A/N: I've been getting a lot of reviews saying the characters or the plot needs to be developed more. I wanted to say that this is a just a rough copy. I'm just trying to get everything down first. I'll use your feedback once this draft is finished to revise it and make it better. That said, keep reviewing please.

ENJOY THE RIDE.

Chapter 7: Answers

As Rogero rode to the camp of King Jackson's army with Sir Tomas, I and Lady Mirabella wandered back toward the mountains Penabel had tried to kill me in. Of course, I knew Penebel would not be simply waiting in the foothills for us. I did hope, though, that he would not be too many days ahead of us and that I could pick up his trail. That hope was only partly realized.

I was able to pick up Penebel's trail, but he was moving faster than I had hoped. We were at least a fortnight behind him. The only thing to do was to follow as quickly as we could.

The days of travel were long. I was not looking forward to seeing Penebel again. His comment before releasing the rope proved that it was not an accident. What I wanted to know was why he did it. Obviously we were on different sides of a war, but the matter we had been on had nothing to do with the war. If he considered me an enemy simply because I was from Tortall, he would not have accepted my help at all. None of the explanations I could come up with made any sense to me.

After days spent deep in thought, I broke my silence and asked Mirabella if she might know why Penebel had acted as he did. Mirabella told me that Penebel was a cowardly man. That is why he did not attempt to rescue her himself. Why he would try to kill someone willing to risk a fight with Atlantes on his behalf, she did not know.

Mirabella took my sudden question as an end to my self-imposed silence. She asked after my lineage, as had both Rogero and Penebel. A sudden flash of realization came to the lady's face when I named the fief of Whitethorn as my home. She informed me that Penebel was from the house of Whitethorn in Carthak.

That one fact explained everything. Generations ago, the current duke of Whitethorn supported a rebellion against the king. When he took refuge in Whitethorn Hall and refused to leave to face the king's justice, his children and wife took the leadership of the fief from him. They forced him to leave the fief; and he fled to Carthak, vowing revenge. His descendents in Carthak had carried on his viscous hatred of his descendents in Tortall ever since. Obviously, Penebel had been acting on his hatred of the legitimate Whitethorns when he let go of the rope.

After another day of travel, I felt fairly certain that Penebel was heading back to the camp of King Agramant. There was most certainly a problem with this. If we did not catch him before he made it back to the camp, I couldn't fulfill my promise to reunite him and Mirabella. I had no intention of riding into the enemy's camp, no matter what the reason. We pushed ourselves to catch up with Penebel, if at all possible.

It soon became obvious that we would not catch our quarry before he rode into Agramant's camp. It was agreed that I would ride with Mirabella until we were within sight of the army's camp and wait to see that she was safely allowed to enter before leaving. As a personal favor, I asked Mirabella to tell Penebel that if he wanted to settle this feud, he could come and find me anytime.

It was three more day's travel that brought us within sight of Agramant's camp. The moon had already risen when we reached the place that we would part ways. The dark was good for me because the enemy would not see where I was. It was, however, bad for Mirabella if the sentries were antsy. If they attacked before asking questions, I would have to go save Mirabella and probably get myself killed in the process.

Luckily, my charge made her way safely into Agramant's camp; and I was spared any useless heroics. My duty done, I turned to make my way back to King Jackson's camp and, more important, Rogero.