“I was taught,” Prince Corin said, meeting his gaze, “that a man’s worth is measured not by how much wealth he has or how he fights, but by who he is.”
“Who he is,” the governor repeated, stroking his beard. “And who are you, boy?”
Prince Corin paused only for a moment. “A man who will not leave this palace without seeing that justice is done.”
The crowd cheered again, and Jesse suddenly felt some hope. How could the governor openly deny his people on such a festive occasion?
Sure enough, Governor Elias waved them away, shaking his head in amusement. “Take your slaves and go. Let the competition continue!”
This time, the cheer was a roar, and Jesse barely heard Prince Corin ask, “And the girl?”
“Sir,” Roland said, rushing up to the royal stand. “You cannot do this. You cannot let Rebellion members go free. What kind of example does that set for your people? That in District Two, people can challenge the rule of the governor and go unpunished?”
“What would you have me do, Sir Roland?” Governor Elias asked. “Take back my decision? Even if these young men are a part of the Rebellion, they are the prince’s property now. They’ll return to his island in a few days. What harm could they do?”
“One just defeated many of the kingdom’s best archers,” Roland countered, pointing at Silas. “If this island prince is wrong, or lying, what kind of threat could he and the others be to your throne?”
For a moment, a flicker of doubt crossed Governor Elias’ face, and Jesse’s heart thumped in his chest.
In that moment, Parvel walked over to Roland and whispered something in his ear.
“I promise, on my honor,” Prince Corin said, “they have done no harm to you, nor will they.”
Governor Elias seemed to be torn. His gaze went from Prince Corin, to the people, and finally to Roland.
“Fine,” Roland said, still glaring at Prince Corin. Parvel backed away from him, nodding in satisfaction. “The criminals of our country are welcome to flee to your island. You may have your slaves.”
The crowd, losing interest in the whole spectacle, had begun to chant for the archers to continue.
“Of course,” Roland said, “since the girl does not belong to the prince, she will be properly punished.”
“If you are afraid of the maiden, then do as you wish,” Governor Elias said carelessly, going back to watching as the targets were moved back even farther.
Roland’s face twisted into a smile, and Jesse felt sick. Roland knew they would not leave without Rae. He knew he had won.
With that familiar sneer on his face, Roland strode over to the Patrol member guarding the royal stand. “Well, you heard the governor. Take the girl to the dungeon.”
Jesse had no doubt that the Patrol member would have gladly done so, except for one thing: Rae had disappeared.
Jesse cheered inwardly. Rae was intelligent enough to realize where the argument was headed. While everyone’s attention was on Prince Corin and the governor, she must have disappeared into the crowd.
Roland whirled around to face Jesse, his eyes narrowing in hate. Then he turned to the governor. “She must not get away. With your permission, sir, I will give her description to the guards at the gate. We will search until we find her.”
Now Governor Elias laughed outright. “She’s only a girl, Sir Roland.”
“I am sorry,” Sir Roland said, and Jesse could see that remaining polite was taking every effort he could manage, “but I must insist.”
“Very well,” Governor Elias agreed, still looking amused that one of his nobles was creating such a fuss over a servant girl.
But Roland isn’t afraid of Rae, Jesse knew. He wants to use her to get to all of us.
Roland growled a few words at the Patrol member, who promptly marched toward the drawbridge.
“Come,” Prince Corin said, motioning them away. “We must go back to the tent while the people’s attention is still on the archery competition.”
“Why not let Silas finish competing?” Jesse asked. “The rest of us can look for Rae.”
“No,” Silas said. “With the prince’s approval, I withdraw from the tournament. We must find Rae. No archery tournament should come before that.”
It was true, and Jesse felt ashamed for suggesting it.
“Very well, then,” Prince Corin said. He turned back to the governor and spoke in a louder voice. “My proxy wishes to withdraw, and so do I. I will begin my journey home tomorrow.”
Governor Elias barely glanced down at him. “I will record it.”
“Give my most sincere regards to your daughter,” Prince Corin said, bowing.
“No doubt she is the one who will regret your departure,” the governor said. “She seemed quite taken with you.” He laughed, as if even the thought was ridiculous.
The crowd was cheering again. Even Roland was forced to go back to the targets. Jesse hoped the entire situation had ruffled his nerves enough that he would miss.
“Word will spread quickly,” Silas said grimly, once they were away from the crowd. “No one will let a small, dark-hair servant girl out of any of the gates. Roland will make sure of that.”
“What if she already escaped?” Jesse pointed out. “Maybe she’s in the main part of the city by now.”
“Perhaps,” Parvel said, but he didn’t look very hopeful. He gestured to the palace drawbridge, a short distance away. “But I doubt she would risk running across open ground. It would be too easy to be spotted. Likely, she went toward the camps or the palace instead, where there are more places to hide.”
Parvel was right, although Jesse hated to admit it. If she knew that she might be pursued at any moment, Rae would have run toward the suitors’ camp, where it would be easy to duck into an empty tent or under a wagon.
Of course, she would have enough sense not to flee to the palace…wouldn’t she? Jesse wasn’t sure, but he knew that they had to find Rae before the governor’s guards did.
They made a pathetic procession: Jesse limping in the lead while Silas and Parvel supported Prince Corin. For a moment, as they approached Prince Corin’s strange, woven tent, Jesse hoped Rae would be waiting inside.
But that would be the first place Roland would look, Jesse realized. She wouldn’t be safe there.
Sure enough, when he pulled back the curtain at the entrance to the tent, he saw no one. And there is hardly room for Rae to be hiding anywhere.
Hiding. Jesse knelt down on his bedroll and felt underneath his pillow. The book was still there. In all the confusion, he had forgotten about it.
No one else seemed to notice his actions. Slowly and carefully, Parvel and Silas eased Prince Corin back onto his bed. For the first time, Jesse noticed how drained Prince Corin looked.
Parvel and Silas sat down opposite Prince Corin. For a moment, they all just looked at each other.
Finally, Silas said what they were all thinking. “How can we rescue Rae if we don’t even know where she is?”
No one offered any suggestions. “Perhaps I would be of more help if I knew more about the situation,” Prince Corin hinted.
Jesse glanced at the other two. Not even Silas seemed to object, although he went to the entrance of the tent, probably to make sure no one was listening. He shouldn’t worry about that. Everyone is at the archery tournament.
Parvel nodded. “I believe you deserve an explanation, Prince Corin.”
“I have guessed some,” Prince Corin admitted.
“Tell us what you know first,” Jesse suggested. It always made explaining easier.
“You are members of the Youth Guard,” Prince Corin said calmly. “You were to obtain a sacred relic from the deserts of Da’armos, but were pursued by a man named Captain Demetri, an agent of the king called a Guard Rider. He thought he killed all of you in the mount
ains of District Two. Now, you have stolen the Forbidden Book, which tells of the fates of the other Youth Guard members.”
Jesse stared at him in amazement. How could someone from outside Amarias know of all this? Suddenly, he looked warily at Prince Corin. Can islanders read minds?
Prince Corin smiled in a tired sort of way. “While Jesse was at the market and Parvel was getting water from the courtyard well, Silas found the book under Jesse’s pillow. He showed it to me. Although I do not know what all of it means, I learned much.”
“You should have seen the looks on your faces,” Silas said, laughing a little.
Still, Jesse felt a little uneasy. If Silas found it, who else might?
“Then there is little else to tell,” Parvel said. “Chancellor Doran belongs to the Guard Riders, the group dedicated to killing the Youth Guard.”
“And we stole his sacred book,” Jesse added. “Which gives him two reasons to want to kill us.”
“But he thinks you are dead, correct?” Prince Corin asked. Jesse nodded. “Then perhaps all is well.”
Jesse remembered the conversation he had overheard between Chancellor Doran and the governor. “He suspects, though, that the book was stolen. Which means he won’t be satisfied until he finds the ones responsible.”
That made everyone quiet. Then Parvel lifted his head, a look of determination on his face. “May I see the book?”
Jesse nodded. “Of course.” He took the volume out from underneath his pillow and handed it to Parvel, who accepted it with shaking hands.
At first, Parvel just stared at the cover. “Aren’t you going to open it?” Jesse prompted. Having the book out in the open made him uneasy, and he wanted it returned to its hiding place as soon as possible.
“I am afraid to,” Parvel said, in a voice very different than the one Jesse was used to.
Jesse looked at the Forbidden Book with new eyes. To him, it had always been a kind of magical treasure, the end of their long, dangerous quest. Now he remembered that it told the fates of generations of young people, killed by the king.
“I have waited five years to know,” Parvel continued, staring vacantly at the book. “And now I am not sure I want to.” He turned to Prince Corin. “Five years ago, my brother, Justis, joined the Youth Guard. He never came back. I joined the Guard to find him, you know.”
“You think he’s still alive?” Silas asked in disbelief.
Parvel shrugged. “I’ve never given up hope.” He opened the book. “Now I can finally know for sure.”
Jesse held his breath as Parvel paged through the book. He couldn’t imagine what Parvel must be feeling.
After a few minutes, Parvel looked up, a confused expression on his face. “It’s not here,” he said. “I can’t find Justis’ record anywhere.”
“Are you sure?” Jesse asked. “Let me look.” Parvel handed him the book. Although Jesse wanted to read the entry about Eli, he flipped to the records from five years before.
There were a few pages of information on each member. Jesse caught glimpses of them as he flipped past. Pen and ink drawings of each one. A map, showing the location of their mission. Text describing what happened to them.
But no entry for anyone named Justis.
“Perhaps there are two volumes,” Silas suggested. “Or there was some sort of mistake.”
Jesse was about to say that Chancellor Doran didn’t seem the type to make a mistake, but then he noticed something in the book. In between the end of one record and the beginning of another was a small gap.
Parvel and Silas were talking about something, but Jesse stopped listening. He opened the book as far as possible and stared at the spine. There, pressed as close against the binding as possible, were the razor-thin edges of a few sheaves of paper. Someone cut Justis’ record out of the book!
He had just opened his mouth to tell everyone, when Silas snatched the book away from him. “I’ll take that, if you don’t mind,” Silas said. And, so quickly that Jesse wasn’t entirely sure he didn’t imagine it, Silas shook his head, his eyes flashing with urgency.
Jesse decided to stay quiet. But Silas will have some explaining to do later.
“Why?” Prince Corin asked. “I knew that King Selen was not a good man—my father told me this—but why would he kill many of his strongest, most intelligent young people?”
“Because they would be the greatest threat to his throne if they turned against him,” Jesse said flatly, repeating what Captain Demetri had told them in the desert only a few weeks before. “Our lives are nothing to the king, especially if he can kill us without the people knowing. They all think the Youth Guard members are heroes, giving up their lives for their country.”
“And my entry in the Forbidden Book will not end that way,” Silas declared, standing. “We have to get away from here as soon as possible, or Chancellor Doran will find us.”
Jesse shuddered despite himself, remembering the evil in Chancellor Doran’s voice.
“But what about Rae?” Parvel pointed out, and they became silent again. They had the Forbidden Book, but they didn’t have one member of their squad.
Silas shook his head in resignation. “We wait then,” he said, clutching the book more tightly. “We wait for Rae.”
“You’ll find yourself waiting for a long time, then,” a voice from behind the curtain crowed. “A very long time.”
Chapter 16
Jesse barely had time to turn to the doorway before Duke Hale strode into the tent, his sword drawn. “Well, looks like you had a rough day, barbarian,” he declared, sneering down at Prince Corin.
“Perhaps.” Prince Corin stared back at him with a polite smile. “And how did the rest of the archery competition go?”
For a moment, Duke Hale looked surprised at the question. Then he shook his head and boasted, “You’re looking at one of the four finalists in the competition. After the jousting tomorrow, I’ll leave this palace with the beautiful Lady Taralyn at my side.”
“How unfortunate for her,” Jesse blurted without thinking about it.
Duke Hale glared at him. “Insolent little beggar.”
Parvel stepped between Duke Hale and Prince Corin. “What is your business here?” he demanded.
“Just looking around,” Duke Hale said casually. “Order of the governor. We’re looking for that girl.”
“Shouldn’t the governor’s guards be doing that?” Silas asked. He too was standing, and though his words were calm, Jesse could see that he was ready to fight at the slightest sign of danger.
“I requested the honor of searching this tent myself,” Duke Hale said. “To bring you a message from Sir Roland.”
Jesse meant for his groan to be silent, but enough slipped out that Duke Hale glanced down at him. “That’s an appropriate reaction, slave boy.” He turned again to Silas and Parvel. “He says that even if the governor was swayed by your barbarian defender, he knows the truth. And Rebellion members will die.”
“Yes, very impressive,” Parvel said, yawning, as if the show of bravado was nothing to him. “You seem like an intelligent fellow. Hale, was it not?”
“Duke Hale.”
“Right, of course,” Parvel said, and Jesse almost laughed. “As I said, you seem intelligent. Has it ever occurred to you to wonder how, if your friend’s accusation was true, he happened to know that we were Rebellion members?”
The look on Duke Hale’s face clearly told them that he had not wondered. “Sir Roland often travels throughout the district,” Duke Hale said. “He might have seen you participate in a Rebellion raid.”
“Or he himself is part of the Rebellion,” Parvel suggested.
Jesse had seen that comment coming, but apparently Duke Hale hadn’t. “That’s ridiculous,” he said, glaring at Parvel. “You could be killed for even suggesting it.”
“You yourself
said that he often roams about the district,” Parvel pointed out. “Are his actions ever accounted for?” Duke Hale said nothing. “And if he is part of the Rebellion, what does that mean for you? Could he be getting information about you and your estate so that his band could strike there next?”
“No,” Duke Hale said, turning away from them. “It’s not true. You’re all liars.”
But his voice didn’t hold the same confidence that it once had.
Abruptly, he threw open one of Prince Corin’s large chests, throwing out the clothes and possessions inside.
“What are you doing?” Parvel asked.
“Searching,” Duke Hale responded. “And don’t try to stop me. Governor’s orders.”
Parvel looked ready to throw him out of the tent anyway, but when he glanced at Prince Corin, he shook his head. “Let him,” he said. “I have nothing to hide.”
But we do. Jesse glanced at Silas, who was still holding the book. The chances of Duke Hale recognizing it were slim, but if he did….
Silas must have realized the same thing, because he was walking over to Prince Corin’s bedside. Not under the blankets, Jesse thought silently. Duke Hale will look there!
Instead, Silas slipped the leather-bound volume under the others stacked next to Prince Corin’s bed. It was a simple plan, and just crazy enough that Jesse thought it might work.
Duke Hale had moved on to the next chest. Apparently, merely ransacking it was not efficient enough, because he lifted the entire thing with a grunt of effort and dumped it out on the ground. Prince Corin’s china broke with a loud crash. Grinning, Duke Hale wiped his dirty boots all over the colorful clothing.
“Nothing there,” he sneered, clearly waiting for a reaction from Prince Corin. He got none.
He noisily overturned all the sleeping mats and the metal lamps in the corner of the tent. Like Jesse had predicted, he jerked Prince Corin’s blanket away, but he gave the books nearby barely a glance.
“She isn’t here,” Jesse said, stating the obvious.
Duke Hale started to back toward the door. “Maybe not,” he said, “but we’ll find her. Sir Roland doubled the guard at all of the gates, and all of them are looking for her. She won’t leave the palace grounds.” He chuckled and pulled the curtain away. “Not alive, anyway.”
Curse of the Forbidden Book Page 13
