Leo nudged Nicholas and pointed to an area beyond the last tent. There stood a small covered cart, and the two horses that pulled it now roamed freely near the grass.
“Those two shorter people by the fire must be the ones who took Ivy from the root cellar,” he said, recalling what Sims had told them.
“But where is she?” Nicholas muttered, clutching a handful of grass. He studied the area like a hawk, hoping for a glimpse of Ivy. Most of the soldiers were standing by the fires, either eating or engaged in conversation, while a few others roamed about on patrol. But there was no sign of Ivy. One man stood alone near the middle tent, pacing near the entrance in apparent boredom. Nicholas sighed, wondering if Ivy might already be on the ship, when it suddenly hit him. He pointed to the man.
Leo shrugged. “What about him?” he whispered.
“He’s the only person on shore near one of the tents,” Nicholas said. “Nobody is anywhere near the other ones. Why?”
Leo grinned. “He’s guarding Ivy!”
“Has to be!” Nicholas wanted to rush to her at once.
Leo calmed him down, telling Nicholas that they had to approach the rescue logically. If Ivy was inside the tent, how would they get her out? And if she wasn’t, what would be their next step? Nicholas thought for a moment, realizing that it would be impossible to sneak past the man guarding the entrance since he was in plain view of everyone else on shore. Slowly a smile crept across his face.
“Maynard always told me there was more than one way to shoe a horse,” he said, quickly explaining his idea to Leo. “Stay here and keep watch while I go to work. If there’s any trouble, let me know.”
“Be careful,” he said as Nicholas scrambled through the grass, making his way back behind the line of tents.
Nicholas stayed hidden in the grass until he was directly behind the center tent and then slowly crawled toward it, concealed in shadows. When he poked his head through the stalks into the open air, the back wall of the tent was only an arm’s length away. He carefully touched the coarse material, feeling along the bottom seam. It was tight to the ground and Nicholas knew he wouldn’t be able to lift it to look inside. He traced his fingers along the seam in both directions, hearing the muffled voices of those upon shore. Though he was well concealed if he remained behind the tent, he felt as if he were being watched. Then he found it.
To his left, a wooden stake had been driven into the hard ground. A short length of rope attached to the bottom of the tent was fastened to it. Another stake was to his right. Nicholas removed his dagger, carefully cutting through the two pieces of rope, certain the sea breezes and crackling bonfires would muffle any noise he might make. But in his mind, every sinew of rope he cut seemed to snap like a twig, alerting the enemy of his presence. In a short time though, he severed both ropes and carefully raised the bottom of the tenting. It would lift only high enough to allow Nicholas to slide beneath it while lying on his back. He did so, holding his breath as he sneaked inside.
A faint light flickered upon the cold dirt as Nicholas peered within. Bundles of animal pelts had been tossed about, and a single wooden support pole anchored into the dirt rose to a vented ceiling. A few lit candles, each attached to a metal holder fastened to the pole, shed a gentle glow upon the sides of the tent. He turned his head to get a better view of one section when he suddenly felt a hand placed across his mouth from the opposite side. He reflexively grabbed at the individual’s wrist, his eyelids snapping wide open. But an instant later he loosened his grip, grinning underneath the hand that touched his lips.
“Shhh,” Ivy whispered, smiling at her rescuer. “And don’t get up. I’m not sure if the light in here is strong enough to reflect our shadows upon the side of the tent.”
“I didn’t notice your shadow,” he softly said. “The light from the bonfires is much brighter and there’s a little moonlight, so I think it’s safe. But I’ll stay down here anyway.” He smiled again, captivated by Ivy’s composure during such a difficult time. “How are you feeling? Are you hurt? Are you hungry? Are you ready to leave?”
She gently caressed her fingertips across his cheek. “I’m not hurt or hungry, Nicholas, but I’m definitely ready to leave. I tried to get out the back way after I untied myself, but couldn’t lift the stakes out of the ground.”
Ivy beamed joyfully in the candlelight knowing that Nicholas had come after her. How he had found her and what obstacles he had overcome to do so, she couldn’t imagine. He could tell her all about it another time when they were free, but right now she savored the moment, feeling so close to this young man she had met only four evenings ago, believing he would have gone to the ends of the world to save her.
“If you follow me out the back, we can meet up with Leo and take our leave,” he said. “No time to say goodbye to your gracious hosts though. Who are they?”
“The woman is named Madeline, apparently that nursemaid to Megan when she was an infant. The other is a gentleman called Mune,” she explained. “They believe I’m Princess Megan. I learned I’m supposed to be taken to an island under the guard of a man named Captain Tarosius Lok. The last place in the world I want to visit is the Northern Isles.” She revealed the silver medallion Megan had lent her. “This little trinket helped to convince them. Luckily Megan had the foresight to lend it to me at the candle shop or who knows what kind of trouble I’d be in otherwise.”
“You’re still in a bind until I get you out of here,” Nicholas said, signaling for Ivy to quietly follow him out the back of the tent. “Let’s find Leo and the horses.”
“Where is he?” she asked as Nicholas disappeared underneath the tent.
“Keeping watch. Hurry now!”
Leo diligently gazed through the thick stalks of grass after Nicholas had disappeared, keeping watch over the soldiers upon shore. He tallied their numbers, feeling particularly pleased with his and Nicholas’ ingenuity. But when a man near the farthest bonfire raised a hand in the air, apparently signaling to another soldier farther down shore to the east, Leo stopped counting. Moments later the second soldier approached, rushing toward the bonfire. Leo assumed he had been patrolling the shoreline. The man spoke a few words as something large followed close behind him in the darkness. Leo’s heart nearly skipped a beat when the soldier held up his hand, clutching two pair of reins in his fingers. Leo gulped hard. Their horses had been discovered.
Nicholas savored the warmth of Ivy’s hand in his as they treaded silently through the grass. For a moment he felt invincible, having rescued a woman he was falling in love with though he had only known her for a short time. All the problems of the last several days seemed insignificant as they faded in his mind.
They moved directly south of the tent to conceal themselves well within the grass, then veered right in an arc to meet up with Leo. Nicholas glanced at Ivy, and though they were cloaked in shadows, he could see through the filtered light of the gibbous Bear Moon that she was smiling back at him. He was about to whisper to her when several frantic shouts from the shoreline chilled the blood in his veins.
“What was that?” Ivy said as Nicholas’ grip tightened.
“Hurry!” he replied, picking up the pace through the tangles of grass. “I think they know you’re missing.”
“That was certainly fast!”
Earlier, when Commander Uta had ordered two of his soldiers to patrol the shoreline in each direction, the man scouting east spotted two horses grazing freely in the grass less than two miles down the shore. Discovering no sign of their owners, he coaxed the horses out of hiding and led them back to the encampment to alert the others. When Uta ordered a search of the area, the guard in front of Ivy’s tent checked on her at once, discovering her escape.
“You fools!” Madeline muttered when peering inside the tent. Mune nudged past her and lifted up the back section, glaring at Commander Uta. The soldier who had been guarding the tent dropped to his knees and felt underneath the opening, discovering the frayed ropes.
“Somebody cut them from outside,” he sheepishly said.
“Obviously,” Madeline said, seething. “They’ve fled into the grass. Uta, order your men to find them.”
Commander Uta signaled one of his men to coordinate the search at once as he, Madeline and Mune exited the tent. He turned to Madeline, his face hardened with concern. “Who could have done this? Spies of the King?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. But if your presence is discovered in these parts, commander, Caldurian’s plan may be compromised. You must leave now. Mune and I will go with you.”
“You will?”
“We will?” Mune added, his face contorting at the unappealing thought.
“Just until he can set us safely ashore somewhere else,” she explained. “None of us can risk being discovered here, Mune, so don’t make such a to-do about it.”
At that moment, a half dozen soldiers sped past them and disappeared into the tall grass like wild animals in search of prey. A few of them carried flaming sticks of wood pulled from the bonfire.
“We need more light,” Uta said. “This could take hours! Maybe we should leave without the girl.”
“No!” Madeline protested. “I went to too much trouble to get her.” She brushed past Mune and Commander Uta, marching toward the edge of the grass. “I’ll provide the extra light.”
Nicholas and Ivy nearly collided with Leo amid the grass. He had scrambled to find them moments after he saw the soldier walking along shore with their horses. The three of them squatted low in the vegetation as Leo hastily explained what he had witnessed.
“You slipped out of the tent just in time,” he said.
“But now what?” Ivy whispered.
“We burrow deeper into the grass and then veer east,” Nicholas said. “We’ll head back north to the shore when it’s safe, though we may have to spend a few hours hiding in this mess.”
Leo nodded. “All right. That’ll have to do. I think–”
Suddenly there was a jumble of frantic voices. Flashes of light flickered through the grass to their left and right. The rustle of dried grass stalks grew deafening. The search had begun.
With heads bent, the trio waded through the forest of tall grass in a straight line south away from shore. Sporadic voices, cold and harsh, punctuated the inky blackness. Wherever there was a flash of light, they turned in the opposite direction, trying to stay in a southerly direction. Nicholas recalled the night he was pursued through a farm field by Constable Brindle’s men for a crime he didn’t commit. A flood of horrible memories washed over him. Though he had once craved some adventure in his life, he was certain that this wasn’t what he had in mind.
“How are you holding up?” he asked Ivy, clutching her hand.
“I’m all right,” she said, feeling as if she were trudging through a nightmare. “But I’ll never look at a walk through tall grass the same way again.”
“I promise you a long leisurely stroll in the sunshine if we get though this,” he told her.
But before Ivy could respond, a ball of light whistled past them just a few yards to their left, illuminating the tops of the swaying stalks. The mysterious object glowed for a moment in the distance before being silently swallowed up in the vegetation.
Leo stopped and spun around, facing an equally perplexed Nicholas and Ivy. “What in Laparia was that?”
“I haven’t a clue,” Nicholas muttered, scanning the skies.
Suddenly another burning orb sailed directly overhead, swift as a bird as it cast a swath of light upon them. Nicholas could better judge the distance this time and realized the fiery object was but an arm’s length above their heads. A third orb streaked by to their right, skimming the tops of the grass like a stone skipping across a pond.
“What are they?” Ivy said, a tremor in her voice. She held tightly onto Nicholas’ arm.
Before anyone could hazard a guess, two more burning spheres soared directly above, one higher than the other. Their red-orange glow splashed a warm yet terrifying light upon them until both flaming projectiles disappeared with a swoosh into the grass. Nicholas, Leo and Ivy remained still, their breathing slow and heavy as the Bear Moon drifted toward the west through the remaining remnants of clouds.
“I see them!” a voice shouted from the shore.
“So do I!” called another man from somewhere in the grass to their left.
“What do we do now?” Ivy asked as the sound of hands and feet thrashing through the vegetation angrily filled the air. The soldiers from the Northern Isles were closing in on both sides.
“We separate!” Leo said, hastily formulating a plan. “We push south a few more yards, then I’ll head east. You and Ivy curve west. We have to confuse them. We’ll meet up on shore at dawn.”
Their pursuers grew nearer as another burning ball of grass flew overhead, momentarily casting aside the night. Nicholas gave Leo a reassuring nod.
“Good luck!”
“You too!”
Leo plowed through the grass with Nicholas and Ivy following hand in hand, all stooping as low as possible. Moments later, Leo veered to his left in silence. Nicholas and Ivy drifted right, hoping they had bought themselves a little time. But less than a minute later, a ruckus of frustrated shouts erupted as the two pursuing groups of soldiers converged.
“Spread out, circle around, then start to close in!” their leader shouted as he held aloft a blazing torch that fluttered in the sea breeze. He sent half the men southeast, the other half southwest. “They can’t go much farther!”
Amid the snap and rustle of the tall grass, another display of burning lights sailed overhead like a shower of meteors. Leo glanced up, covering his eyes to shield them from the glare. He was hoping Nicholas and Ivy were safe when he caught a glimpse of torchlight a few yards away. He stopped. His heart raced. He was certain he hadn’t been spotted and crouched down low, waiting for the light to pass. Slowly the glow of the torch drifted off to his left. He hurriedly stood up, pivoted on his foot, and headed in a northerly direction, guessing he was now outside the circle of his pursuers.
Then he crashed into a black barrier and was pushed backward into the grass.
“I found one!” a voice shouted. The soldier, who had earlier extinguished his torch, jumped upon Leo before he could get back on his feet.
Commander Uta’s voice sailed across the grasslands from shore. “Find the girl and get back to the ship!”
Leo and the solider struggled on the ground before finally separating and getting to their feet. Leo suddenly remembered the dagger Aunt Castella had given him and pulled it out, its silvery edge glinting in the sporadic moonlight.
“Step back!” he warned between gulps of cool, salty air.
But the moonlight wasn’t bright enough for Leo to see the soldier’s blackened torch rising through the air. It smashed against his wrist, knocking the dagger into the grass. Leo yelled out in pain, grabbing his wrist to his chest, yet he had just enough wits to glance at the solider and see a second blow sailing his way. He spun around and avoided a hard whack to his arm, but got tangled in a clump of grass and nearly toppled over. He looked up a second too late as he caught his balance, only long enough to see the wooden torch come crashing through the air. Leo didn’t feel where the blow landed nor could smell the pungent grass against his nostrils when his body fell to the ground like a sack of flour. Silence and darkness swiftly overwhelmed him.
“I still hear them,” Ivy whispered as she and Nicholas slogged through the grass that seemed to grow taller and closer together as they burrowed deeper inside.
“I’ll get you out of this,” he promised. “Trust me.”
“I do trust you,” she said, squeezing his hand.
Nicholas was about to tell her that he had recovered her scarf when one of the soldiers called out. A moment later, Leo’s yell tore through the darkness. Nicholas’ heart went cold.
“What could’ve happened?” Ivy said with a gasp, her hand covering her mouth. She imag
ined the worst, wondering what misery had befallen Leo in his attempt to save her. “We have to go back and help him!”
Nicholas wanted to do so immediately as bitter anger welled up inside him. But logic told him that he must keep Ivy out of danger by continuing to run. Turning back would only result in their capture since some of the other soldiers had surely zeroed in on Leo’s location by now. But the debate became irrelevant when the rustle of grass grew louder nearby.
Nicholas and Ivy stopped. Someone with a torch swiftly approached from the right. Nicholas pointed, planning to flee in a line perpendicular to the soldier’s path. But before he and Ivy took another step, a second soldier without a torch advanced from the opposite direction. Then a third one closed in from the very route Nicholas had planned to move. He glanced at Ivy. They were being surrounded.
The flicker of two more torches suddenly appeared through the stalks in the distance. More footsteps, muffled whispers and the crunch of dried grass. Nicholas guessed that the glow of the flaming orbs must have given away their location. They had to make a run for it now before it was too late. He looked at Ivy, caressing the side of her face, knowing by the steely look in her eyes that she was ready to make a final dash.
They never got the chance. Nicholas was suddenly tackled to the ground as someone pounced at his legs from behind, unaware that a soldier had been stealthily crawling through the grass toward him.
Nicholas Raven and the Wizards' Web - Volume 1 Page 31