Quest for the Sun Gem (7 page)

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.

Back in the water, they turned and splashed quietly downstream, leaving no tracks or scent. Eventually they urged the horses to climb out of the stream onto a rocky bank, which was less likely to show hoofprints, then wound their way through the soft forest floor where the leaf mulch was deepest. They tethered the horses in a remote clearing and made the rest of their way on foot.

Two of the Royal Guards were standing watch under the trees near the caverns. The children announced themselves and were given a formal salute. Inside the caverns, the villagers had built two roaring fires. Around one fire huddled the royal contingent – the courtiers and advisors. Around the other were the villagers and farmers. Both groups were vehemently discussing plans and retaliation. Children were asleep in the soft sand, tucked under cloaks and rugs.

When Lily and Ethan entered the cave, the discussion sank away and many people jumped to their feet. ‘Here they are,’ called one.

‘Well done. Your parents would be proud,’ George said.

‘Thank you both,’ another villager added.

‘Three cheers for our rescuers,’ George cried, and the caverns erupted in sound as everyone cheered.

The children were hugged, thumped on the back, kissed and congratulated until their cheeks burned and they squirmed with embarrassment.

The cheering and celebration only ceased when one of the king’s chief advisors stood up.

‘Peace. Peace, good folk. Enough of this distraction. It is time for a council of war. There is much to be done. The queen and prince have been taken and we should mount an attack to rescue them. Tira must be warned, and we need to plan our defences.’

Ethan tried to interrupt him to say that Princess Roana was safe and sound, but the chief advisor held a hand up for silence.

‘Children of Kenley, thank you kindly for your brave efforts to rescue us tonight, but now it is time for you to join the other children and sleep while we make serious battle plans.’

Dismissed, the three children settled down by the fire, too nervous and excited to sleep. They were ignored by the adults, who continued to argue and disagree, back and forth.

Ethan leant over to George and whispered to him. ‘George, the invaders said they were going to burn Kenley in the morning.’

George roared with indignation and leapt to his feet.

‘The boy says the Sedahs plan to burn our village in the morning. They’ll do that over my dead body!’

The courtiers muttered and frowned. The villagers yelled and ranted. Some wept.

The discussion heated up. Now the villagers demanded that Kenley be saved before an attempt was made to rescue the queen, while some courtiers wanted to set out immediately for Tira.

‘We need help from the soldiers of the Royal Guard to fight off the invaders before they destroy Kenley,’ shouted one villager.

‘No, we should make haste to the coast to mount a counterattack on the ships that wait there!’

‘A party of guards should be sent directly to Tira to warn them,’ bellowed a large courtier in a carefully curled wig, now artfully tufted with leaves and twigs.

‘We need all the guards here, the few that there are, to fight the invaders,’ thundered a red-faced villager.

The shouting rose louder and louder.

Ethan glanced at Saxon and Lily and raised his eyebrows. Lily and Saxon both grimaced in return. Ethan gestured with his head towards the cave mouth. The others nodded in agreement.

They rose quietly and slipped out of the cave. No-one noticed them leave.

Aisha greeted them joyously when they returned to the horses tethered in the clearing.

‘Let’s go back to the tree house,’ Lily suggested. ‘We should check on the princess and we can make plans there. I hope they all come to a decision soon and actually do something. Otherwise the Sedahs will have destroyed the whole land before they even leave the cave.’

The boys laughed grimly.

‘I hope they save Kenley,’ Ethan murmured. ‘I can’t bear to think of it being burnt, but somehow I feel we should go to the coast and see if we can do something to help Mama and Dadda, and the others.’

‘I think you are right, Ethan, though what we can actually do I don’t know.’

They all fell silent as the horses picked their way through the dark. Thoughts and hopes tumbled through their minds like water rushing down a mountain stream.

Captain Malish stood in the empty barn, his knuckles white on the handle of his cutlass. The two guards who had been found locked in the barn lay grovelling on the floor at his feet, their hands and feet tied.

‘You say a band of
children
overpowered you, set all the prisoners free, locked you in the barn and rode off on some stolen horses?’ Captain Malish demanded furiously.

The guards nodded frantically. ‘Yes, sir … yes, children.’

Captain Malish turned to Lieutenant Foulash, who stood looking pale and wan.

‘I checked the situation myself a couple of hours ago and everything was in order then,’ Lieutenant Foulash said quickly.

‘You consider it
in order
for your guards to be drinking copious amounts of cherry wine while they are on duty?’ barked Captain Malish, poking the unfortunate guards with the toe of his highly polished black boot.

‘No, no, of course not,’ Lieutenant Foulash retorted. ‘I would never allow that.’

‘But, sir, you sent us the wine,’ whined a guard piteously.

Captain Malish spun on his heel.

‘Wake Sniffer,’ he barked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Foulash.

‘Sniffer cannot track anyone in the dark, sir,’ Lieutenant Foulash said tentatively.

‘I said wake Sniffer,’ Captain Malish shouted. ‘And lock those idiots back in the barn. I will deal with them – and you – later …’

‘Yes, sir, straight away, sir,’ replied Lieutenant Foulash, hurrying to carry out his orders as quickly as possible.

In the tree house the three children found Princess Roana crouching in the darkness, knees up to her chin, face pale and pinched, eyes large and dark with fear.

‘Where have you been?’ she shouted furiously. ‘How dare you leave me here all alone in the dark in this horrid place! I demand you take me away from here at once!’

‘Don’t worry, your highness, we will be taking you away from here just as soon as we have rested and made plans,’ retorted Ethan. ‘We will be very glad to hand you over to your maid servants – the sooner the better.’

Princess Roana’s eyes widened with fear and surprise. ‘My maid servants? But … but I thought they were … you said they were all captured?’

‘They were,’ replied Ethan with relish. ‘But we set them free tonight and they are now sheltering in a cave not far from here. Where we will happily escort you and allow them to take over the task of looking after you.’

‘You set them free!’ cried Princess Roana in disbelief. ‘That is ridiculous! How could you set them free? You are nothing but a couple of filthy village urchins who stink to high heaven.’

Ethan bristled in irritation and proceeded to describe the rescue at the barn in exciting and colourful detail.

Princess Roana sat with her mouth open in surprise.

‘Is this true?’ she demanded of Lily at the end of the tale. Lily merely nodded her head wearily.

‘Good,’ Princess Roana announced. ‘Then you must take me to these caverns at once.’

‘No,
your highness
,’ replied Ethan firmly. ‘We are tired and need to rest for a while. Besides, we must plan our journey. Our parents have been taken prisoner with your mother and brother. They are now on a ship at the coast, waiting to be taken to
Tira. We will ride to the coast and see if there is anything we can do to rescue them.’

‘Rescue them?’ Princess Roana demanded scornfully. ‘How could you hope to rescue the queen and prince from a heavily guarded ship? You must be insane. I will order the Royal Guard to set out at once to attack these ships.’

‘You may be right,’ Ethan acknowledged slowly. ‘However, many of your Royal Guard are wounded or imprisoned on those ships, or even dead, and from what we heard tonight there is much debate about what to do. All I know is that
we
must try to do something. Anything is better than doing nothing. And besides, we managed to rescue nearly one hundred people tonight. Perhaps we can manage to help a few more?’

Princess Roana rubbed her head fretfully. Saxon nodded. Lily sighed. The wind whistled around the tree, moaning woefully.

‘So, Sax,’ Ethan continued. ‘Will you come to the coast with us, or will you help the villagers try to save Kenley?’

Saxon’s eyes shone in excitement. ‘Of course I will come with you. I know the way to the coast. I’ve been there with my father many times to collect cloth from the merchant ships, so I know the area
quite well. Besides, an extra head and hands are always useful.’

‘What about your father?’ Lily asked. ‘Isn’t he away? Won’t he worry about you when he gets back?’

‘Yes, he’s visiting the lacemakers in the east,’ Saxon replied. ‘He won’t be back for a couple of weeks. I’ll leave a note for him telling him what we’re doing so he won’t worry.’

‘That’s settled then,’ Ethan cried. ‘We should eat and drink a little. There are a few supplies to pack, then we will escort
her highness
back to the warmth and safety of the cavern and her royal hand maidens.’

Princess Roana stiffened but said nothing. The children made a merry picnic feast of bread, butter and honey, washed down with cold stream water. They joked and laughed as they ate, elated at their adventures.

They recounted the highlights of the evening, giggling helplessly as they remembered the look on the guards’ faces as they floundered in the manure. Princess Roana listened carefully, despite her air of nonchalance. She even smiled briefly when Ethan repeated his jibe about good riders checking their girths.

‘Well, I think it is time we escorted her highness
back to the comfort of the caverns,’ Ethan announced, when everyone had finished eating.

While the boys packed the saddle bags, Lily unbandaged Princess Roana’s ankle and bathed her cuts one last time.

‘I’ll leave the bandages off. I think your boots will give your ankle enough support now, and we’d never get the boot on over the bandages,’ Lily murmured soothingly.

‘Thank you,’ grunted the princess gruffly, as if unused to uttering such pleasantries.

Lily smiled shyly. ‘A pleasure, your highness. I hope you will be feeling better soon. It will be much more comfortable for you at the caves.’

Princess Roana shrugged stiffly.

In a few minutes they were all ready. Saxon scrawled his father a brief note and left it on the floor, weighted under a rock. He thought it was safer to leave it in the tree house than risk going back to Kenley. His father knew the boys’ secret hiding place, and would find it there.

Ethan and Saxon helped Princess Roana climb down the tree, and up onto her horse. Then they were all trotting back towards the caves.

‘The cave is just over there,’ whispered Saxon. ‘There are two Royal Guards there who will help
you inside. We will slip away before anyone tries to stop us.’

‘We wish to thank you both very much,’ Princess Roana murmured formally. ‘We will ensure that the queen rewards you greatly for your kindness.’

‘That’s presuming someone can rescue the queen first,’ muttered Ethan. Princess Roana scowled darkly.

‘Thank you, your highness,’ replied Lily, shooting a dark glance at Ethan. ‘Good luck. I hope you are restored to your home and family very soon.’