Still huge thanks to everyone reviewing and reading!
Aaah...I do love a good cliffhanger, don't you? ;o)
29
The sky was lightening above the treeline, when they crawled dejectedly out from the bushes they'd sheltered under for the night. It was still too early to really be called morning, but necessity meant they had to start moving once more.
"I'm hungry."
"Mithros, Wyl, the first words out of your mouth are a whinge. I never thought anyone could whinge that much, but you've definitely proved me wrong in the last day."
The younger boy blushed and stared at his feet. His normally cheerful countenance had been one of abject misery ever since they had been caught out by the Stone Mountain guards. "I'm sorry Gerry. It's just…" his chin trembled.
Gerry sighed and placed a hand on the lad's shoulder. "No, I'm sorry Wyl. I didn't mean to snap at you. We're all hungry and tired – "
"And sore," added Wyl, rubbing his backside with a wince.
"Yep, and sore," Gerry shook his head. "What a mess." He glanced over at where Ro was waiting; her back turned to them and her arms folded. She hadn't said a word since their release.
Steeling himself, Gerry walked over to his cousin. "Ro?" When there was no response, he took a deep breath and continued. "Ro, come on. We've got to get back to Corus today; I'm not spending another night like that one. We were lucky it didn't rain. Or that we weren't found by bandits. We need to find the road again."
There was the tiniest hint of a shrug. Ro wouldn't meet his eyes.
Gerry was starting to feel angry. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ro! Ryoku! For gods' sake, stop whatever this is! Why won't you talk to me? What did I do? I'm sorry, for whatever it was, but what did I do?"
She blinked and finally looked at him in surprise. "I'm not mad at you, Gerry."
"Well that's a first," he grinned crookedly and then turned serious. "Then what's all this about?"
Ro opened her mouth, stopped, swallowed, tried again. "It's all my fault."
"What is?"
"This!" Ro gestured around at them. "I'm so…if I hadn't insisted we run off and find Ella, then this wouldn't have happened. We got Ella into more trouble; I've got you into trouble…and for what? Nothing! We just made the whole thing worse, if that was possible and…" The rest of the sentence was lost in a storm of sobbing.
Gerry was at a loss. He had never been good with crying girls – as one of a large family of rambunctious boys, the only tears he'd ever really come across were his own. And usually they happened in private. Arguments between him and his brothers were settled with fists, feet and laughs afterwards. Being a page brought him into contact with the sorts of girls who made it a mission not to cry, no matter what. It wasn't fool proof, both Ella and Ro had burst into tears on occasion – but then, didn't everyone after the third lap of the curtain wall in the rain? – but he usually took himself off while it was going on.
Had Ella ever cried when they were together, on their own? With a pang of guilt, Gerry realised he couldn't remember. They had hugged, kissed, held hands; she had screamed and shouted at him on occasion, and once or twice hit him too. He had never retaliated physically, which had always seemed to aggravate her more, especially when his response to her questioning was always; "I don't hit girls…unless it's in the training yard."
But no, he decided, Ella had never cried when she was with him. Had she gone and cried to Ro? Probably, Gerry realised, feeling even more uncomfortable.
None of this is helping you now, Gerard, his frantic inner voice reminded him. Ro was still standing in front of him, her face buried in her hands and her shoulders heaving.
Looking at Wyl for assistance, Gerry was horrified to see the younger boy was also crying. Oh no! What do I do now?
He reached out a tentative hand and patted Ro on the shoulder. "There, there, come on now, this is not really going to – "
There were footsteps and voices in the undergrowth.
"Crap! Ro, shut up for a minute, there's someone coming!" Gerry hissed.
That worked. Taking a gulping breath, Ro pulled her hands away from her face and listened. Even Wyl fell silent.
Nothing. There was nothing there. Maybe he had been mistaken, perhaps it had been squirrel…
No, there it was again, muttering and quiet footsteps.
Gerry and Ro glanced at each other, before simultaneously grabbing hold of Wyl by his tunic and dragging him back into the bush they'd spent the night in.
"Who do you think it – "
"Sssh!" Ro thumped Wyl on the arm, peering out from between the twigs. Gerry felt the same alarm. They had no weapons, nothing to defend themselves with. If they ran up against a group of bandits, they were as good as dead.
Whoever it was seemed to be trying to be quiet as well; they must have heard the three youngsters before Gerry had heard them.
From this angle, Gerry couldn't see how many had entered the clearing, but he could hear snatches of whispering.
"…think there was someone…"
"What…?"
"Don't…no one here…mistaken…"
Gerry looked at Ro over the top of Wyl's head; her eyes were puffy and red from crying. She had a frown on her face. He tapped her on the shoulder and mouthed, "What should we do?" when she looked at him.
Shaking her head, Ro held up a hand in a signal. Wait.
Finally two pairs of legs came into view. They were both covered with what looked like ragged nightdresses; one had a pair of dirty leather slippers, the other was barefoot.
"I'm sure I heard someone…wait, look at the ground! There's definitely been someone here!"
The quiet voice sent a pang through Gerry. He would know it anywhere.
Ro had obviously come to the same conclusion. She leapt out from the undergrowth before either of the boys had a chance to move.
There was a scream, a shout and then some very high pitched squealing. Gerry and Wyl emerged to a confusing scene, in which Ro was hugging a battered looking Ella and there was another girl – Gerry did a bit of a double take – another girl who looked just like Ella, but with longer hair.
He walked over to them, relief and a different kind of worry spreading through him. "Ella! You escaped! How? Are you all right?"
Laughing, Ella disentangled herself from Ro and turned to hug him too. Now he was closer, Gerry took a step back and held up his hands as she came near. "Woah! What…what's that smell?"
"Gerry!" Ro snapped.
Ella halted and put her hands on her hips. "It's poo, if you must know. We are both covered in poo, moat water and only the gods know what else. Nice to see you too, by the way."
She was so busy looking crossly at him, that Ella completely missed the horrified look on Ro's face and the surreptitious way in which she tried to wipe the front of her tunic.
Gerry made what he hoped was an apologetic face. "Sorry it just…took me by surprise is all. I'll save my hug for later, if that's all right with you." He glanced at the other girl, who was swaying slightly and very pale. "Who's that?"
Ella sighed, rubbing a grubby hand over tired eyes. "My cousin, Derminia. She helped me escape. Demi, these are my friends; Ro, Gerry and Wyl."
The girl, who now he was closer didn't look as much like Ella as at first glance, looked back at them with huge, timid blue eyes. Her damp, filthy pigtails hung limply over her shoulders and her soggy nightdress was smeared with grime and ripped in several places, revealing scrapes and bruises.
Absorbing this information, Gerry turned back to Ella and looked at her properly. She was in the same state as her cousin, except for the fact that her forearms and elbows bore huge scrapes which, by the look of them, had been bleeding quite a lot.
"Gods!" exclaimed Ro, all of a sudden. She grabbed the smaller girl by her shoulders and spun her around. "What have you done to your back?"
Ella raised her eyebrows. "It's a very long story. One I'd feel better telling on the move."
"But…" the squeak from Demi made everyone turn towards her. The girl blushed. "But Ella, we've been walking all night. Surely…"
"I'm sorry Demi, but we've had some good luck running into this lot. I don't want to risk that by lingering here too long and being caught."
Ro frowned. "Don't you think you ought to rest? We need to at least find a stream or something to clean you up, you don't want to…"
"Ro," Ella said, looking at her friend seriously. "They've got half of Stone Mountain out searching for us. As far as they're aware, I've kidnapped Demi. I really don't want to risk it."
Gerry breathed in sharply at this new piece of information. This was even more serious then he'd first thought. "Come on then, let's be on the move. I think, now it's light, I can find the road once more. We'll stay off it, but use it as a guide. If we get going and luck stays on our side, we may even be back at Corus before midnight tonight."
With various nods and a dejected look from Demi, the five of them started to head home.
xxx
By midday, Ella was ready to drop. Everything hurt, from her feet – which they'd wrapped bits of Ro's tunic around in an attempt to protect them – to the headache that pounded steadily behind her eyes. She was starting to feel shivery and warm by turns, a sign she was developing a fever; one that was probably being caused by the infection settling into her cuts and scrapes. She hadn't had any food since lunch of the day before and no sleep since the night before that.
"Ella?" Ro was looking at her with concern. "Maybe we should stop. Just for a little bit. You look terrible."
Smiling to try and make Ro feel better, Ella shook her head. "I'm all right. I'd rather just get back to Corus. We're making better time than I thought; Gerry's surprisingly good at finding his way in the woods when he needs to."
"He is useful for something after all," Ro grinned. They both looked ahead of them, where Wyl was bouncing along – the arrival of the girls had done wonders for his mood – keeping up a long string of stories. The target of his incessant talking, Demi, was being carried piggy-back style by a silently suffering Gerry. The fact Demi had been asleep for the last hour or so didn't seem to register with Wyl, who was currently half-way through his third tale about his father's entanglements with bandits.
Sharing a glance, Ro and Ella chuckled at the scene, which had been providing them with amusement for quite a while now, when Ella tripped and fell onto her knees.
"Bugger!"
"Are you okay?" Ro helped her to her feet.
The woods around them spun for a little. Ella tried to ignore the woozy feeling in her head as she bent and brushed down Wyl's tunic, which she had donned in place of her ruined nightgown. "I'm fine."
"I can carry you too, it's not like you're that heavy…"
"Ro, seriously, I'm all right. Thanks." Ella had her pride, although the offer was sounding more tempting by the second.
"What are you two doing back there?" They turned to find Gerry and Wyl had stopped to see what was going on.
"Nothing," sighed Ella. "I was just being a clumsy mare. Come on, if we want to get home before the Provost Guard shut the gates of the city for the night, we need to keep moving."
Gerry looked like he was about to argue, when a most unwelcome sound reached their ears.
Hoof beats and the jangle of armour.
"Damn it! Gerry I told you we were too close to the road!" hissed Ro.
"Not the time!" he snapped back. He shifted Demi's weight higher on his back. The movement woke the girl.
"What's going on?" she murmured sleepily, rubbing her eyes.
"Come on, let's go this way, we can…" Ella froze. Through the trees she could see the glint of chain mail and weapons.
"But…" whispered Ro. "We can't go the other way, because…"
They all looked at each other, the same fear mirrored on their faces.
They had been surrounded.
