by JF Smith
Gallun pointed to the south and then put his hands around his forehead like a crown.
Gully said, “Yes, he is the prince and will, I suppose hopefully, soon even be king of Iisen if all goes well. But he is not so bad a person, as you will see. He is much like me in some ways. And the three of you have something in common, too.”
Gully reached into his bag and pulled out a couple of tunics that Wyael had provided before he left just in case, plus some breeches.
“I’ve got a couple of kilts as well, but if you’re to go to Lohrdanwuld with us, it’ll need to be the breeches for now.”
The two brothers frowned at each other a little, but garbed themselves in the clothes Gully provided, and they resumed their trip south.
~~~~~
Thaybrill greeted Gully’s sooner-than-expected return warmly, until he spotted the two men trailing silently behind him. Gully assured the prince that they were friendly, but the prince’s circumspection around them only worsened when Gully introduced them and truthfully told the prince that they were not Iisen, but members of the gypsy clan that lived in the northern part of the Ghellerweald.
Gully spent a few minutes to assure the prince that the clan had nothing in common with the lies and tales told about them, and which had taken on a life of their own over the years. When he explained that the clan suffered at the hands of the Iisen slave trade conspiracy worse than any, the prince began to warm up to them. And when Gully showed the prince proof that Gallun and Gellen were both victims, just as the prince was about to be, he finally lost all trace of the mistrust he had for them.
It was then that Gully produced the letter, handing it to Thaybrill and announcing that it was only because of his companions that they had any foreknowledge at all of what was to come.
Thaybrill took the letter and read it, beginning to pace back and forth as he did so. Gully fully expected the letter to send the prince beyond reach, to turn him into a quivering and worthless heap, too despondent to act.
When he finished, the prince handed the letter back to Gully and clenched his jaw without a word. He began to pace back and forth again in the middle of the cabin while Gully and the two twin brothers waited for his reaction.
To Gully’s surprise, Thaybrill did something unexpected. Thaybrill stopped and faced the three of them squarely. He stood straight and took a deep breath, meeting Gully’s eyes directly. The late afternoon sunlight that filtered through the thick trees overhead and came in through the few cabin windows cast deep shadows on the prince’s face, showing a resolve that had not been there the day before.
“I am no longer surprised at the depths to which my Domo Regent will sink to satisfy his hatred for me and his greed for wealth and power,” he said firmly.
“While you were away, I pulled myself from the stupor and shock into which I had sunk as a result of my own betrayal and kidnapping. I have prayed much in that time and have fortified myself to do whatever must be done to protect my kingdom. Or, to die proudly in the process. Colnor, my father watching from high in the night sky, would expect no less than that, and I expect no less of myself.”
Thaybrill stepped over to Gully and placed a hand on his shoulder. The prince was doing all he could to be brave, but Gully could feel the trembling in his hand where it rested on his shoulder. Thaybrill said, “Bayle, thank you for saving my life. Thank you for keeping me safe here. And thank you and your friends for bringing this letter to me. But this is not your fight… it is mine. Show me the way out of the bogs, and I release you from any further obligation in this. This... crisis... is mine to resolve if I can. It falls to me to expose these traitors, to gain control of my kingdom, and to prepare for an invasion, if I can.”
Gully glanced at Gallun and Gellen off to the side. The two Merchers had a strange look on their face as they glanced back and forth between Gully and the prince, but Gully ignored it and said instead, “Forgive me, Highness, but you are wrong. It is not yours alone. All of us here have been deeply impacted by this conspiracy. I am not afraid to speak for myself, and on behalf of Gallun and Gellen, too, when I say that we are in this together as one. It is why we are in this room with you now. I will not leave you to fight these dogs on your own.”
Thaybrill looked down at the floor at Gully’s words. He tried, but failed, to prevent a tear or two from escaping his eye as he put a hand behind Gully’s neck. He had trouble speaking for a moment he was so overcome, but then thanked him again softly. Thaybrill stepped over to Gallun and Gellen and shook each of their hands with a murmured word of thanks to them as well.
Thaybrill said ruefully, “Only now, on the precipice of ruin, do I find in my life ones whom I trust without reservation, and I repay the kindness by pulling them over the edge with me.”
After their dinner of roasted rabbit, Gully talked of getting into the city and gave the prince the remaining tunic and breeches Wyael had provided to him. Gully insisted that they must find and meet with Roald since his help would now be indispensable. Thaybrill’s fear was that all of the Kingdom Guard was a part of the conspiracy, and that they had all turned their backs on protecting Iisen and were allowing the Maqarans to invade. And if not all of the Guard, then at least the Guard controlled by veBasstrolle and therefore responsible for guarding the pass.
Gully’s firm belief was that the situation was not nearly as dire as that. He finally convinced the prince that there was no way to keep this conspiracy quiet if such a large a number of people were a part of it as the prince suspected. Gully felt very sure that there could be only a small number of guards corrupted by this trade while the rest remained loyal. He admitted, though, that without knowing who was trustworthy, they had to suspect most all of them.
As they settled in for their last night in the cabin, Thaybrill once again took to Gully’s mat for his night’s sleep. Gully, Gallun, and Gellen had to uncomfortably fit on the remaining mat with Gully squeezed uncomfortably between the two brothers.
At one point during the night, Gully awoke from his fitful sleep to realize he was pressed up against a sleeping wolf where Gellen had been earlier. He shook him and whispered urgently in his ear, telling him to transform back before the prince awoke and found a wolf in their midst.
Gellen grunted sleepily, became human in form once more and resumed snoring almost in the same instant. Gully, awake and too uncomfortable to fall back asleep between the twins, got up from the mat and made a spot on the floor so he could finally get some rest.
Before he lay down to sleep, he sat on the floor and watched the three men in the cabin with him. He wondered deeply if they would be enough to save an entire kingdom.
~~~~~
On their trek out of the Ghellerweald the next morning, Gully would not let them take the South Pass Road for fear it was being watched. Instead he kept them walking through the dangerous bogs until they emerged from the woods south of the road. It was Gully’s plan to walk cross-country from there to the Trine Runnel, follow it north until they were even with the city, and then approach Lohrdanwuld from the west. If the Domo Regent had men watching for the prince, none of them would expect him to come from west of the city. To further his ploy, Gully had forced the prince to give up his showy breeches, tunic, and doublet. The prince was now dressed in a frayed pair of dark colored breeches and tunic, and his face hidden by a deep chaperon, all things Gully had thought to ask Wyael for before he left the Mercher camp.
The circuitous route added several hours to their trip, but once they cleared out of the forest safely, the walk became much easier. The gently rolling land and wide open wolds were a welcome change after the dark dangers of the Ghellerweald’s bogs. The sun was brilliant in the afternoon as it crossed the sky towards Pelaysha.
Thaybrill had stayed very quiet for the duration of their journey, and did not complain about the walk or ask about what plan they might have once they arrived in the city. By the time they had followed the shimmering waters of the Trine Runnel north, the peaks of the Trine Range
rose in the sky directly to the east of their location. Gully turned them away from the river and began to walk towards the mountains. The prince focused on the three peaks until he began to slow, and then stop, as he stared at them.
Gully stopped as well and watched the prince, who was looking to the east very pensively.
“Are you able to continue, Thaybrill? Do you wish to rest first?” he asked.
Thaybrill ignored him for a few moments, then looked at the ground and shook his head. “No,” he said, “lead on.”
Gully studied the prince carefully for another moment, growing concerned at the expression on the prince’s face. “Are you sure, prince? You seem very worried.”
Thaybrill frowned and then laughed feebly. “Worried? Yes. Yes, I suppose I am. But that is not what troubles me. Lead on, Bayle.”
“What is it, prince? What worries you so? I promise you that getting you into the city will be trivial.”
“It is nothing. It is of no concern. Let us continue, please, Bayle.”
Gallun and Gellen stood by cautiously and Gully asked again, “Please, prince, we are in this together. Remember?”
Thaybrill tried to laugh it off one more time. “It is foolishness on my part, nothing more.”
The prince stubbed his boot, Gully’s boot in reality, in the grass of the open plain a few times. He said softly, almost barely audible over the breeze, “Today is my birthday, twenty years aged.” He added sadly, “Today... today was the day I was to have taken the throne as king of the Iisendom.”
The four of them stood in the open field, the Trine Range rising before them in the distance. Despite the sun and light breeze playing around them, they could sense the clouds of the Iisendom’s destruction gathering in the east, fed by treason and betrayal and greed, and soon to cover all the land if they failed.
They all stood for a moment, unsure of what was to happen, unsure of what would become of them, those they loved, the land around them.
Gully finally bowed to Thaybrill and said, with not as much conviction as he wished he could show, “Your Highness, it is but a delay of a few days. The throne will see its rightful king.” Gully presumptuously placed his hand on the prince’s shoulder to emphasize his point and reassure the prince.
Thaybrill did not flinch at the touch. His face softened, and he nodded appreciatively to his companions from underneath his dark beggar’s chaperon. Despite the brave front, Gully could tell the prince’s faith in the future was wavering as much as the grasses around them in the delicate summer breeze.
Just then, the sun slipped behind the high edge of the moon Pelaysha. The glaring light of late afternoon darkened steadily into dim twilight as the day entered into moongloam. Gully glanced up at the dark spot in the sky and hoped the troublemaker moon kept to herself. He hoped she left them alone to their already difficult task.
“Come on, then,” said Gully as he started off towards the mountains and the city nestled beneath them, “one step at a time. Just one step at a time.”
Chapter 22 — The Three-Headed Viper
In the distance, the city gate became visible even in the moongloam and Gully’s nervousness began to itch at him. He fought to bury it and did not let his companions see it, though, lest it spread to them and add to the risk he was hiding.
The guards watched closely those entering the city, for criminals, troublemakers, and thieves. Gully knew that he was the one putting them all at risk, decidedly more than even Prince Thaybrill was. If either of them was recognized by the wrong guard, things could go badly very quickly, and they’d never be able to escape out in the open when the guards came after them on horseback.
If they made it to the gate while the sun was still hidden behind Pelaysha, the dim light would help them, but it was going to be close as the sun would reappear from behind the trickster moon any moment now. Even with his concerns and his hopes, he knew he could not leave his companions completely ignorant of the risk, and they needed to know what to do if the worst happened.
“Listen to me,” said Gully, stopping his small troupe. He glanced past them again and scratched at his left hand, despite trying to not appear nervous. In the distance, he could see the people coming and going through the city gate.
“Our point of greatest risk is passing through the gate. Once past that, we can travel without worry. But if fate betrays us and the worst happens, get into the city and run as fast as you can. Thaybrill, if that happens, you must stay with me no matter what.”
Thaybrill said, “I understand,” while Gallun and Gellen nodded.
“If we do get separated, we shall meet back up at the gallows end of the Bonedown at sunset.”
They trudged on, closing the last distance to the city gate. As they joined the small group waiting to pass into Lohrdanwuld, the city lit up brightly as the warm sun emerged from the moongloam. Gully frowned and cursed the sun under his breath for traveling too fast today.
The people passing into the gate ahead of them seemed to be chattering more than usual about something, which set Gully even further on edge. Prince Thaybrill was ducking his head down too far under the chaperon hood for Gully’s taste, making it obvious he was trying to hide, but it was too late to try to correct the prince.
At the gate, Gully became confused when he saw why those ahead of them seemed to be talking amongst themselves more than usual. It was a relief, though, even as he did not understand.
The city gate was unguarded, and people were freely able to come and go without any scrutiny from the Kingdom Guard at all. In all his life, he had never seen an open yet unmanned gate, and he had never been through any of them without at least a cursory glance from one of the guards.
They walked into the city, and it was not Gully’s imagination. There were no guards watching it. He did not double-guess his luck, though, and led them into city without challenge.
Once into the occupied streets, Gully whispered to his friends, “That was easier than expected. We are safe and can move about in our own leisure now.” In the back of his mind, however, he wondered why there were no guards.
Farther into the city, the streets grew more crowded, and Gully linked his arm through Thaybrill’s, keeping him close and safe so they could not be inadvertently, or purposefully, separated. The action caused Thaybrill to look up into Gully’s face for a moment in surprise, until he understood the reason behind the familiarity. Gully could see the comforted smile of the prince from under the thick hood hiding him from everyone.
Gully led them to Roald’s apartment, but rather than enter from the front steps, he took them to the backside of the apartment where there was a narrow and smelly, but private, alley. He helped the prince climb up onto a ledge on a wall, then over it and onto the top of the steps where they could enter the apartment without being seen and without drawing attention from anyone passing along on the street.
Inside, Gully said, “It is not much, Prince Thaybrill, but now we are safe to wait.”
Gully explained that he was not sure when Roald would return from his watch, so they made themselves comfortable. He scrounged some coins from a hiding place that Roald had at the back of the larder and gave them to Gallun and Gellen. They had been to Lohrdanwuld before and he asked them to go buy some things before the market closed down for the day so that they could have a dinner while they waited.
After the twins left, Gully stoked the fire in the fireplace and the prince threw himself into a chair next to the door. The prince asked, “So, we are here in the city, Bayle. You have led well, but what are we to do now? I feel helplessly lost as to how to stop what is in motion by those seeking the destruction of Iisen.” His face showed just how true were the words he had spoken, and how embarrassed he was to admit them.
Gully balanced between getting the prince’s hopes up and allowing the man to sink into despair. He had been thinking on their walk into the city, and he had arrived at some hopeful thoughts, but it all depended on Roald.
He squatted down i
n front of the prince and said, “We will find a way, Thaybrill. Together, we will stop this evil.”
They settled into silence, each lost in his own thoughts, to wait for the return of Gallun and Gellen. Gully drummed his fingers on the thick and wobbly table next to the larder shelf while the prince stared at his own hands and sighed every so often.
It was only a few minutes later when the door opened again, but who stepped through was neither Gallun nor Gellen returning with food. It was Roald.
Roald squinted for a moment at the sight of a person sitting next to the table, then exclaimed, “You’re back!”
He rushed to his brother and grabbed him in his arms tightly, rocking him back and forth with joy. “You’re safe! You’re safe! You have been on my mind constantly, and even more in the last day. Everything has slipped into chaos and madness here in the city! I was so worried for you!”
Roald stepped back, his brown eyes relieved immensely at the sight of his brother’s safe return.
Gully tried to speak, but Roald ignored him and said, “The crown prince himself has been abducted! Many fear him dead and the coronation has, of course, been called off! All of the Guard has been—”
“Roald, please! Stop for a moment!” begged Gully. He pointed behind Roald, to the person now rising from the chair where he had remained seated and unnoticed. The prince lowered his hood hesitantly to uncover his face.
Roald stared and began to ask, “But who is this you have brought...”
As the prince stepped more fully into the firelight, Roald paused and became confused. Recognition of the person before him and the impossibility of whom he believed it to be fought for supremacy inside his mind.