The Twins of Tintarfell

by James O'Loghlin

  Edward, downcast, stood and turned to the door.

  ‘Wait,’ called his father. ‘The boy who rode for you. Who was it?’

  ‘A servant called Bart.’

  ‘Ah,’ said the King. ‘No wonder he was good.’

  Edward frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

  The King ignored him.

  ‘He’s the one who disappeared,’ added Edward.

  Immediately the King’s expression changed. ‘What?’ he gasped, wide-eyed, and pulled himself forward in his chair. ‘Tell me everything.’

  ‘I don’t under–’

  ‘I don’t care if you understand,’ he hissed. ‘Tell me.’

  Edward sat back down. ‘Bart rode for me because I was . . . scared. He started at the stable and when he didn’t come back we looked for him. His sister found his handkerchief near the armoury and there were wagon tracks there. She thinks someone was trying to kidnap me, and got him instead.’

  The King was pulling so hard at his beard that Edward was surprised bits of it didn’t come out. Even more surprising were his father’s eyes. Edward saw something in them that he had never seen before: fear.

  ‘I hope she was right and they were after you,’ said the King. ‘We must organise a search.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Listen to me. That boy is dangerous to us. Dangerous to everyone, and to everything we have built. If he is not found the long peace we have enjoyed may be over.’

  ‘He’s just a servant.’

  ‘He’s more than that.’

  ‘Shall I summon your generals?’

  ‘No. We must keep this quiet. If we conduct a search for a servant, people will ask why. I don’t want people asking questions about him.’

  ‘But why –’

  ‘Did you not hear me? I said I don’t want people asking questions. That includes you. You will lead a company of twelve.’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes, you. Who did you think I was talking to? The rug? You’re going to find him and bring him back.’

  ‘But I –’ Edward was about to launch into an excuse, because that’s what he always did when he was asked to do something difficult, but his father cut him off.

  ‘Find out what the castle guards saw. After the wagon left the castle it would have gone out one of the two city gates. Most likely the Eastern Gate towards Pirainia, so eight of you go that way, while the other four go out the Western Gate toward the coast. If I find out anything here, I’ll send a pigeon to you.’

  The King had several pigeons that were capable of homing in on members of the royal family, wherever they were in the kingdom.

  ‘Dani – Bart’s sister – found hay near Bart’s hand­kerchief,’ said Edward. ‘The wagon was probably full of it.’

  ‘So you’re looking for a hay-covered wagon. Find out what you can and then split up and cover as much ground as possible. Go now.’

  Edward summoned all his courage. ‘Father, if I bring Bart back, might you change your mind about me becoming King?’

  The King’s eyes narrowed. ‘Ahhh,’ he exhaled.

  ‘I know that you want to keep all this quiet,’ continued Edward, sensing an opportunity. ‘If I do that, would that help convince you that I am worthy to succeed you?’

  ‘Are you threatening me, boy?’ asked the King quietly.

  Edward’s heart was hammering but he tried to project calm. ‘No, of course not. I just want to show you that I’m worthy.’

  The King gave him a long hard look. ‘If you keep this quiet and bring the boy back, it might help me to think differently about you.’

  ‘If I succeed, will you tell me what this all means?’

  ‘Perhaps. At the moment all you need to know is that if we don’t get Bart back, the kingdom will be in danger.’

  ‘What about the girl, Bart’s sister?’

  ‘She’s not important.’

  ‘If he’s so important, why isn’t his sister important?’

  ‘It’s complicated. You must hurry. Bring the boy back, prove you are worthy, and I will explain. Yes?’

  Edward nodded.

  ‘I will give you a blank piece of parchment with my seal on it,’ continued the King. ‘If you need anything while you are away, just write it on the parchment and whoever you present it to will help you.

  ‘If you discover that the actual target of the kidnapping was you and not Bart then that would be wonderful news. If they were after you, then once they discover their error, they will either let Bart go or kill him. But if they were after Bart, it means they know who he is, and that means everything is at risk.’ The King paused, eyeing Edward up and down. ‘Succeed and you will have proven that you are a worthy heir. Fail and Vincent will be king. If there is still a kingdom left to rule.’

  ‘What if I find Bart but I can’t bring him back?’

  The King fixed him with a grim look. ‘Then kill him.’

  Edward gulped. ‘Is that . . . necessary?’

  ‘I know you are clever, Edward, but if you want to be King, you must prove that you can also be ruthless. Sometimes a ruler must take on the burden of doing something unpleasant that is for the good of the kingdom. If you cannot bring Bart back, it would be best for everyone that he die.’

  ‘Except for him, obviously,’ said Edward.

  ‘Well,’ said the King. ‘We all have to make sacrifices.’

  Chapter 6

  Beyond the Gates

  Bart awoke. His head hurt, he was lying on his side and it was dark. Either that or he had gone blind. He went to rub his head but couldn’t move his arms and realised his wrists were tied together in front of him. He tried to move his legs and found his ankles were also tied. There was a gag in his mouth held in place by what felt like a strip of cloth tied around his head.

  He was lying under something, maybe a blanket. He pushed gently up on it with his head. Above the blanket was something soft. It felt like he was on a wooden floor which was gently bumping up and down, and he could hear a rattling noise. He got the impression he was on something that was moving.

  What had happened? He remembered riding Midnight through the King’s Gardens, behind the armoury, and then he’d come out into the open and . . . what? He dimly recalled being hit on the head. Just before that, he had seen a wagon full of hay. Was he now on it?

  Why would someone knock him off his horse, tie him up and put him in a wagon? If Dani was here she’d be able to work it out. He remembered he had been dressed as the Prince. Could someone have been after the Prince and got him instead?

  Bart moved onto his back. Maybe he could roll right off the wagon, or whatever it was. He rolled again and then, once again, something hit him on the head.

  Dani had often imagined what the city of Cranlon looked like, but now that she was finally in it, she didn’t have time for sightseeing. Outside the castle gates was a cobbled square full of shops, stalls and people hurrying this way and that. Dani ran across it. She doubted she had been seen slipping through the gates, but didn’t want to take any chances.

  She was looking for a cart full of hay with at least two people on it, but how would she find it? If the kidnappers thought they had Prince Edward, surely they’d want to get out of the city, as almost everyone within it knew the Prince by sight. The city had a wall around it, and she knew there were only two gates. Which one would they have left by?

  She had heard that not far past the Western Gate was the sea, and a port where trading ships came and went. The land on that side of the city was fertile and lots of people lived there. Up and down the coast the land was dotted with towns, villages and farmland that stretched north to near the edge of the Great Larayan Desert and south to a range of steep mountains.

  The Eastern Gate led to less densely populated land. There were farms and villages near the city, but then deep fores
ts stretched all the way to Pirainia. If the kidnappers wanted to get away from people quickly, Dani guessed they would probably go east.

  A terrifying possibility hit her. What if the kidnappers were going to board a boat and cross the sea? If they did that, how could she follow?

  She would just have to hope that they didn’t. She would try the Eastern Gate. She asked a woman for directions and then hurried down a road to another square. On the far side of it were the huge wooden city gates, even bigger than the ones at the castle, with a guard on either side. She didn’t recognise either guard, which meant that they wouldn’t recognise her. That was lucky, because orphan servants weren’t allowed to leave the castle grounds, let alone the city.

  Dani approached one of the guards, a tall, well-built man with a straggly beard, and addressed him politely. ‘Excuse me, sir, has a wagon full of hay passed through recently?’

  ‘Why do you want to know, then?’ he replied curtly.

  ‘It’s my father’s. We had an argument, you see, and I stormed off and, well, I’m not sure whether he’s set off home or not. Normally he’d wait, but he was so angry with me . . .’ Dani let her voice trail off and looked down.

  ‘I did see a cartload of hay a while back, but it wasn’t your father’s,’ said the guard.

  ‘How do you know?’

  The guard chuckled. ‘Unless your father’s a woman. Is he?’

  ‘Er, no,’ replied Dani.

  ‘No, not many fathers are,’ said the guard, and laughed uproariously.

  ‘But it was a wagon full of hay, was it?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘And just the one woman on it?’

  ‘That’s what I said, wasn’t it?’ said the guard impatiently.

  ‘There was a man sitting on the back,’ said the other guard, short and stocky.

  ‘Nah,’ said the first guard.

  ‘Yeah,’ said the second guard.

  ‘Nah.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘There you go, then,’ shrugged the first guard.

  Dani’s heartbeat quickened. Two people on a wagon full of hay. That must be the cart with Bart in it, because why else would a cartload of hay be leaving the city? No one takes hay from the city to the country.

  ‘That’d be my aunt and my father,’ said Dani. ‘I guess I’ll have to walk home. Thanks.’

  She strode through the gate and the view almost took her breath away. For her entire life she had never seen further than a hundred paces ahead before her line of sight was interrupted by a wall or a building. Now, layers of rolling hills stretched ahead of her. The closer ones were cleared and on them paddocks were ploughed into neat lines and cows, goats and sheep grazed. Further away, trees covered the hills.

  The road almost immediately split in two in a V shape. Dani turned back to the guards. ‘By the way,’ she called. ‘Did you notice which way the cart went after it came through the gate?’

  ‘You said it was going back to your home,’ said the first guard suspiciously. ‘You know where you live, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ said Dani quickly. ‘I’m just not sure if they were going to my aunt’s place first.’

  ‘Well, I dunno,’ said the first guard.

  ‘They went right, I think,’ said the second guard. ‘Pretty sure, ’cos I watched them head over the hills.’

  Dani gave the second, nicer guard a wave and headed down the right-hand track. As she strode down the road

  a surge of energy hit her. She was free. All her life she

  had wanted to escape, and now she had. But when she had imagined it, Bart had always been at her side. He had only just gone missing, and already she missed him terribly. She promised herself that she would find him and that they would never return to Tintarfell Castle.

  Chapter 7

  Pieces of Hay

  Bart awoke, again, with a sore head. He was still in the dark and whatever he was on was still moving. He was about to roll over, but then remembered that the last time he had done that he had been hit on the head.

  Where was he? Slowly, he crawled his tied-together hands along the wooden floor until he found the edge of the blanket that covered him. He slowly pushed his fingers under it and felt . . . hay.

  Time passed, and then he heard a burp somewhere near. Then a fart. Then another burp. Then a chuckle. More time passed. Slowly Bart became aware of something strange. He was in pitch darkness and all he could hear was what he supposed was the bumping of wheels on a road, but somehow he knew that animals were near.

  He could sense a male human close to him – that must be the one who had burped, farted and hit him on the head – and a female a little further away. She must be driving the wagon. Past her was a horse, no doubt pulling the wagon, and a squirrel was somewhere in the bushes to his left. To his right was a snake and ahead were two sparrows, up high.

  He loved animals, and they had always let him approach and pat them. Sometimes in the castle he could dimly sense if there was a mouse or a spider nearby, and he knew other people couldn’t do that, but now it was so much clearer. He wondered if there was any way he could communicate with them. He focused in on the sparrows.

  ‘Hello?’ he said in his mind. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Who’s that?’ he heard faintly in his head. His eyes widened.

  ‘I’m a boy,’ he replied. ‘My name’s Bart.’

  ‘No way! Boys can’t talk.’

  ‘I thought sparrows couldn’t talk,’ thought Bart.

  ‘What? That’s ridiculous. Hey, Louey. Hear that?’

  Bart heard a new thought voice. ‘Sure did. A talking boy. Wow! Where is he?’ The voices were faint, but if he concentrated he could make out the words.

  ‘Can you see a wagon? On the road?’ thought Bart.

  ‘What’s a wagon?’ thought Louey.

  ‘What’s a road?’ thought the other sparrow.

  ‘The road is a track,’ thought Bart, ‘and the wagon is the thing moving along it, pulled by a horse I think. There's probably two people on it.’

  ‘Got it,’ thought Louey. ‘Which one are you? Wave to us.’

  Bart could hardly believe he was talking to sparrows in his head. ‘You can’t see me. I’m hidden in the back. Is there hay in the back of the wagon?’

  ‘Nah,’ thought the first sparrow. ‘Just dried grass.’

  ‘Dried grass is hay,’ thought Bart.

  ‘You idiot, Denise,’ Louey thought. ‘Dried grass is hay.’

  ‘How’d you know that?’ asked Denise.

  ‘I didn’t,’ replied Louey.

  ‘Then why are you calling me an idiot?’

  ‘I dunno. It just felt good. You try it.’

  ‘Okay. Hey, Louey, you’re an idiot! You’re right. That felt great.’

  Bart had always thought sparrows looked like such dull, sensible birds. Clearly, he’d been wrong. He wondered if there was any way they could help him.

  ‘I’m being held prisoner in the wagon,’ thought Bart. ‘They tied me up.’

  ‘That’s mean,’ thought Denise.

  Her thoughts were getting fainter. Bart realised the wagon must be moving away from the birds. ‘I’m getting further away,’ he thought. ‘You probably have to stay near me if we’re going to keep talking.’

  ‘Sure. We’ll fly closer. In fact, we’ll rescue you,’ thought Denise excitedly. ‘Let’s attack. Ready, Louey?’

  ‘Yeah. We’ll rip their heads off. Or poo on them.’

  ‘Thanks,’ thought Bart, ‘but I don’t think you’re going to be able to overpower two humans.’

  ‘Whadayamean,’ thought Louey. ‘We could drop acorns on them.’

  ‘That wouldn’t really hurt them,’ thought Bart. He tried to think. What would Dani do? Wait. If Dan
i had found his handkerchief, then she might have worked out that he’d been kidnapped. When the kidnappers loaded him into the wagon, surely a few pieces of hay would have fallen to the ground. If Dani found them, she might know that he was in a wagon full of hay. If he could get the birds to leave a trail of hay, it might help her find him.

  ‘Could you do this?’ he thought. ‘Every time the wagon passes, say, forty trees, one of you fly down, grab a piece of hay from it and drop it in the middle of the track.’

  There was a pause.

  ‘Why?’ thought Denise.

  ‘To leave a trail that anyone searching for me can follow,’ thought Bart.

  ‘Hey, that’s clever,’ thought Louey. ‘I apologise for calling you an idiot.’

  ‘You didn’t call him an idiot, you idiot,’ responded Denise. ‘You called me an idiot. You want to apologise for that?’

  ‘Sure, Denise,’ thought Louey. ‘I’m sorry you’re an idiot.’

  Both sparrows burst out laughing. Bart felt the cart turn right, as if they were turning off one road onto another. If they didn’t start leaving the trail now, it might be too late. ‘Please. Will you help?’

  ‘What’s in it for us?’ thought Louey.

  ‘Er . . .’ thought Bart. ‘When I get free, I’ll give you whatever you want.’

  ‘Listen, kid,’ thought Louey. ‘We can fly. Life doesn’t get better than that. It’s superb. We don’t want anything else.’

  ‘Come on, Louey,’ thought Denise. ‘We’ve got nothing better to do. Let’s help the boy.’

  ‘Ah, okay,’ replied Louey. ‘Until I get bored.’

  As Edward led the soldiers towards Cranlon’s Eastern Gate his stomach churned. The thing he wanted most in the world – to become King – was now at risk. The only way, it seemed, to remain his father’s heir was to find Bart, but that meant setting off on a mission that would almost certainly prove dangerous. It was definitely much more dangerous than what he would normally be doing at this time, which was sitting in the bath.

  If only he hadn’t made Bart ride his horse. He tried to pull himself together. At least he was now on his own, much smaller horse, Pancake, and not that monster, Midnight.