by Clark Graham
Groli slept first, and she kept watch.
Farmers were out, just after sunrise, working their fields. Emily and Groli were so well hidden that no one came near. She could see chickens in the barnyards running around and a few cows here and there, but not very many. It was mostly older men that were taking care of the farms, mostly ordering young boys around. It made her think of her father, when she saw the men working, and she started missing him again. She woke Groli and had him take a turn watching while she got some sleep. She felt like it was five minutes later when he woke her, but the sun was down by this point and it was time to go. When she stood up she noticed that she was surprisingly stiff and sore. She ate a few roots and berries. There was only about one more meal before they ran out.
“How much longer do we have to go?” Emily asked. The journey through this land had been interesting but it was no longer fun.
Groli thought for a minute. “We will eat the last of the food tonight; tomorrow we should reach the Shadow King’s lair. We are close to the large city I saw. We will avoid it by going well east of it. Then we will come back west to the Shadow King’s lair. We will have to find food before we head back. I have seen chickens and dogs that we could take.”
“Dogs!” she exclaimed, “No dogs, don’t even think about it.”
He just sighed and said, “It is better than starving. We will use that as a last resort.”
She had forgotten that they had to go back. Suddenly Emily felt very tired.
Entrance to the Lair
They trudged on through field after field, cutting their way through the bushes between the fields and then trudging on through the next one. Emily could see the lights of the large city off to her side as they walked. It had a city wall, like the castle at home, but the walls of the city were made of dirt, not chiseled out rock like the castle’s walls. The city’s walls were not nearly as tall, she thought to herself. A long time after midnight, they turned past the city and headed straight towards the mountain. It loomed ominous as the got nearer. The dawn was breaking, but still they trudged on. The area to the side of the mountain was very rocky, so no farmers had their fields there. Groli knew they were now out of food as they had eaten the last of it during the night, so this was going to have to be the last day of the trek. It was almost noon when they came across a rock outcropping next to the base of the mountain. Groli stopped to look around and saw two guards standing by a tunnel entrance. He signaled Emily to look, so she slowly poked her head around to look.
“What are we going to do now?” she whispered.
“We will have to distract them so we can get in,” he replied.
She ran towards the guards before he could stop her. “Help, help, there is a man after me!” Emily screamed.
Both guards looked at each other and then started walking to where Emily was pointing. Groli slid around the right side of the rock, when the guards started looking at left side; he and Emily ran into the tunnel.
“I don’t see anyone,” the one guard said to Emily, but she was no longer there. “Where did she go?”
The other guard looked around. “She must have kept running.” They went back to their post and started guarding the entrance again.
Emily and Groli ran down the tunnel, not knowing where they should go. The tunnel did not branch off and it seemed reasonable that the Shadow King would not waste manpower guarding an empty tunnel. Just when Groli was thinking that they ran headlong into a big room. The room had two exits and each exit was guarded by two guards. The guards drew their swords when Groli and Emily came in. The guards went and stood by each other in the center of the room for a united front, but this left the one exit unguarded.
“What have we here?” said one of them.
Emily drew her dagger and Groli had his battleaxe at the ready. He pointed at the now open doorway and told Emily, “run that way.”
She took off through the door, leaving Groli to face the four guards. He watched the guards warily; they seemed hesitant to attack. Each was not holding their swords tight enough and they all bunched together for mutual support. Real soldiers would have spread out, so they could attack a target from different angles. ‘Farmers,” Groli thought to himself, and then with a strong swing of the battleaxe, he hit all their swords at the same time, knocking all of the swords out of the hands of the guards. Two of the guards retreated down a tunnel, the other two tried to tackle the Dwarf. The first one got a battleaxe handle straight to the gut and he doubled over in pain. The second guard got the flat side of the battleaxe against his helmet and was knocked senseless to the ground.
Groli started running down the tunnel that Emily had gone through.
When Emily came across the next set of guards, she just kept running right by them. They were so surprised that they just turned to watch her go by. It was the last thing they did before a Dwarf running a full speed, hit the two of them in the back, sending both of them sprawling across the floor. Groli didn’t even slow down.
Into the Inner Chamber
Sardenien, the Captain of the Guards, thought he heard a commotion coming up the tunnels so he walked over to the King’s Chamber to see if everything was well. He was a tall thin man, with shoulder length brown hair. He was a rancher by trade, but had been drafted into the Shadow King’s army. He did not like the Shadow King, but was a good man and obeyed orders. If his people wanted the Shadow King as a leader, he would obey their will. He took four of his guards with him. When he arrived at the King’s Chamber he found only the King’s Shadow on the wall. The shadow was always behind a curtain that was drawn tight with wood supports. It danced back and forth because of the firelight behind it. All of the guards were warned that looking behind the curtain would bring instant death.
To Sardenien’s surprise, a minute after he arrived, a girl in a blue dress bearing a dagger ran into the chamber.
“Who are you?” Sardenien asked.
Emily stopped short when she saw the guards and then noticed the Shadow on the curtain of the King.
“Kill the intruder!” yelled the Shadow King.
Sardenien was not about to kill the girl, so he held his men back by putting his arms in front of them. “We will not kill this girl.” Holding the men back was pointless as they were not approaching Emily. They had no desire to obey the King’s order either. No one wanted to kill the girl.
Just then Groli turned the corner and came to a stop next to Emily. Not waiting for the guards to regain their composure, he took his axe cut a large hole in the curtain.
There was a small room behind the curtain. In the middle of that room sat a small hairless creature with smooth blue skin. A tattered loin cloth was its only clothing he was wearing. He had all sorts of food stains on his stomach. Around the creature was a large pile of gold. The creature winced when Groli came through the curtain. Casting the Shadow King's shadow was a wood cutout of a man with a wood crown on its head. The fire behind the cutout caused the shadow to move back and forth as the fire danced. Groli took out his dagger and held it to the throat of the creature. By now all of the guards were looking behind the curtain too.
“An Imp, you have been fooled by an Imp,” yelled Groli.
Sardenien was momentarily stunned. The magnitude of the deception had sent his whole country to a needless war. His anger rose as he said, “I will not have an Imp as my King.” Then to his guards he said, “Take the Imp to the dungeon.” The four guards ran in and dragged the Imp away.
By that time six more guards had rushed into the King’s chamber, only to see the curtain torn down and the Imp being dragged away. Some of the guards were still bleeding from previous encounters with Groli. Sardenien walked over to the Dwarf and said, “You have overthrown and exposed our imposter King. According to our laws the throne is now yours.”
Groli smiled and said, “Not I, for I am her prisoner, she is the leader of this expedition.” He was pointing to Emily.
Sardenien and all the guards had shocked looks on t
heir faces. It was bad enough that a Dwarf was their ruler, now it was a girl. Sardenien stammered when he tried to speak, “Well, um ah,” was all he got out.
Emily thought quickly, ‘they can make a shadow their ruler, why not me?’ so she started shouting orders. “Get me out of this mountain, and take me to where all the farmers that you kidnapped from King Gustaff’s Kingdom are.”
“Yes, your highness,” was Sardenien’s response. He started sending the other guards on errands, two he kept with himself to guard their new Queen. He started to lead the group out of the mountain.
“What about the gold?” said Groli. The Dwarf in him did not like leaving it behind.
“We will give that back to the people who it belonged to,” Emily replied.
“But, can we keep just a little?” he asked.
“Groli, let’s go!” Emily snapped.
He gave the gold one last longing look and then followed the group out of the mountain.
The Reunion
Emily’s mother and four other women were cooking for all of the captured farmers. They were working out of a small farmhouse. The fifteen captured men were out in the field planting seeds. They were guarded during the day and put in a stockade at night. She was scared when the soldiers came in and had them leave the kitchen. The men were already gathered in from the fields, so Emily’s mother went and stood next to her husband.
When Sardenien arrived, they didn’t even look up, suddenly she heard Emily’s voice yelling, “Mother, Father.” She looked up to find out where her daughter was, but by then Emily was almost on them and running fast. The three of them hugged and cried for the longest time.
It truly touched Sardenien’s heart. It was then he realized why the Emily was there. He felt instantly sad that he had been part of the problem by believing in the Shadow King and breaking up Emily’s family.
After Emily’s mother finished hugging Emily, she wiped her eyes and said, “How did you get here Emily?”
“It’s a really long story,” Emily said, "and I will tell you it when we get home.”
“Home? We’re going home?” Emily mother said, almost in disbelief. Her father had a suddenly hopeful look on his face.
The turning to Sardenien she said, “Bring these people to the palace and get us something better to eat.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Sardenien said with a bow. Then he and the other soldiers escorted the group to the palace and had the servants there feed the group.
As Emily ate the finest food that the land had to offer, she could not help but think that it was not as good as the fish stew she had eaten by the river. Her mother and father sat next to her, still not understanding what happened, but they were not complaining about the turn of events.
Emily had one last command for Sardenien. “I need you to gather wagons and teams of horses for our trip back to our homes tomorrow.”
It was Sardenien’s turn to be surprised. “You are not staying, My Queen?”
“No, I do not know how to rule over a land. You would make a better ruler than I. I will make you King when we reach the border, ” Emily promised.
“I’m afraid that it’s not that easy. The Dwarves have attacked our armies. They were surrounded on the one side by Dwarves and on the other side by the men of King Gustaff, so our armies are no more. They have all surrendered. Even now the Dwarf army and King Gustaff’s Royal Army are marching down the coastal road towards us. What there intent is when they get here, I don’t know. I suspect that they will want to overthrow the King and throw all the soldier left in the land in a deep dungeon and leave them there a very long time.” Sardenien said, you could almost hear fear in his voice.
“Very well,” Emily said, “We will march out and meet them. Perhaps we can negotiate peace when they learn that the Shadow King has been overthrown.”
“As you wish,” Sardenien said. He was glad that Emily was going with them. He didn’t know how angry King Gustaff was, it didn’t look like a very good time to be the King, in his opinion.
A Night in the Palace
Emily snuggled down in the old King's bed that night, with down comforters and extra soft pillows. With a full stomach and a soft bed, she slept better than she had in a long, long, time.
Emily was awakened by Groli, standing by her bedside. "It is time to leave, Your Majesty," he said.
"I'm just Emily to you, Groli. That's all I ever want you to call me," she said.
"I thought as much, but the soldiers get very upset at me when I refer to you as Emily," Groli replied.
"Alright, then, just until we reach the border."
"Yes, Your Majesty," he replied with a smile.
Emily just scowled at him. He then left the room so she could get dressed. Someone had washed her dresses as she slept, and even mended all the tears and rips. She put the green one on for her journey back to her home.
Groli and the teamsters were ready when she arrived downstairs, so she climbed into the wagon's seat between the driver and Groli. Her mom and dad were right behind her in the back of the wagon. Sardenien and a dozen men were there to escort them.
As the wagons got underway, Emily hoped that the clear weather would hold. She did not want to get rained on during the trip. The wagons headed out and all the people were in high spirits. The farmers were going home. Emily had never been on the coastal road before. She had only been to the ocean once, a few years ago. Her parents took her there to show her the wonders of world beyond their farm. It was now fun so see it again in the distance as the waves crashed against the rocky coast. The wagons were making good time, and Sardenien rode his horse next to Emily’s wagon. The wagons stopped at noon so the people could eat and stretch their legs. The servers gathered food from the supply wagon and set it out on blankets. The group ate all sorts of exotic cheeses and breads and cured meats. Emily had never eaten cured meats before, but she liked them well enough. Groli didn't, however. He thought that meat should be eaten fresh, and cooked over a fire, not cured and stored on a shelf. They then loaded up and headed out again. The weather held, and the spirits of the people were up the closer they got to home, all except for the soldiers. They were headed to an uncertain future and the closer they got to the Royal Army the more nervous they became.
It was starting to get dark when the wagon train crossed the river. It was guarded by eight men that lived in a hut next to the water. The men bowed as Emily’s wagon crossed the bridge. She wondered how news of what had happened at the lair got to the men on the bridge that fast.
The river was very wide and deep this close to the ocean as the small streams added to the width as it made its way to the sea. Emily leaned over to Groli and said, “Now I see why you went so far upstream to cross the river. We would never have been able to cross it here.”
Groli replied, “No, we would have never made it across down here.”
Sardenien paused to confer with the men on the bridge and then rode back to catch up with Emily. When he got there he said, “The guards on the bridge tell me that the men sent to guard the border crossing have already retreated past the bridge. This means that the Royal Army is not too far off. We should camp here, and then sometime tomorrow, we will have to deal with King Gustaff and his army.”
“Very well,” Emily said.
The wagons stopped and the guards set up tents for themselves and the farmers. Food was brought out again.
Groli was grumbling as he looked at the cured meat, “I like my food a lot fresher than this.”
Emily smiled and said, “You fed us very well Groli, I do miss your cooking too, well, most of it anyway.”
Groli laughed.
Emily slept well on the pillows provided by the guards. She woke up refreshed and ready to start the day. The wagons were reloaded with the tents folded up and stored in the supply wagon. They headed out again. The soldiers were getting more and more edgy as they got closer the Royal Army. Soon, Emily saw two columns of warriors marching towards them. On the left was the
Dwarf Army; on the right was the Royal Army. Banners of many colors trailed behind them, including ones that bore the sign of the red lion. The drivers stopped the wagons to wait for the arrival of the columns. Sardenien swallowed hard.
The Encounter on the Coastal Road
When the Dwarf and the Royal Army got close to them they also stopped. The King and his eight knights rode up to the front of the column, “What is the meaning of this? Who are you?” he barked out.
Emily stood up in her wagon, “I’m Emily and I have come to negotiate a peace settlement.” The King was taken aback by the girl. “Hello,” he said in a softer voice as he sat back in his saddle. “Who are these people and how are you able to negotiate for the Shadow King?”
“These are the farmers that were taken from your lands. I have set them free and now plan on returning with them to our homes,” she answered. “The Shadow King has been overthrown and now resides in our dungeon; I am now Queen of these lands.”
Now the King was totally surprised. He looked over at Sardenien and asked, “Is what she saying true?”
“Yes, Sire it is,” Sardenien answered.
The King then turned back to Emily. “Where is your army then? Will I have to face it if I don’t agree to your terms?”
