Chloe's Guardian

by Cheri Gillard

  “God’s teeth! Madmen, the lot of yeh! What is in yur thick skulls thinking yeh can race down the road full tilt in the middle of the day?”

  The rider shook off his hand and pulled a pouch of money from his belt. He tossed it at the store owner, who caught it awkwardly against his middle.

  “We must be off to join the Queen’s fight. Take the coin to cover the damages. We have no time.”

  The rider with the lame horse abandoned his mount and jumped up behind the other and they galloped away. The man who gave the money mounted his ride and rode off after them.

  “Do you see a boy? Does anyone know what happened to the boy?” Horatius shouted.

  Bystanders jumped in to help and threw scraps of broken lumber and crumbled rock into a pile in the street. Bricks from the foundation were broken loose and mixed with the shredded lumber.

  One man picked up a large plank of wood and reacted with horror. He yelled, “God’s teeth, come help, over here!”

  Another man ran up beside him and looked down beneath the plank where Horatius strained to see but could not.

  “By all the Saints! There is a young lad under here!”

  CHAPTER 41

  After Agnes took them from the Queen’s presence chamber, she led Kaitlyn and Chloe to a guest room to use until they left for Agnes’ family castle. They would leave in two days.

  Kaitlyn enjoyed the décor of the room; Chloe paced back and forth across a thick rug. Kaitlyn admired the paintings on the wall and commented on the carvings in the heavy oak furniture. Chloe was too busy to listen, trying to figure out what they should do. She hadn’t seen Pan since the stop in the middle of the night. Doubts flooded her mind, keeping her from knowing if she should trust him or if she should somehow trust that Horace would find them.

  Depending on Horace might be incredibly foolish. How could he help them? He may not even be alive. But maybe his powers would save him and make him able somehow to locate Kaitlyn and her.

  Whatever happened, they couldn’t stay where they were. She had to get home and do something to save her family. Maybe she could summon some angels or spirits or something and enlist their help. Just hanging around doing nothing was going to drive her insane.

  “You should come see this,” Kaitlyn said.

  “Kaitlyn, I don’t really have any interest right now in looking at things.”

  “Okay.”

  Kaitlyn continued her silent observation for several minutes. Something outside had her mesmerized.

  “What’s out there?” Kaitlyn didn’t answer. “No, really. What’s out there?” Chloe went to the window.

  A group of soldiers down in the yard were bunched around something on the ground. Several spectators gathered in an outer circle around the tighter cluster of guards.

  “Did you see what happened?” Chloe asked.

  “It’s Pan. He was walking, then they started after him, and he ran, then they caught him. They threw him down. It looked like they arrested him or something.”

  Why didn’t you tell me?

  She swallowed her frustration. “He might be our only hope.”

  “I hope they don’t cut off his head.”

  Chloe grabbed Kaitlyn’s hand. “Come on. We have to go help him!”

  When they got to the yard, the soldiers and Pan were gone. A man trimmed bushes with a long knife along the building like nothing had happened.

  “Excuse me, did you see where they took that man they just captured?”

  The gardener didn’t even bother to look at her. “Dungeon, I imagine.”

  Kaitlyn gasped.

  “Where is the dungeon? How do we get there?” Chloe said.

  The gardener lowered his knife and turned toward her like they had all day to discuss the matter. “Never been there myself. Have to ask someone else.”

  He turned back to his bushes.

  Chloe grabbed Kaitlyn’s hand again and dashed to the main entrance. She had to find Agnes. She’d help them know what to do.

  When they re-entered the keep, a guard—the very same guard they’d just passed on their crazed exit out the door—stopped them.

  “Halt there, m’ladies. You canna rush in like the place is your own when the Queen is in attendance.”

  “But we were just in here,” Chloe said. “We are guests of Lady Agnes.”

  “We need to speak to her. Can you find her for us?” Kaitlyn said.

  The guard scowled at them. “I canna leave my post. What if another ruffian attempts to barge in?”

  “Another?” Chloe said. “We’re not ruffians.”

  “What of that recent disturbance? I canna leave. It would be my head if something happened.”

  “Where did they take the man, the ruffian? We saw him on the lawn with other guards. We know him. We can help.”

  He eyed them again with skepticism. “If you keep company with the likes of him, I should not let you back inside.”

  “We need to find Lady Agnes. We’ll just go—”

  He put his staff out to stop Chloe. “Do not make me warn you again.”

  “Our things are in our room,” Kaitlyn said to his broad chest.

  “What are you doing?” Agnes came into the room and barked at the guard.

  He pulled away from the girls and snapped to attention. “Protecting the Queen, m’lady.”

  “From my guests?” Agnes said. “Come with me,” she said to Chloe and Kaitlyn. She escorted them out of the great hall and down a passageway to the stairs that would take them to their room.

  “The Queen agreed to have you play music at our meal this eventide. I should like my husband to hear you, too.”

  “Do you know anything about the soldiers arresting Pan, the man who stopped us on the way here last night? He was out on the lawn taken by some guards.”

  Agnes looked frightened again. “What did he do?”

  “We don’t know,” Kaitlyn said. “Can you help us find him? We need to talk to him. Before they—” She sliced her finger across her neck.

  “They’re not going to kill him,” Chloe said. “Right?” she asked Agnes.

  “I have no idea,” Agnes said. “Let us go find out what he did.”

  Agnes took them back past the guard and out the door. They went to another smaller building across the grassy yard. When she walked in, several guards jumped up from a dice game on the table.

  “Where is the man who was just seized?” Agnes said.

  A man who hadn’t reacted and was leaning against a wooden cabinet answered her. “Down below in a cell. What would you possibly want with an infidel like him?”

  “What crime did he commit?” Agnes said, unruffled by the lack of respect the man showed her.

  “He is an associate of George Gordon of Huntly. He is guilty of treason because of that, being a part of the uprising against the crown. He will be tried and executed. Drawn and quartered, I suspect.”

  “Take us to see him,” Agnes demanded.

  “He is extremely dangerous,” one of the other men said. He was a young man with a fresh black eye.

  “He is a friend of ours, and he’s not dangerous at all,” Kaitlyn said. Chloe didn’t think it was a good idea just now to claim him as a friend.

  The man who thought he was quite impressive signaled for them to follow. They went down a narrow hallway to an even narrower, steep stairway. Sconces bolted into the stone wall held torches that lit the spiral steps leading down to an underground cavern. The ceiling was low and the dank smell mixed with spoiled food made Chloe take shallow breaths.

  Inside a cage sat Pan. Iron rods went from the rock floor to the low ceiling. The back wall was rough-hewn stone. Pan was on the floor with iron shackles on his ankles. Kaitlyn let out a whimper when she saw him. Chloe had a sudden pang of compassion. Kaitlyn dashed to the bars of the cell and squatted down next to Pan.

  “Are you okay?” she said.

  Chloe went over and sat next to her. “What happened?” Agnes stayed by the stairs with the
guard, far enough away to be out of earshot.

  Pan laughed a humorless chuckle. “Word got out that I might have been an associate of George Gordon.”

  “It wasn’t us,” Chloe whispered.

  “We only said Mr. Gordon went over the wall. We never mentioned you,” Kaitlyn said.

  Pan narrowed his eyes, puckering his scar. “I know it was not you. It was those idiots.”

  He gestured down the row of cells. They both leaned back to see past the bars. The tall orange-haired captor and his medium dark companion were shackled in two cells, side-by-side, down many cages from Pan.

  The orange-haired one waved with a ridiculous grin. “Hullo, Lovely,” he said. The other one growled and turned away.

  Pan dismissed them with a derisive wave off. “They began babbling about me as soon as they were identified as mercenaries hired by Gordon. Could not keep their moronic maws shut. Listen, if you could help me get out of here,” he said in a voice so quiet they had to read his lips, “I will take you back home. To Denver.”

  Kaitlyn punched Chloe in the arm. “I told you!” she said with a huge smile.

  Chloe was dizzy. To hear him say it was more than her brain could take in at once.

  “What do we do?” Kaitlyn asked in a tiny whisper.

  Chloe shook off her vertigo. Could it be true? Did Pan really just say “Denver”?

  “I cannot help you from in here. You will have to help get me out. Then I will take you.”

  “But Darryn told Horace the Corridor was closed. No one can go through there,” Kaitlyn said.

  “I know another way. It is not through the Corridor. Horatius did not tell you about it because he did not want to take you.”

  “Why wouldn’t he want to?” Chloe said, forgetting to whisper.

  Pan frowned and shushed them, gesturing for her to hold down the volume.

  “He has stolen girls from other centuries for a long time. He pretends he has their interest at heart, then he maroons them someplace where no one else can find them. Then….”

  Kaitlyn threw her hand over her mouth to hold in a scream. Chloe’s stomach roiled and pitched like she’d throw up. There was just too much evidence again Horace. Everything Pan said had truth to back it up.

  “How can we get you out?” Chloe mouthed.

  “She,” Kaitlyn said pointing toward Agnes with a low, hidden finger, “plans to take us home with her in two days.”

  “My trial begins in two days. If they do not have witnesses,” he nodded toward his two former companions in the other cells, “they will not have a case.”

  Kaitlyn’s eyes flew wide. “You want us to kill them?”

  Chloe shook her head vigorously.

  “I have a better idea. Much less messy.” He scooted to the corner of his cell, closest to the other cages and stuck his arm through the bars. “Here, take my hand Chloe, and Kaitlyn, take hers. Hold on and do not let go. Go down to those idiots and touch them.”

  Chloe wondered what ludicrous plan he could possibly have in mind, but Kaitlyn took her hand and went directly to the orange-haired man’s cell. She reached out her hand to him and smiled.

  “Come to see me, ‘ave yeh?” He grabbed her hand. He had a lecherous grin on his pock-scarred face.

  As soon as they all connected, Pan mumbled something and a weird feeling warmed in Chloe’s fingertips where Pan touched her and in her connection to Kaitlyn.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” the guard called from the doorway where he’d been flirting with Agnes.

  “Quickly,” Pan said. “Kaitlyn, the next one!”

  “Girls, what are you about?” Agnes cried out.

  “Assistance!” the guard shouted up the stairs as he leapt to intervene.

  The other prisoner, who already had his grubby paw stretched out to touch Kaitlyn, grabbed her arm while the orange-topped man pulled her into the bars.

  Another shot of warmth pulsed through Chloe when they all connected. Right then, the guard reached Kaitlyn. He rapped the prisoners’ knuckles with a metal club and the prisoners released Kaitlyn with angry shrieks.

  Kaitlyn stumbled a little, but dashed over to Pan before anyone could interfere. “Did it work?”

  Pan sat back, relaxed, against the stone wall inside his cell and nodded once.

  “That is enough. Up you go,” the guard said as he corralled them toward the stairs.

  When they got outside, Agnes said, “I think it would be best to stay away from him. That was most unpleasant. I will see you at supper. The Queen expects to hear your music, as do I.”

  Agnes left them and they made their own way back to their room. This time the guard at the entrance didn’t try to stop them.

  “What do you think happened? Why did he have us do that?” Chloe asked Kaitlyn.

  “Whatever it was, it was mysterious and magical.”

  “Why did you do it, like you knew exactly what you were doing?”

  “I don’t know. It just seemed like he had a plan. As long as we didn’t have to kill them, I was glad to do something as simple as touching them.”

  That evening after they played, Chloe and Kaitlyn ate at an empty table because everyone else had already finished. A few servants milled about cleaning off the tables around them. They didn’t mind being left to themselves and just hoped to find some food without meat for Kaitlyn and something with vitamins for both of them.

  Chloe peeled a small firm orange—hoping it still might have some juice inside—while Kaitlyn chewed a dry potato that looked like it needed some kind of sauce.

  “We should go see Pan again,” Chloe said quietly, hiding her mouth behind the orange.

  “We should?” Kaitlyn said.

  “We have no idea what his plan is, except to get rid of his witnesses. What if he used us to pass some fatal curse on to them? They might be dead now. They saw us touch them. Before long, we’ll be locked up in there with him.”

  “They can’t do that. Not for touching them.”

  “They believe in magic here. If we touched them and they die, they’ll say we’re witches and burn us.”

  Kaitlyn visibly shuddered.

  “If not a magical spell, they’ll think we blew a poison dart at them or touched them with a poisoned blade.”

  Kaitlyn’s body relaxed.

  “Nuh-uh. That’s silly.”

  “Really!”

  “No, not really. You’re worrying too much. Let’s just go see if we can visit him again and see what he says.” She picked up another shriveled orange. “We’ll say we’re there to take him this. Besides, different guards will be there now I bet. New shift. They’ll let us in.”

  When they got to the prison, the guard had indeed changed. And there was only one. The new man was much more aggressive with his flirtations than the others had been when Agnes was with them.

  “We’d like to visit a prisoner,” Chloe told him.

  “We brought him some fruit.” Kaitlyn held up the orange.

  “I say, yeh are a little peach, yerself,” the guard said saucily as he tried to move in closer to Kaitlyn.

  Chloe stepped up as though she could protect her. “Can we just go see him, please? We won’t be long.”

  The guard took in her bizarre clothes and eyed Kaitlyn again. “Where are yeh from?” he said with plenty of humor in his voice. “Yeh talk funny and dress like I never saw afore. Are yeh foreigners?”

  “As a matter of fact,” Kaitlyn stepped up to stand with Chloe, “we are. We are the daughters of the high king of the empire of Denver-vania, who is here to meet with Queen Mary, and it seems one of his men was wrongly put in your dungeon. We were told we could come see him until the mess is straightened out. If we, or he, aren’t cared for properly, we are to report it at once to our father, and he promised to have the toenails removed from whoever the oaf is that gives us trouble.”

  Impressive, girl. Didn’t know you could do that.

  The suddenly sober guard backed away. “By all means, help yersel
f.” He bowed and held his hand out toward the stairway. Whether he was mocking them or not, Chloe didn’t care. At least they were getting access to Pan.

  They descended the stairs and found him where they’d left him. The other two were in their cages at the end of the row. And still alive. When they saw Chloe and Kaitlyn, they both jumped up and yelled gibberish, every word incoherent.

  “What’s up with them?” Chloe said to Pan.

  “And a good evening to you two as well. It is a pleasure to have your company again.”

  “Here’s an orange for you. Have you figured anything out?” Kaitlyn said.

  “Hey, you guys—could you hold it down?” Chloe said to the other prisoners. “If the guard has to come, we won’t be able to stay.”

  “They do not understand a word you say.”

  “What do you mean?” Kaitlyn walked over to their cells but stayed safely out of reach. “We were talking before.”

  “We took care of their threat. They no longer speak or understand English. Or Gaelic. Or any other language from this side of the world.”

  “We?” Chloe said.

  “That little maneuver we did?” Kaitlyn said.

  Pan nodded with a satisfied smirk on his face. “It is called the Babel Curse. Very basic. Easier than conjuring snakes out of sticks and such.”

  “You did that to us, didn’t you?” Kaitlyn said. “That’s why we couldn’t understand anyone until we were at the castle wall. You touched us to take the curse off.”

  “Why would you do that to us?” Chloe said.

  “I only did it to protect you. Really. I did not want everyone to hear your crazy story and lock you up as lunatics. I mean, look how you are dressed. And your hair. You are just asking to be locked up.”

  “That makes sense,” Kaitlyn told Chloe.

  Whether or not it made sense, it was water under the bridge. And they had other issues to worry about. She had to get home. And if she was to get home, she had to keep Pan from being executed for treason.