CHAPTER XXIII
They met in the early dawn, the Sun just peeking above a distant mountain range.
“What’s that mountain range?” Connor asked.
“That’s the Jamellas,” Bell said.
“Between here and there is Reine’s Loss,” Lucas added.
“What did he lose?” Dylan asked.
“Who?”
“Reine.”
“It’s a tale from the older years,” Bell explained. “Reine’s beloved was chosen by the King to be his bride.”
“An evil King,” Lucas said.
“If the story is to be believed,” Bell continued. “Anyway, Reine took his beloved and they escaped, but were hunted down by the King’s guardsmen. Ultimately it was she that betrayed him, it was she that left evidence for the guardsmen to follow and it was she that stabbed him in that town.”
“Why?” Dylan decried.
“She wanted to be the King’s wife, she wanted the money and the power. Some stories say that she didn’t at first, but didn’t want to spend the rest of her life running, other versions say that he forced her to flee, that she had never been faithful.”
“And so the town was named Reine’s Loss and nobody alive can remember it as anything else,” Mattaeus finished.
“Mattaeus,” Dylan shouted with glee and hugged him. The Shadow Ranger seemed a little uncomfortable, but hugged him back with one arm.
“It’s good to see you all unscathed,” his Dad said.
“It is good to see you all again too,” d’Gaz said.
“Did it work?” Lucas asked.
“It did,” Mattaeus said. “Even now the True King’s flag will be hoisting.”
“And how did your jolly exploits go?” d’Gaz asked.
“All is to plan,” Bell answered.
“Then we have a timeline to keep,” Alura said having hugged and talked to her twin.
“I hate to ask, but do we have a plan?” Connor asked what was on everybody’s minds.
“We have an army, the first army to be raised in a long time on this world,” the Shadow Ranger explained. “Enough men to storm the prison.”
“Rubbish,” said Bell, “They will lock the prison down at the first sight of an approaching army.”
“Which they will see from miles away,” Kaitlin agreed.
“That is why the army will head straight for Talon’s Fall.”
“This is ridiculous,” stormed Bell, “I don’t need to tell you that the prison is built into the mountainside, it’s impenetrable even with an army and now you say that we are not using the army which we raised?”
“And I don’t need to remind you,” the Shadow Ranger countered, “that people are sent there to die. The True King will be somewhere up in the mountains so that he will not.”
“How is that better? Are we to climb up to peaks that have never been conquered?” Bell almost shouted.
“No,” the Shadow Ranger smiled and pulled something from his bag, “I intend to fly.”
They all looked at the glowing Dragonstone in his hand.
“Forgive me, Shadow Ranger,” Bell said quietly.
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The Capital Town of Evensguard did indeed fly the flag of the True King that morning, but it was not until the middle of the morning that a Chinerthian Guardsman spotted it and a small force was sent out. They never made it due to the Stormclouds they encountered on the way.
Another larger force was being assembled when there was no word, but before they could leave news came that a number of civic buildings had been set on fire and that armed gangs were attacking Chinerthian soldiers.
The Guardsmen were instead sent into the city, but already news was spreading that Stormclouds were in the city, that Evensguard had been retaken and some said that even now the True King was free. The people of the city took to the streets to take back the Capital and there was not a soldier to spare to be sent to the Prison of Articus.
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They hid in a small area of trees not far from the Articus Mountains called the Copse of Free Men.
“Why?” asked Connor.
“It’s somewhat of a joke,” the Shadow Ranger explained as he looked at the prison built in the mountainside. “It is said that if you were to escape the prison then this copse is out of arrow range. That to reach here would be to reach freedom.”
“I don’t understand, that’s not a joke,” Dylan said.
“The joke is that no one ever escapes,” d’Gaz said wryly.
“So where will the True King be held?” Bell asked. “You said high up.”
“I would think so,” Mattaeus said. “The prison is a work camp. Mining ore from the mountain. To keep the True King in such condition would risk his dying.”
“So how do we know where?” Connor asked.
“Magicians? Can you scan the mountains? The King’s Pledge should be detectable.”
Alura gave a short laugh. “You base your plans on flimsy hopes, Shadow Ranger.”
“I can feel it weakly,” he said to her seriously. She looked at him for a few seconds. Who was this Shadow Ranger, that he also has magical abilities?
“Very well, let us be,” Alura replied and the twins moved to the front of the copse and held hands.
Dylan watched as their eyes rolled up to show the whites and a light blue mist seemed to surround them, but it hurt his eyes to try and focus on it. And then it was over.
The Twin Magicians crept further back into the thick trees and joined the others.
“You were right, Mattaeus,” Kaitlin said, “we could detect the aura of the True King’s Pledge.”
“Then we are in a better position than we were a minute before,” the Shadow Ranger said. “Now we wait to be joined at nightfall.”
“You have magic,” Alura said to him.
“Not as powerful as the two of you.”
“But you have magic, nonetheless, who are you Shadow Ranger?”
“This is not the time for stories,” Mattaeus countered.
“We are sitting here for hours, I think this is the perfect time,” Alura countered back.
“I would rather know why two such powerful magicians have not led a rebellion in all these years, you could defeat armies alone.”
“Leave us be,” Kaitlin asked.
“I have a story for you all,” d’Gaz said, “and it concerns this very copse. The Story of the Stone Wife.
“Many years into History there was no prison here, just the mountains and their caves. There was a man and his wife who came here to seek gold; they were desperately poor and were in horrible debt.
“The Shire Reeve was willing to settle the debt, but the wife, who was beautiful, was to be the payment. To find gold was the only way they could hope to pay the debt.”
“Why were they in debt?” Dylan asked.
“Well the Shire Reeve was a nasty man, who wanted the wife and so he did everything he could to get them into debt to him.
“So here they came looking for gold, but they were unlucky that the Princess of Earth and Stone was in the mountains. You see that is what she does to amuse herself, she takes stone and turns it into something beautiful.”
“We met a Princess,” Dylan said excitedly.
“You did?”
“Yes, at Kaitlin and Alura’s house.”
“You did?” d’Gaz asked again looking at the others. They nodded to him.
“Well, that is a turn up,” he said, “but it means you know my story to be true.
“So, the couple enter the caves and found gold. They couldn’t believe their luck, so much of it. But as they worked the Princess saw the man and she thought him to be handsome, she wanted him.
“So as they rested each night she created more gold for them to find. Keep them there and as they worked the dust was entering the poor girl’s skin. She was slowly turning to stone.”
“No,” breathed Dylan.
“And then one day she was looking at her husband with love because they had eno
ugh; she reached out to hug him and turned to stone.
“The man cried out in grief and it was then that the Princess came to him, told him that now his wife was gone he should come to her. But the man knew it was the Princess’ work and he cursed her. He picked up his stone wife and ran out of the caves and hid in the woods.
“But the Princess would not be spurned and she dried the soil making the trees wither. He had nowhere to hide from her and he couldn’t carry his stone wife all the way back to the town.
“It was the Princess of the Forest that took pity on him and scolded her sister. It was her that kept this copse of trees from withering so that he had somewhere to hide and the trees protected him from the other Princess.
“She spent a week trying to get into him, cursing her sister and eventually without food or water the man grew too weak to leave. She lost interest then, he had lost his good looks and strength.
“They say that the Princess of the Forest tried to nourish him, tried to help him leave, but he wouldn’t and he died here. They say that his stone wife is still here in the undergrowth.”
Dylan looked around. “No.”
“It is but a story, young Guardian,” Mattaeus said.
“How many of these Princesses are there?” Dylan’s Dad asked.
“The Sun sets soon, it will have to wait for another time. We must rest.”
“Come on, Lucas, let us see if we can find her,” Dylan said jumping up.
“I don’t think so,” Lucas started.
“Well you can’t leave me, can you?”
Lucas sighed.
“I will go with him,” Bell said standing and turning to Dylan. “But only for a short time.”
“OK,” Dylan said and led him into the trees.
“Do not leave the trees, Guardian,” the Shadow Ranger warned.
“I won’t.”
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Dylan and Bell walked through the trees, pushing aside undergrowth.
“Do you think d’Gaz’s story is true?”
“I don’t know, young Guardian, I don’t know much about him or our Shadow Ranger.
They walked around for maybe ten minutes, the Sun setting through the trees. Dylan pushed and pulled at vines and bushes searching for the stone wife, but found nothing.
“We must be back, it will be dark soon,” Bell told him.
“OK,” Dylan sighed, disappointed.
And then a thick group of vines began to unravel and as they pulled away Bell and Dylan could see the stone likeness of a woman, her arms outstretched.
“It is true,” Dylan squealed.
“I don’t believe it,” Bell breathed.
“It is true,” a voice said to their left and they turned.
“Princess,” Bell said and indeed there stood the same green woman they had seen at the Twin Magician’s house.
“He whom you call d’Gaz is more than you see, be ware to listen to his council when you lead,” she said.
“I cannot lead, Princess.”
“Yet you must, the Shadow Ranger will stay behind.”
“I failed at leadership, I ran. There are some that think this World could be different if I had not. Maybe they are right.”
“The past is past and leads to new things. To purpose, Protector.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You must be ready to lead, Bell, this is what the Righteous holds for you.”
“But I am not the man.”
“You are, Protector. This is your Oath’s purpose,” she told him. “But I will be with you where I can.”
“Tell me more,” Bell pleaded.
“War is coming, war that you started so long ago. A war to free all. It is time to finish that which you started,” and then she was gone.
“What did she mean?” Dylan asked.
“I’m not sure, young Guardian. I’m not sure.”
The Foreshadow of Balance Page 24
