remembering a particularly fantastic dream. “We’ll build a little house on the beach near a nice little town. It’ll be a Chell town and only former Chells will live there. We’ll name it Chellion. Jarn’ll live there. Kenton will live there. Maybe even the king if ever comes to his senses.”
“And what’ll we do?” Ackerley said distantly, allowing his fears to float away.
“We’ll just live. There won’t be any meditation or fancy dances. No more nobles or commoners—only people living in Chellion and occasionally remembering the days before all this.”
Ackerley leaned up against a hedge absent-mindedly. “Yeah, and one day we might come back and visit Chelgland as they’ll probably call it.”
Cerise laughed. “You can do that. I’ll stay down at the beach forever.”
“Ok then.” Ackerley said, getting stern. “Tomorrow morning right after Kenton goes with the army we’ll sneak out.”
“Agreed.” Cerise slapped her hands to her side seriously. “I’ll get some provisions from the kitchens. You see if you can get Chellion to tell you if there’s a hidden exit through the wall somewhere.”
With everything set they went their separate ways. Ackerley went straight to the fourth floor to talk to Chellion. Surely he could keep himself from sounding too suspicious. There was only one door open on the fourth floor, and it was unfortunately Thora’s. She came out into the hall when she heard him come up.
“Don’t you look determined.” She said slyly.
He ignored her.
“I hear your brother is going off to Welgland tomorrow. You know I can help him.”
Despite wanting nothing to do with her, he turned to face her. “Why are you telling me? If you want to help so bad, then go and find him.”
“Don’t you trust me?” She asked, sounding rather amused with herself.
“There isn’t one thing about you that I trust. If it were up to me, you’d be on your way back where you came from.” He said through gritted teeth.
She gave him a bemused smile. “You could do well as a commander yourself. You should go with them and fight.”
Ackerley pulled himself away and knocked at Chellion’s door. Nobody answered.
“He’s not here right now.” Thora sang.
“No kidding? You’re such a help.” He stormed back down the hall and slammed the door behind him.
He was certain there was something beyond her nasty Welgo-ness that annoyed him so much. Whatever it was, he couldn’t quite place it. He kept his fists clenched and his expression angry all the way down to the first floor where Chellion and Chellias were sitting at the large table discussing strategy.
“And right then,” Chellias growled, “I will know that they’ve left us alone for good.”
Chellion looked impressed.
Ackerley didn’t want to say anything while the king was there and decided to wait for him to leave. The only problem was that he sat there talking for what felt like hours. He almost fell asleep waiting, and then, sometime in the night, the king was called away.
Ackerley trudged into the dining room as soon as the king was out of sight. Chellion looked up grimly and then smiled when he saw who it was.
“Ah, if it isn’t my favorite young man. How are you holding up with your brother leaving?”
“I’ll be alright.” He said hoarsely. The one good thing about the king taking so long to leave was that he now knew what to say.
“I know you wanted to go to Vloraisha, but this will be even better, I’m sure of it.”
Ackerley nodded slowly. “I just—I’ve been a little worried about something.”
“What’s that?”
“Well,” he gave a long enough pause to pretend to be really worried, “there are a lot of hidden passageways in the castle.”
“That’s true enough.”
“Are there any from the outside in? I mean are there any that the Welgos could use to get in if they discovered them?”
“Oh, I don’t think you’d have to worry about that.”
It didn’t go quite the way he hoped. Ackerley thought for a second and then continued.
“But are there?”
Chellion looked at him suspiciously. “Why so interested in that? Thinking of escaping?”
They both laughed, Ackerley a little nervously.
“No, no. I just wanted to be sure.”
“Trust me; there is nothing that you need to worry about now. The king has it all under control.”
Ackerley couldn’t help feel that Lord Chellion was a bit too trusting.
Feeling defeated and tired he went back up to his room where Cerise had already put the food she got into small sacks.
“One for you, and one for me.” She said proudly.
Ackerley explained that he couldn’t get any information out of Chellion. Cerise thought that what he said proved that there was a way out, but it didn’t matter as they still didn’t know where it was.
It would have been easy to sneak out of the gates before. Now it was next to impossible as guards stood on the front lawn and on the roof. Their best bet was to hope that all, or at least most, of the guards would leave with Kenton in the morning. Speaking of Kenton, he showed up to say goodbye.
“I won’t be gone as long this time.” He assured Ackerley.
“I know.” Ackerley mumbled.
“If this works then we’re free, I hope.” He took Ackerley by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. “Don’t worry, alright? I’ll be back and we’ll do what we have to do then. If anyone attacks here hide in that little garden. Chellion told me about it. He said he was going to put some extra food and water there just in case. Make sure you get there fast. It won’t hold everyone. He told me if things get really bad there’s a secret way out from there. Only go in the dead of night and only if there’s no other option, ok?”
Ackerley nodded. He gave Cerise a sideways glance.
“If I hear anything I’ll meet you in Vloraisha. Find a safe spot near the border and I’ll find you.”
Kenton gave his brother a long hug and left to be with the soldiers for the night.
“At least now we know.” Cerise said.
“That sure was easy.” Ackerley sighed, a tiny wisp of hope taking root in his mind.
Deep in the night Ackerley turned over and grunted in his sleep. He was having a rather peculiar dream about a baby deer chasing him when a persistent noise woke him up. He lay awake for a bit, staring at the ceiling. Torch light danced above him. Someone was moving around outside under his window. The light went out all of a sudden, but the noise continued. It took a while for his mind to become fully aware of what exactly he was hearing, but when it did he jumped up and looked outside to see what was happening.
The guards were shouting as they ran into the castle. The doors closed with a thud and it grew too dark to see anything. And then something caught his eye. A torch looked to be lying on the gravel path that led from the gates to the front door. Why would someone drop a torch, and why would they be yelling about it? While these questions rattled around in his brain he noticed another torch nearby. But surely it wasn’t there a second ago. And then another appeared on the grass, and another, and another.
And then it dawned on Ackerley what he was looking at. These weren’t torches at all. These were arrows with flaming tips. And then the worst realization of all came. They were under attack.
23.
Ackerley stood at the window dumbfounded for a long time. By the time he came to the ground was littered with arrows and some had even hit the wall near the window. He shook Cerise awake and they went out into the hall. No one was up yet. It was only a matter of time before the castle descended into madness, so they ran through the empty halls before that could happen. The first floor was filled with people running about. The soldiers that were getting ready to leave ran about, trying to find the king to give them orders.
&
nbsp; The two kids weaved through the din unnoticed and found calm in the ballroom.
“What d’we do?” Ackerley gasped. All the negative feelings exploding within him.
“Um . . . um . . .” Cerise looked about frantically as if a much needed weapon hung about somewhere. “We should go to the garden, right?”
“I don’t know if we need to do that yet.” He listened closely, breathing deep to calm down. “They shouldn’t be able to get through. We should be safe.”
“They tore right through the manor region.” Cerise pointed out.
Ackerley felt a little braver, remembering that he already faced a Welgo once, and left the ballroom to find his brother.
The king was shouting for everyone to return to the basement while he assessed the situation. Ackerley and Cerise stayed out of sight and ran up a hidden staircase to the third floor. From there they sat in a windowsill and waited for something to happen.
The arrows died down and there was silence. It crept into their minds. They gazed unwaveringly at the gates, expecting to see them burst in to flames at any moment. But they didn’t. They held strong.
After a long while of waiting and watching Cerise stood up and began to pace back and forth, mumbling to herself.
“Maybe we dreamed it. Maybe they’re not out there. You know the king may have sent a messenger. Perhaps they left.”
Ackerley didn’t move. For hours he stood as still as a statue waiting for something—anything to happen. The darkness began to lift and the sky lightened. As dawn approached he couldn’t help but think that everything was just a dream. That is until it was