Quest for the Sun Gem

by Belinda Murrell

  ‘Only one way to find out,’ whispered Lily. ‘Let’s climb.’

  At the base of the huge old tree they hid their packs in the deepest shadow.

  ‘Aisha, stay,’ ordered Ethan in a deep whisper. ‘Shush.’ Aisha wagged her tail and stared up at them, golden eyes glowing liquid in the darkness. ‘Good girl,’ he said, patting her soft neck.

  Then carefully, quietly, they started to climb up the tree, inching out on a thick old branch that brushed against the barn wall. Towards the wall, the branches became thinner and harder to climb. At last they reached the dusty, dingy window. Legs straddled across a branch, Ethan struggled to wiggle his fingers into the small crack between the window and the wall. He grunted softly as the thin branch rocked wildly.

  Then with a sudden lurch the window gave and flew open with a thud.

  Ethan wriggled out along the branch and crawled through the narrow opening, the top half of his body hanging over the sill, his legs dangling on the outside. Through the gloom he could make out the shadow of stacked hay bales against the walls and, down below, bodies sleeping on the floor. At harvest time, the bales of hay would have reached the roof, but now, after a long winter, it was a difficult drop from the window to the bales below.

  ‘I can see them,’ he whispered back to Lily. ‘But the hay bales are too far down on this side. I’ll have to jump. I’ll signal at the bottom then you can follow. We’ll wake them up quietly one by one, then see if we can move the bales over this side to clear the shute.’

  Lily nodded, her mouth dry and her heart thudding madly. Ethan slithered out backwards onto the branch then crawled in again, feet-first. In a moment he had dropped out of sight. Lily followed head-first to watch for his signal, then turned around and wriggled through feet-first for the big drop to the bales below.

  Someone stirred at the soft thump. Ethan and Lily tiptoed around the barn, gently shaking awake the people who were sleeping, a finger pressed to their lips in a signal for silence. Both children found old friends and neighbours whom they embraced with relief.

  But there was no sign of those faces they wished to find the most – their parents.

  Ethan found his best friend, Saxon, his large frame curled uncomfortably in a corner under some musty feed sacks. Saxon was tall and strong and funny, his dark hair dishevelled and his black eyes sparkling with mischief.

  ‘Sax! Thank goodness you’re all right,’ Ethan exclaimed as they fell into a tight bear hug.

  ‘Ethan. What are you doing here? Did they finally catch you?’ Saxon replied.

  ‘No. Lily and I are here to rescue you!’

  Saxon looked incredulous. ‘R-r-r-rescue us?’ he stuttered.

  ‘Yes, we climbed in through the little window under the eaves. Sax, have you seen my parents?’

  Saxon looked away. ‘Yes,’ he whispered huskily. ‘They were taken away with the queen and prince this evening, with the king’s cousin Lord Mortimer, and many of the soldiers from the Royal Guard. Your mother was taken to tend the prince, who is sick, while they think your father is of some great importance because he was leading the royal hunt procession. We don’t know where they’ve been taken.’

  Ethan brushed away hot angry tears.

  ‘I know,’ he whispered hopelessly. ‘I’ve heard that the invaders have ships at the coast. They sail for Tira the day after tomorrow.’

  Lily strode across from the other side of the barn.

  ‘Ethan, I’ve checked through a crack in the door. The guards seem to be asleep. The fat one is snoring so loudly he’ll wake up Lieutenant Foulash for sure! We need to get moving.’

  ‘All right,’ he whispered ‘Let’s start moving bales of hay.’

  Soon there was a large group of sleepy, frightened faces gathered around in a silent huddle – acolytes, villagers, courtiers and servants of all ages.

  Ethan and Lily outlined their plan. Everyone was to help move bales of hay to clear the access to the chute, which was used to shovel out manure and straw dust into the outside compost bins. All the prisoners would have to escape through this smelly escape hatch.

  The courtiers wrinkled their noses in disgust at this plan but the only alternative was to stay behind and face the wrath of the Sedah. A flicker of hope began to shimmer through the crowd, and soon they were all working energetically to move the bales. George, the blacksmith, led the workers, his large muscled frame lifting hay bales with ease.

  At last a passage was cleared between the bales, and there was the small opening to the outside. An earthy, comforting smell of compost, horse manure and crisp fresh forest air wafted through the aperture.

  Lily clambered down first, using her feet to slow her down so she didn’t shoot out into the deep muck. She clambered over the wall of the bin, closely followed by Saxon. Aisha bounded over to lick them both vigorously on the face, her whole body wriggling with excitement to see them safely returned.

  ‘Good girl,’ whispered Lily. ‘Now for the Goddess’ sake, be quiet.’

  Lily and Saxon fetched a pitchfork, a couple of shovels and a wheelbarrow to make a makeshift bridge across the manure. Peering down the shute was a group of anxious faces.

  Lily stood on guard at the bottom of the chute, her bow at the ready, while Ethan stood on watch inside the barn, his arrow facing behind them at the barn door.

  Parents watched anxiously as the children were hoisted through the chute by George and out into the cold darkness of the night. Saxon helped them clamber over the bridge, while older children helped herd the younger children away to the safety of the forest.

  It seemed to take forever to get the children out. Everyone’s stomachs were knotted with anxiety, and ears strained to hear through the darkness, fearing the shouts of discovery.

  A small boy started to whimper.

  ‘Shush, Dafyd,’ Lily soothed. ‘Your mama will come soon.’

  At last the children were gone and it was the adults’ turn. The parents breathed a collective sigh of relief. At last the queue started to move faster. George directed the procedure, gently tapping each person on the shoulder to indicate that it was their turn to wriggle through the hatch.

  ‘Remember,’ warned Ethan quietly, ‘take a roundabout route to the caverns, and try not to leave any marks. The Sedahs have a skilled tracker. We should be safe there until the morning.’ Ethan shuddered at the memory of Sniffer snuffling at Princess Roana’s tracks.

  The prisoners waited their turn patiently.

  One by one they slid down the chute, hit the shovels with their feet and climbed over the side of the bin without touching the muck below. Each one was helped out by Saxon before slipping away into the forest behind the stables.

  Ethan climbed out too, and at last George was the only prisoner left in the barn. There was a loud crash as the huge farrier slid down the shute and hit the wheelbarrow with his heavy boots. It flung up, hitting the metal shovel with a loud clang. Everyone froze as the unexpected noise resonated through the night.

  A few moments later, a crash echoed through the barn as the padlock banged against the door and a key grated noisily in the lock. George floundered in the quagmire of manure, mud and straw, struggling to get up. Ethan and Saxon hauled on his arms with all their might, trying to help him out.

  The light of a lantern filtered through the barn and down the shute. There was a faint yell from above, and the sound of running footsteps. George scrambled out of the bin, grimacing ruefully at his clothes and boots covered in muck. Lily wrestled with the chute door, trying to close it.

  ‘Quick, help Lily close the chute,’ yelled Saxon. Ethan dragged the shovel out of the muck to help jam the door down.

  But before the door could be closed, the thin guard slid down the chute with a warlike scream, brandishing his cutlass. Saxon grabbed the fork to use as a club. The guard flew out of the chute and landed flat on his back in the manure. The second guard followed straight behind, landing with a splat, face-first in oozing horse dung.

  Saxon st
ifled a giggle then picked up a load of manure with his fork and flung it at the guards. Ethan followed with another shovel full. The guards spluttered and swore as their faces were showered with disgusting filth. George roared with laughter then followed with more dung.

  The guards were helpless, spitting and crying for breath, hampered by the drugged wine, the heavy muck and the unexpected attack. One dropped his cutlass and it sank out of sight in the quagmire. The other waved his around blindly, accidentally slashing his colleague on the arm. He screamed in terror, blood spurting through the thick brown ooze.

  Aisha ran back and forward in excitement, nose sniffing and tail wagging. A guard’s leg waved dangerously close to her snout and she took a nip at his leg, hanging on grimly as the guard squealed in pain.

  Ethan mouthed an instruction to George. ‘You stay here with me.’ He turned to the others. ‘Lily and Saxon, you go round the front and see if we can borrow some horses to escape on.’

  Lily and Saxon crept around the building and into the courtyard in front of the stables. The fire still blazed merrily, but the wine barrel lay on its side, with two mugs lying in the dirt next to an upturned chair. They ran past the fire and into the stables.

  The horses’ names were painted on nameboards outside each stall.

  ‘We’ll take three horses – Caramel, Nutmeg and Toffee would be best, if they’re here,’ Lily ordered Saxon. ‘The bridles are kept on the pegs outside each stall and the saddles and blankets are in the tack room.’

  Lily and Saxon gently entered the stall of each horse, whispering and snickering to the animal, as they passed the bridle over its head.

  Lily ran to the tack rooms and fetched the saddles and blankets. She saddled the horses while Saxon held them by the reins.

  ‘Help me with Caramel’s girth, Sax,’ cried Lily. ‘She always blows out her belly, then breathes out once you’re riding so the saddle slides off. Tickle her tummy, that usually works!’

  Meanwhile Ethan and George could hold the guards no longer. They had overcome their revulsion of the manure and were fighting free, fists swinging. Aisha darted back and forth nipping at their legs joyfully.

  ‘Aisha, that’s enough,’ ordered Ethan. ‘Leave it, that’s a good girl. George, you lead them into the forest – see if you can find some nice sticky spider webs! I’ll go and help Lily.’

  Ethan sprinted off with Aisha at his heels, while George kept flinging ammunition at the hapless guards, who were gasping for breath. He stayed until the last second, then threw his shovel at the guards and ran for the woods.

  The two guards followed, screaming in rage and indignation, wiping the filth from their faces as they ran, slipping and sliding unsteadily from the muck on the soles of their boots.

  George easily reached the cover of the trees. He ran deep into the forest, ducking and weaving. A tiny glimmer of starlight shining between the trees showed him an ideal ambush spot. He dashed through a gap between two trees, bending his massive body almost double.

  The guards followed, one waving his cutlass ferociously. Both charged together through the two trees. Suddenly they were enveloped with sticky, clinging cold threads that covered their eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

  A huge black spider ran across the face of the skinny guard, who screamed and clawed desperately at his head trying to brush the creature away.

  ‘Help me,’ screamed the guard, dancing and weaving. ‘Get it off me!’

  The other guard helped to brush off the large frightened spider, and pull off the stubborn sticky silver threads.

  By this time George had disappeared. The two guards followed warily, the first waving his cutlass in front of their faces to slice any further spider webs.

  They entered a gloomy thicket.

  ‘Ooooooaaaaahhhhhh, oooooooaaaaahhhhhh,’ wailed an unearthly voice from up near the treetops.

  The two guards stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes red and bleary from the copious quantities of drugged cherry wine, their faces streaked with muck.

  ‘Who’s there?’ one demanded in a shaking voice. ‘Come out in the name of Emperor Raef.’

  ‘Oooooooaaaaaaahhhhhh. Isssss time tooooo diiiiieeeeee.’

  The fat guard clutched his companion and pointed up into the trees. Metres above the ground a white apparition fluttered and floated.

  ‘Commmmmme toooooooo meeeeeeeeeeeee,’ moaned the apparition. ‘I will taaaaake yoooou uuuuuuu tooooooo yourrrrr deeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaath hhhhhhhhhh.’

  The guards’ knees trembled visibly. There was a loud trickle as one wet his pants with terror. They looked at each other then turned and ran.

  A muffled chuckle of laughter followed their flight. George clambered clumsily out of the high tree, clutching his white shirt in his huge hands. He had hung his shirt out on a long thin branch, shaking it gently so it wafted eerily through the trees in the starlight.

  ‘Issss time tooooo diiiieee, you black-hearted Sedah scoundrels,’ moaned George. ‘Poor widdle baby wet his pants. Maybe you should go home to your mumsy.’ George roared with laughter at his own joke as he pulled on his shirt, then set off through the forest to the meeting point at the caverns.

  The guards ran until they reached their blazing fire.

  ‘What was that?’ panted one, his eyes searching the surrounding darkness in fear.

  ‘Some cursed infidel sprite,’ replied the other, surreptitiously trying to mop his crotch dry. ‘I knew these forests were haunted.’

  ‘Let’s go and wake Lieutenant Foulash. There’s no point staying here with the prisoners gone.’

  ‘By the Emperor Raef, he’ll have our heads for batting practice,’ exclaimed the other.

  Lily, Ethan and Saxon chose this moment to gallop wildly out the stable door and through the yard, brandishing daggers in the air. They pulled up sharply at the entranceway, waving cheekily back to the guards.

  ‘Yoohoo, oh terrifying soldiers of Sedah!’ yelled Saxon. ‘Whatever will Lieutenant Foulash say when he finds out you’ve mislaid all his prisoners!’

  ‘Quick, on the horses – let’s get them,’ screamed the skinny guard. ‘We may be able to save our skins yet.’

  Both men ran to the two horses tethered in the yard. At a flying run, they leapt for their stirrups, only to spill ignominiously to the ground with the saddles falling heavily on top of them.

  Ethan, Lily and Saxon laughed uproariously.

  Ethan turned Toffee back and rode towards the two guards, who stared at him dumbfounded.

  ‘I think you forgot to check your girths,’ he chuckled. ‘A good rider always checks his girth.’ He grinned down at them cheekily, waving the missing leather girths at the guards as he rode back to the others.

  The three children rode off into the darkness, giggling to themselves at the memory of the looks on the guards’ faces.

  ‘Here, Lily,’ whispered Ethan. ‘Take Toffee’s reins. I’m going back to see if they’ll chase me. Saxon, you meet me round the back of the barn at the chute. Lily, if they follow me, padlock the barn door after us.’

  Ethan ran back out into the light of the courtyard. The two guards were just climbing onto their now barebacked mounts.

  ‘Yoohoo, you big fat cowards,’ Ethan yelled. ‘Bet you can’t catch me.’ Ethan poked out his tongue and pulled a dreadful face. Then he turned on his heels and raced across the courtyard and into the barn. The two guards bellowed with rage, and immediately gave chase.

  Ethan tore straight through the barn and slid down the chute into the manure in the pit below. The guards gave chase but hesitated momentarily at the top of the chute, reluctant to receive a repeat performance. Behind them, Lily clicked the padlock bolt into place, locking the barn door from the outside, while Saxon helped Ethan slam the chute trapdoor at the back.

  The two guards were helplessly trapped inside the barn and started making a terrible din, yelling and screaming.

  The horses in the stables started to snort in fear at the racket. Lily could not bear to lea
ve them in the hands of the Sedah soldiers. One by one she opened their stable doors and whickered encouragingly to them.

  Ethan and Saxon came to see what she was doing.

  ‘I’m going to let the horses go,’ Lily said firmly. ‘I would rather they ran free in the forest than were taken by the Sedahs!’

  ‘Great idea,’ agreed Ethan approvingly. ‘Plus all their hoofprints will help to confuse that tracker, Sniffer.’

  When all the stalls were open, a herd of Tiregian’s best hunters, hacks, ponies and carriage horses trotted out into the moonlight, tossing their heads and shaking their manes. They paused, snuffling the night air, then as one they swerved towards the forest and galloped off into the darkness, splitting off to go in all directions through the trees.

  The sight filled Lily’s heart with elation. She vaulted onto Nutmeg’s chestnut back.

  ‘Come on, boys,’ Lily called quietly, with a grin of pure elation. ‘With all the racket you’ve been making, we’ll have the entire invading force of Sedah on our heels in moments. Let’s get out of here.’

  Ethan and Saxon grinned as they leapt on their borrowed horses and saluted smartly. The three of them galloped off into the forest, with Aisha at their heels, their hearts bursting with pride and joy. They had won a battle. The prisoners were free and the guards had been outwitted by three village children! What joy!

  Ethan, Lily and Saxon wound their way back carefully through the dark countryside – their plan was to make a large circle around the forest to try to avoid leaving tracks. Their destination was the natural caverns hidden deep in the hills, where the rescued villagers and courtiers had agreed to meet to discuss plans and tactics.

  First they rode back towards Kenley. At the shallow ford, they splashed across the stream and up the other side, leaving clear hoofprints on the muddy bank and up onto the path to the village. Where the track became hard as rock they carefully urged Toffee, Caramel and Nutmeg to walk backwards again, all the way down into the middle of the stream, so the trail of hoofprints only led away from the stream. The well-trained royal horses responded readily to their commands.