The Fugitive Prince (Bell Mountain) Page 5

  “My men are already searching for King Ryons throughout the city,” he told the chiefs, provoking a knowing nod from Uduqu. “I presumed it was to be kept a secret, so my men are being very discreet. Have no fear on that account.”

  “Do we say or do anything that you don’t know about before we tell you?” Shaffur said, scowling.

  “It’s my business to know, my lords.” Gallgoid rose from his seat and bowed. “I am entirely your servant. If the people of this city ever learned the truth about me, I wouldn’t live another day.”

  “Please, gentlemen!” Obst said. “Remember what the Scriptures say. It’s always been God’s will that someday all nations of men will worship Him in a temple not made by human hands. It profits us nothing to bring up the destruction of the Temple in the city, nor Lord Reesh’s treason. Let Gallgoid serve God now, as do we all. He has repented of his service to Lord Reesh.”

  To this the chiefs agreed. But Gurun took it upon herself, later, to go down to a corner of an inner courtyard and take the king’s hawk, Angel, out of her cage. Angel rested contentedly on her forearm. Gurun’s father, Bertig, owned a snow-white hunting eagle, and she knew how to handle birds.

  “You are a wise hawk,” Gurun said. “That is why I am going to bid you fly and seek your master, King Ryons. Wherever he is on the face of the earth, find him—and bring him back to me.”

  Can a hawk understand such a commandment, and do it? Gurun thought so. She raised her arm, and with a single shrill cry, Angel flew up from the courtyard, circled the palace once, and flew away.

  The road from Cardigal to Obann was in good repair, with many people traveling on it—too many for any special notice to be taken of three boys hiking along like all the rest. Jack, Ellayne, and Fnaa made good time, and they never went far without seeing a farmer with a cart, usually with produce in it.

  Between villages, travelers felt safe enough to camp beside the road for the night. This close to Obann City, Heathen raiders dared not come. The king’s Attakotts patrolled the countryside—little men with wiry hair who could run all day and not get tired, and who were only seen when they let themselves be seen. Every now and then you would spot one of them, or two, squatting on a hill. They carried bows and arrows, and the arrows were poisoned, such as they used in their distant homeland to bring down large game. They didn’t used poisoned arrows in their frequent skirmishes with the Abnaks back home, deeming poison an unsuitable weapon to use against warriors. But against brigands who disturbed the king’s peace and preyed on his people, they used poison that would kill a man if the arrow only scratched him. Evildoers knew this, and kept their distance from the Obann road.

  We ought to reach the city tomorrow, if we have good weather,” Ellayne said. She knew her geography better than Jack had learned his, and Fnaa knew no geography at all. “This trip hasn’t been too hard.”

  “Will we see the king tomorrow, then?” Fnaa asked.

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “We might have to see some other people first,” Jack said, “before they let us in to see the king.”

  “You’re his friends. Why wouldn’t he want to see you right away?” Fnaa said.

  “Try not to be so stubborn!” Ellayne said. “You trust us, or we wouldn’t all be here together. Well, there are other people you can trust just as much. Obst, Queen Gurun, and the chiefs in Ryons’ army—you’ll have to learn to trust them, too.”

  “Not until after I’ve seen the king.”

  That was where Fnaa stood, and there was no budging him. He still hadn’t told them the name of the family who owned him and his mother. Jack had tried often enough to get more information out of him, but to no avail.

  “You want to get your mother out of that house, don’t you?” he would say. “Then King Ryons can protect her. If those people are traitors, the king’s men will have to arrest them.”

  “Telling you right now wouldn’t do any good,” Fnaa said.

  They camped beside the road that night, not far from a family of farmers who were roasting sausages over a fire. They bought a few, and when it was dark enough, Ellayne let Wytt out of her sack. He chattered impatiently until she appeased him with a chunk of sausage.

  “He doesn’t much like riding in the bag all day,” Jack said.

  “Cheer up, Wytt—we’re almost there,” Ellayne said. “King Ryons will be happy to see you again.”

  Wytt chirped a brusque reply, then ran off to hunt for moths.

  Just a little after noon the next day, they came before the East Gate of the city. It was open, and people and carts were flowing in and out of it. Soldiers stood on the walls, watching, but they were mostly for show because Obann was at peace. Jack, Ellayne, and Fnaa walked right in. “If we’d come with my father on horseback,” Ellayne thought, “we might have had a greeting.”

  Fnaa kept darting glances left and right, as if he expected his former master to pounce on him at any moment. “Relax!” Ellayne told him. “No one will recognize you with red hair. Besides, they think you’re a helpless fool.”

  “I’m not used to being around so many people,” he said. “I wasn’t allowed out of the house very often.”

  From the East Gate to the palace was a straight run along Parade Street. The children had to hold hands to avoid being separated by the crowds. You might think it would be hard for Ellayne and Jack to walk on any street in Obann without being recognized and mobbed as the heroes of Bell Mountain, but although many people knew their names, very few knew their faces. Ellayne’s mother and father had insisted on their daughter (and Jack) not becoming famous.

  “But we ought to have a parade!” Ellayne protested to her father, the first time they visited the city.

  “It wouldn’t be good for you,” said Roshay Bault, and that was that.

  It took them almost an hour to make their way to the royal palace. It had a dozen doors facing on the street. Jack and Ellayne went up to the biggest door, the one in the middle, and spoke to the two mail-clad soldiers on guard there.

  “We wish to see King Ryons,” said Ellayne. “We’re friends of his.”

  “He knows us,” Jack added.

  The guards exchanged a look, and one of them couldn’t repress a smile. “Friends of the king, eh?” he said. “Come to see if he can come out and play?”

  “It’s the truth!” Jack said. “Tell him Jack and Ellayne are here.”

  “That’s two names for three kids,” said the other guard.

  “This is just a friend of ours, from Ninneburky—King Ryons doesn’t know him,” Ellayne answered. “But he does know us! We’re the ones who rang the bell on Bell Mountain.”

  The guards thought that was funny, too; but Fnaa looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. Jack put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

  “Obst knows us, too,” Jack said, “and so does Queen Gurun. We’ve walked all the way, and we’re hot and tired.”

  “Well, then, come in and sit down, and we’ll see what can be done,” a guard said.

  They were made to wait inside the entryway while one of the men went off to consult with an officer. Jack and Ellayne sat on either side of Fnaa, knee to knee and close enough to grab him if he tried to bolt.

  “This is outrageous,” Ellayne said. “Nobody here knows who we are.”

  “Obst will take care of us,” Jack said. Ellayne was always going on about being famous. Jack wished she’d drop it; he didn’t see the use of being famous.

  The other guard was gone for quite some time. “Probably having his lunch!” Ellayne muttered. But Fnaa hadn’t spoken a word since they’d been let inside. Jack watched him closely. It’d be terrible if he fainted.

  Finally the guard returned. He was in a hurry, and not chuckling anymore.

  “Your pardon!” he said. “Queen Gurun wants to see you right away.” He looked at the other guard. “And you and I are in the pot for making these kids wait! Come, children, come with me. I’ll take you to the queen.”

&nbs
p; “We did come here to see King Ryons,” Ellayne said. “We have an important message for him.”

  The man shrugged. “My orders are to take you to the queen, and to be right quick about it. I daren’t disobey. Please come!”

  And so they found themselves in a private audience with Gurun, in a little room looking out on the jumbled ruins of the Temple. Gurun kissed Ellayne first, then Jack. “But why didn’t you send word that you were coming?” she cried. “You should not have been kept waiting. And who is your friend?”

  “Please, Gurun, we have to speak to you alone,” Ellayne said. “And it’s very important that we see King Ryons.”

  Gurun dismissed the one handmaid in attendance and made her shut the door after her.

  “I’m afraid you cannot see the king today,” she said. “He is not here.”

  “Where is he?” Jack asked.

  “Before I can tell you that, you must tell me why you’ve come.”

  They never would have expected such an answer from her. Jack shook Fnaa a little. “This is Queen Gurun herself,” he told him. “Ellayne and I trust her, and you should, too.”

  “I must speak only to the king,” Fnaa said. You could barely hear him.

  “There is matter in this!” said Gurun. “Very well—I will tell you something that you must never tell anybody else. Promise me.”

  “We promise,” Ellayne said. The boys nodded. Something was wrong, and not just a little bit wrong: Jack knew it.

  Gurun lowered her voice and said, “The king is not here. He went to his bedchamber two nights ago, and in the morning he could not be found. No one knows where he has gone; but he took Cavall with him. No one has been able to find a trace of either of them.”

  Chapter 10

  Fnaa’s Story

  Gurun spoke plainly. The girls of Fogo Island are taught to keep their feelings under control and not reveal them—which is not the same thing as not having any feelings. She would have liked to return to her family, but Obann had neither ships nor sailors, so it was impossible for her to go home. For better or for worse, Obann would have to be her home from now on.

  Gurun loved Ryons and feared for his safety. The boy king could not have meant more to her if he were her own flesh and blood. But it wouldn’t do him or her any good to go tearing around the palace, wailing and weeping.

  “So that is how things are,” she finished. “We do not even know whether the king is still alive.”

  Ellayne was speechless. Fnaa sat as still as a statue. But Jack turned to him and said, “You have to tell your story now, Fnaa—the whole thing. If you can’t trust the three of us here in this room, then you can’t trust anyone in all Obann, and everything you’ve done will be for nothing. You can see that, can’t you?”

  Fnaa took a long look at Queen Gurun. His shoulders slumped a little. At last he said, “All right. I’ll tell you everything.”

  “My mother and I are slaves,” he said. “We belong to a man named Vallach Vair. He’s rich. He’s a merchant. He has a great big house on River Street.

  “He has a lot of friends, and they’re all against the king. So they made a plan. But I don’t know the names of any of those friends of his. My mother might know.

  “I look like the king. Just like him! Ask Ellayne what I looked like before she colored my hair red. But my master thinks I’m a fool, because my mother taught me how to act like one. So their plan was to get rid of King Ryons and put me in his place. After a time, when all the people saw their king was feeble-minded, they’d get tired of having a fool for a king, and then the Oligarchy would come back. I’m not sure what an oligarchy is, but I think it’d mean my master and his friends would take over the city and everything else. So my mother told me about Jack and Ellayne and sent me to find them, so we could tell the king and stop all this from happening.” He paused to look at Ellayne, and then at Jack. “I guess we’re too late.”

  For some moments Gurun didn’t say anything—just sat still, thinking.

  “You believe me, don’t you?” Fnaa cried.

  “Oh, yes—yes, I do,” she said. “But I am just trying to imagine you with dark hair like the king’s.”

  “The dye washes out in warm water,” Ellayne said.

  Gurun stood up. “Wait here,” she said. She went out of the room for a minute and came right back.

  “I do believe you,” she said. “I am thinking of what we might be able to do.”

  “To find the king?” Jack asked.

  “No. Not that. Something else.”

  In a little while, someone knocked at the door, a maid with a big basin of water. Gurun took it and dismissed her. She set the basin on a table. “Wash your hair, Fnaa,” she said. “I want to see your natural color.”

  He looked doubtful. “Go ahead,” said Ellayne.

  “I might as well,” he said.

  Fnaa bent over the basin and wet his head. He didn’t know quite how to manage, so Ellayne helped him. By and by the water turned red, and Fnaa’s hair went back to black. Gurun handed him a towel. He disappeared under it, drying. The last of the color came off on the towel.

  Gurun’s mouth dropped open when she saw him as he really was.

  “It’s true!” she said. “If I didn’t know otherwise, I would swear you were King Ryons.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought, when I first saw him,” Ellayne said. “Me, too,” Jack added.

  “But what’s the use,” Fnaa said, “if they’ve already got the king?”

  “I don’t think they have,” said Gurun. “Whatever might have happened, no enemy could have gotten past his Ghols. They guard him with their lives. And he has Cavall to protect him.”

  “But I don’t see what we can do!” Jack said.

  “Oh, but maybe there is something,” said Gurun, “if our friend Fnaa is brave enough to do it.”

  Fnaa shrugged. “Tell me what it is,” he said. “I can’t think of anything!”

  “Then listen,” Gurun said. “Your master’s plan was for you to take King Ryons’ place. You spoiled that by running away. Now—how would it be if you did take the king’s place? Only for a little while, I hope: only until we have him here with us again, or find out for sure what has become of him.

  “I will tell the chiefs that you are King Ryons and that I found you hiding in my closet in my room. That’s one place they haven’t searched! I shall tell them that you’ve had a fever and have lost your memory—but otherwise there is nothing wrong with you.

  “We can pretend; and while we pretend, there are servants of the king who can quickly act against your master, taking him by surprise. They can bring your mother to the palace, here with us, so she can be protected.”

  “But how can I pretend to be the king?” Fnaa cried. “I wouldn’t know how to act! Until Iran away to Ninneburky, I was hardly ever outside my master’s house.”

  “That is why I’ll say you’ve lost your memory,” Gurun said. “I’ll help you. There will not be much you’ll have to say or do. Ryons is just a boy like you. His chieftains and his advisers have always acted in his name.”

  Ellayne spoke up. “Fnaa, you’ve got to do it. We’ll be here to help you. After all, if you could trick your master and his whole family into thinking you were a simpleton, when you weren’t, it shouldn’t be any harder to make people think you’re the king. You fooled your master for years! But this would only be for a little while.”

  “Can you really bring my mother here?” Fnaa asked.

  “I promise you it shall be done—and very soon, too,” Gurun said.

  Fnaa let out a long sigh. “Funny, isn’t it?” he said. “Iran away so they couldn’t put me in the king’s place—and now I’m going to be put there anyway! But all right. I’ll do it. It’s not like I can just go back home again, is it?”

  “No,” said Gurun, mostly to herself. “Neither can I.”

  Chapter 11

  How Wytt Inquired for the King

  Wytt understood everything that Jack and E
llayne said to him; but he also understood most of what other big people said to them.

  He knew Ryons. There was no “Ryons” in his mind—the Omah don’t grasp the human idea of personal names—but rather an image of Ryons and a realization that Ryons was a friend. Curled up in Ellayne’s pack, listening to Gurun and the children, he learned that Ryons had gone away, no one knew where, and he perceived that this was very upsetting to everyone concerned. Wytt also knew the king’s dog, Cavall, and understood that Cavall had gone away, too.