Chapter Eleven
I
didn’t lose a moment in giving chase, crashing through the woods after the
thief. “Hey! Stop!”
Because the criminal was so small, I
easily caught up within a moment or two and tackled him to the ground. We
rolled and he tried to stand and run. He was quick. I caught his foot, and he
hit the ground face first, letting go of the bread as it flew out of his hands.
I leapt quickly to pin him to the
ground and rolled him over so that his terrified face was looking up at me.
With a shock, I realized that the thief was just a boy, maybe eleven or twelve
years old. His hair was a dirty blonde and was really messy. His large green
eyes looked up at me apprehensively.
“What were you doing? That was our food!” My anger outweighed the
surprise at the age of my captive.
“I was hungry. I haven’t eaten in
days!” A tear rolled down the red cheek.
“You can understand me. You’re not
from Aronway?” I let up a little.
“No.” He eyed me warily. “You don’t
sound like you’re from Aronway either.”
“Are you from Camelot?”
He nodded. I let him sit up. My hand
hovered near my short sheath and I made sure he caught the movement.
“What’s your name?”
“Trent.”
“How old are you Trent?”
“Twelve.” He puffed up his chest a
little.
“Got any parents?”
He looked sheepishly at the ground.
“Ran away then? Why?”
“They were talking about sending me
to be apprentice to the blacksmith.” He searched my face earnestly for
sympathy. “I couldn’t be a blacksmith my whole life! I’d die all cramped up and
hot all day! I need to be free!”
I tried to hold back a chuckle at
his seriousness. “I see. So what are you doing now? Stealing from other poor
travelers to compensate for your own poverty?” The sheepish look returned. I
pursed my lips. I couldn’t not help the boy – he was obviously starving. But I
couldn’t take him to Morestia either. “Alright Trent. Here’s the deal. You can
come have some lunch and travel with us if you promise to stop at the next town
and find a proper job. Sound good?”
Light returned to the sad eyes and
the boy nodded eagerly. “Sounds perfect! I’ll be great, I promise! I won’t
steal anything and I’ll only eat when I’m hungry. Of course, I’m hungry a lot so that might be more often than you
think. But I promise I’ll do my best to keep up with you while we’re walking
and I’m great for conversation. ‘Least, I was back in Camelot. Now there’s not
much anybody to talk to out here in the woods.” He paused for breath and I cut
in.
“Trent. Look at me. And you promise
to find a respectable job at the next town and stop stealing?”
“Yeah, sure. Thank you so much! I’m
so excited! Who was that girl back there? Was that your friend? Or your
sister?” He cocked his head and appeared to actually be waiting for an answer.
“Oh, um, sister. Come on. We’ve
still got a long ways to go today.” I retrieved the bread and we headed back
toward camp.
Elaine gasped when she saw the
grubby little boy following me. “Who is that?”
“This is Trent, Elle.” I shot her a meaningful look.
She nodded slightly. “Was he the one
who stole our bread Alex?”
“Yes. I’ve got it back now. It’s
just a bit dirty. Trent’s going to travel with us to the next town and find
himself a job there.”
Her brow furrowed. “Are you sure
that’s a good idea?”
“It’ll be fine. We can only be a day
or two away from civilization, tops.” I knelt by the empty food basket and
began rearranging the parcels neatly within. When I was finished I asked Elaine
if she was ready to go.
“Yes. Anything to get out of these
woods.”
As I helped “my sister” mount, Trent
noticed her foot.
“Oh, what happened? Could I look at
it? I bet I could fix it! My mother was always really good at fixing people up
when they got hurt or came down with a fever. I watched her a lot so I know
what to do. Do you have any medicine? And do you know how to tell a poisonous
mushroom from a good one? ‘Cause if you can, I can make a right good soup
that’ll heal anything up faster than you can fly.”
“Slow down Trent. We’ve already got
medicine and bandages. Don’t worry about it. All you need to worry about right
now is how to find someone who speaks your language to hire you.”
“Could we please start moving? I’m
eager to get to Morestia.” Elaine’s hand flew over her mouth the moment she
said it but it was too late.
“Morestia! Why are you going to
Morestia?” The green eyes blinked as they waited for an answer.
I glared at Elaine as I answered
him. “Because we have business there.”
“What kind of business? Is it
something I could help with? You could hire me! Then I don’t have to worry
about speaking the wrong language or anything. What are you doing? Is it legal?
Are you highwaymen?!” The idea seemed to excite him.
“Highwaymen? Of course not!” Elaine
looked offended at the suggestion. “Why, I am –“
“Elle Roth, my sister.” I continued
my glare as Elaine’s eyes widened in surprise at what she had been about to
reveal.
“Well what’s that supposed to mean?
You could still be his sister and be a highwayman. Or a highway-woman. Which
would it be?”
“Look,” I said. “Our business is
perfectly legal and it is ours not yours. So stop chattering and let’s get
moving.”
He did a mock salute. “Yes sir,
Mister Alex, sir!” He marched a few steps forward and then ran off.
“Still think it’s a good idea?”
Elaine smiled smugly.
I rolled my eyes. “Like you’re one
to talk little miss giving away our mission.” That quieted her down and I led
the donkey forward.
Trent did not travel in a straight
line. It was easy to see why he was hungry all the time – running all through
the forest instead of walking where you intend to go tends to burn up food
rather quickly.
“Trent!” I called into the darkening
trees. “We’re making camp!”
A spritely figure suddenly appeared
from in between some wild berry bushes behind me.
“Can I help? Is there a tent? What
can I do? I didn’t find any mushrooms today so I can’t make the soup, but I can
still cook real good so if you want me to make dinner, I’d be happy to whip
something up right quick!”
I put my hand to my forehead. “Just
go find some firewood, okay?” I looked at Elaine as he ran off. “I’ve turned
into Sir Manchmal.”
She smiled reassuringly. “Not quite.
His manner of asking for firewood involved more yelling and insults.”
I chuckled. “Thanks.”
Dinner was a talkative affair with
Trent there. By the end, I could have told you anything you wanted to know about
mushrooms and then some. Elaine seemed to warm up to him during the meal, in a
motherly sort of way.
“Hey Elle, can I have another piece
of bread?” He looked to her for permission.
“Of course. Here, let me get it for
you.” She handed him the bread and he gnawed away happily. She leaned over
toward me and whispered, “You were right. This trip’s already more enjoyable
with him here!”
I raised my eyebrows and nodded. Why
was I annoyed that they had hit it off finally?
After the meal was cleaned up, I sent
Trent to bed, content and full of food.
Elaine and I sat in silence for a
while. “What was your mother like?”
I picked up a stick and began
whittling. “Didn’t I already tell you?”
“Sort of. But it’s different now. I
feel like that wasn’t quite right for some reason.”
I sighed. “She was sweet and kind and
perfect. But I guess memory does that to a person.”
“Or it’s really what she was like.”
I looked up at the comment to find Elaine looking at me. Our gaze held for a
moment too long and I cleared my throat and went back to shaving little pieces
of wood off of a bigger piece of wood.
“Um, I know you said not to ask, but
–“ I suddenly shrank from the question on my lips.
“What is my mother like?”
I looked up at her again. “Yeah.”
Now it was her turn to sigh and
fiddle with pine needles in her lap. She turned her gaze to the canopy of trees
above us as I went back to my whittling. “My mother was and is a queen. When my
father raised her from the commoners, everyone thought it was the most
wonderful thing, and she the most wonderful person. A commoner queen! And I
suppose she is a wonderful queen and wife to my father. But I’ve never really
spent much time with her. And as my father’s attentions become more devoted to
me, she’s been almost shunning me. As if it’s my fault he spends less time with
her. I mean, she’s never been cruel or yelled or anything. It’s just, the
silence…” Her last whispered word drifted off into the night. Suddenly, she
yawned.
“Why don’t you go on to bed. I’ll
stay up a bit longer.” She nodded and I retrieved a blanket for her.
Trent was already snoring softly
across the clearing and it didn’t take long for Elaine to drift off too. True
to my word, I stayed up for a while longer, poking at the fire and whittling
sticks into splinters.
I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep
against a tree. The sound of a horse whinnying by my ear awoke me with a start.
A sword hovered near my throat and I tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes.
“What…?” My gaze traveled up the
sword to the soldier holding it. There was a crest on the shoulder of the
uniform. My vision focused and I saw that it was the emblem of Aronway. And the
man wearing it – the guard who had been so secretive in telling us about the
“princess of Camelot.”
He noticed that I was awake and
looked at me with something between a grimace and a smile. “Can I assume your
name is not Alex then?”
“Elaine!” I was about to scramble to
my feet, when the sword pressed in closer.
“Yes, the princess. She will be well
taken care of, I assure you.”
I felt in my short sheath for the
dagger. It was gone.
The man laughed at my frantic
search. “You really think we would leave you armed? How foolish do you think we
are?”
I glared up at him. “Foolish enough
to believe that I ran from Camelot.”
His face reddened. “That’s enough!
You’d already be dead if Sir Whyh hadn’t ordered otherwise.”
I ignored the last comment and
turned my attention toward Elaine. A couple guards were leading her toward a
large horse.
Her terrified and frantic eyes caught
hold of mine. “Will!”
“Elaine!” I leaned forward, only to
feel the cold touch of steel on my skin.
Sir Whyh appeared in front of me. He
was smiling triumphantly.
“What are you going to do to her?
You have no right to –“
“I have no right…hmm. You see, no
one really has any right to anything.
People get what they have because they work for it. Or take it. Which I have
now done.” He looked down at me with a cruel light in his eyes. “The question
now it, what am I going to do to her? Well, my plan remains the same, excluding
you of course.”
“What?” The statement confused me.
“You won’t be coming this time. I’ll
just be taking the princess, the donkey, and the provisions. Oh,” he said,
pulling out my dagger and fiddling with it. “And this, of course.”
“That’s mine!”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said
about working for things? Anyway, where did you pick up the boy? Is he perhaps
the prince of Gaul?”
Oh yeah. I craned my neck, trying to
look around Sir Whyh for Trent. “What did you do with him?”
“Oh, he’ll be fine. Just a little
scared is all. I have one of my best men questioning him on what he knows about
the princess.”
“He doesn’t know anything! He
doesn’t even know she’s the princess.”
“Wonderful. By the way, I’ll be
leaving him with you. You see, I feel safe doing this because I now have
outposts all along the route from here to where I’m taking your little
princess. You’ll never find her again. Good day.”
He stalked off and mounted a horse
next to Elaine, grabbing the reins of hers. “Shall we, my dear?”
She looked desperately back at me.
“Will.”
“I’ll find you! I promise.”
“How touching. But we really must be
going now.” Sir Whyh kicked his horse into a trot and as soon as they were a
ways off, the knight with his sword at my throat, mounted his own horse and
followed.
I gazed after them. “I’ll find you.”
