***
Queen Amrya massaged her sore feet. She thought she had never walked and run so much during one day before. The young savage didn’t seem tired at all, even though he had carried the heaviest load. They had walked all day and, as the sun was setting, they had camped up on a hill on a place between some large rocks.
“When it's dark, we can make up a fire as long as the flames are hidden by the rocks because the smoke will not be visible,” Oakentere said, then he had gone out and gathered firewood while she laid the prince to her breast. Prince Endir was now fast asleep, and the savage sat and roasted the goose over the flames.
“What is your name, young savage?” the queen tried to say as casually as she could.
“Why do you call us savages and not highlanders?”
“I don’t know…because you come down to Gardir to pillage and burn.”
“You don’t have criminals in Gardir?” Oakentere looked up at Queen Amrya. “You know, the kind that pillage and burn?”
“Sure there are, but...”
“So can I call you a savage?”
“I am sorry. I will refer to you as a highlander. You have never deserved to be labeled a savage as far as I know you,” she said, slightly embarrassed by being put right by a kid. “You still haven’t told me your name.”
“It’s Oakentere, ma’am.”
“Oakentere what?”
“Only Oakentere.”
“You don’t have a surname?” She sounded surprised.
“That is my surname,” he said. “Oaken is my family name; apart from that, we only get a number given in old counting. My father is Ein, my mother is To, I am Tere, and my little sister is Fir.”
“Your first name is only a number?”
“It is not my name; it just tells me which number I am in the family. When, for instance, my father dies, my mother will be Ein and I will be To.”
“So Oakentere it is.”
“And your name; what is that?”
“Queen Amrya of Antuk at your service.” She bowed gracefully with her head.
“Antuk? I thought you were Gardirian.”
Queen Amrya told her story to him, about the in-writing, and why she was on her way to Genora.
“First time I’ve eaten with someone royal,” Oakentere said as he parted the goose and handed Queen Amrya some meat.
“The first time I have dined with a highlander, and the pleasure is all mine.” The queen smiled.
“Remember you said you wouldn’t go into this forest because it was haunted? What was that all about?”
“Just old stories and tales.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“There used to be people living in these woods, and they had a mighty king called Teigl; the forest is named after him. The forest people lived in peace with all the kingdoms. But when the people in the kingdoms built large cities, they needed a lot of timber, which they took from the forest. Teigldur urged them to stop, and when they didn’t listen, he cast a spell over the forest and cursed everyone that entered it.”
“What happened to the forest people?”
“No one knows. They just vanished. But the rumor of the curse still holds people out of the forest. We only cut down the part that overgrows the old borders of the forest.”
“So no one uses the forest anymore?”
“No.”
“I have never been in such a large forest before, and the trees grow so much taller than up on the mountain,” Oakentere said. “But I know a trail when I see one, and we passed several still in use today. Somebody lives here or at least uses this forest still.”
“Are you sure?” Queen Amrya was suddenly feeling insecure again.
“Either they haven’t seen us, and then I think they probably won’t, or they have already seen us but not killed us.”
He smiled. “Get some sleep now. It's a long journey tomorrow.”
Chapter 12
Two servants opened each of the large double doors.
“General Sarim,” one servant announced, and the general walked into the main hall of the courthouse. It echoed in the walls as the doors closed, and the sound almost stuck in the room. Apart from that, the only sound was the general’s heels clicking on the marble floor. Halls like these were perfect to make people feel out of place and small. The size of the room and the height of the ceiling made one appear like a miniature person. The way every sound, even a footstep, was amplified by the room’s acoustics would make most people lower their voices. Whether the hall was made like this on purpose or by chance, no one could tell, but it had no such effect on General Sarim. He absolutely loved the way his voice could fill the entire room; even his footsteps could carry through the room.
“General Sarim, at your service.” He stomped his feet as a soldier halted his march and presented himself loud enough that the council awaiting him had to wait for the sound to die out before they replied.
“I guess you know why you are summoned here,” the leader of the council said.
General Sarim said nothing.
“You brought forward some serious allegations yesterday,” he continued. “We all understand that yesterday presented a tough duty for both you and your men, and if it all was just a spur of the moment, we are all willing to put this behind us.”
“I stand by my words.”
The council, consisting of five elderly men, all looked at each other in confusion. They had clearly not expected this.
“Then bring forth your allegations, general.”
The general told him how the king’s council had held him back more than an hour even though he had emphasized the urgency and haste of his errand. How he had pushed his soldiers to the limit but still arrived less than half an hour too late to save the king.
“These are serious allegations, general, and if we don’t find them to hold, it will cost you your position.” The old man looked at the general with a stern gaze.
“So be it. If the king’s council stays unaltered, then I can no longer serve as the king’s general.”
General Sarim knew he was popular among the people for his long service to keep the roads safe. He was not as popular as the old king, but as long as people viewed him as the one that tried to save the king and not the one that killed him, he would have a good standing among the people. Prince Adrian never had the strength of his father, and though everyone was ready to accept Adrian as their new king, he shouldn’t do much to lose the support of the people.
“This is a matter that needs to be resolved as soon as possible; please prepare your case and you will meet here before us tomorrow at nine together with the king’s council.”
The reason for the haste was to finish the case before the gossip circulated in the city. General Sarim knew they were already too late; the gossip had already spread throughout the city, and by tomorrow morning, everyone would talk about it.
“I will be ready.” The general saluted the council before he turned on his heels and marched out. The servants opened the doors as he approached, and he left the room. Only a few minutes later, a messenger was sent to the king’s council with a summons to meet in court the following day.
***
It was the single worst night of her life, without comparison. It was also the first time in her life she had slept outdoors. The first hours, she struggled to find a position to lie in that was comfortable. At last she had fallen asleep because she was so tired. At the start, the heat from the fire kept her warm, but she had woken up after the heat of the fire was all gone. In the few hours before the sun rose again, and the temperature rose, she had gotten a real chill deep in her bones. As the day grew a little warmer, she felt she could get more sleep, then Endir had woken her up. Normally, the nurse would take Endir and change his diapers, give him a bath, and dress him before she presented Endir to her so she could breastfeed him. Queen Amrya envisioned the image of her poor nurse lying dead in the carriage. She had no nurse to help her, but Endir still needed
the same care. She lay Endir down on the grass, and tried to calm him down the way she had seen the nurse do, but without any luck. Undressing Endir was far from as easy as she had thought; baby clothes were different and she realized she had never dressed him before, and he had no intention of lying still.
“Oakentere, can you help me with some water?”
“Sure.” Oakentere brought over his canteen.
“And some cloths and clean towels, please?” she asked, knowing they had nothing of the sort.
“Your dress is far too long. It will be ruined by the shrubbery.”
“It already is,” the queen replied.
She cut off the dress at knee height, and Oakentere helped cut the linen into cloths and new diapers. It took almost a half an hour to clean up Endir, who wriggled and cried the whole time. When Queen Amrya could lay the child to her breast, she sighed from relief as he finally calmed down.
“Can you eat breakfast while you are feeding him; it’s a long day ahead of us and we are late enough already.”
“Sure, I have one hand available.”
Breakfast was cold leftovers from last night's supper and tasted nowhere near as good as it had tasted at supper.
A good half an hour later, they left their camp in a state that one could hardly see any trace of a sleepover. Endir was tied tight to Oakentere’s back and was making his content, happy noises. He slept the whole night, he had eaten, and now had the view over Oakentere's shoulder. He was far too young to know of the danger they were in, so he just enjoyed the ride. The first couple of hours, the terrain was easy, and the forest seemed quiet and peaceful.
“How about these forest people? Do you think they still exist?”
“No, they must be long gone.”
“So what kind of people could be living in these woods now?”
“If any, it must be outlaws trying to hide from the troops.”
“Just like us, then?”
“Still doesn’t mean we would like to meet them,” Queen Amrya said and realized the conversation put her more on guard.
Fifteen minutes later, it seemed as if the easy terrain gave way for a thicker part of the forest with more shrubbery on the ground. Oakentere looked like he handled the new terrain with as much ease as the other, but Queen Amrya struggled. She thought she should ask him to slow down when he suddenly turned to her with his right hand stretched towards her.
“Take my hand,” he said.
The queen grabbed hold, and the speed picked up, almost running through the thick forest. After an hour, they were up on a small hill. Oakentere stopped and ducked down. Queen Amrya followed him, and they disappeared in the bushes.
“Look,” he said and pointed downwards to where the forest opened. Queen Amrya saw three men strolling through the forest with arrows ready in their bows.
“Who are they?” Queen Amrya felt her heart pound even faster in her chest.
“They are out hunting birds, or squirrels, because their eyes are fixed up in the trees.”
“Are you sure they’re not after us?”
“Yes, because we are not up in the trees,” Oakentere said. “But I still think it’s better not to let them spot us. That’s why I pulled you north, into the wilder part of the forest.”
***
It was past noon when the high council came back into the courtroom with their verdict. Their long cloaks swayed as they walked through the room. They had started early this morning. The courtroom was divided in two, with General Sarim and his loyal officers and their lawyers on one side and the king’s council on the other side.
Samir laid out his allegation, first with how the council had kept him waiting, which could be proven both in the testimonies of the guards and the council’s protocols. Then he followed up by claiming someone had tipped off the savages; how else could they turn up on the very day the king passed through with a big enough army to take down the king’s guard. This, of course, he couldn’t prove, but who else knew about the king’s travels but his own council? Then the council defended themselves, and at the end, they were throwing allegations at each other until the judges decided that it was enough and retired to their own quarters to discuss. Two hours passed before they reentered the courtroom.
“Court, rise,” a clerk announced, and as General Sarim rose from his chair, he had a good feeling about the outcome.
“Please be seated,” the leader of the judges said as soon as he reached his place. “The high council has reached its verdict.”
He paused before he continued so the writers would be ready. “These are hard times for Gardir and the loss of King Andur burdens us all. The king’s council is much to blame for keeping our general waiting so long when his errand was of such urgency.”
The anger rose on the council’s side of the court, and to equal degrees, the content among the General and his men.
“However, we cannot see that was a deliberate act to hinder our general from saving our king,” the judge said to the sigh of relief from the council. “The allegation that someone should had given information to the mountain savage tribes, and that way set a trap for our king’s life is the most serious one. We cannot find proof that any such information was ever given. Until proven otherwise, we will settle for the belief that we were unfortunate, and this may be a sign that the aggression from the savages is worsening.”
For the first time, Sarim realized he could lose his position as general and leader of the armed forces. He ground his teeth and looked towards the floor and braced himself for the conclusion.
“General Sarim has served the king long and bravely. We understand his disappointment in the event leading up to our failure in rescuing the king. Even though this does not excuse allegations like this, we also acknowledge that they are not completely groundless. We continue our trust in General Sarim; he will still lead our troops. For the king’s council, we urge them to learn from their mistakes, for our kingdom cannot afford mistakes like this. And for Prince Adrian, who is set to take over the throne after his father, we have the full trust in him. Still, our people may need some time to accept Prince Adrian as their new king. We will therefore await the anointing of Prince Adrian as our new king. This will give him time to prove his valor and commitment to the throne."
The prince rose and bowed to mark that he accepted the decision and advice of the court’s council. The leader of the king's council sent a wry smile in General Sarim's direction.
“Don’t worry, general. It was a half victory and we just have to find a way of making this a full victory.” They were back at the general’s quarters, discussing the somewhat disappointing verdict.
“You are right; we did postpone the installment of a new king. We now just need to make it permanent.”
“Lord Brule is here to see you, general,” a servant announced, entering the room.
“Please let him in. I need some good news now.”
A moment later, Brule entered the room.
“So the queen and the prince are finally dead?” the general said as he entered.
“I am afraid she has gotten away so far,” Brule said, looking down. “She disappeared into the denser woods where we had to abandon our horses. After some miles, they lost track of her. Theyrin is still searching for her in the woods.”
“How is this possible? Ten men can’t keep up with one woman?”
“It must be one of her guards that escaped together with her and is helping her.”
“I want her dead.”
“We are patrolling the road and have plenty of eyes on the plains leading up to Engriole. There is no way she can reach that city unnoticed.”
“There is another issue here, general,” the captain talking with the general earlier broke in. “The Teigldur forest is dangerous. Chances are, they will die there.”
“That’s a good thing, then.”
“Good, sure, but how will you know? How long will it take until you are sure she is dead? How long will you be patrolling the
roads to search for her?”
“You are right.” The general sighed. “We need to find her. Brule, take more men with you to accompany Theyrin in the search through the woods.”
“Thank you, general, sir. You are most kind to us.”
Lord Brule bowed and left them.
Chapter 13
The third day through the forest went by without seeing or hearing anything. Queen Amrya felt they had managed to put a good stretch behind them despite the hardship of walking through shrubbery. Oakentere had been even more careful as he made up fires in the night so that the flames would not be seen. Still, they needed the flames for the heat and for preparing a supper. Besides being an excellent hunter, Oakentere seemed to know everything about edible plants, berries, and roots to feed them during the journey. Getting more used to sleeping on the ground, she woke up on the fourth day more rested than on the previous days. This meant they were earlier on the move than they had been. Oakentere never said much and his answers got shorter by the days, so they ended up walking in silence. Queen Amrya grew content by walking through the woods in this fashion. She had no clue where they were but trusted her guide. At least he kept her alive. The sun was up and sparkling on the leaves, and they got up on a small hill, then found an opening where they could see out on the forest to the south where the forest stretched deep within the borders of Arantaya. Queen Amrya was about to comment on the beauty of the view, or the fact that they for once had a view, when Oakentere silenced her by putting his index finger over his lips. He looked quickly around, then he climbed a few branches of a nearby tree and gazed back in the direction they had come from.
“Soldiers are on our trail,” he whispered as he got down. “It’s only four of them, but they are moving fast.”
Then he grabbed her hand and took off even faster than earlier. The hand that wasn’t pulled along by Oakentere’s firm grip she held in front of her face to fend off all the whipping branches hitting her face.
“Don’t we make an even bigger trail to follow when we run like this?”