after a long while.
Ackerley tried to tell him it was alright, but nothing came out.
“I thought. . .” He sighed and shook his head, staring into the dawning sky. “I don’t know what I thought. Those things are everywhere.” He suddenly shivered and clenched his fists. “We were so close to. . .”
“It’s alright.” Ackerley croaked.
“No, no it’s not. That one, I think he saw my jacket. It’s a sign I’m with the king’s army.”
Ackerley took in the jacket for the first time. It was black with purple stripes at the shoulders. He shrugged.
Kenton got on his knees and threw his head under the water, shaking it around. He took his jacket off and splashed water over his arms. “Here, wash your face off. Let the water clean your eyes.”
Ackerley felt the water. It was cold. It wiped the black marks from his hands. He dunked his head and let the water into his eyes. It made him feel a little better. Unfortunately, he couldn’t wash off the memories.
They sat on the bank of that little stream for almost an hour. Sidestep casually ate grass as if everything that had happened didn’t bother him in the least.
“Is that how battle feels?” Ackerley asked, no longer afraid of the answer.
“No,” Kenton said, staring into the water, “that was much worse.” He looked at his brother sadly. “I’ve never had that much to lose before.”
“I guess that was a real Welgo. I’ve never seen one before.”
Kenton gave his brother a wry smile. “You were in a battle with a real Welgo. Not too many people your age get to do that. You’ll definitely have a few stories to tell at that castle.”
Ackerley didn’t want to think about the castle. As bad as he felt over what happened, the castle still somehow made him feel worse. “How do you go back to that? Isn’t once enough?”
Kenton let out a chuckle that was filled with relief. “I believe that it’s worth the fight, I guess. If we can get these horrible things out of here than we can get everything back to normal.”
“But it won’t.” Ackerley whispered, thinking back to what Madame Orly said. “We don’t have a home anymore. We don’t have anything to go back to.”
Sidestep came up and tenderly nestled his head on Kenton’s shoulder. “We’ll get a new one, a better one.” He said, stroking the horse. “My goodness, you’ve grown up so much.”
Ackerley looked away as his face burned. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I had a lot of time to myself this year.”
“I know.” Kenton said sorrowfully. “That’s my fault.”
“No it’s not. You had to be out there. Mom and dad wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”
Kenton shook his head. “I should have come back as soon as I’d heard. I don’t know why I didn’t. It’s not fair for you to have to go through that alone.”
“I liked being alone.”
In that moment he suddenly realized that he hated being alone all that time. He told himself over and over again that he liked it, and some days were good, but he was awfully lonely. He shook off the feeling. He was tender in those hours after almost being killed.
Kenton kissed Sidestep and the horse wandered over to the stream. “Man, I love that horse. He’s come through for me on so many occasions. Did you see him back there? He knows exactly what to do to get out of trouble. I should tell you about this one time in the Vastlands—oh my he was so great.” Kenton noticed Ackerley staring off into the distance, frowning. “Ah, we better get going. We don’t want a repeat of this morning. I don’t even have a weapon now.”
“Why didn’t you bring your sword?”
“Technically all the weapons belong to the king. We have to leave them with other fighters when we leave.”
“They all belong to the king? You don’t have your own?”
Kenton shook his head. “No, but he will actually give them to people as gifts if they do something really heroic,” he lowered his voice, “or are family.”
Kenton got Sidestep ready and they set off again. The morning drifted into afternoon and they started getting hungry. Kenton had gotten rid of most of the food when they were trying to evade the Welgo and they only had a few hard biscuits left. They ate the rest for lunch and hoped that they would get to the castle before night.
“What is it you do in the army?” Ackerley asked, feeling a little better about talking to his brother.
“Officially I’m an adjutant.”
“And what is that?”
“It’s the same as any other role in the army: I do what people tell me to do.”
Evening came and with it the first sighting of the castle. Ackerley was in the process of dozing off when Kenton bumped him with his elbow.
“There it is, Chellion Castle.”
Ackerley lurched awake and looked up. In the middle of a vast landscape of nothing stood a massive structure. Only the top floor and a few towers could be seen over a very high wall. He gasped. He had no idea someone could build something so large. A slight ease washed over him. No Welgo would get over that wall. The uneasiness of what lay inside, however, nagged at him worse than ever. With every step that uneasiness grew until the boy wanted to jump off the horse and run back to that wonderful forest they’d seen the day before. He wondered if that was the real reason why Kenton put the rope around him.
3.
The closer the castle got the more nervous Ackerley became. His stomach hurt when Kenton pounded on the forty-foot-tall wooden doors. They opened with a groan and Kenton led the horse, with Ackerley gripping the saddle hoping it might just take off without its owner, onto the grounds.
The lawn between the wall and the front door was as long as the entirety of the small town Ackerley grew up in. They trotted up a thin gravel path. Several grounds people could be seen tending to small bushes or trees. A man came up to greet them.
“Mr. Kenton Morzha, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am Yinnib.” The man said. He wore long off-white robes with gold edging. He certainly looked important, or at least tried to.
“The pleasure is mine.” Kenton said in return. “Can you tell Mr. Chellion that I have arrived?”
“Lord Chellion will certainly be informed.” Yinnib said happily. “I am certain that he will like a full recap of the king’s recent activity. He lived here for a year. Did you know? The king I mean. We bless him—and of course all of you as well—whenever we feel he is in need of it.”
“That’s very kind of you.”
Ackerley began to wonder if this fancy dressed man had even noticed him. He didn’t mind, though. He would have been perfectly happy if he never did. The man’s clothes and the way he carried himself made Ackerley feel even more sure that he would become some sort of outcast. There wasn’t a fancy thread in his entire wardrobe, which at that moment were the clothes on his back.
Kenton continued talking to Yinnib the fancy man about the king and all the times he came to this castle. Ackerley didn’t know much about the king or the history of the kingdom where he lived his entire life. He once heard that the king was a very old man. He also heard that Kenton was in the king’s army against the Welgo’s and that the king rode out and fought them himself. He couldn’t imagine a very old man doing that.
“And this here is my brother, Ackerley Morzha.”
Ackerley glared at his brother; not that he noticed.
“So it is.” Yinnib smiled widely at the boy on the horse; who immediately saw the fakest smile he had ever seen. “It is my immense pleasure to meet you, young Morzha.” He turned back to Kenton. “What’s the state of his education?”
Kenton lowered his voice but Ackerley could still hear him. “The town we’re from didn’t have the best educational system. After the war started the school closed.”
Yinnib frowned. “Hmm, that’s a shame. Education is usually the first to go. I guess the teachers are smart enough t
o leave, huh?” He let out an irritating laugh. “No matter, he will be educated by the finest tutors in the kingdom.”
“Great.” Kenton nodded his approval. “Could you perhaps run through what he will do here?”
“Ah, we will indeed.”
They came to the front door of the castle which opened when they got close. Two doormen stood just inside. They jumped off Sidestep and the horse was led away.
The entryway was huge. It was carpeted with intricate designs and had many colors throughout. Doorways led off to the left and right with a spiral staircase going up three stories before flattening out and disappearing. Ackerley looked to the ceiling in awe. It was so far away. People wearing expensive looking tunics and dresses wandered here and there throughout the large entryway. Each person’s outfit was white with gold trimming. Ackerley wondered why a castle out in the middle of nowhere needed their workers to wear matching outfits.
Ackerley looked up to the ceiling again attempting to take in the size of the room. A figure stood looking over the railing of a walkway near the ceiling. The figure wore long blue robes with its hood up. Ackerley suddenly realized that half of this person’s face was different than the other half. It looked slightly darker. He wanted to tell Kenton, but when he looked back the person was gone.
Yinnib put a hand in the air and a younger noble wearing a tunic appeared at his side. “Craith here will show young Morzha around the castle and tell him what to expect. Mr. Morzha, come with me and we will get you