Chapter Thirteen: In Which a Prisoner Escapes

It was three weeks after their little family talk. Everything had been going better, Bran and Thalia were figuring at ways to safely dispose of Casper; they even were working with Arkwright to figure things out. It sort of freaked Celie out, but apparently it needed to be done. What annoyed Celie the most was that something serious had happened with Kalys and Bran down in the dungeon three weeks ago, and no one was telling her what happened. This time, Pogue didn't even know, and he was usually the only one keeping her informed. So she had taken it into her own hands.

"I know you know, Rolf," she said, skipping to keep up with how fast Rolf was walking.

"It's not my place to tell you what happened, Celie, and if you'll excuse me, I have petitions to get back to," Rolf answered, with uncharacteristic tartness.

She tugged on his arm, stopping him. "Stop sounding so much like Bran. Petitions don't start up again for fifteen minutes. You have to tell me."

"What are you not telling her?"

Kalys had Walked up behind them, and Celie grinned a bit when Rolf jumped. Something had changed between them, Celie wasn't stupid enough not to notice. Even now, Rolf slipped his hand into Kalys's, something Celie felt her eyebrows raising at.

"What happened in the dungeons three weeks ago," Rolf said softly, looking down at Kalys.

"She deserves to know," Kalys said, making Celie's heart soar with appreciation for her. "Casper offered me me the throne in exchange for Rolf's life. Similar to Bran's story with Arkwright. I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted at all with the idea of the Hathelockes being on the throne again. But I still refused, and Casper sent Bran off into some weird vision on what happened the day the Castle was moved to Sleyne."

"Oh," was all Celie could say. She really didn't know what to think of the story. It was certainly not what she expected.

Kalys smiled grimly at her reaction. "Casper's dangerous. That's why only Bran and Thalia go down there together with Arkwright. Arkwright is also a powerful wizard, and for once his powers are being used for the greater good."

Celie wrinkled her nose. "I still don't think Arkwright should be here. There's something fishy about it."

Rolf held up a hand. "I think we all need to give Bran a little more trust."

Celie narrowed her eyes. "You're referring to Father's reaction, aren't you?"

Rolf shrugged. "Bran's not stupid, Cel. He doesn't gamble on odds. He's done extensive research on this; I'm willing to back him up on this. And before you go running off to your little knight friend, Pogue has sided with Bran and I."

Celie scowled. "I don't always go running towards Pogue."

Rolf rolled his eyes. "Whenever you get annoyed, or think we're doing wrong you and Pogue discuss it. Don't deny it; after Delilah's betrothal you two became even more of troublemakers."

Celie didn't like how close to the truth Rolf had hit. It was true, even amongst her family, she often trusted Pogue the most out of everyone. He understood her, understood when things weren't fair and she was simply grateful for that. She also didn't like the tone Rolf was using; it was his grown up tone, the one he used in the public eye, and the one he used when he told Celie what to do.

"Rolf, just because you're having a baby doesn't mean you have to act like a boring, bossy adult," Celie snapped.

She regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth. She saw a flash of anger race across her brother's eyes, though he didn't say anything. Kalys's eyebrows were raised, though she stayed silent. Celie wouldn't have said it if she would've known her mother was right behind her. She probably wouldn't have said it at all if she wasn't so grouchy that day.

"Cecelia!" Her mother scolded. "That was rude."

She scowled and crossed her arms. She wasn't going to apologize, and she didn't even want to see Rolf now. He'd humiliated her right in front of Kalys, and treated her like an emotional toddler. She was already irritable, and he had just been rude.

"I'm going to my rooms," she said grouchily, and left, satisfied when Rufus followed her.

...

Their relationship had changed over the next three weeks. So had Kalys's body. That morning she hadn't been able to fit in her gown. It was much too tight around the middle. Apparently, the busts in all of her gowns were too small, and she felt as if she were spilling out of them. She didn't really know what to do as she looked at herself that morning. Her hair was braided and her feet were bare.

As far as their relationship, Rolf had been much more attentive. They'd talked through stuff about the pregnancy, and about everything going on. He'd been more touchy with her in front of his family, something she was still deciding if she liked. It was weird though, to hear him talk about the baby.

As for Celie's grumpy comment, she knew it made him angrier than he let on. He quietly excused himself after Celie left to go off to petitions.

"Well," Queen Celina sighed. "I guess we're all on edge as of lately."

Kalys knew this to be true. Bran had snapped at Thalia who had snapped at Pogue who had snapped at Lilah who had snapped at Celie who had snapped at Rolf. She did wonder, though, if Prince Lulath had ever been on edge. He always seemed to cheerful and happy. Even now, as he walked down the halls he was smiling; Lorcan following him, along with JouJou in his arms.

"The most majestic, our Queen Celina," Lulath nodded to her, stopping. "I have been of the looking for you, our Kalys. There is something being of the wrong with our Rose."

The unicorn was in a corner, shaking her head at Larien. The male unicorn kept coming closer, but Rose just kept braying, shaking her mane. She let Kalys come near her, though, and feel around. There was nothing externally wrong with her, but she obviously wasn't feeling well.

Kalys's first thought was poison. But who would want to poison a unicorn? And besides, the only poisons really known to her were ones that were almost instant kills.

"I think the baby she might be having," Lulath stated. "She is showing many a horse signs. But she's too young."

Kalys sighed. "Unicorns grow faster than horses do as you've probably noticed. I've seen super young pregnancies in unicorns before. It's honestly too early to tell though."

Kalys sighed, patting Rose. The unicorn nuzzled her hand, and Kalys smiled. She was pretty sweet. Larien probably didn't think so at the moment.

Kalys stood from the awkward squat she had been in. She turned to one of the stable boys and Lulath. "Just make sure you're watching what she's eating and see if this keeps up. If it does, we may have another on the way."

The unicorn brayed loudly at that. Kalys turned to her and grinned. "Trust me, little one, I know."

...

Celie was drawing when the soft knock came. She had wanted more time to work on her sketch of Rufus, but she knew it was coming. Her mother often came a little while after she had said something rude to talk things through. She sighed. She was feeling better. She had taken a nap, placed with Rufus, and started drawing.

"Come in," she said.

She was surprised to see that it wasn't Queen Celina at all, but it was Rolf. Celie narrowed her eyes.

"For your information, I have not spoken to Pogue today," she said, turning back and picking up her pencil.

Something hard hit her on the back of the head. She turned to see her favorite piece of maple candy on the ground. She picked it up, looking at it. She hadn't had some since she was eleven, and she really wanted it. It was from Bendswe, and it was rare that they had some.

"The emissary from Bendswe came to us today to renew our peace treaty," Rolf said. "I figured you'd want this."

"You're not going to bribe your way to make me agreeable to you," Celie told him, scowling.

Rolf sat in the chair facing her. "No. But I thought it could be a peace treaty between us."

Celie let out a long breath. "I'm not going to apologize. I said what I meant, and no amount of foreign candy will change that."

Rolf smirked a little. "I know. My original plan was not even to give it to you, but Father said I had to. Even after I told him you were being a brat. Say what you will, but his little 'Celia Delia' will always get away with most things."

"I was not a brat!" Celie argued. "That's a very rude thing to say about me."

Rolf frowned. "Cel, you told me-"

"And you told Daddy I was being a brat," Celie countered. "And if you're just going to come in and expect me to apologize and bow at your feet, then you should probably leave."

Rolf raised his eyebrows, though his smirk was gone. He held up his hands. "I'm sorry, Cel. I didn't mean to be adultish. I just didn't really see that comment coming. It's just everyone has been cracking down on Bran lately and I think he has a good reason to keep Arkwright here."

Celie stayed quiet. She did feel a little bad. But it was more about Pogue that bothered her. Rolf probably didn't deserve her anger unleashed on him like that.

"I'm not trying to be a bear, really. It's just things have been busy, and awkward and stressful," he explained. "I'm sorry if I have become Bran or Lilah."

Celie sighed. "It wasn't really about that. It's just all the endless teasing about Pogue, and you embarrassed me right in front of Kalys."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know it bothered you that much," Rolf admitted.

"It's not that big of a deal," Celie grumbled, feeling a touch guilty. "Did what I said really upset you?"

Rolf ran a hand through his hair, something he usually did in conversations like these. Then he made a face. "Honestly? A little. I guess that's one of the fears I had about all of this. I don't want to be boring, or bossy, or like Father."

Celie nodded. "I guess I should apologize."

Rolf raised an eyebrow. "You said you weren't going to."

Celie unwrapped the maple candy in her hand. She took a lick. "Well, you did bring me candy."

Rolf grinned. Making Celie wonder if it was bribery, so she scowled again. "Really though, I hope you don't become boring after you have a baby. Kalys is around the halfway mark, you know. It's coming up sooner."

Rolf sighed. "Yes, yes it is."

"You're life isn't over, you know," Celie commented. "You can still travel to the East one day."

Rolf nodded. "It will be harder though. I can't just pack up and leave. I'm expected to stay, and take care of my wife and child. It's different, Cel."

"How?" Celie asked. She still thought Rolf was being a bit dramatic.

"I don't know. It just is," he sighed. "I have paperwork to do. Thanks for the talk. I'll try to be less boring."

Celie watched as Rolf pushed himself from the chair. He kissed her forehead and moved toward the door.

"Just don't forget about me," Celie called.

Rolf laughed. "How could I ever do that? The Castle would throw me out."

...

"How are you both really doing?" Lilah asked.

They were all sitting on the floor of Lilah's bedchambers. Celie was feeling much less grouchy after her and Rolf's talk. It was refreshing to know that he cared. Kalys was leaning up against Lilah's bed, her hands in her lap. She shrugged.

"What's pregnancy like?" Celie asked. Lilah gave her a look and she shrugged. "Do you really puke all the time? I don't mean to be rude, but there's so many wives tales and I want to know how many are true."

"I'm not offended, don't worry, Celie," Kalys said. "I don't really get nauseous that much anymore. There are certain smells, though, that set me off. For instance, Rolf started using a soap with some sort of fragrance. It made me puke. Or when dinner is beef, that makes me want to hurl. I know I'll puke if I eat it, so I usually give it to either Dagger or Tulala."

Lilah nodded. "What other symptoms do you have?"

Kalys shrugged. "My chest gets rather sore, and I get tired easily. I think I get more emotional, and I asked Rolf, but I think he was being nice."

Celie listened. She thought it was interesting, and apparently so did Lilah. They'd both heard many wives tales from the maids about pregnancy, and had both wondered if any of them were real. Now they had someone to ask, because their mother had always shrugged off their questions saying it wasn't important.

"How's Rolf handling it all?" Lilah asked, and Celie thought that it was a good question.

They'd all wondered that. For awhile he seemed to be in the gloomiest place he'd ever been. But now he was cheerful. He still looked rather tired, but he smiled and laughed more, seeming to be more his self again.

Kalys ran her hands over her braids. "Better, I think. For the first few months since we found out, I think he was trying to pretend that nothing had changed. I knew he was thinking about it, because he woke up so many times in the night. But ever since I went down to the dungeons, he's seemed like he's actually accepting that he's going to be a father."

"And how are you handling it?" Lilah questioned softly.

Kalys chewed her lip. "I'm learning to cope. I guess it's always been something I can't just pretend that it's not there. I know there's a child coming every time I look in the mirror or throw up my dinner. I guess I've just decided to deal with it and move on. Yes, I'm having a baby. But I can do this, and I will have to do this."

"That's very mature of you," Lilah said, patting her hand.

"Thank you. I'm trying to remember that children are a gift, not a burden. If this was in the Found, there would be much rejoicing. It's funny, I was so against this life of marriage and children in the Found. It's one of the reasons I left. But here it's almost the same thing, and yet I'm so much more alright with it." Kalys ran her hands over her braids again.

"Well for one, Rolf is a lot nicer than that Arkish man you were going to marry," Celie pointed out, remembering how rude the man and his father were.

Kalys smirked. "True. And it was easier doing it for the Castle instead of being a tool to help the Master of the Found."

Celie nodded. The Castle was easy to follow. Unless they'd been following Casper some of the time. The thought made her shiver.

"I don't know," Kalys said. "We'll see how everything plays out I guess."

"Aren't you a little excited?" Celie asked. "At least to pick out a name?" Celie was very good at naming things, and she really hoped they would consider some of her options. She didn't know if Rolf was just joking when he said they'd use the name Eleanor for a girl.

Kalys pursed her lips. "To be honest we haven't really talked about it besides that one day after dinner."

"Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" Lilah ran her hand down Juliet's fur.

Kalys shrugged. "I don't really care."

"I would want a girl," Lilah said, surprising really nobody. "Really, a mix, but definitely a girl first."

Kalys looked like she didn't know what to say. Celie wondered how much time she had had for talks like this in the Found. She'd known them for a year now, but there had been so much going on in that year. The Ship was had been the most normal times with her. She helped with the Ship and the griffins, told the family stories from Hatheland, taught Celie griffin training techniques. Rolf had flirted with her endlessly, something that would send Celie and Lilah in fits of laughter. The first few months of the Castle had been much the same; and then her and Rolf had gotten betrothed, and it all went downhill from there.

Lilah cleared her throat, looking at Celie. Celie shrugged. It's not like she had all her future children planned out like Lilah.

"Are you excited about your wedding?" Kalys asked politely, ending the silent conversation between the two sisters.

Lilah's face lit up as it always did when talking about her wedding. "Yes! It seems so strange that it's only four months away."

Celie smiled. She was excited for Lilah's wedding. Lulath's family was coming, and she liked Lulath's family. It really was going to be excellent time. Even Rolf and Kalys's wedding had been fun, and Celie knew Lilah and Lulath's was going to be a lot more enjoyable. It was going to be bigger, with more guests, and contain both Sleynth and Grathian traditions.

June was going to be an exciting month for the Glower family. At the beginning of it, Lilah and Lulath were getting married. At the end, Kalys was having the baby. June held the spring festivals and parades. It was going to be busy and social, something Celie liked and disliked. Hopefully, nothing would happen with the griffins.

Their conversation was interrupted when Queen Celina flied through the door, her cheeks red. "Good, you're all here."

They all looked at her in shock. "I was worried you had been in you're bedchambers, Kalys."

"Mother," Lilah said. "What happened?"

"The assassin has escaped. And he had been roaming the Castle."

...

As it turned out, Rolf's trip to the village with Pogue to oversee the construction of the large griffin statue had been a wise choice. Considering the state of his chambers, he did consider perhaps the last minute idea was the Castle's doing. They were all in there, surveying the mess.

It looked like everything had been slashed. In fact, for all they knew, it had been the griffins. Chairs were upturned, and his griffin cushions had been slashed, not to mention the pillows. Kalys's gowns and his tunics were ripped and thrown across the floor. His desk had been flipped, and there was blood staining the wide window. There was a note pinned to the window seat, and Rolf plucked it up.

"Beware the magic of the Jedgians," he read. "Watch your back little prince."

Queen Celina turned to her husband. "Has Sergeant Avery found him yet?"

King Glower shook his head, looking dazed. Bran and Thalia entered the room, the wizardly robes billowing. Lulath has drawn Lilah to the front of him, his hands resting in her shoulders. Pogue was next to Rolf examining the blood. Kalys stood in the middle of the room, a cold stare across her face. Celie was sitting atop Rufus, with her eyebrows raised.

Bran immediately took out a swab thing, taking some of the blood onto it. "Hopefully I can find a way to track him-or whose blood this was."

Rolf swallowed. "Why didn't we question him further, Bran?"

"Because he wasn't giving me any answers; and my spells had done nothing," Bran admitted, looking down.

Rolf instinctively rolled the shoulder that had been shot, remembering the sting of the piercing arrow. It still bothered him a little, and Bran thought there had been nerve damage, whatever that meant.

"We need him tracked," King Glower decided. "But I don't know who I need to do it. I need both of you here to be dealing with the extermination of Casper and dealing with Arkwright, and I can't very well send Celina."

"Father, I can supposedly try to get a tracker that someone who is knowledgeable is magical affairs but without magical abilities could use," Bran said.

"Pogue." The King and Rolf both said, turning their eyes to the knight.

"I could send Pogue and Arrow along with Sergeant Avery and some of his men," King Glower reasoned. "That way we could have the three wizards here."

"But Owen, suppose the assassin is a wizard," Queen Celina pointed out. "If he could resist Bran, and he mentioned magic in the note. We can't just send the party without a wizard."

The king stroked his chin. "Excellent point, love. I just don't know who I want to spare."

"I'll go," Bran volunteered. "Thalia knows what I want done with the tests, and she has Mother and Kalys to help her with research. And Celie. I shouldn't have given up on the assassin that easily. I can build a better tracker, and the project shouldn't be long at all."

Rolf watched his father nod. "I suppose, but I'd feel better knowing a more experienced wizard was here."

Bran sighed. "Thalia's just as strong in magic as I am, and her record shows she is just as accomplished as I was starting out; not to mention Mother is almost completely finished with her studies. I don't feel comfortable sending my employee from the College into a dangerous, unknown situation. It's against many codes, considering Thalia is still a young wizard."

King Glower grunted, and Rolf knew Bran was right. At least they knew what was coming when it came to Arkwright, where out in the unknown there was potential to be blindsided.

"It's settles then," King Glower said after awhile. "You'll leave once the tracker is complete."

That was a long chapter, and I don't know why it took me so long. Ugh. I feel like I'm considering stopping this story to be honest. I don't know. I know where I'm going with it, but I don't know. I'm considering scrapping it. Is anybody still reading?

-geeky34