Chapter 10
The king and queen retired back to their thrones and Yew led the way back up to the top floor where the guestrooms were. The rooms were small and sparsely decorated. They each had a bed, a small desk, and a lamp.
Galen went to bed early so he could get up early. Thaddeus sat on his bed and looked out the small window at the darkness. The late hour brought the fear and anxiety back that he was so good at covering up during the day. All he could think about was his parents searching the woods every day for some sign of him.
Yew came in the room and sat on the bed. She stared at him mysteriously.
“Hello.” Thaddeus said awkwardly.
She looked out the window. “How do you know you aren’t from here?”
“I went through the boundary between the two sides of the world.” Thaddeus explained.
“How?”
“I don’t know, I just did it. I wish it was that easy to get back.”
She nodded. “If only.”
Thaddeus got up and went over to the desk and sat down. “Do you like living here?”
Yew continued to stare out the window lost in thought. She suddenly realized he said something and looked over to him. “What?”
“Do you like living here?”
“I guess . . . not really.”
“It must be hard to be a princess here without any people.”
She looked at the floor. “I’m not really a princess.”
“Oh, are you a duchess or something?”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“What do you mean?”
She looked up slowly. “I’m not related to the king and queen.”
Thaddeus shrugged. “So you’re adopted.”
“No.”
“Oh.” Thaddeus could tell she didn’t want to talk about it but she continued to press on.
“I’m like you, I think.”
Thaddeus was silent.
“I mean,” She said, “I’m from where you’re from.”
“How do you know? How long have you been here?”
“I was really little. I ended up in the woods here and the king and queen found me. They took me in.”
“Do they know?” Thaddeus asked.
“I think so, but they don’t know I do. You’re the first person I’ve ever met that was like me.”
They both sat quietly for a while. Thaddeus thought over what this meant. He felt sorry for Yew, but didn’t know what to do.
“What are you going to do?” He asked.
“Do you promise not to tell?”
“Of course.”
“I want to escape.”
Thaddeus breathed deeply. “That’s a big deal. Your parents wouldn’t like that.”
“It’s almost impossible. The forest might not be very big, but the moment they find out the tree spirits will be after me. They may be slow, but you can’t go five feet without hitting a tree.”
“I think there is one way.”
Yew looked up. “What?”
“The river.”
“I’ve thought about it, but it would be hard to get a boat out of the shed by the river. It’s locked.”
“Do you know where the key is?”
“Yes.”
“Then why not try it? If they catch you, you can say that you were just trying to help us get down the river.”
She thought it over. “That sounds nice, but the biggest problem is after we get out. What do I do about getting home?”
“Take one of the amulets. Do you know where those are?”
“No.”
“Maybe we can share mine.”
She shook her head. “It’s not worth the trouble just to find out I can’t.”
They sat quietly for a while longer trying to think up a plan. Thaddeus really wanted to help her. He thought about her parents and how they probably gave up looking long ago. If only they knew why kids kept coming over. The answer to that would probably solve all of their problems.
“What do they want from you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did they adopt you?”
“They wanted someone to become the next leader after them.”
Thaddeus stood up. “Well we are going to leave in the morning. If you decide to come with us then we need to think up a plan just in case.”
They spent an hour or so coming up with what they would do if Yew actually decided to go with them. It would be dangerous and probably stupid, but it was worth it if she could get home in the end.
Thaddeus went to bed very late and before he knew it he was being shaken awake by Galen. He got up slowly and rubbed his eyes. For a moment he forgot where he was. The location sank in and he grumbled as he got out of bed.
“None of that now.” Galen said. “The king and queen said we can eat with them. All we have to do is figure out where that room was. This place is hard to get around if you don’t know how.”
Thaddeus went back and forth on whether or not he should tell Galen about Yew. He decided not to until he absolutely had to.
They wandered around looking for the little throne room. It took a while but they made it after asking a tree spirit which way to go.
The table was set out with eggs and bacon and little sausages. It was all very good. Yew sat between the king and queen. Occasionally she glanced over to Thaddeus who tried not to notice. He was very nervous and was certain that the plan would be found out before it had a chance to begin.
“It’s as easy as can be.” The king said while they were talking about getting to the sorcerer colony. “The river goes right there. You’ll know you reached it when you see a bunch of tents on the river bank. It should be an all-day sort of thing. I’ll have a boat ready for you in an hour. Go ahead and leave the boat in the river. I’ll have someone retrieve it eventually.”
“Thank you very much.” Galen said graciously.
An hour came and went and Galen and Thaddeus followed the king and queen to the river. Yew ran ahead. The river was nothing more than a stream not far into the trees. Little sandy islands poked above the shallow water in intervals as far as the eye could see. Several tree spirits sat on the banks and watched the water go by. The boat was very small. It was almost as small as the one the scientist had. It had two oars and two blankets in case it got cold along the way.
Galen got into the boat and then helped Thaddeus in. “It has been a pleasure meeting you.” He said. “I hope we can do it again someday.”
The king and queen nodded and waved. Thaddeus waved back and then untied the rope that kept the boat stationary. It started down the stream. Everyone waved and smiled as the boat slowly made its way through the water.
They each took up an oar and tried to keep the boat from hitting the little islands.
“That was loads better than I ever expected.” Galen said happily. “We lucked out there. Don’t think that these sorcerers are going to be that nice. I mean wow, I’ve never met leaders that were so friendly.” He looked in the distance dreamily. “When all this is done I’m going to come back and see if I can stay for a while.”
“Don’t steal anything.” Thaddeus warned.
“Why would I steal something?”
“Weren’t you in jail all the time?”
“Not because I stole things. I got into fights a little too often. And once I set a cart on fire but I think that if I told you the story you would agree that had to be done. Not that you would understand, you don’t do that sort of thing do you? One of those good little kids.”
“Not anymore.” Thaddeus admitted.
Galen frowned. “What did you do?”
Yew flung the blankets off and Galen almost fell out of the boat.
“What is this?” He shouted. “What is going on here?”
“I’m coming with you.” Yew announced.
“Since when? If your parents—oh they’re gonna kill me. They’l
l never let me hang out with them now.”
“She’s like me.” Thaddeus explained. “She’s from where I’m from. When she came over the king and queen took her in. We have to find a way to get her back.”
Galen threw his hands in the air. “Did you ever think that you could have just told me and then when you went back I could have come back and told her?”
“Hmm, no that actually never occurred to me.” Thaddeus said, nodding.
“Get out.” Galen told Yew.
“No, I don’t want to stay here. When the doors are closed they’re not very nice.” Yew said.
“I don’t care. I’m not about to get killed for kidnapping the princess.”
“No one is going to find out, at least not yet.” Yew promised.
A low shout came from the river bank. A tree spirit was shouting and pointing in the water.
“Do you see that?” Galen yelled. “They’re gonna kill us. I just have one thing to say: next time you make up a plan, count me in!”
Yew took a blanket and put it over her head. “They might forget.”
Tree spirits appeared all down the river banks. They took up rocks or branches and started throwing them at the boat.
“They are actively trying to kill us now.” Galen shrieked. “You’re getting outta here.” He went over and started wrestling with the blanket.
Thaddeus watched the tree spirits and saw that they were not trying to hit the boat. They were throwing the rocks and branches in front of the boat so they might stop the boat from going any farther.
“They’re not trying to hit us. They wouldn’t try to hurt the princess.” Thaddeus yelled over the commotion.
“I don’t care what they’re doing. I don’t want her on here.” Galen picked up the wriggling blanket and threw it to the bank where a tree spirit caught it. “Sorry about that.” He yelled. “I promise that if I ever find the secret I’ll come back and tell you.”
“Why did you do that?” Thaddeus shouted, pushing Galen. “She was like me, she might have been able to help.”
“She didn’t know any more than you did.” Galen reminded him.
“I don’t care. I want to help her.” He started hitting Galen.
Galen grabbed Thaddeus, took a blanket, and wrapped the blanket around Thaddeus. “You will help her by finding a way back and I will tell her. This is the best thing for her. Now stop trying to hit me or I’ll throw you back to shore and you can walk the rest of the way.” Thaddeus stopped. Galen removed the blanket to reveal an angry Thaddeus. “What do you want me to do? If I let her stay and we were caught do you ever think we would make it where we were going?”
Thaddeus grunted.
“Answer the question.” Galen snapped.
Thaddeus jumped. He didn’t expect Galen to get angry. “No.” He mumbled.
“That’s right. I know you aren’t in your half of the world and I know you want to help Yew, but the way to do that is to stay on course and use your head. Any stupid and rash decision making will only hurt you. I want you to get home and we can’t do that by sitting in a jail cell somewhere. Trust me, I know how that goes.”
Thaddeus nodded sadly, tears filling his eyes.
Now when we—” Galen stopped.
He looked down. The boat was filling with water. Without anyone noticing the boat hit one of the rocks and tore a hole in the left side. Water gushed in every time the boat dipped to that side.
“Come on!” Galen grumbled.
Thaddeus looked around to see if there was a little island they could jump on to. That wouldn’t happen. The shallow stream connected with another somewhere and was turning into an actual river.
The boat picked up speed and hurtled down the river, picking up speed as it filled with water.
“This is just great.” Galen complained. “We gotta get out a here before the boat sinks completely.”
“I can swim.” Thaddeus said.
“Swimming’s got nothing on this current. You could get pulled under faster than anything.”
Galen shoved one of the blankets in the hole and it seemed to keep the water out somewhat. He took an oar and tried to shovel the water back into the river. Little bits splashed out but it wasn’t fast enough. He bent down and hurriedly pushed it out with his hands. This was a little better but by now the blanket was soaked through and was letting water back in.
Thaddeus got down and pressed in on the blanket from both sides of the hole. It seemed to stop up the leak just enough.
Galen went faster and faster, but the water never went down very much. He stood up and stretched his back. “As long as it doesn’t sink completely we’ll be alright.” He looked ahead and barred his teeth. “Oh, and they couldn’t mention that!”
Thaddeus turned around expecting to see either a waterfall approaching or rapids. It was rapids.
The nose dipped down and the boat plunged into a slope of sharp rocks laid perfectly for the destruction of even the best-made craft. And this boat was definitely not one of those.
Thaddeus took his hands away and the blanket slipped through the hole and disappeared into the white water. He grabbed the other blanket and put it around his neck and held on tight.
The boat crashed against every rock it could find. The wood tore like paper being ripped apart. Both on board were thrown this way and that, whacking their hands and arms on the splintery wood. In only a few seconds the edges dipped below the surface.
“Put that blanket over your head.” Galen ordered.
“What?” Thaddeus asked, the water rose up to his knees and the boat finally slowed down.
“Do it!” Galen shrieked.
Thaddeus threw the blanket over his head. The darkness was scarier than any rapids. He felt himself being lifted into the air. Arms wrapped around him and held him tight. A sudden jolt told him Galen had jumped. A hard smack followed. It wasn’t on a sharp rock but something soft. He breathed a little easier.