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?”