Chapter 22
William couldn’t believe how easy it was to get out of the palace. The guard saddled and placed him on the horse. He would have to find something to step on if he needed to get off and on. He rode through the village and waved to a few as he went by. He was pretty impressed with how the people in the village looked at him on top one of the king’s steeds. Most looks were of astonishment. He had heard the king talk a lot about the west forest so he knew that was the place where he had to go. As soon as he got through the village, he let the horse have its reins. The horse didn’t waste any time and took off through the felid.
Madeline was exhausted. She had been up all night tending to the ill. The list of dead was growing more by the hour. Crying could be heard with every step that she took. She told people to check their cupboards for rats and mice. They always go to higher ground and if they got into their food supplies, then they could spread a sickness across the village. She needed to go back to her shed to fill up on more supplies. She opened the door only to find a young child sitting there waiting for her. “Little one, what can I do for you?” The child didn’t speak. She just looked at Madeline. “Honey, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what is wrong.” The child got up out of the chair she had been sitting on and walked over to Madeline. The child started to cry a she looked up at her. “Your brother is in grave danger. A fairy came to tell me. You must go to protect him.” Madeline couldn’t understand why a child would come and tell her something like this. William was safe up at the palace. Fairies were mystical creatures in the stories told by their parents at bedtime. They weren’t real. “Honey, where are your parents?” Her long brown hair was matted and the dirt on her must have been there for days, the way it had dried. It wasn’t the first child that Madeline had come across that was in this condition. “My parents and baby brother floated away.” That was all it took for Madeline to grab the little girl into her arms and hold her. She felt the tears against her neck and held her even closer. She took her into her parent’s house. Madeline knew that mother would tend to her. Walking in the back door, her mother turned at the sound of the door. “Madeline, you brought a child home?” Madeline sat down with the child now sitting on her lap. “No mother, the child was in my shed.” She wasn’t going to tell her what the child had said to her about her brother. It would only worry her mother. She would check that out once she got back to the palace. Her mother came over to the girl who couldn’t have been more than six years of age. Madeline told her mother what the child said about her parent’s and sibling and she could see her mother’s heart open within her eyes. She knew that her mother would take care of her now. Her own children, in a way, had been taken from her. “Come here, sweeting, you are not alone anymore.” The child went willingly into her mother’s arms. “Tell your father to heat some water.” Madeline smiled as she watched her mother take the child into the other room. Her father was outside in the front of the house. He was clearing the debris that had floated in from the flood. “Father?” she called out as soon as she opened the door. “Over here,” he shouted back. He was on the side trying to get a tree branch out from under the house. “If I can’t get it out, I will just cut it off. Here, give your father a hand.” Madeline walked over and the two of them together grabbed onto the branch. “One, two, three, pull.” They both gave it all they had and just as they thought it wasn’t going to budge, it came free, sending the both of them into the mud. The branch went flying and landed with a thump on the ground. Her father sat up and wiped the mud from his face while Madeline tried to stand. As soon as she looked at her father, she fell back down and started to laugh. It felt good to let it out. She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed this hard. Her father helped her up. “Go get in the house and I will bring water in.” She was trying to regain her breath when she started all over again. “That was what I was sent out here for, to tell you mother wanted you to bring in water.” She turned and went into the house. She was thankful that she didn’t take all her clothes with her. She went to her to room and poured some of the water that still remained in her pitcher into the basin. She took off her clothes and pushed them to the side. With the sponge, she washed herself down. She filled the basin twice more before she had removed all the mud from her. She took a dress off the peg and slipped it over her head. It felt wonderful to be back into her own clothes. Combing out her hair, she twisted it and tied it at the end. She knew that it would dry eventually. She went to check on her mother and small child. She looked in and she could see the pure bliss that spread across her mother’s face. She didn’t realize how much it affected her when they left. “How are we doing in here?” she said as she walked into the room. Her mother looked up and smiled at her. “We are doing a lot better.” The child was clean and dressed in one of her sister’s old dresses. Her mother sat in the chair, rocking her like she had done to each of them. The child sleeping in her arms. “Mom, are you okay to take care of her? She has no one.” Madeline smiled when she saw the look of astonishment cross her mother’s face. “Why in the world would you ask me a question like that? How could I give this sweeting up to the streets?” Madeline nodded. “Okay, I just wanted to make sure because I could have her sent to the palace with the other orphans.” Her mother shook her head. Madeline considered the subject closed then. She kissed her mother’s forehead and then turned and left the room. Her mother would fill her father in later about all of it and Madeline knew he was the type of man that would do anything to make sure his family was happy. She grabbed her shawl off the peg by the door and went back out to the shed. She grabbed her bag and a weird feeling went through her when she remembered what the child said about her brother. She would go back to the palace to check on him.
William finally got the horse to slow down. He came to the first mountain around mid-day. He needed to find water for the horse and he was feeling the hunger pains in his stomach since he didn’t get to keep his breakfast down. He started towards the mountain. He had heard people in the village talk about a river at the base. He would stop there to eat something and let the horse get a drink. The sun shone high in the sky by the time they reached the river. William found a log to use to get down off the horse. He led it over to the river and held on to the reins. He couldn’t afford to lose the horse when he was so far away from home. He waited till the horse drank his fill, then led him over to the log that he used to get down. He tied the reins around the tree beside it and sat down to eat. He had gone to the kitchen on his way out. He knew that he would need food, that it wasn’t a day trip he would be taking. He took out a small piece of cheese and a piece of meat. He could hear noises around him but for some reason, it didn’t bother him. The horses head perked up and William saw a blue light fly pass him. Was he seeing things now? Had he gone too long without food? He put the rest of the food back in the bag and decided it was time to move on.
Madeline left her parent’s house and instructed the guard that was told to remain with her to go back to the palace to check on her brother. He told her resentfully, “I’m sorry, but I was told to remain with you at all times.” He didn’t want to babysit this woman. He was better than this and wished he was assigned a real job. The nagging feeling she had in her stomach was growing stronger. “Sir, if something happens to my brother and you disregarded my order, I will personally see that the king beheads you first.” The guard knew that she was promised to the King’s son and he also knew that she took care of the king while he was ill. Could she have that much power? He wasn’t going to take any chances. He nodded to her and walked over to where his horse was being stabled. He got on his horse and rode to the palace. Watching him ride towards the bridge, she would feel better once she knew her brother was alright, safe behind those huge stone walls.
William had been riding for over an hour when he started to see all the caves in the sides of the mountain. The blue light flew passed him a number of times now so the horse didn’t bother with it anymore. It was as if it
were showing him the way. He had tried to ask it questions but it didn’t answer him. A couple of times, it tried to get him to go into the caves but William didn’t feel right and steered the horse around them. The blue light continued to lead him. It was starting to get dark and he needed to find shelter for the night. The fairy again tried to coax him into the cave. William didn’t like it but knew that if he wanted to get out of the wind, which would turn colder as night fell, he would need something good and the cave would be the best place. He brought the horse in with him. Now that he felt the horse was loyal to him, he let the reins fall so he could move around. He stayed closer to the cave entrance but back enough to keep the wind from them. As soon as he got his blanket off the back of the horse, he folded it and laid it on the ground. The wool would keep the cold from the ground off his body while he wrapped the other part around him. William saw the blue light coming from the darkness of the cave. He looked to the horse and knew it must have been what was leading them throughout the day because the horse didn’t even flinch. He dug into his bag and took a carrot out for the horse. The horse walked over to him and took the carrot out of his hand. William chewed on a stale bun and some cheese. He knew that it would satisfy his hunger. He watched as the blue light came closer and closer. When he finally saw what it was, his eyes opened larger. “Are you a fairy?” He had heard of them in stories but never in his wildest dreams did he think he would ever meet one. Wavoon nodded to the child. It was easier to approach a child then an adult. He knew that he had to get back into the good graces of his King. When fairy king found out what he had done, he gave him two options. Be clipped, which meant he would never fly again or save a life. He knew that he couldn’t go back to Luc and the men because they would never trust him again. He found the child and knew that he was going after the ones he just did wrong to, so he chose to save the child. Every time he tried to get him to go in to the caves so they could take the shorter way, he refused. He was getting very annoyed now. He knew that he would have to show himself to this child to gain any trust. Wavoon sat down and started to draw in the dirt. He hoped the child would understand what he was going to try to tell him. William watched as the fairy drew perfect pictures for him. He realized that the fairy was actually with the prince at one time. “Why did you do that? Why didn’t you protect them?” The fairy sat there and shook his head. The fairy drew the whole story out for William and then in the end, it showed William going back to the palace. “I will not go back until the prince is with me.” With that, he put his food in his bag and put the bag under his head. He brought the other side of his blanket around him and closed his eyes. Wavoon didn’t think the kid would be so hard to convince. He nestled into the folds of the blanket. While lying there, he thought that maybe he should have tried his luck with the men again.
Madeline had been out all day again and the evening was coming upon them. The winds had picked up and it was turning colder. Men had been working in the village helping everyone who needed it. She saw her father going to other people’s houses, asking if there was anything he could help them with. Men had been taking debris away and the King had sent extra carts and guards to help with the removal. Women from the palace brought fresh bread and meat to everyone in the village. Madeline knew in that gesture alone, that Nicholis was a good man under all that armor that he held up in front of him. Madeline watched as women sliced the meat thin so it would dry out and last them a lot longer. Their storage bins had been in the ground, to keep their meats cold. They lost everything when the mud filled them. They would have starved if he had not sent the food. Everyone came together as they always did in this small village. The sun had finally gone down and just as she thought about her brother, she realized that she hadn’t heard from the guard she sent back to check on him. An hour later, he came back into the village. She turned to see a worried look on his face. “How is my brother?” The guard got off his horse. “Miss, your brother left the palace this morning. He told a maid that he was going to get berries for the King. No one questioned him. One of the guards even saddled a horse for him. Madeline’s heart fell. What if the little girl was right? Her grandmother and she talked of the fairies. They were tales from a long time ago. Now she knew they must be true. She grabbed the reins from the guard and climbed up onto the massive horse. She knew where he would go for berries but was that the real place he was off to? One small kick to the belly of the horse and she was gone.