6

CHAPTER 6

While the pair had their adventure in the secret tunnel, Ned sought out Captain Hawkins. He found the captain at leisure in the castle courtyard. Ned hailed the man and looked around in admiration at the guards perched atop the walls in their finest regalia. "Very fine-looking soldiers," he complimented the captain.

Hawkins followed Ned's gaze and pursed his lips together. "Yes, very fine-looking," he grudgingly agreed.

Ned raised an eyebrow. "You have your doubts?"

"About their looks?" Ned nodded, and Hawkins shook his head. "No."

"Then you question their abilities?" Ned guessed. Hawkins didn't reply, which led the old man to believe he'd found the problem. "Does the king know about your doubts?"

Hawkins sighed and nodded toward the gatehouse. "Let's speak in there." He led Ned into the empty guardhouse and into a private room like the that in the city entrance. Once seated, he leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. He gave Ned a careful examination. "May I be blunt with you, sir, without fear of the king overhearing?"

"Only if the king has developed ears in the wall," Ned joked.

Hawkins didn't laugh. "With that woman at his side I could believe such a thing."

Ned's amusement slid off his face. "She is who I wish to speak about, but we'll come to her soon enough. What of the guards of the castle?"

Hawkins scoffed. "The castle? If only it was confined to a single place. I fear the entire army is as useless as the man you met at the gate."

Ned raised an eyebrow. "Is it so bad?" he asked Hawkins.

The captain shifted in his seat. "Bad enough I wouldn't count on half the men to be useful to the girl, regardless of what hidden skills she has at leading."

The old man's face grew grim. "This is very serious, and yet you say the king does nothing? What are the problems?"

"What aren't the problems?" Hawkins countered. "Arrogance, lack of skill, disobedience. You saw what fools that cantankus made of them. They are unfit to guard a barn, much less the city of Galaron."

Ned pulled at his beard, and pondered Hawkins' information. "This is most serious. Did these problems arise after the arrival of this Lady Martley?"

"I won't lie even to blemish her name. The rot started before her coming," Hawkins replied. "The king is as arrogant as his soldiers, and comfortable in the awe and fear the name of the Galaron army instills in our old enemies."

Ned stood and slowly paced the room. "I fear an old enemy is who they will have to face, but what you tell me gravely worries me. You say the woman has nothing to do with these troubles?"

Hawkins frowned. "I wouldn't go that far. She alone has the king's ears and she does much to stop his actions."

Ned paused and glanced at the young man. He raised an eyebrow. "Stop the king's actions?"

"In a way. She holds him up in his castle and she alone manages the messages that come in with the city's problems." Hawkins noticed a strange expression on Ned's face. "Is there something to this?"

The old castor nodded his head. "I have known the king a long while, long before the kingship passed to him. He was always an unwise man, rash and arrogant. Anyone who halts his advice and orders can only be helping the people of the city."

"So she may be doing us a favor?" Hawkins guessed.

Ned sighed and shrugged. "That is a question only you can answer. What has she done with this power? What decisions has she made?"

Hawkins smirked and returned the shrug. "You ask the captain of the guards when you would do better to ask the king's advisers."

Ned vehemently shook his head and returned to pacing the room. "No, I would rather not risk Lady Martley learning of my suspicions through them." Ned halted when a memory flashed through his mind, and he snapped his head over to Hawkins. "Have you any idea what this surprise betrothal is about?"

"Again I can't answer that, but I can say I believe that that woman was as surprised as anyone to learn about it," Hawkins replied. The captain leaned over the table and narrowed his eyes. "Do you believe it's trouble for the girl?"

Ned snorted. "Trouble follows her like a shadow, and King Stephen's plans are no exception."

Hawkins pressed his lips together and shook his head. "This feels like more trouble than one of the king's ideas. Something is in the wind."

Ned paused and leaned heavily on his staff. His face held a weary expression, and his thick brows came together. "I fear you may be right, and we must stay alert for whatever befalls us." Ned turned to the door and Hawkins stood from his seat

"Are you going out to enjoy the fireworks?" Hawkins asked him.

Ned half turned to the young man, and there was a bitter smile on his lips. "These merriments are best left to the young while the old sit inside remembering fireworks long past."

Hawkins silently watched Ned leave the room, and not long after he heard an explosion far above them. The celebrations had begun.

Pat and Fred exited the subterranean world when the first fireworks lit up the sky. They stood in the disused cistern, a round mud-brick hut dug into the ground with steep, tall walls, and through the broken roof they watched as another flash of light screeched across the sky and exploded in bits of sparkling dust.

Sampson stood in the doorway of the secret entrance, a false door in one of the walls, and breathed in the fresh night air. "It has been so many years since I was outside that I had forgotten the smell." He turned and nodded at them. "If we never meet again, fare well in your lives."

"Farewell," they replied. Sampson vanished into the tunnel and closed the door behind himself.

Fred was uneasy about leaving the gargoyles. "Shouldn't we try to do something?"

"What do you suggest?" she asked him.

The boy shrugged. "Maybe try to tell the king or somebody about them? We can't just leave them down there to die."

Pat sighed and shook her head. "We took an oath to keep their secret, and I won't break mine." She scowled and leaned forward to shove her fist into his nostrils. "And if you are any man then you will keep yours."

Fred stepped back and held up his hands; his broken stick was safely tucked against his waist. "I will, I will, I was just, I don't know, just thinking-"

"-and that's where you started going wrong," Pat interrupted. She grabbed one of his raised hands and dragged him toward a flight of stairs that led up to the streets. When the cistern was still in use they were used as maintenance stairs to reach the bottom. "Now we should stop thinking and start having fun. This is my last night before my betrothal dinner, after all."

Fred paled; he'd forgotten that part of the dinner tomorrow night. Pat didn't let him mull over it. She whisked them out of the cistern and into the middle of a grand parade. Everyone was clothed in their best dresses and suits, and they all laughed and cheered with each new explosion high above them.

The youngsters dove into the revelry and enjoyed the sights big and small. From the jugglers and fire-breathers to the food vendors and dancers, nothing escaped their delight. The fireworks kept going even after they were exhausted, and the pair found themselves on the peak of a roof over a small shop close to the main square where they shot off the fireworks. Hundreds of people likewise sat on roofs and enjoyed the dazzling sight of gunpowder and lights.

Fred heard Pat sigh beside him, and looked over to see her eyes pointed up at the sky. There was a small, sad smile on her face, and tears glistened in her eyes. They sparkled when another firework went off. "You okay?" he whispered to her.

She flinched back. "What? Oh, yeah, fine." She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and snorted to clear her nose. "Just thinking about tomorrow."

"You said we weren't supposed to be thinking," he teasingly pointed out.

Pat tilted her head toward him and grinned. "I said you shouldn't be thinking. I'm wise enough my thoughts won't hurt me, nor anyone else."

"Uh-huh, so why were you crying just now? Thinking about your precious Percy back in Tramadore?" he shot back.

Pat's face flushed and she glared at Fred. "That is the complete opposite of what I was thinking!"

Fred blinked. "What's the complete opposite of him?" he asked her. She jerked her head away and mumbled something beneath her breath. He leaned in and strained his ears. "What was that?"

"I said it was..." She cut out again.

Fred teasingly raised his voice and cupped a hand to his ear. "You'll have to speak up!"

She glared and leaned into his ear. "I said I was thinking about you!"

Fred flinched back and his ears rang with her voice. His mind rang with her words. "Me?" he squeaked out.

Pat rolled her eyes. "Yes, you. You're the complete opposite of Percy. Rude, unrefined, illiterate, idiotic-"

He held up a hand. "I get it, I get it." She shut her mouth and sullenly looked away. "So why were you thinking about me?"

"I-I'm just worried about you, that's all. After this whole birthday party is over I don't know what you're going to do with yourself, and that thought scares me. With you bored some innocent people could get hurt," she replied.

Fred's face drooped. "Hey, I try not to hurt anyone else, they just jump out in front of me, like that chicken vendor and-" Fred froze and Pat whipped her face back to him.

"Chicken vendor?" she repeated.

He nervously laughed and inched away from her. She crawled after him. "Did I say that?"

Her voice was low and growling. "What did you do to a poor chicken vendor?"

Fred vehemently shook his head. "It's not what I did, it's what Fluffy did!"

One of her eyes twitched. Fred moved back and felt his fingers slip off the edge of the roof. He had no more room to run, and she slowly kept coming. She set her hands down on either side of his legs. "You let that cantankus of yours torture a chicken vendor today, didn't you?"

"Um, maybe?" he squeaked out.

She glared at him. Their faces almost touched. That's when they heard screams, and something whizzed a few inches over their heads. They yelped and ducked in time to avoid a collision with another errant firework, and Pat shot a glare over to the square. "What are those idiots down there doing?" she exclaimed.

"Monster! Monster!" came a voice from the crowd. The shouts were followed by more screams and a stampede out of the square.

"Monster?" Pat repeated. Her eyes widened the same time Fred's did, and she turned to him. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked him.

He winced. "That maybe we should get out of here?" he guessed.

Pat rolled her eyes and grabbed his sleeve. She yanked him down the roof and onto the ground. "No, that one of the gargoyles followed us out and is scaring everyone. If the others are found there's no telling what the king will do." She sprinted down the street toward the square.

"I've got a pretty good idea..." Fred mumbled as he followed her.