Quest for the Sun Gem (5 page)

‘We know the place – the forest, the stables, the secret paths. Some of the soldiers sound superstitious – frightened of strange spirits and ghouls. We have Aisha, our daggers, and our bows and arrows –’

‘Lily, you are not coming with me. It is too dangerous,’ Ethan interrupted. ‘Besides, you have to look after her.’ He shrugged his shoulder to the corner.

‘You can’t go alone,’ Lily retorted. ‘We will have a better chance if we work together. Besides, I have an idea. There will be guards, even in the middle of the night, but what if I took them some of that cherry wine they’re so fond of, sweetened with a large dash of Mama’s famous sleeping draught?’

‘Are you complete imbeciles?’ came a weak but still haughty voice from the corner. ‘What could you possibly be thinking of! Besides, you cannot leave me alone in this dreadful place.’

The two looked over to see Princess Roana sitting up, her face even paler than usual, her hair a tangled mass of bloodied knots, her dress torn and filthy.

‘Princess, you are awake,’ Lily cried out. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘How do you think I feel?’ Princess Roana scowled. ‘I am stiff and sore and my head aches and I need a bath and some new clothes and some decent food and I just want to go home.’ Her voice dissolved into a sob.

Lily jumped up and went over to the princess with a damp cloth. ‘I know, I know. It has been terrible for you,’ she murmured soothingly.

‘What would you know about how horrendous it has been, you stupid girl! Oh, go away and leave me alone,’ exclaimed Princess Roana. ‘And take that stinking rag with you.’

Lily stopped short, hurt. Ethan bristled, his face flaming with indignation.

‘How dare you speak to my sister like that! Lily has slaved for days caring for you, trying to make you comfortable – bathing your wounds, cooling your fever, feeding and cleaning you. And not even a word of thanks, you ungrateful, rude girl! Why should we care what happens to you? You have been nothing but trouble since we set eyes on you! Come on, Lily – let’s go and see how she fares without us.’

Ethan picked up his pack and started climbing down the tree.

‘No, do not go. Do not leave me here. Stop! I order you to stop!’ Princess Roana bellowed in rage.

‘There is food in the saddle bag and water in the flask, your highness,’ Lily said stiffly, as she turned and followed her brother, tucking her dagger into her belt. ‘You have your bow and arrows to protect yourself. We will leave Moonbeam tethered below in case we don’t return.’

‘So far so good,’ whispered Lily. They slipped silently through the eerily quiet forest, bows at the ready. Years of hunting in the forest with Willem had taught them to move without cracking twigs, snapping branches, or even rustling fallen leaves. Their friends had always complained that they had an unfair advantage when playing hide and seek.

First they headed back to their cottage in Kenley. Once again they had to slip silently past the guards on the bridge, and patiently shovel away the pile of manure hiding the trap door to the underground cellar. Down below they found a small barrel of their mother’s best cherry wine. Lily opened several
bottles of Marnie’s precious sleeping draught, brewed from chamomile, poppy and valerian, and stirred them through the cherry wine.

‘I hope that’s enough,’ Lily whispered, sniffing the delicious cherry wine. ‘Perhaps another bottle for good luck.’

‘We had better take a couple of mugs as well,’ Ethan added, placing them carefully in his pack.

An hour later, Ethan and Lily crept towards the hunting lodge, where the royal family came every spring and autumn to enjoy riding and hunting in the beautiful forests. It was an imposing rectangular building with square towers on the corners, set in a clearing in the forest.

Guards stood to attention on either side of the massive studded doorway. Set off to the right was a smaller building that looked dark and deserted. The children crept through the trees to the rear of the lodge, Aisha gliding at their heels.

Here was the large U-shaped stable complex where Willem worked as Royal Master of Horse. His job was to select, breed and train all the royal horses, as well as supervise the team of grooms, stableboys and farriers who looked after them.

Willem was also widely regarded as one of the best hunters in Tiregian. He could track an animal
for kilometres through the forest, moving silently and invisibly. His accuracy with bow and arrow was legendary. It was said Willem could shoot more than a dozen arrows per minute and could hit a darting rabbit from a galloping horse at two hundred metres.

Ethan and Lily had spent many hours at the royal stables, helping their father groom and exercise the horses, clean tack and muck out stalls, so they knew the buildings well.

The left building housed the carriages, tack rooms and forge. The right was a large barn where the hay and feed were stored. In between was a long double row of stalls, where up to one hundred royal horses could be stabled.

To the right of the complex was a massive tree, whose branches brushed against the wall and roof to give shade to the horses and workers. Here also were the huge compost bins of manure and straw that the gardeners used to spread on the kitchen gardens.

A pair of guards sat on chairs in the middle of the cobbled front courtyard, warming their hands by the small fire beside them, and playing dice. Tethered near the carriage house stood a pair of saddled horses, their heads hanging dejectedly, picking at a pile of hay.

Ethan and Lily crouched in the shadows watching the guards to see what they could learn. After a while, the thinner guard yawned and stretched.

‘I’d better check on the prisoners.’ He shivered, reluctantly leaving the fire, and strode over to the huge barn on the right where the bales of hay were stored. He took a large key from his belt and unlocked the massive padlock, sliding open the barn door just a crack. He peered in at the darkness inside, then relocked the padlock and hurried back to the fire.

‘All sleeping like babes,’ he grunted to his companion. ‘I wish I was too!’

They settled back to their dice game. In a few minutes, another guard strode over from the direction of the lodge. The two guards leapt to their feet, dropping the dice and saluting smartly.

‘Evening, men,’ said the visitor, holding his hand out to the blaze.

‘Good evening, Lieutenant Foulash,’ the two guards replied smartly.

‘All well?’

‘Yes, Lieutenant.’

‘Well and good, men, you will be relieved at dawn.’ Lieutenant Foulash turned and strode back to the lodge.

‘All well and good if you’re tucked up snug and warm in a bed,’ growled one guard to the other. His companion merely grunted and threw the dice again.

Lily took a deep breath and gazed at Ethan. He nodded and crossed his fingers at her in a gesture of good luck. She gave him her bow and quiver, then hoisted the small barrel onto her hip and crept off through the darkness towards the lodge. Ethan stayed crouched where he was, his nerves stretched like a bowstring.

Then out of the darkness hurried a small shadow, head bent, carrying a heavy burden.

‘Excuse me, sirs,’ called the shadow in a bright high voice. ‘Lieutenant Foulash sent me with some refreshment for you to keep away the cold night air.’

It was Lily.

‘Who goes there!’ bellowed one of the guards, reaching for his sword.

‘’Tis only one of the village lasses sent by Lieutenant Foulash with an errand,’ squeaked Lily nervously.

Don’t chatter too much
, Lily thought to herself.
Stay calm, look coy
.

She moved into the light of the fire. The guards relaxed when they saw her slight figure, struggling with the heavy barrel.

‘Well, what have we here then – a fair village maiden?’ joked one. He reached over to touch her curly honey-coloured hair with his thick sausage-like finger. Lily stepped back hurriedly, putting the barrel down by the fire.

In the darkness, Ethan’s finger twitched on the bowstring, his arrow aimed at the guard who dared to touch his sister.

‘Here is some cherry wine from the village and a couple of mugs, sirs,’ Lily burbled. ‘I hope you enjoy it. Now I must be getting back to the kitchens.’ Lily bobbed a quick curtsey and scurried back towards the lodge.

‘Well, you certainly frightened that one away,’ guffawed the joking guard, as he popped the cork from the barrel and poured a mug full of dark red cherry wine. ‘Smells good … mmm, tastes good too. Well, here’s to Lieutenant Foulash – who would believe he would be so thoughtful, the old devil. Here you go. Drink up.’

Lily and Ethan waited nervously in the dark for more than half an hour while the two guards guzzled mug after mug of cherry wine.

‘I really miss home,’ slurred the skinny guard, tears of emotion running down his face. The fat guard gave him a bear hug that nearly crushed the smaller guard.

While the two guards were busy, Ethan crept over to where their two horses were tethered. He soothed them with his hands, then carefully felt under their saddle flaps for the leather girth that ran under each horse’s belly to hold the saddle tight. He started to unbuckle the girths on both sides of each horse.

On the last buckle, though, his hands fumbled in the darkness, whether from nerves or cold, and he dropped one end, causing the girth to jingle sharply on the cobblestones before he caught it.

The guards looked up from their dice game.

‘Did you hear something?’ cried the skinny one, staring nervously into the blackness beyond the fire’s merry flame.

‘No – it was only the horses,’ said the fatter one, reluctant to leave his warm seat by the fire. ‘Pass me the wine barrel, will you?’

Ethan hardly dared to breathe. With the two girths carefully stowed in his pack, he slipped back to where Lily waited in the shadows.

He grinned at her and signalled with his thumb up. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned and disappeared into the shadows. Ethan followed her.

Behind the stable block they took the chance to whisper to each other.

‘Let’s try the chute,’ Ethan murmured.

They climbed around the side of the manure bins, carefully avoiding the deep muck below. Against the wall was a manure chute from the barn, with a hatch that was bolted shut. After the long winter, the bolt was rusty and stiff. Lily pulled out a bottle of oil from her pack and dribbled a few drops onto the bolt. They eventually wiggled it free and pulled up the hatch with a loud clunk. They froze in terror, but there was no response.

Ethan peered through the hatchway.

‘Look,’ he cried in despair. ‘It’s completely blocked with bales of hay.’

‘Should we call out and wake up some of the people inside to move the hay?’ asked Lily, trying to push the bales away without success.

‘No, it’s too dangerous. They might make noise and alert the guards.’ They thought for a few minutes, scanning the outer wall for inspiration.

‘What about that little window right up under the eaves? I think we could just reach it by climbing up the old tree,’ Lily whispered.

The branches of the huge tree brushed the walls and roof of the barn, almost hiding the tiny window in its foliage.

‘Let’s hope we can fit through it,’ replied Ethan
with a grimace. ‘It looks awfully narrow, and very high. Hopefully there is plenty of hay underneath to soften the drop.’

‘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.