The Everlands Chronicles: The Truth

by A. J. Bell

  “If My Lord allows me, I will go with her.” I hadn’t noticed Shane and Sir Daniel standing by the door, but I should’ve known that they were there. They were always with Victor. “Shane and I will accompany you, My Lady,” said Daniel.

  “Then let’s go. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be back,” I said. On an impulse of fear that I would never see Richard again, I leaned close to Richard’s face and whispered, “I’ll be back shortly. Hang onto your life for me, My Lord.” I brushed my lips against his, ignoring everyone’s surprised looks. If I should fail in my task, a kiss would be the last of my regrets.

  We didn’t have to pack much, since their horses were still loaded and I had forgotten that I left Stardust back at our old house when I rode Rogue home. Stardust hadn’t followed us back. I needed a horse I could trust, so I took Rogue on our trek. We rode and rode, without stopping for hours.

  “The horses need rest and water!” yelled Daniel as we were passing by a small pond, but I ignored his suggestion. After another hour or so, he yelled again. “We need to stop!” Again, I ignored him.

  Half an hour later, I found myself riding alone for a few hundred feet before I looked back. I pulled Rogue to a halt and turned around. “What do you think you are doing?” I demanded.

  “I told you we need to rest,” replied Daniel.

  “We aren’t stopping until we reach Surien. Richard’s life is hanging from a thread–”

  “The horses can’t take it any longer without food and water,” he assured me, dismounting.

  “Get back on your horse!” I commanded him, which only made him furious.

  “You do not give me orders!” Sir Daniel snapped, directing his horse to drink from a stream nearby.

  “Why did you decide to come, Daniel? To slow us down?” I asked, beginning to get angry.

  “You know the answer to that. Victor won’t be at peace until you’re home in one piece.”

  Shane looked back and forth between us. “We both know that Elle doesn’t care much about what His Majesty thinks. Did she not kiss Sir Richard before we left, in front of His Highness?” Shane said.

  “Keep your opinion until I ask you to give it!” Daniel snapped again, but this time to Shane. His attitude made me so angry. I dismounted and threw myself at Daniel, knocking him to the ground.

  “Shane gives up everything to serve you, and you don’t treat him fairly.”

  “How I treat my servants is none of your business!” He tried to stand up, but I dug my boot in his chest.

  Shane came to his rescue. “Just like you didn’t care about Sir Richard tearing your back into pieces, I don’t care about Sir Daniel’s attitude. I know deep inside that he cares about me.”

  I removed my foot. “If you’ve come to help, then do so; if not, you can get lost,” I said to Daniel.

  “The horses need to drink and eat,” Daniel said, stubbornly.

  Shane put his hand on my shoulder, “If we lose the horses–”

  “Then we’ll walk!” I interrupted Shane.

  “Walking won’t be fast enough, and it all will be in vain. If we walk, we’ll not make it back in time to help Sir Richard. Sit down and rest for a few minutes, and give a small break to your horse,” said Shane.

  “I can’t. If I need to switch horses when I arrive to Surien, so be it. For seven years, he has watched over me. I won’t sit down and rest while he’s fighting for his life. If I’ve one chance to help him, I’ll take it. Now if you want to help me, get on your horse and follow me, or turn back around for all I care.” I mounted Rogue again and headed down the road. A few minutes later, they caught up to me.

  “You are right,” mouthed Daniel, riding by my side.

  “About?”

  “Everything,” he said.

  “I’ll take that as an apology for now. Thanks anyway for coming. If we make it back in time, I’ll be in your debt, and I always pay my debts.”

  Shane relaxed after he heard us.

  We arrived at Hope’s Hill at sunset, but it was so dark, I couldn’t see the difference between one berry and another.

  “Find some water for the horses. We’re going to have to camp for the night. We’ll have to wait until sunrise to get what we need. Let us hope that Richard makes it until we get back.”

  I laid out a blanket with hopes to rest, but instead, I cried from the moment the blanket touched the ground. I couldn’t stop the tears, nor did I want to stop them. For the first time in a long time, I was scared beyond description; I was scared I might never see Richard again. I finally fell asleep somewhere in between “this is all my fault” and “I won’t make it to him on time.”

  What a rude awakening! There was no light, and I still felt exhausted. I couldn’t have been asleep longer than a couple of hours. It was still pitch black, as if the moon had purposely hidden its moonbeams from us. Yet even in the darkness, I knew we were not alone.

  “On your feet!” commanded a man whose sword was placed right above my heart. I reached for Heaven, but he had seized my weapon while I was asleep. Stupid me! I had fallen asleep, and so had Daniel and Shane. We hadn’t worried about keeping watch.

  “I said, on your feet!” He grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me up, but I hit him in the stomach. I heard him gasp for air as he let go of me. I took the opportunity to kick him to the ground. Another man came rushing towards me, swinging his blade, so I ducked. His blade got stuck in the trunk of a tree behind me. After I kicked him in the knee, he staggered backwards. The next move, I didn’t deflect. In fact, I didn’t even see the man, so his fist caught me square in the mouth. I tasted my blood immediately. I spat a couple times, trying to get it all out of my mouth, but it continued to flow. I fell back on top of another man who wrapped his arms around me and constrained me from continuing the fight. The first man was back on his feet and tied a rope around my wrists tightly. Before the struggle was over, I managed to kick him in the face. It only worsened the situation. They decided to tie my feet also and carry me downhill.

  “Leave her alone!” Daniel yelled. “We’ve told you that we were not spying on you,” he scoffed, and then fell silent. No doubt, they were beating him as well.

  “We’re not–” I began to say, but they muffled my sounds. With a piece of filthy fabric, they covered my mouth so my words got lost.

  The men escorted us to the village and put us in a cell. Once inside there, they bound Daniel’s and Shane’s feet, the same way as mine had been at the top of the hill.

  They had taken Heaven away from me, but unfortunately for them, I always carry more than one weapon. My hands were bound in front of me, so I lifted up my skirt slowly, not caring about the shocked looks on my traveling companions faces. They brightened up as they saw my dagger. Daniel and Shane crawled towards me very fast and very quiet. My knife ripped through the rope on Daniel’s hands, and once his hands were cut loose he untied ours. When he removed the gag from my mouth, I spat blood to the side in a non-ladylike kind of way. Both of them looked concerned.

  “Are you all right, Elle?” asked Daniel. I tried to wipe the blood from my mouth, embarrassed, but I wondered if it would be enough.

  “No teeth were broken,” I said, freeing my feet.

  “Who cares about teeth in a situation like this? We are prisoners!” Shane said, annoyed. “I care,” I said, but then Daniel shared his unrequested opinion.

  “Leave her alone, Shane. Regardless of the way she behaves, she’s still a lady, and the sort of things that are superficial to men are not the same for a woman.” Was he being sympathetic with me? That would be very strange coming from Daniel.

  “If I can get to their leader, I could prove to him that we’re not spies. It’s going to be tricky to get us out of here unnoticed,” I said, “but we have to get out.” I was pacing the floors, trying to figure a way to escape.

  “I hear voices!” said Shane, alarmed, standing by the door.

  I grabbed a piece of rope from the bounds we had cut and gave the d
agger to Daniel. I had them lie down on the floor in the darkest part of the cell with their backs to me, and I stood next to the door, waiting.

  “The woman is gone,” whispered one of them.

  “That’s impossible,” said another.

  “Open the door,” said one more behind them.

  “Where’s the woman?” demanded the first man from my companions. Daniel and Shane didn’t answer.

  “We gagged them. Don’t you remember?” added another man.

  “Someone has to go in,” said another one.

  I heard a sword as it was unsheathed, and then the door opened. One man after another came into the cell while I waited behind the door until they were almost to where Daniel and Shane were. That gave me the opportunity I had been seeking. I closed the door fast and locked them in with us. The three of them had swords, and the last one to come in also carried a torch. He could’ve been twice as deadly if he hadn’t been so young and inexperienced – not older than fifteen. Daniel and Shane jumped on the men close by and brought them down, but I couldn’t see myself attacking the young man in front of me.

  “What’s your name, lad?” I asked him.

  “Sashe,” he replied.

  “Sashe, go now to your leader. Tell him I request a private audience with him. Don’t get distracted or go anywhere else, or we’ll take your friends…” I looked at the subdued men behind him, “down to the grave with us.” His eyes widened in fear. He dropped the torch and ran until he disappeared in the distance. About a half hour later, he came back with Jais, a man in his fifties who I had fought with side-by-side over a month ago.

  “Let my men go!” Jais commanded.

  “They will be let go after I’ve your word that you’ll listen to what we have to say.” He nodded, and Daniel and Shane released the men. “If you’re not spies, then who are you?”

  “My name is Elle Giles. We come from Andora. This is Sir Daniel, personal guard to His Majesty Prince Victor, and his loyal squire, Shane. We need your help. We were trying to save time by not coming into your village. Sir Richard of Stoneburg was bitten by a Ghost snake and is now fighting for his life. You may not know him, but you have met his squire who led a group of men from Pokan, Gaelac, and Tishan in battle over a month ago. My mother used to tell me the story of the healing berries of Hope’s Hill, and I hope it is true, so that I might bring some of these to him and give him a fair chance to defeat this venom that has given him an unbreakable fever for almost ten days. My mother has tried everything in her garden, but so far, nothing has worked.” I took his hand. “I beg you to let us go and take that to him, as a favor to honor the man whose servant was willing to give his life in battle for the safety of your people,” I pleaded.

  “If what you say is true, and you’re friends instead of foe, why didn’t his squire come to get our berries for his master? Why did he send a maiden to do a man’s job?” Jais asked.

  “Who’s to say he didn’t come, Father,” said another man coming into the cell, holding a bloodstained piece of fabric over his nose with one hand and holding Heaven with the other. “This sword saved my life! Its craftsmanship is unique. It is made out of Clouds, if I remember correctly. Beautiful indeed, hard to forget – the sword of a mighty warrior that fought almost to the death for the people of Surien,” he said calmly. “I just never thought that the hand that used it was that of a woman.”

  Jais looked at his son in bewilderment.

  Chapter 20

  “What nonsense are you talking, Dash? Did the bones of your broken nose go into your head?”

  “Do you deny it?” Dash asked me, handing my sword back to me. “I owe you my life,” he said, “as well as my broken nose.”

  I grabbed the sword, took a deep breath, and slashed a couple of gashes in the air. I stared at the beauty of my sword, and then back at them. “This sword’s mine.”

  Dash shook his head, either in denial or in amazement. I couldn’t read his expression clearly, unlike his father. Jais’s jaw had dropped, and he stared back and forth between the sword and my face. I used my sword to close his mouth, positioning it below his chin and pushing upward. He looked at the sword again, and then at me again. He was speechless, and he was wasting my time.

  “My Lord, I’m sure you must have a lot of questions, but I don’t have time to spare. Every minute that I waste in here is one more that drains Sir Richard’s life out of him. We need to take those berries to him. It’s our only hope!” I pleaded again.

  He nodded, his face still in shock. “Follow me,” he said.

  We walked behind him past the front gates of the small prison. The boy I had sent out for Jais was standing by the side of it, looking at us with fearful eyes as we passed.

  “You scared him,” said Daniel. “I bet not even the Prince would find you charming right now.”

  Did he really say that? I felt so insulted! We had just been beaten to a pulp, cast into prison, and practically escaped thanks to my cleverness, all in a few hours. And he was judging the way I looked.

  When I looked at Shane to see if he thought the same as his master, he brushed his fingers against his teeth exaggeratedly and motioned for me to do the same.

  When I did, my finger ended up covered in the dried blood that coated my teeth. I can only imagine how I must have looked to that lad when I told him to go and get Jais or else. He’ll probably never recover from it and will end up having nightmares for the rest of his life about me.

  I understood what Daniel said, and even though I didn’t want to care, I couldn’t help but feel ashamed of the way I looked. I lowered my face and kept it like that until Jais stopped in front of a little log cabin. A woman was standing by the door with her face strained with worry. She ran to Jais’s arms as soon as she saw him. He kissed her softly on the forehead and embraced her back. Dash cleared his throat and then she hugged him too. That was very sweet to see, although when she refused to let go, Dash got embarrassed.

  “They’re not spies,” said Jais to a man standing by the door. “Pass the word around. Everyone can go back to their beds.” The man nodded and disappeared into the darkness. “We have not lowered our guard after the last attack,” he explained. “We keep our hills guarded, and our people sleep with only one eye shut.” He invited us inside the cabin into a small room with a couple of logs used as seats on every wall. In the center, there was a blazing golden fire that kept the room lit and warm at the same time. Up above, there was a loft where three little boys and a young maiden were looking down at us with extreme curiosity. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or feel insulted when I heard them whispering that their father had caught a witch, and that they wondered how powerful I really was, and if I could really turn them into stone? I took a quick glance at them when I heard that last question and grinned at them. They went scurrying, probably to hide under their covers. Their reaction brought a smile to my face – a smile that I hid quickly when I felt Dash’s curious gaze on me.

  “This is my home,” said Jais. “You’ll stay here tonight. Dash will volunteer his room for you to use. Your friends will stay in the barn with my son.” Dash nodded his approval of his father’s decisions.

  “With all due respect, My Lord, I appreciate you trying to provide a place for us to stay, but we must go. The sooner the better–”

  He cut me off abruptly. “I’ll send a group of men to Andora tonight with the berries and the instructions on how to brew them. I promise you they won’t rest until they reach their destination. Meanwhile, you and your friends can remain behind until your strength is fully regained. Then you can go back to Andora and to your betrothed.”

  “Sir Richard isn’t my betrothed,” I said defensively. “And my friends and I will sleep in the barn together. Your son may keep his room.”

  “I’ll not have an unmarried woman sleep under the same roof with two men! Young lady, you may have a mind of your own, but in my house, you’ll respect my rules,” he said sternly.

  “I mean no insult to
your intelligence, your principles, or your home,” I replied.

  “Then you’ll do as I say,” Jais concluded. I tried arguing, but he just brushed off my comments.

  “Tara, bring some clean clothes for our guest and help her to get cleaned up. Polish her until we are able to see the young maiden that is now covered with that blood and grime.” His wife left and came back shortly with a nice clean sleeping gown.

  “This way, my dear,” she said. I followed her but not before glancing back at Daniel and Shane. The both of them were giggling to see my demise. They will pay for not siding with me on this.

  I won’t lie; the bath felt heaven-sent. Although I was embarrassed at first by having Tara help me, by the end of it, her presence helped me to relax. Her touch reminded me of Mother’s touch, gentle and firm at the same time. Up until this moment, I hadn’t thought, not even for a second, the inferno I had put my mother through by almost dying every time I left her sight. I hoped that someday I could make it up to her. And I hoped that someday I could be the daughter that she truly deserved, instead of the girl who found trouble on her every path.

  It couldn’t have been later than eleven at night when we were done. My stomach was rumbling so loud that Tara could hear its roar.

  “You are starving,” she said. “Get dressed while I go and prepare something quick for you to eat before you lie down tonight.”

  I got dressed and joined them at the dining table, almost causing Jais and Tara to faint. Daniel stood up immediately and tossed his cloak over me. Shane was laughing hysterically until Daniel and I shot him a warning glance that killed his laughter. Dash also seemed to be enjoying the view. In the darkness of Dash’s room, I hadn’t realized that the chemise Tara gave me was made of very fine fabric, almost see-through in the light. It was meant to be worn underneath a dress and not as a dress by itself, unlike in the case of a male tunic that could also be worn as a shirt. In other words, I had come out into the dining area in my female undergarments. Shane thought it was funny, but it really wasn’t. Daniel took me by the arm and escorted me back to Dash’s room.