Chapter 15 - Reminiscing in the Dungeon

Andres was stunned. Here in the depths of the dungeon, he had found what would appear to be a friend. And with that friendship came a ray of hope. Even in the darkest of times, a friend can bring good cheer.

But Andres didn’t have too long to dwell on that particular thought. Gregorex immediately pelted him with questions. “So tell me, how did you get here?” he asked.

“Well, I’ll tell you what, it was the weirdest and most sudden thing,” Andres replied. “Cable and I had to get ready to celebrate Julianna’s birthday. The problem was, Remma was in our room, and she locked us out.”

Gregorex quickly interrupted. “When you say ‘Remma’, are you talking about the Princess Remmaline?”

“Yeah, we pretty much just call her Remma. She may be a princess to everyone else, but to us she’s just a regular girl who can be a pain sometimes. I mean, we love her, don’t get me wrong. But you wouldn’t believe the stuff she does to tease us. Then when we tease her back, she shrieks like she’s just been struck by lightning or something. Then that gets Dad’s attention, and WE are the ones that get in trouble. I mean, just the other day...”

“Hold on,” said Gregorex. “I’m sure you’ve got some great stories, and I’d love to hear them sometime. But since you’ve been sent down here to rot to death, it’s probably best that we figure out how to escape before we tell too many tales.”

“Okay,” mumbled Andres. He had to agree that escape was preferable to death. Then he continued, “Well, when I finally did get into the room, Remmaline was gone. I ran over to the window, which happened to be open, when someone snuck up on me and put a hood over my head and pitched me out the window. Then some guy named Pipes caught me, and I got carried to this nice place. So that’s how I got here.”

“But you didn’t come straight here, did you?” asked Gregorex. “When did you see the girl that sprayed you with perfume?”

“Pipes took me to her and asked her to dress my wounds. After she got done with me, Pipes lowered me into the dungeon.”

There was a silent pause in the darkness as Gregorex pondered these words. Then he asked, “Just so you know, that girl is named Annala. If we ever get out of this dump safely, I’m going to marry her. She’s my sweetie. She got captured four years ago by Slumbutter, and I’ve not seen her since. I didn’t think I’d ever see her again. Until you came here, I wasn’t even sure if she was still alive. But she is alive, and if I know her, she’s going to help get us out of here. So what did she say?”

“She was real odd and mysterious,” Andres replied. “She’d say stuff that sorta made sense, but sorta didn’t. She kind of reminded me of my sister. Remma would be like that, saying weird stuff that just made me shake my head. Like the other day, she...”

“Hold on, buddy,” Gregorex interrupted again. “Let’s go back to Annala. This is what I know--when she gets talking all mysterious-like, it means she’s trying to pass on some sort of secret message. I figured this out once, many years ago. You see, Annala is the daughter of a man named Samek. Samek is a great guy, and I have worked for him for many years. But Samek used to watch us like a hawk. The moment we’d even hold hands, he’d start harrumphing and clearing his throat and reminding me that I had a few more jobs to wrap up. He was real protective.

“So one day, as I was preparing to head back to my house at the end of a long day of work, I said good-bye to Annala. Samek was right there, so we just kind of shook hands. And Annala looks me in the eyes and says, ‘Kindness is seldom sufficient.’ Then she kind of purses her lips and turns around. Well, I though about that silly little phrase for all night and all the next day while I was working. And the next night she did the same thing, though this time she added a coy little smile after she pursed her lips. After about a week of this, I finally figured it out. You see, what are the first letters of the words, ‘Kindness is seldom sufficient’?”

Andres pondered the question a minute. “I guess that would be k-i-s-s,” he replied. Then it struck him. “Kiss! Yuck! Are you saying that her strange little reply to you was her secret way of giving you a kiss, right under her father’s nose?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” said Gregorex. “That’s why we need to go over what she said to you.”

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing that she said a lot. It was, ‘remember many things’. She kept saying it. I mean, I’m pretty good at taking a hint. And after she said it twice, I had it clear in my head that I should remember what she was saying. But she said it about fifty-eight times, and to be honest, it got kind of annoying. Remma would be like that sometimes. She’d say something, and then she’d say it again, and then she’d...”

“Whoa there, buddy,” Gregorex interrupted. “So she kept saying ‘remember many things’? Hmmm...” Gregorex thought deeply for a moment. Andres found the silence unnerving. He was greatly relieved to hear Gregorex exclaim, “Remma! She’s trying to tell you something about the Princess Remmaline! You see, if you take the first three letters of ‘remember’ and the first two letters of ‘many’, you come up with ‘Remma’. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, actually it does,” answered Andres. “Now I remember! She said something about how ‘she is carried on our new eastern road’. And then she asked me, ‘That is where your heart is, isn’t it?’ So you must be right--she’s talking about Remma, and it appears that she’s been captured and carried away on this ‘new eastern road’, whatever that is. I tell you, if those jerks do anything to my sister, I think I’ll tie ‘em up and use them for target practice at the archery range. They better not lay a hand on her! Once a couple of years ago, some guys were bugging her, and I found out about it and...”

“Hold on, Prince Andres,” Gregorex said. “We’ll have plenty of time for stories later. But for now we’ve got to keep thinking. It’s making sense to me--I was out exploring a few weeks ago, and I came across some of Dor-ko’s men cutting a great path through the southern woods. I was convinced that Dor-ko was planning an attack on the Kingdom of Aberdeen through these woods, which were protected only by Samek and the village of Cliffton. That is probably the ‘new eastern road’ that Annala mentioned.”

Gregorex paused to think for a moment, then spoke again. “I get it! Those losers are planning an attack, and they are bringing the princess with them as a hostage. When they get to Cliffton, they’ll ask for a free passage, or else they’ll threaten to slay the princess. Those wretches! We’ve got to get out of here! So what else did Annala say?”

“To be honest,” Andres replied, “she didn’t say much else. Her initial greeting was kind of odd. She said, ‘Cantankerifous old rebels never ever repent’. It bothered me, because Cable wasn’t around to tell me what ‘cantankerifous’ meant. But it didn’t seem like a nice word, and I’m not exactly ‘old’ either, so I thought it was kind of rude. My sister--I mean, I miss her and I really want to save her, but she says rude things too sometimes. A couple of weeks ago, she kept saying...”

“Stop right there, Andres!” Gregorex interrupted. “It’s the same old code! If you take the first letters of those words, they spell c-o-r-n-e-r. She’s trying to tell us to look in the corner! Well, let’s look!” Andres then grabbed Gregorex’ hand, and they walked over to the cell wall and felt for the corner. When they got there, Gregorex scootched down and felt around. Sure enough, a metallic sound was soon heard. “It’s a key!” he exclaimed. “Annala has pointed us toward a key hidden in the corner!”

“Wow!” bellowed Andres. “Now we’re out of here, right?”

“Well, not exactly,” Gregorex replied. “We’ve got to figure out where the key goes, and that’s no easy task here in the pitch dark. So you’ve got to remember--what else did Annala say?”