Dare Quest - Free the Slaves

5

  Lord Rochefort was not as far away as everyone thought. Expecting Tancred to be successful he had assembled his army and marched on Suddene in secret. At the time Tancred released the carrier pigeon Lord Rochefort and his army lay encamped hidden in a dense forest not far from Suddene. After a few minutes flight the bird landed at Lord Rochefort’s tent. Carrier pigeons fly to a location that is already known to them and this one had been trained many times to reach its secret location. A servant took the pigeon to Lord Rochefort who greedily opened the capsule to read the message. He laughed out loud.

  “Ha! Tomorrow we strike and the riches of Suddene shall be mine!”

  He felt confident that with all the royal family dead there would be no resistance to the sudden surprise attack he had planned for the next morning. He went to bed thinking that soon he, Lord Rochefort, no, King Rochefort, would rule over the Kingdom of Suddene and with the combined lands of Suddene and his own there was no limit to his ambitions of conquest and world rule. He fell asleep with a contented smile on his face.

  The hours of darkness passed by peacefully, but then dawn began to break. As the inky darkness of night gave way to the grey light of first dawn that heralded a new day, a day that would make or mar the destinies of many thousands, Lord Rochefort’s camp stirred into life. As quietly as they could his soldiers had their breakfast and then geared up to prepare for battle. They had been assured of an easy victory and they already looked forward to entering Suddene and taking their share of the spoils. The word to march was passed from man to man and the army marched towards Suddene.

  A great queen once said “I don’t like wars. They have uncertain outcomes.”

  Had Lord Rochefort heard these words he would have done well to heed them, for things in Suddene were far from what he expected them to be. King Murry and his family were not only alive, the king was preparing his army for battle. In the hour before dawn his soldiers moved to arrest the woman who had betrayed him to Tancred as well as Tancred himself. At the same time every man in the town who could fight was awoken, armed and attached to his unit. The men of Suddene were proud to be free and they all thought it their right and duty to fight for their king, their town and their loved ones.

  At first light the army marched out of Suddene to attack Lord Rochefort’s forces. As for Tancred, he was placed in the pillory in a public square where the townsfolk were free to throw rotten food and dirt at him.

  Anthony and Edward also came to see Tancred. Someone gave them some things to throw. Anthony hurled an old egg that hit Tancred on the chest. It broke open and green stinky slime ran down his clothes. The children laughed but Tancred was furious.

  “I’ll get you for this!” he shouted. “The day isn’t over yet, just you…”

  At that moment Edward threw a rotten apple which landed in Tancred’s mouth. Tancred nearly choked on the disgusting rotten fruit. In a rage he jumped up and down, but of course his hands and head couldn’t move so only his bottom hopped up and down. It looked very funny. Everyone laughed to see the evil spy reduced to such a comic figure, no more than a joke.

  “Serves you right,” Edward called and stuck his tongue out at Tancred.

  This gave Anthony another idea and he began calling “Gormless Tancred! Gormless Tancred!” over and over again until the whole crowd joined in.