water. There’s a river near here, isn’t there?”
“It’s the Mothund.” Rogerseen said. “It goes all over the kingdom.”
“I lived near it.” Kenton said. “I didn’t know it came this far south. I think that river is our doom. If it goes everywhere then that’s exactly how they get so far so fast.”
“We already knew they used the rivers, Morzha. What’s your point?”
Kenton gave Sidestep a gentle tap with his foot and it started away from the town. “If they’re settling then it’s going to be almost impossible to keep them out. I think we should focus on keeping them contained to the Vastlands. We can move the boundaries of the kingdom up and defend a smaller area. That’ll keep us safer I think.”
Rogerseen gave Kenton’s back a very sour look. “The kingdom’s boundaries will not change. I won’t hear of it. We fight for everything or nothing.”
“Then we fight for nothing.” Kenton whispered. The commander didn’t hear him.
Kenton kept Sidestep slow as they went at an angle away from the town. He was afraid sudden galloping would be heard. It didn’t matter. Someone must have seen them. Four horses appeared and chased after them. Three of which had large scary Welgos. The fourth had a rather small man. Kenton didn’t have time to get the details. Sidestep sprinted away as fast as he could go with two people and several bags. It wasn’t fast enough. Kenton thought briefly about tossing Rogerseen off, but it was too late. The four horses caught up and surrounded them within seconds. Sidestep neighed angrily and Kenton pulled out his sword.
The Welgos spoke their language and Kenton couldn’t understand. When the barrier persisted the small man, who didn’t look like a Welgo at all except for the jacket, came up.
“Soldiers?” He said.
“He speaks our language.” The commander pointed out stupidly.
“We didn’t mean to get so close.” Kenton said.
“Of course not.” The small man said. “I’m Victor. It’s very nice to meet you. I hope we didn’t scare you. We’re only protecting our town.”
“We don’t mean it any harm. We’ll go ahead and leave, then.” Kenton tried to get Sidestep through.
“Now wait a minute here.” Victor said, holding up a hand. “Come on and see the town for yourself. We’ve just put the finishing touches on it.”
“No, that’s alright.”
“I really insist.” Victor said with a smile. The four horses steered Sidestep back towards the town.
Kenton tried to think up some way to let them leave, but nothing sounded good enough in his head. “We really need to get moving.” He said finally. “My friend here is injured.”
“The commander?” Victor gave them a toothy grin. “Shouldn’t have worn your commander’s uniform out here, it’s dangerous.”
Kenton couldn’t believe that he didn’t think about that. Although Rogerseen probably wouldn’t have taken the black jacket with yellow stripes at the shoulders off for anything.
The wooden wall opened to reveal a gate. The town had several rows of wooden buildings. They all looked the same. Everyone around looked to be soldiers. There were no families or children.
“What do you think?” Victor asked.
“It sure is something.” Kenton said happily, attempting to seem alright with being forced in there.
The gates closed behind them.
“It took many months to finish construction.” Victor beamed. “It looks like it took years doesn’t it? We’re really fast workers. Shipments have been coming up and down the river for almost a year. I’m surprised we’ve been met by such warm visitors. We all fully expected an army to arrive as soon as we put up the wall. I mean a few people have come, but not too many.”
“Where are they now?” Kenton asked, fearing the answer.
“Don’t worry about that. I find it really interesting that you came today of all days.”
“And why is that?”
“We’re getting ready.”
“For?”
“I’ll tell you later. For now, you two can rest up in one of our nice little homes. I’ll see to it that you have a good time. It looks like it’s getting late. The sun is about to go down. You two sure look tired.”
They came to one of the buildings and several Welgos came up and removed them from the horse. Ropes were put around Sidestep’s neck and he writhed angrily.
“Hey, don’t hurt the horse.” Kenton ordered.
“Don’t worry about the horse.” Victor said. “We’ll take care of it.”
Kenton argued for them to give Rogerseen his crutch, but they refused. The commander was carried into the house and set on an uncomfortable wooden bed frame without a mattress. Kenton sat on another bed without a mattress on the other side of the room. The room was otherwise bare.
Victor clapped his hands. “Alright, I’ll come by and see you all tonight.”
“We really need to leave.” Kenton persisted.
Victor ignored him and they were left alone.
The commander stared at the wall in shock. “They’re going to kill us.” He whimpered, his whole body shaking.
“We don’t know that.” Kenton said.
“We have nothing to barter with.” Rogerseen lamented. “They took the horse. It had everything we have.”
“We can work something out.” Kenton assured him.
“I don’t have a leg!” the commander complained. “If we tried to escape I would be left behind. The only way out is to barter, and that’s not going to happen. We’re dead and its all your fault for wanting to come closer. When the Great Spirit finds our souls I am going to tell it to murder you again!”
“Let’s not freak out.” Kenton said calmly. “When Victor comes back we’ll have a nice chat and see what we can do.”
The commander scoffed.
11.
“This is the weirdest part.” Mr. Jett said late that night. “I went to see what it was, and you wouldn’t guess.”
“Uh-huh.” Ackerley said.
Mr. Jett had been telling a story about. . . well Ackerley didn’t know. He had been thinking about Cerise and lost jewels and only heard a little bit.
“Go ahead, guess.”
“Guess what?”
“What?” Mr. Jett asked.
“What?”
“You said ‘guess what’.”
“Yeah, what did you want me to guess?” Ackerley asked, thoroughly confused.
“Oh, guess what I saw.”
“A bear.”
“No, a huge centipede.”
Ackerley had no idea what Mr. Jett was talking about and didn’t care. He was too tired to humor him. He pushed his broom thing across the floor for the final time that night and handed it back to Mr. Jett.
“I’ll see you tonight.” Mr. Jett said. “You know you should probably not skip a task again, especially that one. Craith is all about the rules.
“It seems everyone is around here.” Ackerley responded with a yawn.
He sauntered back up to his room and fell asleep hanging half off his bed. It seemed only a few seconds before the daily knock on the door sounded the morning’s arrival. He sat up and somehow got ready without even knowing what he was doing. Jarn had to stop him from wearing his pajamas to first task. Ackerley forgot he never changed into them the night before.
During calligraphy Ms. Henred finally gave him a passing grade for the day. He couldn’t believe it. That meant that he no longer had to come during third task. He could go back to choosing like everyone else. Reading was as boring as ever. Craith kept glancing over to make sure he didn’t vanish halfway through.
After lunch Jarn invited him to the kitchen, but he said he would take his chances and sleep instead. Everyone at some point tried to avoid third task by hiding in their room. Jarn told him that it used to be a serious offence and nobles had to be stationed at each entrance of the third floor. The
rules had been relaxed somewhat and every now and then people got away with it. Ackerley was so tired that he figured he would try it.
When he got back to his room he noticed a note sticking out from under his pillow. It was written in a very loopy and flowery script
Hey,
If you can meet me in my residence after your last task I think I have a place to start looking. If you don’t want to then don’t. It’s alright if you don’t.
Ackerley momentarily forgot how tired he was. He wanted to run down there and start looking for the jewels straight away. The excitement died down a little when he realized Madame Thrindle would probably be down there until the third task ended. He went ahead and fell onto the bed.
He woke with a start when the door opened. It was nearing dark. He fell out of bed and jumped to his feet.
“Everything alright?” Jamie asked, hopping over the divider.
“Yeah, I just lost track of time.”
Ackerley rushed from the room and down the stairs. He stopped outside the door to Cerise’s part of the second floor and listened. For some reason he thought he would be able to hear if Thrindle was in there. He opened the door and sneaked inside.
Cerise sat on a couch in the hall that led to the dead end. She looked concerned when she saw Ackerley.
“I thought you might not want to come.”
“No, no, I just lost track of time. Do we have enough to look.”
“Less now, but I think we can get a start.”
“Where’s that woman?”
“She can’t talk after yelling at the nobles all day yesterday. She told me to do a full day of meditation while she rested. I did a few hours, but I really want to get started on this.”
She determined that the best starting
The Chellion Days Page 18
