***
Caleb stood at the far edge of the town square, observing the gathering crowd coming to watch the promised spectacle. From his position, he had a perfect observation point of the people coming into the square, and from all that he had gathered; things were fitting together in his mind. People were of mixed opinion on Grey’s guilt or innocence, but what had Caleb completely puzzled were the different accounts of Tyrone’s death, and Grey’s involvement in it. Rubbing his chin, he was beginning to wonder if something else was at play here. He looked up as he heard the sound of someone approaching. He relaxed when he saw Niall, but the look on Niall’s face said it all.
“What did you find out?” he wanted to know.
“Something strange is going on here,” Niall admitted to him.
“You sense it, too?” Kayne questioned, as he appeared from the other direction.
Niall nodded as they looked to Caleb. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, and if you tell him, I will make your lives a living hell, but I wish Joseph was here,” Niall commented.
“So you think that it’s a spell?” Caleb looked back at the crowd of people gathered in the square.
“Maybe, but how is that possible? If what Grey told us about how magic is working here in Elden is true, then how would someone be able to cast a spell big enough to infect the entire population, and not have it noticed?” Niall questioned.
“Because it’s not one big spell, it started with just one person,” Caleb stated.
“What are you talking about?” Kayne probed.
“Why cast a whopper of a spell, when a small one works just as well,” Caleb explained.
“Still don’t understand,” Kayne told him.
“Someone cast a small spell, but they made it so it would spread like a virus. Whenever the person infected touches another person, they pass it on.”
“Since when do you know so much about spells?” Niall asked him.
“I don’t know, it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Caleb said with a shrug. In all his long life, he wondered at the oddity of what the brain forgets. They all must have experienced a similar scenario, yet they still needed to puzzle it out, experiencing anew.
“Considering all the different stories about how Tyrone died, it would make sense.”
“So I’m not imagining things,” Caleb said to Niall.
“It seems everyone remembers what happened differently. If there were two versions of the same story, I would understand that, but when every story is different, that means there is something more happening.” He stopped when they heard Roderic’s signal, and scanning around, they spotted him across the square.
They made their way across the square, trying to stay out of the notice of the dozen or so king’s guards that were wandering the crowds. Caleb noticed their diligent manner, scrutinizing everyone they could. The cairbare made their way into a darkened alley, away from prying eyes.
“What did you find out?” Caleb could see by the look on Roderic’s face that he had found something.
“Obviously, you heard all the different versions of Tyrone’s death and Grey’s part in it, I assume?” Roderic asked
“We did, and from the shit eating grin on your face, you have something more, or else you wouldn’t have pulled me away from my position,” Caleb tried to keep his impatience buried.
I did,” Roderic told him, pausing. He was waiting for something.
“Do you plan on sharing?” Caleb demanded quietly.
“You know, you really are grouchy when you don’t get your daily dose of Kevan,” Roderic needled him. “Need her to soothe the savage beast, do you?”
“Oh man, don’t get him going. He doesn’t share,” Niall pouted, shaking his head.
“This is not a joke,” Caleb growled.
“Relax, Caleb,” Kayne tried to placate his cousin. “None of us think that it is.”
“Yeah man, chill,” Niall told him, before he turned to Roderic. “You better tell him before he has a stroke.”
“I overheard several of the guards talking.”
“About what?” Caleb wanted to know.
“That just it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. They were talking about how relieved they are that their troop hadn’t been picked to guard the special prisoner that Bart is holding.”
“Special prisoner?” That piqued Caleb’s curiosity. “Where is this prisoner being held?”
“That’s why they were so relieved; it is at the old watch tower at the edge of the Darkling Mountains.”
“Old watch tower ...” Caleb ran it through his memory.
“That is what they said,” Roderic told him.
“Didn’t Grey and Oscar tell us that they had abandoned that tower because it was falling apart, and that they had built a new one about fifty miles east of the old one?” Caleb asked Kayne.
“Yeah, they did. I remember them telling us, because it was odd that they had moved the new one so far from where the old one was,” Kayne told him.
“So the question is why would Bart guard a prisoner so far from the city?” Caleb posed. “In an old watch tower that most think is abandoned. What is so special about this prisoner?” Caleb had something brewing in his head. “Why such a rush to hang Grey?” he asked.
“What?” Niall questioned, trying to keep up with his change of thought. “What does that have to do with Bart holding someone in the old tower?”
“It has a lot to do with it,” Caleb told them. “Okay, hear me out. We know that Bart has someone under guard at the old watchtower. He is accusing Grey of murdering Tyrone. There is no consistency in the murder rumors, and Bart is in a big hurry to execute Grey for said murder. Tell me, what does all of this add up to?”
“Seven,” Niall joked. “I don’t know Caleb, you tell us, because you have come up with something.”
“Just go with me on this for a moment, alright. What if the special prisoner is Tyrone?”
“That’s crazy!” Niall snorted. But both Kayne and Roderic stayed quiet as they thought about what Caleb had just proposed. “It’s crazy guys; it’s been almost two years since Tyrone’s murder, wouldn’t someone have figured it out before now?”
“You know, I want to agree with Niall, but it’s just far enough out there, that I think that it could be true,” Kayne reluctantly admitted.
“It would be one hell of a plot,” Roderic agreed. “Tyrone’s murdered, at least that is what everyone is told, while he’s locked up. Bart plays the outraged nephew at the murder of his beloved uncle, and he places the blame on the absent Grey, makes him out to be the bad guy. He catches Grey, hangs him, and then suddenly they discover Tyrone isn’t dead, but being held prisoner. Suddenly the beloved King returns, rescued by his nephew, who suddenly becomes the hero, and the villain, having already been hanged for his crimes, has been punished, and nobody can prove if he was or wasn’t involved in the plot. Bart comes out the hero, and as the only surviving relative of the king, he also becomes heir to the throne, all without having to dirty his hands.”
“But, hanging Grey? How does he explain that to Tyrone?” Niall pointed out.
“He was doing the will of the people, he had no choice, and it was the demand of the citizens of Elden.”
“Oh shit,” Niall swallowed. “It makes a perverted sense. So what do we do?”
“What do we do? Well first, we have a hanging to stop,” Caleb informed them. “I have a plan.”