened his eyes that were full of weariness.

"Of course our enemy would want money. It is what everyone wants. Whoever this is believes that if the leader is taken then his underlings would do whatever they ask to get him back. But my father, he's stronger than that. He'd be able to escape, wouldn't he?"

Yoshi thought back on the enchantments he had placed on Kenshin's father. They had only been ones that silenced him by knocking him unconscious, but it would do nothing to harm him. Besides this, Yoshi had only done that because he had felt that Kenshin's father had acted unfair in his decision to not train Kenshin. Of course, Yoshi did not know that he was going to be captured later on that day. Yoshi had inadvertently made him easy pickings.

"I cannot tell you that; I have never met your father. It really depends on who has captured him. If it is the Queen and her army, then he is as good as dead. If it is a punk like the one from yesterday, there could be a chance of his escape—there is a servant behind one of those doors listening in on us."

"I am surrounded by eavesdroppers," said the youth exasperatedly.

Small molecules of water are always present in air. It is usually the water vapor from evaporating water which is headed to the skies to form clouds. Kenshin's senses reached out into these particles of water and then sensed an irregular movement; breathing. He went over to the disturbance of the water vapor and grabbed a woman from behind a golden statue of a stallion.

"Did I tell you how much I hate eavesdroppers?" yelled the youth into her ears.

"I-I'm sorry, young sir. But show some patience. I may have something that you need."

The youth let go of her, "You don't have to apologize. It is just me."

Will you not respond to me Staff? Or do you choose to persist?

Yoshi's ears slowly turned red from the blood that crept down the crown of his dark hair, "He is being tortured as we speak."

The woman glanced at the elf and then back to Kenshin, "I see that you have little time to listen to some lowly servant, but let me lend you a clue. One of the men who took your father…they mentioned someone named Sargon."

"Sargon? Hey Yoshi—Yoshi, why are you bleeding?"

"You two must escape from this manor before the other servants see you. They have all betrayed you. Follow me," commanded the maidservant.

"But Yoshi—"

"He's an elf. Don't worry so much about him. Make haste."

Yoshi used his staff to heal his mysterious injury, "Don't worry about me, Kenshin. I am going to go check in on your father. I'll give you word later." He gripped his staff and vanished in a cloud of dust and ice.

"I wish he had mentioned that he could do that earlier," said Kenshin to the servant.

"Just in case you do not know, my name is Sapphoro. There is something you must know about elves. They will never tell you everything and so it is hard to befriend one. Beware."

Kenshin nodded. Then the two went through the same door that Sapphoro had come through behind the statue. The secret passage led them to the front of the manor. Sapphoro stopped immediately when they reached this point.

"I'm not sure how to get past your father's guards, but with you; we may have a chance."

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AN: Isn't the suspense just killing ya; Plz review...plz!