Chapter 8 - Devlin's Story

Andres freed the boy without uttering a word.  Although he knew he was doing the right thing, he found very little satisfaction from doing so.  After all, this boy was the reason that Cable was still locked up somewhere, his life in danger--if indeed he was still alive.  Without looking at the boy, Andres cut through the ropes and headed back through the woods to the trail.

The boy followed.  Andres subtly tried to pick up the pace and somehow get away from the boy, but it was to no avail.  The boy was always on his heels.  Andres hoped his silence would be sufficient to give the boy the hint that he was not wanted.  But no deterrent seemed to work.  Finally, Andres blurted out, "Why are you following me?"

"Where else am I supposed to go?" the boy replied.

"Go home or something," Andres said.  "Look, you're free now.  Go lure some other kid into a trap that ends up almost killing him."  Andres kept walking.

The boy caught up and put his hand on Andres' shoulder.  "Hey, I'm really sorry about what happened.  You've got to believe me."

This caused Andres to stop.  "Why do I have to believe you?  Here we are in the middle of some woods that I've never seen before, surrounded by who-knows-how-many wolves and other animals that want to eat us, and it's all because you thought it would be so funny to trick us into getting caught by that evil guy with a crooked jaw!"  Andres paused to catch his breath.

The boy replied softly.  "Will you let me explain?  I promise that if you don't want to see me ever again after I explain stuff, then I'll turn around and you'll never see me again.  But please, let me just talk for a minute."

Andres didn't really want to hear anything.  He rather enjoyed silence.  But the prospect of getting rid of the boy was too good to pass up.  "Okay.  Go ahead and talk.  But you'll have to do it while we're walking.  And anyways, what's your name?"

"Devlin.  What's yours?"

"Andres, if you've got to know."

Here was Devlin's story:

"All right, Andres.  You've got to realize something.  That guy that grabbed you and threw you in the cart...he is my master.  I've been pretty much his slave for the last 10 years.  It's been an awful life.

"You see, my very first memory was from 10 years ago, when I was almost 4 years old.  I was playing in the castle, because that's where I lived.  My dad was an advisor to King Maximilian.  See, the king had two advisors--my dad, and another guy named Slumbutter.  Anyone that wanted to see the king personally first had to meet with one of his advisors.  Both my dad and Slumbutter got to live in the castle.

"Well, as I was playing on that day, I smelled a little bit of smoke.  Then my dad came in, along with my mom.  My dad gently grabbed me, pulled me close, and said, 'Look son, I've got to leave for a little bit.  I've got to do something to help the king.'  His voice was calm, but I could tell he was worried.  Then he said, 'Son, you've got to do exactly what your mother asks.  And you've got to be brave.  I promise I'll be back as quickly as I can.'  Then he hugged me and kissed me on the forehead and ran out of the room.

"I never saw him again." 

The boy paused, and--for the first time--Andres turned and looked into his eyes.  He saw a couple of silent tears roll down his cheeks.  Andres' hard heart was melting just a bit.  Then Devlin continued.

"My mom told me that we needed to pack some things and leave the castle for a little while.  She, like my dad, was calm on the outside, but I could tell she was worried on the inside.  The smell of smoke grew stronger as we packed a few things.  Then, as we were preparing to leave our room, there was a pounding on the door.  My mom went to answer it.  She cracked the door open and looked outside.  Then I saw a hand reach into the room, grab her, and pull her out.  The door was slammed, and I was left in the room alone.  I tried to get out, but all the doors were blocked.

"I was left in that room for hours--just 3 years old, and all alone.  Can you imagine that, Andres?"

Andres didn't answer, because he really couldn't imagine it.  Andres was beginning to feel bad for his rude treatment of Devlin.  But whenever Andres felt emotions that he didn't know quite how to handle, he just kept silent.  So the boys kept walking, and Devlin kept talking.

"Finally, after what seemed like forever, Slumbutter came into the room.  Beside him was a tall man with a face that looked all bruised up.  His jaw looked broken.  But no matter how hurt he may have been, he looked scary to me.  Slumbutter turned to him and said, 'Take the boy away.  He is yours.'

"I sceamed, 'What do you mean?'  Slumbutter told me, 'Look boy, you are lucky that I'm letting you even live.  Your father and Prince Dorian had planned to overthrow the king today.  They killed the king, and they planned to make themselves rulers of the Kingdom.  I had to call in the black knights to put down the rebellion.  Your father and Prince Dorian have been slain for their treachery.  Your mother has disappeared.  And you are going to go with Prince Dor-ko.  Do what he says, boy!  Or you'll end up like the rest of your wretched, rebellious family.'  So the tall, scary-looking guy grabbed me and took me away."

Andres had to interrupt.  "Wait a minute!" he said, putting some mental pieces together.  "Do you mean that the man with the crooked jaw is actually Prince Dor-ko?"

"Yes," answered Devlin.  "That's him.  He has one job in life--to find and kill the enemies of King Slumbutter."

Andres gulped.  He was thankful for his escape from Dor-ko's clutches.  But if his job was to kill, why had he let the boys live?  It must have had something to do with the ring.  Andres' mind was racing.

"But anyways," continued Devlin, "from that day on, I went from being a child in a castle to a slave in a shack.  Dor-ko took me outside and threw me into a small building that had been used for the kings dogs.  He told me to stay there till his wife came and got me.  He said that she would tell me what to do.  It was dark.  I crawled into a corner and cried all night.

"At daybreak, a woman came and pulled me out of the shed.  She obviously had no pity.  She said, 'Come and eat, boy.'  She never called me by my name.  But it was just as well.  Her name was Boris, and she was as mean as Dor-ko."

Andres stopped in his tracks.  "Boris?" he asked.  "Her name was 'Boris'?"  Andres welcomed the brief bit of comic relief.  He found it much easier to laugh than to lament.

"Yeah, her name was Boris," said Devlin as they resumed walking.  "It was perfect for her.  I was her slave from that day on, and she always carried a stick to hit me with if I wasn't working hard enough.  I did all the cooking and cleaning and anything else they wanted me to do.  It was kind of like never getting to be a kid.

"But anyways, one day--when I thought no one was looking--I was playing with Boris' cat, whose name was Biff.  I was about 10 years old at the time.  As we were playing, she ran out of the room and went through a doorway that was open for the first time in my memory.  Now I'd been taught to not explore the castle.  But curiosity got the best of me, and I followed the cat through the door.  It led to some stairs which wound down into a dark basement of some sort.

"I soon forgot about the cat and started looking around.  I found myself in a long hallway that was dimly lit by some torches that were set on the wall.  It looked like some kind of dungeon.  At the far end of the hallway, I heard a soft voice crying.  I went down, and peer through some bars into what was a prison cell.  Some light shone into the cell from outside, through a window that was no bigger than a kitten.  As my eyes adjusted, I saw a woman in the corner. 

"I asked, 'Are you okay, lady?  Why are you crying?'

"The lady replied, 'I've not stopped crying for the past 10 years.'

"I said, 'What's the matter?'  And when I asked that, the woman stopped and came over to me.  She put her face close to the prison bars and looked at me.  Her beautiful face shone through the dirt and grime of the prison.  Tears came tumbling out of her eyes and made rows through the dirt on her cheeks.

"And then she said, 'Devlin, you're still alive!'  It was the first time I'd heard my name called in 10 years.  That's when I knew that it was my mom.  She wasn't dead.  She'd just been trapped in this prison.  I never knew that, just underneath where I was working as a slave, my mother had been living in misery.

"We talked for a long time.  She told me that I shouldn't believe anything that Slumbutter said--that he was a liar, and always had been.  She said that Slumbutter had organized the rebellion himself and blamed it on dad.  And if he'd lied about the rebellion, then maybe he'd lied about the king being dead as well.

"I finally kissed her goodbye and promised to come back again.  Oh, how I hated to leave!  I would have preferred a lifetime in prison with her over life in the castle under Slumbutter's rule!  So I climbed back up the stairs.  And who should be waiting for me...but Boris.

"She grabbed me and beat me worse than I'd ever been beaten before.  She said that if I ever went to that dungeon again, she'd throw me in one of the cells and throw away the key and let me rot to death.  And then she said that I wasn't to work in the house any more.  From that point on, I was to be Dor-ko's slave.

"Well, that wasn't so bad.  He was awful, of course, but at least I got to be outside and feed horses and clean stables.  Then, just a few days ago, Dor-ko disappeared for some reason.  And yesterday he came back and said, 'Boy, there are some kids that I want to find.  If you can help me find 'em, I'll let you go see your mother again.'  Then he described what you looked like.  He didn't tell me that he wanted to harm you.  But I guess I should have figured that out.

"So anyway, when I saw you come out of the woods, that's why I smiled.  I thought that my trick would give me a chance to see my mother.

"But I was wrong.  After he threw you in the back of the cart, he told me to get in, too.  I told him that he'd promised I could go back to the castle and see my mom.  He told me to shut up.  During the whole ride down the hill, I begged him to let me go.  Finally, he stopped the cart and dragged me into the woods, with his hand over my mouth so no one could hear me.  Then he tied me to a tree and said, 'If I can't shut you up, then I'll let the wolves do it.'  And he left me there to die. 

Devlin paused at that point.  Andres, after a few moments of silence, said, "All right, Devlin.  I guess we'd better stick together."  They shook hands.  The boys continued their climb up the mountain.

After another hour or so, they heard some sounds off to their right.  Devlin whispered, "Follow me," and Andres followed him off the trail.  They skirted through some woods, and soon found that they were very near the road that they'd come down the day before.  They saw a strange sight--a man on a horse, dragging behind him a boy.  The boy was tied up; only his feet could move.  If he failed to walk, the horse would drag him.  He was obviously a prisoner.

Then the man on the horse--whose face was difficult to see in the darkness--called out, "Where did you throw that ring, boy?  Where?!" 

It was Dor-ko.  Cable was still alive!  Devlin turned and looked at Andres.  They knew that it was time to act.