imagine that I was the boy and I had to get the little sprite home. We would go on all sorts of adventures. It was fun.” He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t fun. It passed the time occasionally. By the end I couldn’t think about it all that much without realizing all the horrible things going on. I would overhear people in the streets talking about Welgo this and Welgo that. Some didn’t make it. I mean they went insane and wandered off.” He shivered at the thought. “They were just certain everything was going to go up. Every night I sat alone and looked out the sheet over my window and waited for the Welgos to storm the town and kill everyone.” Ackerley forgot all about Cerise. He was fully in his own head, unaware even of his surroundings. “Every noise sounded like a hundred horses. Every voice sounded foreign. I was always scared at night. By morning I was alright, but at night. . . I couldn’t function. The fear was too much. I hid inside myself. I didn’t come out until on my way here. My fear was realized on the way.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “We were attacked by Welgos. The town we were in went up. That woman—that nice woman. I don’t even remember her name. She went up to. Kenton fought them off. I was only a few inches from death. The sword. . . it was so close to me. And the horse. . .”
Ackerley wiped his eyes and sniffled. He suddenly blushed when he saw Cerise and re-entered the world. She stared at him with caring eyes.
“I’ve never heard anything like that.” She murmured. “That’s a life.” She smiled and wiped her own eyes. “That’s a life that no one can take from you. You’ve lived, Ackerley. I wish—I wish I could live like that.”
Ackerley laughed a little with relief. “You want to be attacked by a Welgo?”
“Not necessarily. I just . . . I don't really know. I want to go out and do things. And right now we can’t. Now we just have to wait.”
“Murdo was right. This place is a prison.”
She nodded. “A necessary one I suppose.”
“Murdo’s one of my roommates.” Ackerley explained. “He thinks that we’re only here so our parents feel better about themselves.”
“He’s right. He must be pretty smart.”
Ackerley snorted. “No, he’s really not.”
They sat in silence for a minute. Cerise went around the room and tried out different desks.
“What happened to your parents?” She asked from the back of the room.
Ackerley shifted in his chair to face her.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She said suddenly. “You don’t have to answer that. I don’t mean to pry.”
“They’re dead.” Ackerley said, his voice growing momentarily deeper.
“I’m sorry.” Cerise said. “Welgos?”
“No.” Ackerley really didn’t want to continue, but he pushed himself on. “About a year and a half ago our town was overrun one night with bandits. They went through some houses and took some stuff. Nobody got hurt. They got to my house and by then my dad, who often stayed up late in the night, knew what was happening. He tried to keep them out. Things turned south and they stabbed him. My mom came at them with something. I don’t know what. They stabbed her too.”
“Where were you?” Cerise asked, her voice shaking.
“My mom locked me in the store closet. The neighbors found me in the morning. My brother wasn’t there.”
Whether because of the conversation or the dark quiet classroom they both agreed to call it a night. Cerise walked with him back up to his room. They stood awkwardly outside the door, not sure what to say or do. Finally Cerise bid him farewell and started back toward her residence.
Ackerley sat on his bed and thought over things. He didn’t feel the giddiness he had after meeting Cerise in the gardens. He only felt a dull pain left over from having to think back on that horrible night in the closet. His heart ached, but deep down he felt the slightest sensation of true relief. For the first time in his life he told someone about the worst moments of his life. He didn’t know what healing felt like. One day he would know that he felt it for the first time that night.
9.
It was hard to keep his secret rendezvous with the princess a secret. There were multiple times that he almost blurted it out to Jarn during a task or while they wandered around the castle grounds at night. As much as he wanted to talk about it he wanted it to be a secret even more. He liked the mystery of it all. Cerise certainly didn’t want anybody to know, least of all that horrible sorceress Thrindle. Surely she would come up with a punishment for them both that rivaled being exiled from the castle.
The days didn’t drag as much as they used to. When he was tired of reading boring poetry or meditating he would fantasize about getting a little sprite to that wonderful forest he went through on the way to the castle. That quickly grew tiresome and soon he was fighting Welgos with an army of sprites, animals, suppressed royalty, and all the children of the castle.
Ackerley found the routineness of his days somewhat soothing. He became comfortable with the way things were run and what he had to do. When his first month came to an end he realized that he didn’t want things to change. He fully acknowledged that life in the castle was better than the life he lived before. The strange and hopefully unfounded fear of having to live with his brother, the same fear he felt when he learned he had to go to the castle, returned. The future after the war weighed on his mind. Being alone so long and only rarely hearing from his brother made him not really want to be around Kenton. There was an increasingly growing part of Ackerley that wouldn’t mind the war going on until he was old enough to leave the castle, however old that was.
News of the outside was hard to come by. That was alright with the children there. Most of them had parents in the war and no news was far better than bad news. This changed at a formal dinner one Wednesday night. Yinnib came into the large dining room holding a bundle of rolled up papers.
“Letters from relatives!” He exclaimed.
The silence and sudden wary eyes went unnoticed by him. He handed out the letters. He paused at Ackerley.
“This one is the biggest.” Yinnib said, weighing the paper in his hand. “I have a feeling your brother may have written about the war’s progress. He is very close to the king after all.”
Ackerley unrolled the paper and was relieved to see that it was written in his brother’s hand. He feared getting a letter that had to be written by someone else. There were two pages.
Dear Ackerley,
The second page of this letter is a progress report. Give it to a noble you trust. I want to start by saying that I am alright. I was injured in a Welgo attack shortly after I returned to base. Nothing too serious. I’m back to my duties now. The Welgos
“Oh my, young Morzha!” Yinnib had been standing behind him reading over his shoulder without him noticing. “Your brother has sent a progress report! Well go ahead and read it aloud so we can all hear how things are going.”
Ackerley quickly pushed the papers under the table. The damage had been done. Yinnib pulled the chair out from the table and lifted Ackerley to his feet with strength that betrayed his slender frame.
Ackerley put the second page on top and glanced at it. He figured there was no way to avoid reading it. He looked to Jarn for support. Jarn was busy reading his own letter with a smile.
“Um, alright.” Ackerley tried to read a little bit to himself first.
“Come on now.” Yinnib said.
“The war is going well.” Ackerley began. “The great spirit shines its power down on all of us. The Welgos are few and far between. When one is spotted it is usually fleeing a battle like a coward.” A few whoops echoed throughout the large dining room. “The king has grown stronger and his might is felt throughout the Vastlands as he hands each Welgo to their fake god. Continue to pray for our souls and pray the Great Spirit continues its wanderings. The great king is with us always. We shall be victorious!”
Ackerley quick
ly sat down as the dining room cheered merrily. He waited until Yinnib went to tell the other nobles to look back at the first page.
The Welgos are . . .
A few words were scratched out.
Don’t read this to anyone! The second page of this letter is to be read by the nobles. Do not read a word of this letter to them! The Welgos are coming down rivers at such a rate that they can get to any town long before we even hear of their approach. The very last town in the Vastlands went up yesterday and there is nothing left to fight for in this wasteland. They are heading west towards the manors and villas of the rich. Many of your nobles are from there and have family there. I’m afraid things might change if the Welgos are successful there. The majority of the money left in the kingdom are behind the walls of those villas. They are better protected than the monasteries they attacked first. The rich have their own militias to take care of them but it doesn’t matter now. The Welgos are too much. That isn’t to say that they can’t be beat. We will try our best. Ackerely, be brave and continue as though you haven’t read this letter. I want you to know but I don’t want anyone else to. I don’t think they can handle it. I know for a fact that you can handle anything. Stay strong and be as brave as you always are. Remember that you are safe there. That castle is still the safest place in the entire kingdom and maybe the