Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools (35 page)

He got back to his feet, drawing his sword as he did so, aware that the soldiers were all staring at him in astonishment, too surprised as yet to make a move. He also knew that this situation wouldn't last long. He stepped up to Princess Kerin, threw an arm around her waist and began to pull her towards the edge of the platform, wondering what had happened to the explosion. What if the fireworks had failed to ignite? He heard a groan from beside him, and glancing down he saw that Kasim was struggling upright, an angry expression on his face. He was still holding his whip in one massive hand.

'What happens now?' asked Princess Kerin.

It was a very good question.

Cornelius struggled to free his chain-mail singlet from the nail, but a link of metal had caught in the head and it was refusing to budge. He glanced desperately towards the thunder-sticks and saw that the fuses were burning down at terrifying speed, only a fingernail's length away from the explosives.

'Shadlog's beard!' he growled. He summoned all his strength and pulled hard. He was rewarded with a ripping sound and then, quite suddenly, he was free and scrambling frantically towards the opening at the edge of the stage . . .

'I don't know how you got here, Elf-man,' snarled Kasim, advancing towards Sebastian, his whip raised. 'But when I'm finished with you, you'll wish you'd stayed in Keladon to face the executioner's axe.'

Behind him, the other soldiers were advancing too, their swords and spears raised. Sebastian pushed Princess Kerin behind him and lifted his own sword in defiance as Kasim closed on him. He remembered something he had heard Cornelius say and tried to follow his example.

'Step right up here if you think you're hard enough,' he said, as calmly as he could manage. 'And I'll take that great ugly head off your shoulders.'

Kasim grinned unpleasantly, showing several gold teeth dotted in among his natural ones. 'Brave,' he observed. 'But so stupid.' He flicked his wrist almost casually, and some?thing hissed through the air, wrapped itself around Sebastian's sword and pulled it clean out of his hand. It went clattering away across the wooden platform. Sebastian stared after it in dismay. 'Still feeling confident?' asked Kasim. He flicked his wrist again and this time the whip lashed Sebastian across the cheek, a stinging blow that almost knocked him off his feet. 'Now,' purred Kasim, 'are you going to come quietly or am I going to—?'

The remainder of his sentence was lost in a great roar of smoke and flame that came belching up through the middle of the platform, flinging splintered wood in all directions. A couple of soldiers who were close to the blast were thrown headlong through the air, their arms and legs waving like frantic puppets. One of them collided with Kasim and sent him sprawling for a second time, but by then Sebastian had already grabbed Princess Kerin and jumped off the edge of the platform, into the chaos of panicking people all around it. As his feet thudded onto the earth, he saw a tiny figure crouched at the foot of the stage, beckoning to him. Cornelius indicated the two equines waiting patiently for their riders, just a few steps away. His face was black with soot and he was grinning like a maniac.

'What a blast!' he roared. 'Did you see it? Fantastic!'

A great wave of smoke washed over them, as Sebastian moved over to his equine and clambered up into the saddle. He reached down and pulled Princess Kerin up behind him. Even in the heat and excitement of the moment, he registered how good it felt to have her arms clasped around his waist. He glanced down at Cornelius and saw that he had just vaulted onto Phantom's saddle. But ahead of them now lay a seemingly impenetrable press of yelling, shoving people. How were they ever going to get out of here?

'Max!' yelled Cornelius. 'It all depends on you now.'

Max lowered his head and pawed the ground a couple of times while he gathered every last bit of strength into his massive shoulders. He looked up briefly and saw the fat merchant and his wife, sitting in their sedan chair, staring at him white-faced and terrified.

'So,' said Max quietly, 'I smell, do I?'

And he put his head down again and charged. He felt the impact of the wooden chair against his horns, and then he tossed his head to the side and the thing went tumbling away, flinging the two screaming merchants onto the heads of the crowd. Max didn't hesitate. He continued on his way, driving everyone and everything before him, a chaos of running, shouting people, braying animals and clattering vehicles – it was all the same to him. As he moved on, he closed his eyes, concentrating on utilizing every ounce of power at his disposal, and he was aware only of a series of impacts against his head, things that broke or moved aside or went flying over his mighty shoulders, and he told himself he was not going to stop now, not for anything . . .

Princess Kerin hugged herself tight against Sebastian, hardly believing that he was still alive, that he had come all this way and risked so much to help her. She looked across and saw Cornelius, crouched low in the saddle of a tiny equine, racing along beside her. Just behind him, she was astonished to see another familiar figure on an equine. It was Peg, and she was urging her mount along like there was no tomorrow, and a sense of joy sprang up in Princess Kerin's heart to think that her new friend would escape and make her way back to her husband and children. Their eyes met and Peg shouted something, but the princess could not hear her words over the tumult of yelling people.

She opened her mouth to shout something back, but the words died as the head of another equine moved into her line of vision and she saw that the rider was Kasim. He was hunched down in the saddle and he was urging his mount to go faster as he closed on the princess, one huge tattooed arm outstretched to make a grab at her. He wasn't finished yet and he was clearly intent on preventing her escape.

'Sebastian!' she yelled; but if he heard her, he was too focused on the way ahead to take any notice, and now she was aware that the slave-master's fingers were brushing against her arm, looking for a hold, seeking to pull her back out of the saddle. His mouth curved into a grin of satisfaction as he sensed victory . . .

Princess Kerin turned back to try one last shout into Sebastian's ear—

And then a huge wooden fruit barrow came flying through the air, thrown up by Max's horns and flung recklessly backwards. Sebastian saw it and ducked, pressing the princess down with one arm as he did so. Peg saw it and ducked; and Cornelius was so near the ground already that he had no need to duck; but Kasim didn't see it at all – not until it crashed full into him and sent him tumbling backwards off his mount with a scream of mingled pain and terror. Then he was gone, lost in the rapidly thinning crowd as Max powered his way to the very edges of it.

And quite suddenly they were free, moving out from the crowds of people and racing along the main street that led to the entrance arch and out onto the plains beyond.

Around midday they came to a shallow valley with a small stream meandering through it and they finally dared to stop for a while. Cornelius spent some time up on the ridge scanning the plains behind him with his telescope, just to assure himself that nobody was following; and it was only then that he allowed everyone to descend into the valley.

'At last!' groaned Max. 'I couldn't have gone on another step without a drink.' He waded straight into the shallow water and began slaking his thirst in a series of noisy gulps. Sebastian could see that his mighty horns were dented and splintered from the ferocious battering they had encountered back in Brigandia. He helped Princess Kerin climb down from his mount and she immediately hurried across to Peg. The two women met midstream and hugged each other delightedly.

'Peg, I'm so glad you escaped,' said the princess. 'It all happened so suddenly back there, I had no time to even look for you.'

Peg smiled. 'When you went off the edge o' that platform, I followed three steps behind. There was this nobleman sitting on an equine just a little way off. I persuaded him to part company with it.' Peg looked down ruefully at her knuckles, which were badly grazed. 'He took some convincing,' she added.

Princess Kerin laughed delightedly. 'What will you do now?' she asked.

'Me? Oh, I shall make my way back to the hills of Torin. I reckon a couple of days' hard riding should get me back to my family. I'll just have to hope that they're safe and well . . . and that they haven't forgotten me in the weeks I've been away.'

'I doubt they will have done that,' the princess assured her.

'But more important, what will
you
do now, miss?'

'Yes,' said Cornelius, who had just walked up to the water's edge with Sebastian. 'A very good question. What will you do, your highness?'

Princess Kerin frowned and looked down at the clear water swirling around her feet, as though seeking an answer in those glittering shallows. 'I really don't know,' she admitted. 'I do not think that I can ever go back to Keladon.'

'Why not?' demanded Sebastian. 'It's rightfully yours.'

She laughed at that. 'Oh yes! And do you think my dear Uncle Septimus will ever allow me to set foot inside the palace again? He would have me executed in an instant.' She shrugged her shoulders. 'But then, where else am I to go? It's been my home since I was born. I don't know anywhere else.'

Cornelius took off his helmet and sat down in the sand at the edge of the stream. For a few moments he trailed one tiny hand in the water, as though deep in thought. Then he scooped up a handful and splashed it over the still raw wound in his shoulder. He gritted his teeth against the pain, then shook his head.

'I know what
I
would do,' he said at last.

Princess Kerin looked down at him. 'Tell me,' she said.

'I would go back and claim what is mine.'

'That's easy to say,' she told him. 'But not so easy to do. Uncle Septimus has a mighty army at his disposal. He would crush any resistance we could organize without a moment's thought.'

'He won't be expecting any resistance. As far as he knows, you've been sold as a slave in Brigandia.'

'But it won't take more than a day for news to reach him of our escape,' said Sebastian. 'He'll know by . . . tomorrow afternoon at the latest.'

'Which is exactly why we must make our move before then. First thing tomorrow morning our army must be ready to make its attack.'

'Army?' Princess Kerin stared at him. 'What army? I
have
no army!'

'Princess, you have the hearts and minds of every man, woman and child in Keladon,' said Cornelius. 'I have seen the way you are adored by them. If they were to learn of your uncle's treachery, I don't doubt that every one of them would be willing to fight to put you back where you belong.'

'It's true enough,' agreed Sebastian. 'They all know that you're the rightful queen. And no matter how powerful an army he has, it cannot stand against everybody in the city. And I believe that many of those troops would switch their allegiance in a moment if they knew what had happened. Remember, as far as they're aware, I've used witchcraft to make you vanish. You'd only have to walk back through those city gates and tell them what really happened to you.'

Princess Kerin was still doubtful. 'I don't know,' she said. 'Supposing we try and fail?'