relieved after telling his story and it could be seen that a heavy weight had been lifted from him. The three sat on that bed and chatted for some time about life before the war. Chellion told of all the dignitaries from all over the world that used to stop in to that castle because they had heard that it was the nicest in the kingdom. Cerise in turn told of the dignitaries that stopped in to her castle in Indigo because they had heard something similar. Ackerley told that once a noble had gotten lost and asked around his town for directions.
Before long the morning was no longer a distant thought and it was far too late to be chatting, even if they were chatting with a great lord. He told them that he would really like for them to stop in every now and then to break the silence and loneliness that he was not quite ready to have broken by going downstairs. They agreed and left him alone. They asked if there was a better way downstairs and he was quite surprised that they had taken the lift from the nursery.
“When my children were little they used to love going up and down that old lift.” He said with a nostalgic gleam in his eye. “The stairs are hidden in a plain wall on the third floor. I’ll show you to it from this level.”
The lord showed them which door on that floor hid the stairs, and even walked halfway down with them before wishing them well and returning to his hidden home.
12.
Many hours later, as the night neared dawn, Victor returned. He stood silently against the wall for several minutes, looking over the two captives. Rogerseen didn’t make a sound and kept his eyes glued to the floor. It was up to Kenton to try and get them out of this.
“I would like to speak to your leader.” Kenton proclaimed, standing up.
Rogerseen made a small noise that sounded like he thought the request was the worst possible thing Kenton could have said.
Victor bounced his back off the wall a few times. “That’s me.”
“Then I would like to speak to you about our release.”
“Release? You’re my friends. I wouldn’t hold my friends against their will.”
“Then we can go?”
Victor smiled mischievously. “You can go. Just know that I haven’t told everyone out there that you can go. If they see you they might get the wrong idea.”
Kenton stood his ground. “Tell them that we can leave.”
“I could.” Victor said slowly. “But what you don’t know is that your horse is my captive. Now I could let you walk away. I don’t think you’ll get too far without your horse, do you? No, I’m going to give you two options. The first is that the cripple can go and you can stay as my guest for a while. The second is that you can walk out into the endless nothing beyond the gates.”
Kenton folded his arms. “We both go on our horse and that’s that.”
Victor grew tired. “Basically,” he said, a touch of menace to his voice, “You are not going anywhere—what’s your name?”
“I am an adjutant for the king.” Kenton declared.
“Well, adjutant, you’re not going anywhere.”
Victor turned and left the building without another word.
“That’s how you decided to handle this?” Rogerseen complained. “I could have done better than this.”
“I didn’t see you doing a thing.” Kenton cried, no longer willing to deal with the commander. “We don’t have any money and we don’t have Sidestep. We’re going to get out of here, I promise you that.”
The sound of neighing and yelling met their ears. The door opened and a few large Welgos entered. One pushed Kenton against the wall as the others grabbed Rogerseen up and took him outside. Kenton broke free and followed.
Victor held the rope around Sidestep’s neck. A group of Welgo’s formed a circle. Rogerseen was thrown onto the horse. Victor took a sharpened metal rod and prodded the horse. Sidestep took off through town.
“You’d better not come back!” Victor shouted.
Rogerseen clung to the side of the horse as best he could. In a few seconds they were out of sight.
The Welgos dragged Kenton back inside and left him alone with Victor.
“Let me leave or the entire king’s army will come and destroy this place!” Kenton shouted.
“Come now.” Victor said. “You know perfectly well that that will never happen. The kingdom’s dead. It was never alive to begin with.”
Kenton calmly sat down on the bed and gripped the sides. “I’m nothing. I’m not needed by the kingdom at all. If you kill me nobody will care.”
“That’s exactly why we can’t kill you, not yet at least.” Victor stepped closer. “You’re worth far more to me than someone who matters.”
“What do you want me to do?” Kenton said, his voice faltering.
“I really like talking to you.” Victor said, settling onto the table with one leg firmly on the floor and the other hanging off the table. “You have something that most Chell’s don’t. You have a,” he snapped his fingers a few times—looking for the word, “You have a pleasantness about you. No, not a pleasantness—a non Chell demeanor. Yes, maybe that’s it. You’re very much not of Chell beliefs. I like that about you.”
“I am very much of my kingdom.” Kenton said defiantly.
The man clicked his tongue. “No you’re not. In all the times I’ve seen you—and let’s face it, it’s not that many—you haven’t once mentioned the Great Spirit. I find that odd. We’ve had plenty of visitors here and not a one can keep their mouths shut about it. ‘Oh, the Great Spirit will come’ they say. ‘It will find me and blah blah blah’, you get the idea. You haven’t said that. Why?”
Kenton remained silent.
Victor sighed and stood up. “I would really like to know. I’ll give you an hour. I would appreciate you telling me.” He walked to the door and paused. His hands rapped on the frame of the door. “Today’s a special day. A great Welgo warrior died yesterday to your army and our custom states when a warrior dies we can’t bury him alone. It’s customary to have one of the enemy tribe; the ones who caused the death, to play a very special part. It’s very special, but I have a feeling you’d like to avoid that.”
He left Kenton to his thoughts.
And what thoughts they were. He still didn’t know exactly what was going on or why the town was there. He would have so much to tell the king if he could just get to him. The special part he was bound to be forced to play didn’t sound good. He figured it would involve him apologizing or something. His mind wouldn’t allow him any darker thoughts on the matter.
An hour later Victor returned. He closed the door behind him and stood staring at Kenton for a long time before finally settling again on the table.
“So, what have we thought?”
“You aren’t much like a Welgo.” Kenton began softly. “I’ve met a fair few and all they do is grunt and run their swords through things. You know my language better than I do, and yet you’re still one of them.”
Victor smiled immensely. “Surely you can’t generalize like all that. Have you been to Welgland? Of course not.”
“I’ve met enough.”
“Ah, but what truly makes us a part of our kingdom? Being born in it? Being raised in their ways? It seems you have one but not the other. I on the other hand am a true Welgo, and I was brought up on two competing ideals. On the one hand my parents wanted for me a true Welgo warrior life. They wanted me out pillaging and ransacking places.” He waved his hands around joyously. “But I was far too small for that. I—hmm—may have been around one hundred pounds when I was fourteen. That’s far too light for a real Welgo. Lucky for me there was one way out of that life. A second ideal. Can you guess what it is, adjutant?”
“Coming here?”
The man laughed. “Here? Are you seri—here?” I have some things to tell you about your home, but in a minute. No, adjutant. My escape from certain death was in a library. I was taught by this great old couple. They knew everyt
hing about everything. Their specialty—pre-Chell Chell. Now isn’t that something? There was actually something here prior to this dirty little kingdom. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.”
“Actually I haven’t.” Kenton said truthfully.
Victor clapped his hands. “Ah, I love your style, adjutant! You’re just the Chell I’ve always thought existed, but I’d never seen in person. You don’t have a clue about your history. It’s something, really. I keep thinking: ‘how do all of these people in such a loosely governed kingdom keep up with all these stories’. Don’t you wonder that? I mean, how in the world can everyone be on the same page in a place like this?” He shook his head. “Who knows! Anyway, I was saying something about—oh, yeah. So I was taken in by this couple who saw something in me. To be honest the first thing they saw was that I was going to get killed in a second if I tried to be a warrior. But then they saw something else. Want to guess?”
Kenton stared at the floor.
“They saw a quiver. They saw a young man who was spouting out how great Welgland was and all that nonsense, but beneath it all they saw a boy who didn’t know what to do with his life. And they grappled that part of me. They taught me that I could be a Welgo and be historically minded. That paid off in the end. I only lead the settlers here because of that. I am one of the few who can lead the Welgos specifically because I am not one. Not in the strictest sense of what they want from themselves. Do you