Chapter 22

"Oh, I didn't remember once I saw his heart was taken. Good grief, Lance, do you expect me remember every single name of the guys I propose to? That would be way to complicated."

I rolled my eyes. "Would you remember it if I said it?"

"Nnn...maybe," she said, and blinked.

No wonder she hadn't found a husband yet!

"Was it Conrad?"

"Conrad? That's it? Nothing like Sir Conradano of Lankshire in Kuran, or Lord Conrad de Fianico of Adelfos, or..."

"No, no, he's just a stable boy named simply Conrad."

"Nnn...yea, I think that was his name."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Goood. Thank- you for finally answering. Where did you say he was heading?"

"I didn't say. And I don't know, I took him here, but since he refused my offer of looking for a wife, he took off somewhere. I didn't bother to notice."

"Good grief, Rose," I groaned.

"I would think you did," said Minerva. "After all that talk of hearing in on conversations, and knowing so many people's stories, I would think you would remember the last guy you met."

Rose raised an eyebrow. Then she smiled. "Smart girl. I thank- you for taking pains to notice my... gifts." She glared meaningly at me then said importantly, yet carelessly, "He went north. He said he was trying to catch up with some friends. I suppose that's you. He really was a cute guy..."

"Thanks, Rose," I said, eager to be off again.

"Wait!" sqawked Rose jumping after us as I made my way to Ares.

I didn't even slow but called over my shoulder, "What now?"

She stopped at the edge of the woods and didn't say anything as I untethered Ares. Finally I turned to her as Minerva was untying her horse. Rose looked scared.

She was scared. Of the horses. I guess Ares's large prancing hooves would look intimidating, especially if you were a frail frog. Horses aren't as careful as humans.

"You said you'd take me with you," she squeaked, her eyes growing bigger as she stared at Ares as he did his antics.

I was about to deny it, and say I changed my mind. But then I reminded myself she was a damsel in distress, even though she was a frog, and my cousin no less. I guess I would get pretty bored if all I did all day was propose to freaked out guys and croak in a pond.

"All right," I said.

I could almost see her grin as she hopped a little closer. Then she stopped as she eyed Ares warily. Ares was snorting at my cousin and rolling his eyes. I could tell they didn't like each other.

Minerva came to the rescue. She bent down and picked Rose up. "You can ride with me," she said generously. Rose grinned and clutched to the saddle horn while Minerva mounted. It looked really weird to see a frog with a big grin holding onto a saddle horn in front of a lady dressed like a boy. But I had seen a lot of weird things lately, so it was no wonder I wasn't very surprised.

King Mordred III paced back and forth in his throne room. His wife, Cyndal, was standing by the throne, clutching at her dress, her face contorted into rage, grief, and exasperation.

"I can't believe our men have not found that stupid girl!" roared Mordred.

"Don't call her that," shot back theQueen. "She is very smart and is probably slipping away from her kidnappers this very instant and making her way home."

The king rolled his eyes and didn't share his opinion of his daughter. "What confuses me, Cyndal, is that we have no clue, no idea who it was that kidnapped her. Nothing. We have not recieved a note demanding money for her release. She just disappeared."

"Maybe she and the Prince of Adelfos eloped. They did disappear around the same time."

"Don't be silly, Cyndal. They hate each other; you know that."

"Maybe they were just pretending," insisted the queen. "Maybe they were really madly in love with each other the whole time, and just decided to put on a big show for the fun of it.

Her husband's flat look said, 'Just be quiet.'

She drew in a breath to say something cutting but then the door opened and a timid servant entered the room.

"What do you want?" growled Mordred sitting sullenly on his throne while his wife tried to calm her face.

The young man bowed deeply before saying, "Your majesties I have a message from one of the maids in the castle. She..."

"Can you not see we are too busy to take care of a simple slave!" barked the king who proved to be in a very bad mood.

The servant quivered. "She said she knows something about milady, the princess Anastasia."

That caught their attention. Instead of looking pleased or relieved, the king scowled and asked, "Why haven't we seen her before? It has been days since the departure of our daughter and only now does some one come to us with clues?"

"Please, sir, she just arrived yesterday, and was weary, but still demanded to see you with this urgent business. But your Chief Secretary said you were not to be disturbed."

King Mordred's hand stiffened. He had ordered his secretary to make sure no one bothered him and this had been the results. He could feel his wife's glare on his crowned head.

"Show her in."

Better late than never, he thought grimly.

The maid was dressed as one who was in high favor with one of the royalties, obviously Anastasia. She curtsied and before she could launch into praising their majesties with the correct titles, the queen demanded what she knew about her daughter.

"After milady read the note from Duke Arundal she was very distraught about the matter."

The queen sent an 'I told you so' look to Mordred.

"She said she had to find him, but she didn't say why. I tried to persuade her otherwise, but she wouldn't listen. So I saddled the horses and went with milady."

"You went with her?" growled the king. "Without a guard? Just two girls wandering around in the forest. Cyndal, I thought you said our daughter was wise!"

"She is!" insisted the queen sticking her nose in the air. "Any reasonable princess or queen knows not to go in the forest guarded. It attracts attention, and the bandits will see you are royalty as plain as day. This way she was disguised and could easily slip away after the bandits had done thier thing, and of course..."

"Shh! Let the maid finish her story."

"I went with her," continued the girl. "Until we came to a certain part in the forest where we were surprised by a group of bandits."

"So she was kidnapped!" cried the king jumping to his feet.

"Quit jumping to conlusions!" scoffed the queen.

The maid blinked. That was the wisest thing she had ever heard her queen say. She continued quickly. "She handled the situation quite well. She had the men take her to their leader. Apparently she knows their leader. When we got there, she went to the leader who was lying in bed injured and when she came out she told me to go back to the castle. It took me quite a while to get back since I am not familiar with the land of Adelfos, but I hurried as..."

"What was the leader's name?" asked Mordred.

"I believe the name I heard was Robina. Robina Hall."

Mordred brightened visibly and slowly let a grin crease his face as hesat back down on his throne.

"The leader was a girl?" said the queen in a confused voice.

The maid nodded but she was looking at the king curiously and fearfully.

"Leave!" yelled Mordred suddenly. "Maid leave. I'll have the secretary reward you for your efforts."

Once the maid had quickly curtsied and left, Mordred turned to his wife. "This is wonderful, Cyndal. I am again in control."

"What do you mean?" demanded the queen. "Tell me everything."

"I will, but you must promise not tell a soul. If you do you'll likely be burned."

The queen paled at that and didn't say another word.

"You never did approve of Ana's marrying the Prince of Adelfos, and I never bothered to explain. I'll tell you now. I knew she hated him, and her hate would have helped me in my endeavor. I planned that once she was established fully as Queen of both Kuran and Adelfos, Lance would 'mysteriously' die before Ana could even give birth to a rightful heir. Then our daughter and posperity would own Kuran, Adelfos, Gaul, and all the other small countries Adelfos has conquered. We would be the most powerful nation in the world, and unconquerable."

"How dreadful!"

"I know," he said with a shrug. "I knew you and Ana would be against me the whole time. So I changed my plan. Instead, I planned to have Lance captured and brought here and held up for ransom. Augustine would have given anything to have Lance back. So I would have asked for a few of his countries, like Gaul. That way I would have been able to easily capture Adelfos with the great horse country in my grip.

"When we received news that he was gone, I thought it was the job of my kidnapper. But the villian came back and said the Prince had left on his own free will. That was not good. And then Anastasia disappears and I immediately thought that the hot headed Prince had abducted her. Now we see this is not true."

"Where does this Robina come in?"

"This is where it gets wonderfully complicated," sighed Mordred. He thought a moment wondering how to explain his thoughts to his shallow headed wife. "This bandit leader, Robina, has a brother named Eric. Understand? Good. Eric is one of my hired henchmen."

"You certainly have a lot of them."

"Yes, yes I do. I am a very ambitious man, dear. Eric was the man I sent to bring Lance to me. When he failed I sent him back out to look for the Prince. He may not return without him. Or I'll have his head on a pike. Understand? Good. Now, Ana knows Eric's sister Robina. I forgot the connection, but they know each other. If Ana and Robina hook up and start looking for Lance, that is very good."

"Why? If all three of them are looking for him doesn't that mean they'll find him sooner?"

"Exactly!" said Mordred. "You have just explained my point. "This is why; Ana doesn't know what she's doing and will follow Robina. And Robina is under the power of her brother Eric. She can not be free from his grip. So she will bring Lance here for her brother. Or they will meet up and then the Prince of Adelfos will have no choice but to be kidnapped. Robina is a very skilled young lady. She has a whole group of men at her command. This is very good. Do you understand?"

The queen pursed her lips. "I think so."

"Good. Now go. I have a pile of letters and papers to look after. Soon we will have Adelfos, my dear and then, then we will truly live like kings. Mighty kings."