Trial at the Faire

by Laurel Wanrow

  8

  A Test of Confidence

  Beri’s head clouded with the weight of finding Coral again. He might be the only one to have spotted her. Would he be fast enough to catch up to her across the estate grounds?

  You fetch her, Raven sent. We’re getting the thief’s description from Gran.

  Beri sprinted over the grass. Music blared anew. Folks began to spread across the lawn area. Some queued up to enter the manor house, others swarmed the paths to return to the crafter area, while others came this way around the doughnut booth and headed toward the maze.

  Gran says the bloke who disappeared with the cashbox is wearing a gray shirt, denim trousers and has brown hair.

  The description prickled at Beri as familiar somehow, but why? As he entered the crowd, the passersby blended together, many wearing the overly fancy costuming common at the faire, but enough wore the plain shirts humans favored that a gray shirt wouldn’t stand out. Beri darted around folks, craning looks ahead at the roadway Coral had been on. Searching for blue and braids… Blast, he’d lost his view, but that’d been Coral, he was sure.

  Their wagon in the vendor car park and the crafter tents were to the left of that roadway. If she’d returned toward the crafter area, she’d run into the others and be fine. But if Coral had turned right, into the public car park… As much as he hated the idea, he had to trust that he could catch up and help her.

  Trust what happens will be right. He hadn’t thought of Da’s words in years. He’d said them seven long years ago when they’d moved to the Isle of Giuthas, the Windborne island his da had grown up on. It was when Da found out about the cancer. He’d asked Merlin if he’d raise Beri. Merlin and Raven had been warm and welcoming and, with Lark, had folded him into their family as if he’d been their own blood kin. But to eighth-year Beri, knowing he was losing his da had been the end of his world.

  Beri broke out of the crowd around the side of the doughnut tent. The roadway of gravel lay ahead between the maze hedges and the manor house. Fewer people were back there. Most were walking toward him, headed for the maze entrance.

  “Hey! Beri!” called a shrill voice, and Rory, the boy from earlier with the lambs, ran up. Lengths behind him came his mum, trying to catch up. “I saw a man carrying your brown lamb in the car park,” Rory panted. “I told him he shouldn’t be doing that, but my mum said to be quiet.”

  “Rory, you aren’t supposed to run ahead!” shouted his mother, still yards off. “We have to meet Dad, then we can report it.”

  “He was stolen!” Rory shouted. “It’s an emergency!”

  As Rory’s mum hushed him, the purple-haired doughnut seller ran up. “You have an emergency?” He waved a radio device and looked between them.

  Clearly, he was offering help, and while Beri couldn’t explain outside of their group exactly why a necklace in a cashbox was an emergency, he could get help for Ms. Scallop’s money. He’d be free to help Coral, then.

  “Aye,” Beri said. “He says he saw one of our lambs in the car park, but also our cashbox was stolen, and one of our lasses is missing, though I think I just saw her running that way, too.” He turned to go, but the purple-haired lad thrust out a hand.

  “Heard about a cashbox,” he said. “That’ll be hard to trace, but you’ve a missing child from your group? Description?”

  “Youth—teen. Coral is fourteenth year.” Ach, he’d said that wrong, but couldn’t stand around explaining. Beri backed toward the car park. “Blue dress, brown braids. I have to find her.”

  “That girl is with the man carrying your rare lamb!” Rory yelled in exasperation.

  “Oh.” The doughnut seller’s eyes widened with recognition. “You don’t mean Ms. Meadows’ lambs? The Manx ones?”

  Rory thrust out a finger. “That’s what I’ve been saying. Come on!” He sprinted back down the roadway.

  His mum shouted, “Rory!” and started after him again.

  Beri took off and passed her. Behind him, more footsteps pounded. The doughnut lad called, “Security Code A. Possible child abduction. A missing teen, blue dress and brown braids, last seen headed for the car park. One of the rare Manx lambs was also seen there. Search the car park and stop anyone with a young teen girl or sheep.”

  Beri had to smile. Rory had gotten attention and help in a way that Beri never could have. He hadn’t known it was possible. Though his mother was yelling, she was behind them, too, and he wouldn’t let Rory out of his sight either.

  More folks were on the roadway ahead at the end of the hedges. No sign of Coral, yet he easily kept Rory in sight.

  Then Rory turned right into a gap in the boxwood hedge. No! Not the maze. He had no sooner disappeared than Salm burst out of woods from the opposite side. Their gazes met. Beri pointed, but wide-eyed Salm had scanned between them and turned to search the other direction.

  “Salm!” gasped Beri. Blast it, why couldn’t it have been Raven, who he could thought-speak with? Salm clearly hadn’t found Coral…unless he was now looking for the thief.

  Salm began running the opposite direction, down the tree-lined corridor toward the main gate. Beri was almost to the turn Rory had taken. He had to forget Salm and go after the boy…and find Coral. But if Rory had gone into the maze, he might never find them.

  We see you, Raven sent. Behind you and coming. Where is she?

  He hoped it wasn’t the car park. Not sure, but I’m following a boy who says he saw her. Salm ran past.

  We’ll find her.

  Raven sounded so sure that Beri repeated, Trust what happens will be right. He reached the gap in the hedge. Ahead, Oyster came out from around the end of the manor house. He saw Beri and stopped.

  Beri pointed. “Salm went that way. You didn’t see Coral?”

  Oyster shook his head. “Salm is frantic that someone has kidnapped her!”

  “I’m not sure.” Beri pointed again. “I’m following a boy who saw her over here.” He ducked between the bushes where Rory had gone.

  Oyster followed him. “I’ll tell Salm through my channels. Let’s go.”

  They ran. The path wasn’t into the maze, thank the Orb. It skirted alongside the boxwood, with woods on the other side. He couldn’t see Rory.

  “Salm will circle around from where he is,” Oyster whispered.

  Movement ahead caught Beri’s eye. Rory’s figure became clearer in the thinning woods…aye, because this path opened to the field of automobiles. Orb take it. Beri’s heart raced, far worse than it had from running. Some would be moving in this field. His heartbeat kept pace with the pounding of footsteps. Would Rory—

  “Rory! Watch out for the cars!”

  The boy stopped, looking back, then forward again.

  “Wait!” Beri shouted.

  “But—” Rory dashed back. “The guy’s there, fighting with the girl over the lamb.”

  “Let go!” snapped Coral, and Beri saw her a hundred feet ahead, a small blue-clothed figure tussling with a much bigger man in gray.

  Gray shirts. Two men wearing gray shirts had asked them about the lambs. They had brown hair. Was one of them the cashbox thief, and the other had let out the lambs? And chased Coral? Or had Coral seen the man with the lamb, and she’d chased him?

  I see you, Raven sent. Where is Coral?

  “The missing lambs are over here?” asked Oyster.

  This was getting crazy with too many people talking to him. Plus, Rory had sprinted ahead again. Beri kept running. At the end of the path, a few folks were bunched up around the gray-shirted man, who had one of their lambs draped around his neck and out of Coral’s reach.

  “Hey,” someone shouted. “Why are you—”

  “My sheep are my business,” the man snapped.

  “That’s not your lamb,” Coral yelled.

  “It’s not!” Rory added.

  “Damned kids,” snarled the man. “Get out of my way.” He shoved past a couple, a man in a white shirt and a woman in green.

  Flights! Coral w
as fine, but… “Stop him,” Beri shouted as he and Oyster ran.

  The woman saw them, whipped around to the thief and shouted, “Lamb-napper! You give her lamb back!”

  “Coral is here,” Oyster said, then a second later, “Salm sees us.”

  The man in white gave chase and grabbed the thief by the shirt. As the thief lurched, the lamb flew from his shoulders and landed on the ground with a bleat. Gray Shirt swung and punched the other man in the gut, while the lamb got to its feet and ran between the cars. White Shirt hit back and shoved the lamb-napper against a car. The woman screamed, and Rory yelled and hurtled after the lamb.

  Beri winced. The cars were parked, yet… I canna think of the danger. I must get Rory. He canna become a memory like Mum.

  Or—

  “Coral!” he shouted as she chased after the lamb, too.

  The fighters fell to the ground, rolling in the narrow corridor of grass between the cars. Beri leaped over them. He should help, but he couldn’t lose sight of Rory or Coral.

  No cars were moving in the car park—only Coral and Rory darting zigzags as the bleating lamb trotted around the side of this car then that one.

  The animal wouldn’t calm down until they stopped chasing it. “Leave…” The order died in his throat, because striding down the driving aisle came the second gray-shirted man. The man who had asked the questions at the pen. Their gazes met across a row of cars.

  These men must also have their cashbox with Lark’s peregrinator.

  The man registered recognition a second before a yell from the fighters broke his stare. A moment later, the lamb ran from between the cars practically at the man’s knees. He grabbed it—clearly experienced at this—and swung the lamb onto his shoulders and turned.

  “Hey!” Rory yelled, Coral echoing him, “Put him down!”

  Coral gave chase, but the boy was slower. Beri managed to grab Rory’s shoulder.

  “Nay. You stop and wait for—” He looked around. The boy’s mum was nowhere in sight. Then Oyster careened around a car, the mum and doughnut fellow on his heels, thank the Orb, and Raven and Willow behind them.

  “Rory,” his mum shouted.

  “You wait for your mum,” Beri ordered and took off after Coral.

  “Aw, I wanna help!” His wail mixed with pounding footsteps.

  Beri raced after Coral.

  An engine started up. Which was it? Fear squeezed Beri’s gut as he frantically searched for the automobile—and spotted Salm across the car park.

  He pointed, but at what? The car? Coral?

  Oyster caught up to him as Raven asked, You have a plan? I wish I still had that squire dagger. It looked real enough.

  A dagger? Spells, they didn’t need weapons. He might have the cashbox, Beri answered and also said that aloud to Oyster. Since they’ve taken the lambs.

  Ah, good thinking.

  Oyster grunted his agreement.

  They were nearing the end of the row where a white van was parked unevenly next to the other cars. A man in the driver’s seat, clearly with the two crooks, leaned out of his window and yelled, “Hurry!”

  Beri heard it now. The running engine was the van’s. And he had to go near it to save the lamb and Coral.

  “The white van,” Oyster panted out. “You see it? Good. Salm is on it, too.” He waved across the car park.

  It was the oddest conversation…which wasn’t completely directed at him. Beri narrowed his focus to stopping the man. Coral was already yanking his shirt, and now he and Oyster had Raven and Willow to help. He had to trust all of them.

  The man rounded the van with the lamb, Coral beside him.

  Beri skirted the back, close enough his shoulder rubbed the metal side. Its vibrations coursed through his body. He sucked in a breath, and sweat beaded on his brow.

  Nay, naught was stopping him! He plowed forward, around the van—

  At a side opening, the thief shoved Coral off, but she nimbly leaped aside and made another grab for the lamb. Beri extended his arms and lunged into the man. His hold on the lamb faltered. It fell, and Coral tumbled after it, while Beri forced the thief backward, slamming them both against the open passenger door.

  Right. Now what? Beri was chest to chest with the thief, a clean-shaven man sporting a neat haircut, looking no different than someone who might be on the deckways of Tern Bay. Except he’d robbed them. “Where’s our cashbox?”

  “What’re we waiting for?” the driver shouted. “Get in!”

  “Not with our lamb!” Coral yelled back and clambered through an open sliding door.

  Hadn’t the lamb run off? The thief shoved Beri back—or tried to. Oyster threw himself beside Beri’s larger frame and pinned an arm. The man yelled at them, and the driver yelled at Coral, and Beri bent his knees and leaned into the bloke with all his muscle. They wouldn’t last much longer. Where were Raven and Willow?

  Over the man’s shoulder, Beri saw Salm appear through the window. He sprinted around the door. “What the hell! No one kidnaps my sister!” He jabbed his fist, landing a neat punch on the man’s jaw. He sank in Beri’s hold. Beri let him fall, and as the thief attempted to get up, Oyster hit him, then sat on him. Willow plopped onto his feet.

  Inside the van, Coral was frantically trying to untie another wide-eyed lamb tethered to a seat. “Stupid way to tie a knot!”

  “Ho!” Beri shouted. “Unbuckle the collar!”

  The van roared as it started forward. Coral! Beri leaped into the van, swaying with its movement but pushing on. Coral was undoing the collar, then the lamb was free and tried to scramble to the back. Beri shoved it toward the door, and the lamb jumped out. He grabbed Coral under the arms to pull her up.

  On the floor lay their cashbox.

  “By the Orb,” he blurted. “Get it.” He pointed.

  Coral snatched up the box. He hauled her upright and swung around. The ground moved past the open door. It’ll only get worse. They had to do it. “We’re jumping!”

  With the van accelerating, he lifted Coral and jumped. Magic flushed through him automatically, just as it would for flight, and his body lightened. Even bearing Coral’s additional weight, the familiar feeling of floating came over him. They drifted, and he landed on his feet, running. The momentum carried them a few paces before he stopped and let Coral slide to the ground. She looked as breathless as he felt, and he ought to ask if she was all right, but he took the cashbox and flipped the latch.

  Please, don’t let it have been opened and the peregrinator discovered.

  The coin tray was on top, the different coins jumbled together now, but that wasn’t what mattered. He lifted the tray… The paper envelope was on the bottom, puffed with the wool padding. Seeing it wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He handed back the box, opened the flap and felt around with his fingertips. The chain and glass rod were there. Relief made his knees wobble.

  He closed the envelope and slid it into his pocket. He would nae let go of it until the device was again in Lady Lark’s possession. Tilting back his head, Beri released his breath. A weight lifted from him. Back when he was eighth year, he was sure his Da dying would be a blasted horror that he’d never recover from.

  He had. Or maybe he was still. It was hard to tell, but he was making a place for himself, with the help of his new family. Aye, Da had been right. Things were turning out right, and as Lark had said, this experience was for him to build trust in himself. He had, and everything had worked.

  The purple-haired doughnut lad trotted up, breath heaving, radio to his mouth. “Car park. White van roaring out. Stop it! Kids are—” He whirled to Beri. “Are all of you here?”

  A quick scan found Oyster, Willow and Raven on the thief, Salm hugging Coral, who was hugging their cashbox, and two lambs staring from between parked cars. “Aye!”

  “Everyone is safe,” the doughnut lad shouted into his device. “Get the number plate if you can’t stop it. And some help over here!” Then he bent, hands to his thighs, and gasped in a few breath
s. “I gotta lay off the doughnuts.”

  9

  Trust Paid Off

  Holding down the struggling thief took all of Raven’s strength. Willow deftly pinned his kicking feet—how many times had he seen her do that to her younger brother? With the thief hurling constant profanities over his shoulder, Oy had the worst of it.

  “You’re in for more trouble than you bargained for,” the man growled. “I’ll track you down wherever you live!”

  Raven looked at Willow and Oyster, and their gazes met. They burst out laughing.

  A tremendous screech and bang erupted from the direction of the entrance gate, silencing them. While their thief quietly groaned, they craned to see what had happened. Jesters, knights and a number of uniformed guards ran down the adjacent roadway. At the doughnut lad’s shout, several split off and ran over to help them.

  The staff bound the thief’s hands. One said, “We’ll take over now, kids,” and hauled the man upright. Only then did Raven notice the speaker was the Red Knight.

  He paused when their gazes met. “This was your emergency?” asked the Red Knight.

  Blast, was the man going to reprimand him again? Raven gestured helplessly. “They stole our cashbox and our rare lambs. We had to help our friends.”

  The knight laughed. “A far better way to prove you have earned the right to defend the kingdom. I shall see that you both receive your inductions.” He lifted his chin toward Salm.

  Er? “Right, thank you!” Raven said before an odd question slipped from his mouth.

  Police sirens wailed over the confusion. The couple who’d fought one of the thieves approached with a uniformed guard leading the scoundrel, hands cuffed behind him and his head hanging. The boy Beri had called Rory and his mum trailed after them.

  “You’re all right?” Raven asked Willow, and at her nod, he extended a hand to Oyster. “You have a mean hook, mate.” Raven never would have thought to punch these humans as Oyster and Salm had.

  Oy shook his hand. “We all did well.” His glance included Beri, Coral and Salm standing nearby.