Chosen Ones (16 page)

the shape of a bow. And there were quivers and arrows as wel , careful y hidden beneath a protective layer of cloth. He had found the cache of weapons.

Julia, doing the same at the opposite end of the cave, gave at little cry of joy at her discovery. Only one question remained—would the weapons work?

Or had they become worthless after their long disuse? There was only one way to find out. Peter extracted a bow from its case, noting with approval that the strings had been removed from the bows before they had been concealed. He careful y restrung one of the bows and fitted the nock of an arrow to the bowstring, making sure the string was

properly aligned with the fletching near the base of the arrow. He careful y took the stance his archery coach had told him was the best, distributing his body weight evenly.

He held the bow in his left hand, drawing the bowstring back with three fingers of his right hand, two fingers below the arrow and one above, until his hand touched his chin. He raised the weapon and aimed for the tree ahead. A moment later he released the arrow, and felt the bow recoil in his hands.

The arrow missed its target, overshooting by at least twenty paces. Peter broke into a grin. The bow was far more powerful than any he had ever in the Scouts! He reached for a second arrow, adjusting his aim to al ow for the unexpected strength of the bow. This one sank deep into the center of the tree with a satisfying thud. Julia broke into applause.

“It’s marvelous Peter—marvelous! Come, we have to get Lukas’s men to help us carry them back to camp!” She grasped his hand and fairly dragged him back onto the path. At last—at last!—they were getting somewhere.

As the sun was sinking in the west, Lukas’s band of outlaws returned to the forest camp leading twelve horses heavily laden with the weapons. Peter supervised the stringing of the bows and the assembling of sets of bows, quivers, and arrows, marveling anew at their pristine condition. More of the magic of this place, he thought.

Julia watched approvingly for some moments, pleased that her brother’s talents had final y been put to good use. She was confident that they would defeat the army of Aedyn and take control of the castle. If only that would be the end of this matter! But she knew it was not.

Gaius sought her out that evening as the smal group of outlaws was bedding down, exhausted and eager for the rest. The children were huddled together as Helen told them bedtime stories, al of the young ones eager for the day close at hand when they would be with their parents again. As the fires sank low, Gaius motioned to Julia and she joined him, perched on a log beside one of the fires.

Together they watched the embers glow and crackle with heat.

Julia picked up some fal en leaves from the ground and rol ed them in her hands. They were highly fragrant, with hints of lemon and cinnamon. A smile came to her face. Why were wonderful fragrances so healing? They seemed to lighten her mood and heighten her awareness of the natural splendor of the forest around her. Why, she wondered, did such evil exist in the midst of such beauty? What had gone wrong? It was the most beautiful place she had ever seen, but it had become home to violence and treachery. Was it that people were weak and foolish, and failed to recognize evil when it arose? Or was it downright rebel ion against the laws of nature, the deeper structures of the world?

“You remember the question I asked you,” said Gaius softly. Julia nodded, her hands stil turning over the leaves. The monk seemed to read her thoughts.

“How evil could happen here,” she murmured.

Gaius nodded, his gaze on the dying embers.

“I want you to keep that in mind in the coming days,” he said. “As we fight to restore this land, remember what it can become.” Julia nodded, unsure precisely what to say. She would watch and remember—but why this question? And why her?

T
he next day dawned as beautiful as the one that preceded it. The rising sun bathed the castle in its soft, warm light. A gentle wind tugged at the flag of the Lords of Aedyn, high on the battlements of the citadel. And far away the same sun filtered through the leaves of the great forest of Aedyn, waking those who would do their best to tear down that flag and replace it with the emblem of the Lord of Hosts.

Peter woke early from a dreamless sleep. He swiped away a spider that had spent the night as an uninvited guest inside his blanket and sat up to stretch his arms. Today he would train his troops for battle!

Peter threw his blanket to one side and went to a nearby pool to wash his face. Afterwards, he sat by the edge of the clearing for some moments. This wa s where the training session would take place later. It was ideal. The archers would stand at the north end and shoot southwards. He stood there for some moments, the early morning sun flaring in his golden hair while the soft, cool wind disheveled it. He must tidy himself up before the training session, he decided. After al , he wanted to command the respect of his troops—just like his father, who never appeared before his men in a less than pristine state.

And command them he did, as many hours of sweat and hard work found him, at the end of the day, at the edge of the forest clearing watching fifty novices practicing their archery. It had been a difficult day, but Peter knew his archers had become as expert as he could hope. There would be one last vol ey before they broke for the evening meal.

“Draw! Aim! Release!”

The air fil ed with hissing as the arrows sped on their way, thudding into the ground at the far edge of the clearing. Their shooting was not perfect, but it would serve. It would cut enemy troops to pieces and destroy their morale. Especial y if they were expecting to fight slaves armed only with their fists and wooden staffs.

“Stand down! Col ect your arrows!”

The archers walked to the far edge of the clearing to retrieve their arrows, and returned them to their quivers. They stood mil ing around, exchanging stories of how they had come to the forest and anticipating the battle that would take place on the fol owing day. Some drank from the pool of clear blue water at the north end of the clearing. It had been a long, hot day.

Two figures, radiant even in their dul forest garb, emerged from the forest. The chatter died away as Julia and Gaius entered the clearing. They had been observing the final vol ey.

Gaius raised his hands. “My friends, I am entrusted with the story of our people. I have told you its past. How the Lord of Hosts cal ed us out of Khemia to this paradise. How this paradise was lost.

And soon I wil be able to tel the story of paradise regained! For tomorrow we shal again make history.

We shal march on the citadel and overthrow the lords who have enslaved us al these centuries. Your children wil tel this story to your grandchildren, and they wil tel it for many generations to come!” He smiled as the cheers resounded throughout the clearing. “And now—” he broke into his twinkling smile—“Now you must eat! Fruit and bread are to hand. And then you must rest, for at sunrise we fight!” He had barely ceased speaking when the familiar aroma of fresh bread began to spread through the clearing.

Peter was enjoying a particularly succulent piece of rare and refreshing fruit when he noticed Julia coming towards him. He scooted over on the log so that she could sit down beside him. She looked serene here, he thought—more at peace with herself than she had ever looked back in England. But then, he realized with a start, he had never real y paid a great deal of attention to her in England.

They were silent for a long moment as they sat together, enjoying the fresh night air and the excited sounds of the freed slaves al around them. And then Julia asked something that Peter would never have expected:

“What happens if we die here?”

He looked up at her, startled. “We won’t die here.”

“How do you know? We’re going into battle tomorrow. And we both know what those lords are capable of.”

“Yes…” Peter nodded, and then put on his brave-older-brother face. “I expect we’l be fine, Julia.

Just fine. And once the battle’s over we’l find a way to get home.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

And there was silence again. Julia leaned her head on Peter’s shoulder and sighed heavily.

“Sometimes I miss home,” she said. Peter nodded wordlessly. “I miss Grandmother and Grandfather and I miss Scamp and I miss clean sheets and warm blankets. And I miss Mother.”

“I do too,” said Peter.

They spent another moment like that, sitting together and watching the fire burn, and then Julia lifted her head up and smiled at Peter. It wasn’t easy to be a hero, they silently agreed, but the time had come to grow up.

T
he sun was high in the sky as it beat down on Aedyn. The lords were gathered in the Great Hal , which offered a view of the approach to the citadel from the forest. This was the field on which the Lords of Aedyn expected the battle to take place. They had planned their strategy with meticulous care, but their ultimate triumph depended on the rebel slaves making a mistake.

If the slaves approached the castle from the west, they would walk straight into an ambush. They could easily be surrounded and picked off one by one. It would be a massacre. If they came from the north, however, they would be in a much stronger position. Yet even then the guards would be able to defeat the rebel slaves. After al , they had no weapons. And most of the slaves were stil trapped inside the castle and had no way of taking part in the battle.

Solon rushed into the Great Hal , not pausing even to knock. “They come!” he cried. “They’ve been sighted leaving the forest. I’m mobilizing the troops, and the Lord Chamberlain has locked the slaves in quarters. They won’t cause any problems inside the citadel.”

The Wolf looked out the window, trying to fol ow what was happening on the ground in front of him.

But the slaves were too far away to be seen properly.

“From what direction do they approach?” he asked.

“It’s a little early to say, my lord, but it looks as if they plan to attack from the west.”

The Wolf smiled beneath his mask. “Ah,” he said briefly. “And so they wil die.” Solon bowed his head. “Yes, my lord.” The Wolf turned from the window, his mask somehow more hideous than Solon had ever seen it.

“I want no prisoners but the fair-haired traitors. I think”—he looked at the Jackal and the Leopard—“I think we wil rather enjoy hanging them at the end of the day.”

Solon bowed and went to give the orders.

Peter watched the groups of rebel slaves marching towards the castle, puzzled by Gaius’s strategy. They were going to approach the castle from the west.

Even from here he could see the castle’s defenses, the guards in place exactly where they ought to be.

Surely Gaius must realize that he was marching into a trap? But his protestations had fal en on deaf ears, and Gaius had merely looked at him in that amused and al -knowing way of his. Peter walked along with a growing sense of doom: the guards would ambush them from two sides, closing off any avenue of retreat.

But he had his instructions. He was to march his archers north, keeping just inside the forest as long as possible. He was then to approach the castle from the north, and wait for Julia’s signal before firing. He marched on, sul en but determined.

Another guard entered the Great Hal and held a hurried consultation with the Lords.

“Solon sent me with news,” he said, breathing heavily. “A second column approaches from the north. The main column is stil coming at us from the west. What do you want us to do?” He waited as the Wolf turned from his station at the window.

“Deploy the reserve guard on the south side of the citadel. They can block the advance of this second group. Once we’ve wiped out the main column, we can turn our attention to them.” The guard hesitated, unsure of the procedure.

Who was he to question a Lord of Aedyn? But this was too risky.

“My Lord, that means our entire guards corps wil be deployed outside the castle. We’l be left with only a handful of guards inside.”

“We are not expecting an attack from within, are we? We need our forces outside to make sure that none of these outlaws escapes alive.” The guard nodded.