by Mary Vee
“Whoa, there.” The guards said. Good Knight didn’t listen to them either. Ben jerked at the reins, pulling at knots that tightened each time the horse reared. Good Knight plunged him down and yanked him up, again and again, dipping him into the pool of snakes. The guards grabbed Ben’s arm, easing some jarring. “Whoa, girl,” they said. “Slow down.”
Gilbert called to his beloved childhood horse with the sound that typically soothed her, “There now, girl. You’re safe,” but she didn’t respond.
Ben flopped around, tugging at the reins strangling his wrists. He pawed at the knots with a stark jerk. Good Knight hurled him into the air, pulling the binds free from Ben before he plunged to the earth and clear of her hoofs. Fearful of her strength, the guards grabbed him by the arms and dragged him toward Matthias. They slipped on the carpet of serpents more than once.
Matthias reached out. “Take my hand, Sir Ben.”
Gilbert leaned forward. “Promise, get Good Knight away from here. Go.” He turned back and commanded his childhood horse to follow. “Hee yah!” His call interrupted Good Knight’s rage. She pounced her front hoofs to the ground and broke into a trot, smashing snakes with each step. She followed closely until they cleared the slithering menaces.
“Stop, Promise. Let’s rest.” Gilbert slid off the destrier as she came to a halt and gently approached Good Knight. He stroked her mane. “There, there. You did well.” He gave her a hug and patted her side.
Matthias’s horse trotted up with Ben on board and Pokey in tow. The two guards, muddy from knees to boots, arrived last. Ben slid down and brushed his hands together. “Well, that was about as much fun as a hike through quicksand.”
“Are you all right?” asked Gilbert.
Ben blew a puff of air. “Sure, sire. I needed training for the show after the tournament next month. Good Knight gave me a crash course.” He rubbed his backside then walked to his horse. “Still friends?” The mare nodded and whinnied. “I think we can go, now, sire.”
“Before you mount,” Gilbert handed Good Knight’s reins to Ben, “I need a hoist up on Promise.”
“No problem, sire. You did notice it’s getting dark, right? Should we camp here?”
“Tell me you’re not serious. Close to those snakes? Not a good idea. The canopy is only making it seem dark. If we don’t see the plain shortly, we’ll make camp.”
Ben opened the supply bag. “Anyone want a snack before we move on?” He held up some bread and figs.
Good Night’s escapade had stirred Gilbert’s stomach too. “I’d like some.”
“Thank you,” Matthias spoke in his low, regal voice. “My stomach had considered an act of mutiny, but you, young knight, have saved a starving life.”
Ben gave a theatrical bow. “Your food, sire. And yours, Lord Chancellor. It is an honor to save you.” He passed the snack back to the guards.
While chewing his last bite, Ben cupped his hands together and helped Gilbert mount. Once the team had mounted, Gilbert commanded his horse, “Let’s go.”
Despite patchy dense clouds, a newly risen moon shone brightly through the woods, lighting their way. The horses worked harder to lift their hoofs from soil that had morphed into a shallow mud-sucking bog. Bats danced above their heads, screeching and diving down within inches of their faces. Gilbert slowed the pace when Promise slipped on slimy moss.
To the left and into the woods, smoke rose from a fire outside a cabin. “There’s a dwelling. Let’s ask to stay there the night.”
“Sire, I’m concerned your choice may not be wise. How are we to know who lives there? Wouldn’t it be best to continue looking for the plain before we lose what little moonlight we have?”
Gilbert stared into the woods. “Matthias, this may seem odd, but I think I’ve seen this cabin before.” A sudden chill rippled up his arms. “I can’t explain why, but I have this feeling we need to go there.” Without waiting for a response, he commanded Promise to turn left into the woods. Sticky, gooey muck pulled the horses into a shallow bubbling sludge, rocking the riders from side to side with each step.
Owls, bats, coyotes, and other animals taunted them with their night calls. Gilbert squeezed his hands over his ears. Frogs jumped onto the saddles and hopped onto their laps. Gnats and mosquitoes swarmed up their noses and into their mouths. Snapping noises from behind the trees sounded like wolves or wild dogs. Gilbert reached for his sword. “Promise, hurry to that cabin.”
She whinnied and trudged faster. Soon the work eased, and Promise pulled out of the bog.
“Sire, wait for us. Pokey’s doing the best she can.”
“Slow, Promise.” The others fought through the bog. Their speed increased as the horses found dry ground.
“There,” Gilbert pointed. “The cabin is ahead.”
Wind-driven branches snapped off and fell from trees, pelting them as they crept along. They rode the last five hundred feet then dismounted. Ben handed the reins to Matthias and joined the guards who had walked ahead, scouting the cabin. He returned moments later. “The dwelling is empty. A small fire is burning, and a pot of stew is boiling, but no one is there.”
“Odd.” Gilbert walked to the front door, edged past the guard, and went inside. He recognized this place from his dreams. The table and beds were the same. But where were the mother and children?
“Anyone home?” There wasn’t a response. The rest of the team walked in behind him. “This very cabin was in my dream. A family lived here, a mother and her two children. She said a dragon killed her husband a year ago. During my visit, she served me a stew made of thistles. Are thistles in that pot?”
Ben stirred the food. “Doesn’t look like it.” He scooped up a spoonful. “It has a nasty taste.”
Gilbert nodded. “Cooked thistles break down in the water and are difficult to identify.” He tasted the broth. “It’s the same stew she served me.” The woman and her children were nowhere in the cabin. The wind and animals howled. Fear tainted the breeze crawling through the windows. “I wonder where they are.” Off in the distance, a spark of fire flashed in the sky, illuminating a winged creature flying toward them. Gilbert gasped. “Dragon.”
Matthias and Ben crowded to the doorway. “Where?”
The guards stretched out their arms, pushing the three back. “Get inside. Quickly.”
Gilbert pointed straight ahead above the tree line. “There.”
The creature’s piercing green eyes reflected moonlight as it hovered. “Sire, I think it sees us.” Ben tripped over Matthias’s foot and stumbled to the floor. He scrambled back against a wall.
Matthias reached for his sword and stepped back into a fighting stance. “Arm yourselves!”
The guards slammed the door and bolted it. “Get down, out of sight.”
The dragon’s roar shook the cabin. Gilbert uncovered his ears and shouted, “Quick, shut that window and bolt it, I’ll get this one.” They rushed to the shutters, yanked them closed, and pushed down on the bolts.
“Sire, hurry, hide in the corner,” Ben yelled.
He and Matthias swiftly moved to the back of the cabin, as if that would do any good in a one-roomed dwelling. The guards stood poised, facing the door. Ready to attack.
The dragon roared a booming sound. “What should we do, Matthias?” Gilbert whispered. “If we stay here, we’ll be incinerated.”
Matthias held his position. “If we flee, we’re doomed for certain. Best to take refuge here and hope for the best.”
A pounding sound, much louder than thunder, came from outside the door. Gilbert drew in a deep breath. “It’s here,” he whispered. Three more times the dragon seemed to throw its body against the cabin’s entrance.
Then silence.
Such an empty, eerie, silence.
The five remained frozen, watching, listening above the booming of their hearts. Gilbert dared to take the slightest breath. A roar boomed through the door, shaking the cabin’s floor.
Ben pointed to the ceiling. “Fire.�
�
According to the woman in Gilbert’s dream, a dragon killed her husband. She would have a plan for the next attack. How did she get her children out? He didn’t pass them in the woods. Gilbert closed his eyes and blocked the looming danger. They made an escape hole. He opened his eyes. “We can’t go out the door or through the windows, and we can’t stay in here.” He scrambled around the room, searching for the answer. “The family that lives here disappeared through a secret way. They had to. Help me find it.”
They shoved beds aside and tore away the rugs. A recessed handle rested in a floorboard. He yanked, raising an access door. “It’s got to be an escape tunnel.” He bent down and looked inside the hole. Far, deep into the darkness was a bobbing light. He glanced back at Matthias and Ben. “Let’s go.”
One guard held the hatch, the other helped lower the team down. Matthias went first. Gilbert climbed down second and found he couldn’t stand in the low space. He dropped to his knees and crawled forward. Ben followed behind. “Hurry,” the guards yelled.
The light from the fire flashed, sending heat into the tunnel.
Just as quickly, the hole became dark. “Sire, it’s so dark,” Ben said.
“I can’t see well, either. Follow me. Matthias, report any changes in the tunnel.”
“Yes, sire.”
Before he completed his sentence, light burst into the hole again. He hadn’t heard the guard’s voices behind Ben. Intense heat hurled toward them. “Move faster,” Ben screamed over the noise of the flames. “I’m getting incinerated back here.”
The flames sucked fresh air from beyond, pulling it past them with a tremendous force.
Matthias groaned. “My knees are too old for this.” He crawled farther. “Good news. The tunnel is turning to the right.”
“Great,” Gilbert sighed, “we’re heading back to the bog.”
“I hope the horses are safe,” said Ben.
The earth beneath their knees changed from flaky soil to soggy muck. “I see light,” Matthias said. Twenty feet farther they found the opening. Matthias edged out into the open air and looked around. “There’s a boulder protecting us from the view of the cabin. We can run to it from here and hide without being noticed.” He crouched low and crept ahead to the rock.
Gilbert waited for Ben to emerge. He looked farther into the tunnel. “Where are the guards?”
“I thought they were behind me.” Ben walked a few steps back and called. The guards didn’t answer.
They both sighed. “Two more lives taken.” Gilbert felt terrible. He and Ben crept behind the boulder where Matthias hid. They peeked over the top. To their surprise, the dragon roared and flittered about in a dance in the embers of the cabin.
That was all the more he could bear. “That cabin and the escape hole saved our lives. Let’s get out of here,” said Gilbert. “It would have been worse had that creature seen us on the road. We would be dead.”
Adult footprints and two smaller sets of prints led into the woods away from the cabin and the bog. “Good. The family escaped.” After a few hundred feet he looked back at the fire smoldering in the blackened woods.
Matthias sat on a nearby rock. “We need the horses. Poor things ran away terrified. Hopefully, they’re safe and haven’t gone far.”
Chapter Eighteen
Gilbert, Matthias, and Ben searched the woods and didn’t find the mares. The fire had obviously spooked them…or the dragon had.
“We can’t camp here,” said Gilbert. “That creature could be near. The remaining journey will be more difficult without the guards to protect us.”
“We’ll have to try,” said Ben.
Losing his faithful warriors pierced Gilbert’s heart. Transporting their charred bodies back to Aerlis for a proper burial looked impossible. “Let’s bow in silence and mourn their sacrifice.”
The three faced the cabin and bowed their heads. Gilbert spent his time remembering the good the guards had done for him and his father. When he finished he raised his head. “We may as well look for the plain on foot. Ben, you take the lead heading north. If all goes well, the horses will be there, eating and wondering what took us so long.”
They trudged a short distance through the woods and found an open field. “It is closer than I thought. Just like the man and woman said.”
Ben rubbed his stomach. “We have a problem, sire. Our food ran away along with our tents.”
Matthias sat on a rock. “Sir Ben. When I was but your age, I thought sleeping under the stars an adventure. I didn’t have a tent or a blanket. My father taught me to live off the land. If we look around, we should find plenty of berries or small game.”
“What would you like us to hunt with, Lord Matthias, seeing our bows are with the horses?” Ben pointed back to the woods.
“You have a sword.”
“Swords are for fighting. I need my bow for this job.”
“Once again, my young knight, my father taught me to hunt with a rock in times of need. You are young and spry. I’ll start a fire and make a spit to cook whatever you catch.”
Gilbert tugged Ben’s sleeve. “C’mon. I’ll help. What would you like? Chicken, pork, venison, or perhaps some rabbit stew?”
“I can dream pretty big.” Ben licked his lips. “First, if I didn’t have to hunt the food myself, I would choose wild boar. Since I prefer my body intact, I’ll set my sights on whatever we find.”
They rummaged for suitable rocks, set them in the hem of their tunics, and searched for dinner. A rabbit darted past them. Gilbert scrambled to pull out a rock, and in his hurry, spilled his stores. Ben walked on ahead. “I think the idea is to not let the animal know you’re here.”
Gilbert reached down and gathered the spilled rocks. Small, black snake eyes stared at him from a foot away. He stiffened, locked in a staring contest. “B…Ben, there’s a snake under this bush. Judging by the size of the head, it may be a cobra.”
Ben inched near. “Really?”
The gray creature lay hidden in the shadow of the bush, staring ahead. Gilbert chose a heavy rock with a sharp edge, raised his arm then slammed the weapon against the snake’s head. The force splashed cobra brains onto the ground. He took out his sword and cut off the head, preventing any recoil attacks.
Ben laughed. “Way to go, sire. We have dinner.” He heaved the full carcass into the clearing. “This critter is at least 18 feet long.”
Gilbert grabbed hold and helped drag the snake to the camp. “Matthias, supper is served.”
“Well done, young hunters. We will feast tonight.”
Matthias prepared the meat and hung it on a spit. Not long after, the food sizzled over flames that slurped up juices. Ben’s stomach growled louder than the crackling fire. “Lord Chancellor, is it cooked?”
Matthias removed the meat from the fire, drew his sword, and chopped off several pieces. He bobbled a hot section from hand to hand, cooling the meat. Ben took the first bite and grabbed for more. Matthias tasted the dinner next. When the food proved good, he served Gilbert.
Gilbert licked his lips and popped a piece of snake in his mouth. Juices squeezed out of the tender meat. “This is delicious. Tastes like a plump chicken.”
They ate their fill and a bit more, sat around the fire talking, then rested on a patch of grass.
At dawn, Gilbert and his team warmed themselves with the remnants of the campfire. A rustle in the woods grabbed their attention. They turned with their weapons drawn as horses poked their heads out of the brush. Good Knight and the others, including the guards’ rides neighed.
“They found us.” Ben raced ahead of Gilbert across the field to the mares.
Gilbert stroked Promise’s mane. “I’m so happy to see you.”
Ben hugged Good Knight and Pokey. “Did you two stay up all night talking and playing?” He hugged them each again. “I forgive you.”
Matthias finally caught up. He patted Charger. “I knew you’d find us, o’ girl.”
They greeted th
e guards’ mares and sadly sent them home before walking their horses back to the camp then prepared to leave. As they packed, Gilbert said, “Matthias, remind me of the second verse of the poem. I think we have a good grasp of the first verse. We just need to locate the old building.”
Matthias sat down on a rock. “As I recall, it went like this:
Great Sacrifice required
To right the stain
Proved the only answer
For true freedom. We claim.
“Obviously some sacrifice is required,” Matthias stood. “The answer to the stain could be in the old building. Let’s keep a sharp eye.”
“I agree,” said Gilbert. “Since the ruins could be hidden in the tall grass, we’ll spread out in line formation and move forward together. Stay within sight and call out if you have anything to report. I’ll take the center. Matthias, ride to the left. Ben, take the right.”
“Yes, sire.” Ben led Good Knight and Pokey a few hundred feet then faced west and waited for the signal.
Matthias mounted his horse but didn’t move. “I’m not certain that having a distance between us is a good idea, sire. You won’t be adequately protected.”
“Matthias, we’ll be in sight of each other and I have my sword right here. I appreciate your concern, but the sooner we find the scrolls, the sooner we can head back.”
The chancellor bowed his head. “As you wish, sire.” He led Charger to the left.
The three set out across the plain looking not only at the ground for signs of the ruins but also at each other. Gilbert didn’t see any remnant of an old foundation. How did that couple find the ruins, search for treasure, and return in such a short time? It couldn’t be this far. He thought back to the moment they gave him the green gem. The couple’s clothing didn’t have mud splatters on them like theirs did now, and their horses didn’t have flecks of muck on their hide like Gilbert’s team. The doubts raised the question, could they have lied? They had hands full of jewels, maybe more in their packs. So, where were the ruins?