A Narrow Escape
By Lady Knight Jules
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except the few characters, such as Sir Matthew of Rose Park and other things you don't recognise and the plot. The rest of the characters and the setting and anything else you recognise belong to the wonderful Tamora Pierce.
A/N: This is my first FanFic so please try to be nice when reviewing, but any constructive criticism will be accepted.
Chapter 1: The Missing Prince
It was a dark and cold morning as Alanna woke up to do her morning exercises. She hated the cold. She couldn't wait for winter to be over, when she would be able to get back to the grounds outside the castle where she had been cooped up all winter. Alanna also hated being cooped up inside the castle when all over the realm there was an adventure to be had, a battle to fight for her homeland as she was the only lady knight of her time or out riding in the royal forest on her beloved horse Moonlight with her friends Prince Jon, Sir Raoul, Sir Gary, Sir Alex, Douglass, Geoffrey and Sir Matthew of Rose Park.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door which startled Alanna so much that she lost her balance and concentration on what exercise she was doing and came crashing to the floor. When she finally got up and opened the door to find who had disturbed her morning exercises, she found a young servingmaid standing there with a very troubled look on her face.
"What's wrong," Alanna asked the girl.
"Lady Alanna, it's the Prince, he's missing," replied the serving maid.
"What do you mean, missing?" said Alanna who was very shocked to hear this.
"Missing, my lady, no one's seen him fer a couple o days now, since he went for a ride in the Royal Forest on the other side of the grounds," the maid answered, now looking more distraught than ever.
"The Queen has requested that you go to her chambers immediately," the maid answered and before Alanna could reply the maid was rushing back to the servants quarters before she burst into tears.
'Poor Jon,' Alanna thought. 'All alone in the forest by himself with no protection, although he is a full knight anything could happen to him since he is the prince, and some people wether they are stupid or smart would do anything to harm the prince to get exactly what the wanted from the King.'
Alanna quickly finished her morning exercises, and after dressing at a rapid rate, ran straight to the Queen's quarters of the castle. When she arrived at the Queen's quarters she also found Gary, Matthew, Raoul and a couple of other knights she didn't know, but suspected they were good friends of the King and Queen's and trusted by their Majesties had been called to the meeting as well to discuss Jon's disappearance.
"Sorry I'm late, but I came as quick as I could after I heard," stammered Alanna whilst gasping for air.
"Has there been any news on Jon's whereabouts?" she enquired once she had sat down and regained her breath.
All the knights shook their heads and Queen Lianne looked like she was about to cry.
"Not as far as we know," said King Roald, who was now standing behind his wife.
"Sir Matthew, how are the King's Own doing in their search?" Roald enquired.
"Not very well Your Majesty, we have found tracks of a horse that look like they belong to Jon's horse Darkness, about halfway out of the forest, but after that nothing."
"The person or people who took Jon were very careful at covering their tracks and obviously don't want to be found," Matthew told the King.
After hearing this news Queen Lianne was now in such a distraught state that she was crying, her only son and heir to the throne of Tortall had been kidnapped, with no sight of him anywhere and had to excuse herself from the meeting.
"Don't worry, we'll find Jon," said Alanna, trying to comfort the Queen before she left the room.
After more discussion with Roald about the circumstances surrounding Jon's disappearance, all the knights and Alanna went down to the stables where they found Stefan, the Palaces hostler already saddling their horses for them.
"We best be quick in finding Jon, as I don't know how long the Queen will be able to survive with the knowledge that her son is missing, and how sick she has been lately, since she never fully recovered from that bout of Sweating Sickness she had," said Gary in a tone that was more commanding than a statement.
"I agree, with Gary, the Queen has been quite sick and I think the best thing for her will be to find Jon as soon as possible and bring him home, alive and well." Alanna stated and with that the group all set out for the Royal Forest.
The group had been riding for hours when it started getting dark.
"I think we should set up camp here before it gets to dark," Raoul suggested, and everyone nodded in agreement.
The group spent the most part of the night talking about previous encounters and battles with bandits and how they were going to rescue Jon.
The next morning the group rode on further into the Royal Forest. They had been only riding for a few hours when one of the knights Alanna didn't know very well, spotted a campsite that looked like it belonged to a group of bandits.
"Jon might be in there," suggested the knight, whose name Alanna later found out to be was Sir Kieran of Stony Mountain.
The whole group turned in their saddles to see where Sir Kieran was pointing to, and to their shock, they saw an outline of a figure that was bound and gagged sitting on the floor in the tent.
Quietly the knights dismounted from their horses, tied them to a few trees so they could graze, and then the group crept up to the tent. Sure enough Kieran was right, and there was Jon alive and well with the exception of a few cuts and bruises, being held captive by a group of about 10 bandits.
Suddenly while the knights were attempting to rescue Jon, the bandits came into the tent to find their captive gone. They ran as fast as they could and managed to cut the knights off before they could reach their horses. The bandits advanced on the small group of knights with their swords drawn. The battle raged for what seemed like hours with each of the knights injuring the bandits and in turn the bandits getting a few lucky shots at the knights as their main purpose was to protect Jon at all costs. The battle finally ended when Alanna killed the bandit leader with a swift blow to the head with her sword. The group of knights narrowly escaped alive from the battle.
When the rest of the bandits finally gave up in their quest and ran, the group remounted their horses and started making the long and arduous ride home.
Jon, Alanna, Raoul, Gary, Matthew, Kieran, and the other knights arrived back at the castle a day later than was expected, as they decided to set up camp in the forest to recover from the battle. When they arrived at the castle they were greeted with a joyous applause from every noble at court as well as the King and Queen, when they entered the main hall in the palace. The Queen was so ecstatic about the return of her beloved son, that with the help of a few other nobles and servingmen and women she organised a great banquet to be held in the banquet hall for all the nobles at court in celebration for the efforts of Alanna and her friends and the return of the Prince.
Later that evening Alanna found Jon sitting alone in a corner looking out into the grounds of the Palace.
"I'm glad that your back now, safe and well," Alanna said with a joyous expression.
Before Jon replied he kissed Alanna and she returned the kiss, not sure if it was the right thing to do.
"It's good to be back Alanna," he replied and the two of them spent the rest of the evening discussing what ever came to mind.