Chapter 36 - Journey to Cliffton, Part 1

And so, in the faint glow of dawn, the Eastern Road was a scene of a great reunion. Andres was reunited with his sister Remmaline, Legs was reunited with this father Pipes, and Gregorex was reunited with his horse Spartacus. The next few minutes were spent exchanging stories and introducing people to one another. However, one person was left out at first--Kaelanna, the jailer’s daughter. Remmaline saw her still sitting quietly atop her horse, watching everything but saying nothing. Instinctively feeling bad for her, Remma ran over and motioned for her to dismount. She then gave Kaelanna a big hug and introduced herself. Kaelanna immediately curtsied and said, “I am honored, Your Majesty.”

But Remmaline quickly took her by the hand and said, “Aw, don’t worry about that stuff. Just call me Remma.” And from that point onward, the two became like the best of friends. Andres marveled how two girls that barely knew each other could become so friendly, so quickly.

After about five minutes , Gregorex took charge. Now that the sun had started to rise, he quickly got his bearings and realized that this was the spot where he’d originally discovered Dor-ko’s forces building the road. He raised his voice and said, “Uh...pardon the interruption, folks, but in case you forgot, an entire army is just a little ways down the road. And I really don’t feel like staying here and letting my head serve as a pincushion for their arrows. So follow me. We’ve got to hustle back and let Cliffton know that an attack is coming our way.”

With that, Gregorex mounted Spartacus. The others followed suit. Remma hopped up on Mudpuddle, and urged Kaelanna to get behind her. Legs, Pipes, and Andres mounted the horses that had come from Dor-ko’s stable. The group then slid into the woods, with Gregorex in the lead. Andres followed Gregorex, followed by Remma and Kaelanna. Legs and Pipes served as the rear guard.

Shortly after entering the dense forest, Gregorex led the group to a dry stream bed. This served as a nice trail. Although the group had to travel single-file, at least they weren’t constantly getting thwapped by stray branches. Eventually they came to a narrow trail that Gregorex had created. Gregorex had been patrolling these forests for about four years, and he’d carved out his own network of trails to help maneuver. Spartacus knew them as well as Gregorex, and the twosome led the group swiftly through the woods.

After the group traveled for about 2 hours, Gregorex pulled up by a brook. “Let’s get some water and take a break,” he said. “No one here has slept for quite awhile, and we could all use a little shut-eye. So get a drink and get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch.”

Andres gratefully dismounted. He knelt by the brook, stuck his head in the water, and drank to his heart’s content. He then looked over at his sister. She was just downstream, kneeling next to Kaelanna. He saw Remma grab Kaelanna’s arm and point toward Andres. “Ewwwww!” she said. “My brother just stuck his face in the water! I can’t drink water that has ‘Andres germs’ in it! Yuck!” She then giggled, and Kaelanna followed suit.

Andres was amazed. How can they be more interested in teasing me than in getting water? Sisters can be such a pain, he thought to himself. He wanted to say it out loud, but he figured it would be embarrassing to fight with his sister in front of the other men. So he just drank till he was full, stood up, and walked over behind Remma. When she wasn’t looking, he gave her a gentle push toward the brook.

“Hey!” cried Remma as she nearly tumbled into the water. “Why do you always have to be such a meanie?” Her voice seemed to fill the woods with indignation.

Andres just ignored her and laid down next to his horse. Within seconds he was asleep. He slept somewhat restlessly, nervously awaiting the tap on the shoulder that would let him know that it was his turn to be the guard. Andres hated doing guard duty alone in the woods. The thought of being the only person awake in the middle of an unfamiliar forest was enough to make his stomach churn. Every time he tossed and turned on the soft earth, he thought he heard some whispering, and he was sure it was someone getting ready to wake him up.

Finally, he couldn’t take the uncertainty any more and he just woke himself up. Slowly staggering to his feet, he pried his eyes open and looked toward the whispering voices. When his eyes cleared, he saw Gregorex, Legs and Pipes, sitting and talking softly. He then turned and saw the girls behind him, sleeping back-to-back.

“What’s up, sleepy-head?” said Gregorex. When Andres turned back around, he saw Gregorex walking toward him. Gregorex then put him in a headlock and gave him a friendly noogie. Andres tried his best to shake free, but until his body fully woke up, it was hopeless.

When Gregorex let him go, Andres mumbled, “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Aw, we figured that your few hours of prison life had been pretty hard on you,” replied Gregorex. “You obviously needed some beauty sleep.”

It didn’t take Andres long to figure out that Gregorex hadn’t slept at all. He was clearly excited to get back to Cliffton. And though it killed him to have to wait, he knew that some of the group (particularly the girls) desperately needed some rest. But his patience was now expired--it was time to head out. He looked up at the sky and said, “The sun is as high as it’s gonna get. It must be about noon. The girls will have to be happy with the sleep they got. Let’s get rolling.” Within ten minutes, everyone was awake, on their horses, and on the move.

The next few hours of the journey were relatively uneventful, except for the fact that the girls were driving Andres crazy. He just wanted to ride in silence and mind his own business. But the girls talked non-stop. They talked about life in the castle, about life in the jail, about horses and hair-dos and babies and dolls and food and boys and shoes. Andres tried to turn and glare at them from time to time, but it did no good. In fact, whenever Remma saw him glare, she started talking even louder. Andres tried to cover his ears, but it did no good. Nothing in all creation could block the sounds of those girls.

Every once in awhile, Gregorex would turn around and bark at the girls, ordering them to keep it down. That usually worked--for about five minutes. Then the whispering would begin again, followed a few minutes later by talking, followed by giggling, then by loud laughter, then by another scolding from Gregorex. And the cycle would repeat itself.

Finally, Andres couldn’t take it any more. As the group reached the crest of a hill, he piped up and said, “Hey Gregorex, can you just point me in the right direction? I’m gonna walk the rest of the way. These girls are driving me nuts.”

Gregorex didn’t reply. Instead he stopped and motioned toward the west, in the direction of the declining sun. Andres followed his finger and saw some dust rising in the distance. “It looks like there’s some motion down on the road,” declared Gregorex. “Let’s check it out. Andres, you stay here with the girls. The rest of us will go take a look.”

Andres couldn’t stomach the thought of staying put. “Gregorex...uh, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but there is no way that I’m staying up here with these girls. I’d rather stick a red-hot poker in my ears than listen to them jabber some more while you’re down with the action.”

Gregorex quickly relented. “All right, Andres. We’ll go down together. But girls...” Gregorex paused and looked directly at Remma and Kaelanna. “You stay out of the way. Do you understand me? The bad guys would like nothing more than to capture a princess. They’ve done it once, and they’ll do it again if they have the chance.”

Without waiting for the girls to respond, Gregorex turned and spurred his horse down the hill. They soon veered off the path and headed back toward the Eastern Road. When they reached the woodline on the north side of the road, they craned their necks to the left. Sure enough, a lone figure was riding along. His horse was galloping along, not too swiftly and not too slowly, heading back towards Dor-ko’s country. The man was followed by two riderless horses. He wore a dark cloak, which resembled the garb of Dor-ko’s jailkeepers.

As the man approached, it was obvious that he had something in his right hand. Gregorex asked Legs to borrow his bow and arrow. Legs quickly obliged. Gregorex then notched an arrow and waited for the man to approach. When he came close, Gregorex let the arrow fly. It struck the rider in the right hand, causing him to cry out in pain as he dropped the object that had been in his hand.

The rider reigned in his horse and went to go back and retrieve the object. Gregorex quickly notched another arrow and let it fly. The arrow shot through the rider’s cap, exposing a completely bald head beneath. The rider again cried out in fear. He reversed direction one more time and headed back toward the east. Gregorex let one more arrow fly. This one whizzed by the left side of the riders head, missing him by inches. Seconds later, the rider disappeared from view. Meanwhile, the two horses that had been following him fled into the woods.

The air was silent as the sound of galloping hooves drifted away. Andres was dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you just kill him?” he asked.

“You’ve got to always think ahead, Andres!” retorted Gregorex. “Look, this guy was obviously heading back toward Dor-ko. If you know anything about military operations, you know that he has a designated time to return. If I kill him, well, as you can imagine, he won’t return by his appointed time. That means that Dor-ko would send out a search party. I don’t know about you, but I’m not anxious to run into any search parties!

“So instead, we’ll let this guy return. But he’s going to return with a story of how the warriors of Cliffton have deployed in advance. He’ll be scared, and he’ll want to make it sounds like he ran into a huge force. So he’ll tell Dor-ko that they’d better be prepared for a tremendous ambush. And that fear will slow down the Army. They’ll have to deploy skirmishers into the woods to make sure their path is clear. While they slow down, it’ll give Cliffton more time to prepare for battle. So trust me, Andres...I know what I’m doing!”

Andres had to admit that Gregorex had thought everything through. While Andres chastised himself for asking what now seemed to be such a dumb question, Gregorex left the woodline and ran into the road. He picked up a small tube that was capped with a cork. He pulled the cork and reached into the tube. Inside, he discovered a scroll of some sort. The scroll had a seal on it.

As Gregorex stared at the scroll and the seal, he became silent. “I can’t believe it,” he muttered. “I just can’t believe it.”

“What is it?” asked Legs in his slow drawl. Even the unflappable Legs seemed somewhat concerned by Gregorex’ reaction.

Gregorex shook his head in apparent disbelieve as he replied. “This scroll has a watermark on it. I’d recognize it anywhere--it’s from my master Samek. And the scroll is sealed by Samek’s own seal. I just can’t understand. Why would Samek be sending messages to the enemy?”

Chapter 35 - Encounter on the Eastern Road

The three horses plodded slowly through the forest, following the narrow trail that had been blazed before them. Legs led the way, with Kaelanna sitting behind him. Gregorex followed, his head turning to and fro, as though trying to recognize his surroundings. Andres stayed just a short distance behind Gregorex. His worst nightmare was to be lost in the middle of some strange woods at night. He hated the dark, he hated being lost, and he really hated being dark and lost.

Andres couldn’t stop thinking about the old man that had blocked their patch a few moments ago. He could swear that he’d heard that voice before, but he just couldn’t recall where. Every mental trail he followed in trying the answer that question just wound up at a dead end. Finally he piped up and called out, “Hey Gregorex!”

A startled Gregorex jumped nearly a foot off his horse. Flustered, he turned back toward Andres and bellowed, “For goodness sake, Andres, keep your voice down!”

“Sorry, Gregorex,” replied Andres, speaking just as loudly as he did thefirst time. “I’ll keep it down! But hey, did that old man back there look familiar to you at all?”

“Did he look familiar? No, he didn’t look familiar!” retorted Gregorex. “How could he! It’s as dark as a pocket in these woods! I can barely see my hand if I lift it up and put it in front of my face!”

Andres, who was very susceptible to the power of suggestion, instinctively thrust his right hand in front of his face. He found that he could actually see his hand fairly clearly. However, in his haste to test Gregorex’ words, he lost his balance and nearly fell off his horse. After regaining his composure, he replied, “Oh. Well, I guess it’s true...your eyesight does get a bit worse as you get old.”

Gregorex bristled at Andres’ words. “Oh, stop it. I can see just fine, Andres, thank you very much. And if you insist, yes...that guy was familiar. But for the life of me, I can’t figure it out. And I just don’t like spending time thinking about questions that I can’t answer.”

Legs now spoke up. “Now that you mention it, that man did seem familiar,” he intoned in a slow drawl. “I’m sure that we crossed paths before.”

Andres was pleased to have started some conversation. he didn’t mind the dark so much when he was able to talk. But he really didn’t like being in the rear of this slow procession. “Hey Gregorex,” he asked, “would you mind if I got in front of you? You...you do a really good job of riding in back.”

“Well, Andres, let’s think about this,” answered Gregorex. “We’re in the thickest woods in the world, with trees to our left and trees to our right. And you want to get by me. So why don’t we do this--me and my horse will jump straight up, as high as we can go. While we’re like twenty feet up, you just gallop past and get behind Legs. By the time we hit the ground, you should be just past me, and we’ll all be just fine. How does that sound?”

“You’re grumpy,” said Andres, who then proceeded to slide his horse past Gregorex. The trail was only about four feet wide, but somehow Andres managed to bull his way past. “Thanks, Gregorex,” Andres mumbled as he and his horse wedged their way through.

Gregorex had to grab a tree branch to keep from falling off. “If you weren’t a prince, I’d knock your head off, you royal pain in the neck,” he groused.

Andres ignored Gregorex. He was just happy to be in the middle of the pack. When he got within a hair’s breadth of Legs’ horse, he asked, “Who were those guys back there? I mean, it’s a bit unnerving, thinking about some hidden guys with arrows pointing straight at my head. Where did they come from?”

“Your Majesty, you needn’t have worried,” replied Legs. “From what I’ve heard, your head is so hard that the arrows would have bounced right off. But to answer your question...those men came from Dor-ko’s castle. And if you look carefully and listen closely, you’ll notice that there are several of them working in the woods right now.”

A stunned Andres narrowed his eyes, cocked his head, and surveyed the forest to the right and to the left. “So why didn’t they thwak us?” he asked.

“Because they are loyal to your father, the king,” answered Legs.

Andres was thunderstruck. “How can that be?” he asked.

“Well, you’ve got to understand something,” said Legs. “Dor-ko and Slumbutter have three ways of getting people to follow them. Just three ways, mind you! They’re not nearly as clever as you might think.

“The first thing they do, if they want you to follow them, is that they flatter you. They tell you how great you are, and how much greater you could become if you just bowed down and followed them. If that doesn’t work, they will try and bribe you. They shower you with lands and gold and horses and anything else that they think will get you to follow them. If you can’t be flattered and if you can’t be bought, then they threaten you. They beat you, they take your wives and children captive, and they tell you that--if you ever want to see your family alive--your only choice is to serve them.

“So the castle is filled with people that never really wanted to serve Dor-ko in the first place. And you know what? After a while, everyone realizes--even the people that were simply flattered into serving--that service to Dor-ko and service to Slumbutter is futile. Do you know why? It’s because they serve a master that paid nothing for them. In the end, the master surrenders nothing, while the servants give up everything.”

“What do you mean?” asked Andres.

“I mean this,” Legs replied. “Everyone in Dor-ko’s castle is miserable. And that would be okay, if the master shared in the misery of his people. But he lives in comfort, while his people live in fear. And he got them for nothing. Flattery costs nothing--when Dor-ko flatters you, he doesn’t mean a word that he says. Talk is cheap, and Dor-ko’s talk is cheaper than most. Bribery costs nothing--when Dor-ko bribes someone, he simply takes money and land and horses from his enemies and hands them over to others. And even when he puts people in prison, it costs him nothing. He used his slaves to build his prison, and he uses slaves to grow the crops that feed his prisoners, and he uses slaves to prepare and deliver the food. So in the end, he gives up nothing and gains everything. And the people underneath him give up everything and gain nothing.

“You see, people will lay down their lives from a master that has paid a price for them. People will sacrifice for a master that loves them and willingly gives up his own comfort to help them. But sacrifice and love are things that Dor-ko knows nothing about. And eventually, the people cry out for escape.

“So there are about twenty or thirty people within Dor-ko’s castle that now serve King Maximilian. These people have been gathering together in the woods, in the middle of the night, about once a week. They’ve been plotting to plan a way to help the king and to hasten his return.

“About two or three weeks ago--it’s hard to keep track of time in the prison--the group found out that Dor-ko was planning an attack on Cliffton. So every night, these loyal subjects of the king have been sneaking out of the castle and developing a plan to disrupt the attack. They realize that they can’t completely stop Dor-ko, but they want to at least give the people of Cliffton more time to prepare to defend themselves. Three of them volunteered to surrender their horses and armor, so that we could escape. The other have been cutting down trees and piling up brush and stashing it just inside the woodline. And tonight--the night of Dor-ko’s planned attack--they are going to drag the timber across the road and start a great fire. That should slow down their assault, eh?”

“Wow,” was the only reply that Andres could muster.

“But it gets better!” said Legs, with excitement piercing through his slow speech. “When we found out that Gregorex was coming into the prison, we realized that now we had a way to warn Cliffton! We could spring him loose and send him back to his town, to let them know that Dor-ko was coming! And then we arranged to have you put in the same cell as Gregorex, so that you could be a part of the escape as well. It has all come together perfectly!”

Andres pondered this a moment. His always-active mind raced with questions. “How did the people find out about Dor-ko’s plan?” he asked.

“They found out from my father,” answered Legs. “You see, he has made it up to the highest ranks of Dor-ko’s forces. I guess you could call him a spy. He was forced to serve when I was tossed into prison. And he has worked hard ever since to earn the trust of Dor-ko and Slumbutter...knowing that one day he would strike back in revenge.”

“But how did you find out all this stuff?” inquired an incredulous Andres.

“My father kept me informed by sneaking notes to me. You see, there was a blind slave that, once a day, would deliver food to us prisoners. He would wander down to the dungeon, tapping his cane with one hand and carrying the food with the other hand. It took forever to feed all of us...he’d bring down one bowl of stew at a time, for that was all he could hold in one hand. And of course, as a blind man, he moved very slowly. But every time I got my stew, I found a little note at the bottom of the bowl. It was always wet and nasty, so I’d need to dry it out and wait till the next day to read it. But that was okay, because the food was delivered at night, and I never had enough light to read until about noon on the next day, when a little sliver of light would sneak through a crack in the wall. So anyways, that’s how I would find out. My father would write the note, slip it into the stew, and the unsuspecting blind slave would deliver it...”

With those words, Legs paused momentarily. Andres felt the awkwardness of the silence. “Why did you stop talking? What is it?” he asked.

“That old man back there...his voice sounded just like the blind servant’s voice...”

A great thought struck Andres. He blurted out, “That was no blind man! That was Ronaldus!”

Legs halted his horse and turned. “Who?” he asked.

“Ronaldus!” Andres bellowed. “You see, for the first ten years of my life, a blind man wandered around my hometown. Me and my brother, we just figured he was a pitiful old beggar. But then one day we realized that he wasn’t blind at all. He’d just been watching over us and waiting for the right time to send us on our mission to find our brother, Prince Dorian. It’s a long story, but anyway, that’s why the man seemed so familiar to me! And I bet that somehow, he worked his way into Dor-ko’s castle and pretended to be blind again! He was working for King Maximilian, right under Dor-ko’s ugly pointed nose!”

“By gum, you’re right,” declared Legs. “The king has his servants everywhere!”

“But who is the guy that you met in the corridor last night, after we got you out of your cell?” asked Andres.

“That was my father, of course,” replied Legs.

“Who is your father?”

Legs didn’t answer Andres’ question. Instead, he paused and sniffed the air. “Do you smell the smoke?” he asked. “I think the great fire is beginning! Let’s get moving!”

Soon the three horses were off at a gallop. It was a harrowing ride. Andres expected that at any moment, a branch would come whipping through the air and knock him off his mount. But the horses seemed to know the trail well, and soon it brought them back to the broad Eastern Road that had been carved through the dense forest. Andres noticed a glow off to his left. The threesome trotted toward the light, and soon saw the source of the brightness--a great blaze of fire, stretched across the entire road. The three horsemen pulled up there horses and just stared. They were transfixed, as though their feet were nailed to the ground. The inferno was awesome. Legs smiled, the way a person smiles when an elaborate plan comes together at last.

Some footsteps from behind startled Andres. He turned around and saw a riderless horse galloping toward them. The horse looked strangely familiar. It continued its gallop and came right up to Andres. In the light of the blazing fire, Andres peered into the horse’s eyes.

“It’s Ranger!” he declared. “That’s Cable’s horse! What is he doing out here? And look--he’s got scratches all over him!” Then reaching to stroke the horse’s mane, he asked gently, “What’s the matter, boy? Are you okay?”

But before Andres could say any more, Ranger turned and galloped away. He seemed to backtrack a bit, and soon his footsteps faded into the distance. Andres wanted with all his might to chase after him, but two things held him back. The first was the fact that he didn’t dare to leave the light and tear off into the darkness alone. The second was the fact that Gregorex grabbed him by the collar and said, “Look!”

Andres turned around and faced the fire again. They stared and saw two figures on horseback jump through the fire and come racing toward them. The taller horse was ridden by a relatively small figure, while the smaller horse was ridden by a mountain of a man. The riders continued unrelenting toward them.

“Raise your weapons!” bellowed Legs. Gregorex and Andres grabbed their spears and aimed them at the approaching riders. Legs shifted his horse to the middle and notched an arrow. “Halt!” he roared at the top of his lungs. “I order you to halt!”

When the approaching horses got within 50 yards, they slacked off their torrid pace. They came to a stop a few paces away.

Andres held his weapon at the ready. No one moved for about a minute. Everyone was breathing heavy and waiting for the next move. But as Andres peered into the darkness, he thought he recognized the rider of the larger horse. Unable to handle the silence any more, he slid off his horse and ran over. “Remmaline...is that you?” he asked.

Remmaline jumped off the horse. “Catch me!” she yelled to Andres. Andres caught her and gave his sister a hug. He wasn’t a particularly affectionate boy, but he had to admit that he was greatly relieved to see that his sister was still alive.

Meanwhile, the rider that had been with Remmaline slid off as well. He came over and bowed down before Andres. “Your Majesty, I beg your forgiveness,” he said.

“Pipes! It’s you!” declared Andres. “I...I kind of figured you were actually a good guy. I mean, you treated me pretty nice...for a kidnapper, anyway.”

“I am so sorry, my lord, to have taken you away from the castle. I...I just wanted to do my part to protect you. Pray forgive me, Prince Andres. And may your father forgive me as well.”

“Don’t worry about it, Pipes,” replied Andres. “You were good to me, and I’m sure my father will appreciate your taking care of Remmaline.” Then turning to his sister, Andres said, “I don’t know how you made it through that fire, but...I take back all that stuff about your being a sissy.”

While Andres and Remmaline were talking, Gregorex quietly slid off his horse and went over to Spartacus. “It’s good to see you again, old boy,” he muttered quietly. When no one was looking, he cried softly. Despite his gruff exterior, he was really a tender man inside. He thought his horse had perished at the hand of Philip. Now that he had his horse back, he longed for the day when he’d be reunited with his dear Annala as well.

Lastly, Legs walked up toward Andres. He tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Andres, do you remember asking who my father was? Well, I think you’ve already been introduced.” Then he turned toward Pipes and gave him a great embrace. “Thanks, Daddy,” he said, his voice choking. “We are free at last.”