upon spying Samuel in his magician’s robes, they fell into an orderly step at once.
Samuel raised his hand and waved them to approach. ‘You there!’ he called. ‘Come here.’
The guards did as he said without a pause. ‘What is it, My Lord?’ one of the men enquired.
‘I need a wagon of some kind,’ Samuel told him. ‘Can you go fetch one for me?’
The guard looked sceptical. ‘I’m not too sure about wagons, My Lord,’ he said. ‘Perhaps the palace servants can help you better.’
‘I don’t have time to go hunting around for them,’ Samuel told him bluntly. ‘The palace has stables, doesn’t it?’
‘It does, My Lord,’ the man replied.
‘Good. Then, if you could be of some assistance, it would be most appreciated.’
The guard looked to his fellows with an obvious lack of enthusiasm. ‘Grimwald, hurry to the stables and organise something for the Good Lord.’
‘Right,’ Grimwald replied and set off at once with his sword clanking at his side.
‘It won’t be a few moments, My Lord,’ the guard told Samuel.
Samuel nodded and waited there in the courtyard with the three remaining men. The air was quiet and uncomfortable.
‘Don’t you have any other business to attend to?’ Samuel finally asked the men.
‘Oh no, My Lord,’ their spokesman replied. ‘We’ll just wait here until your wagon arrives to be sure everything is how you like it.’
Samuel sighed. ‘Very well, then.’ After a moment of nervous silence, he thought he should try some polite conversation. ‘So…is life in the army everything you expected?’
The man raised a quizzical eyebrow and his two mates became all smirks. ‘Ah, it’s fine, My Lord. A wonderful career choice. Very rewarding.’
‘Keeps a man busy!’ said another beside him.
‘Well,’ Samuel said. ‘That’s grand, then.’
‘Aye,’ the spokesman replied in turn.
Samuel decided that small talk was not his speciality, so he turned to pacing around the courtyard instead. The three guards soon relaxed once he was away from them and began talking and laughing amongst themselves. Just when Samuel thought he would have to wait forever, the sound of horseshoes on stone came clip-clopping along and Grimwald and an elderly stable hand came driving a carriage into the courtyard. It was quite an expensive-looking buggy and not the open cart that Samuel had expected at all.
‘Here they are at last!’ the guards’ spokesman declared.
‘I apologise, My Lord,’ Grimwald said, climbing down. ‘It was difficult to make arrangements at such short notice. This was the best we could manage.’
‘I understand,’ Samuel replied.
The crotchety-looking stablehand applied the braking lever and also climbed down. ‘I’ll be off then back to my bed,’ he said to no one in particular and made directly back in the direction from which he had just come, moving as if his britches were half full of stones.
‘Samuel, have you…’ Eric called as he came leaping into the courtyard. On sight of the guards, he stopped. His hands were loaded with books up to his chin. ‘Oh, you seem to have company.’
‘Yes,’ Samuel replied. ‘I also have transportation.’
‘So I can see,’ Eric replied, coming over, and he carefully placed his armload of books into the cab as Samuel held the door open for him.
A small stream of servants came wandering out after him, each carrying various amounts of papers and books.
‘Over here!’ Eric called to them. ‘Put them in here-carefully. But hurry up about it!’
The servants did as they were told, dropping the books haphazardly into the open cab without enthusiasm.
‘Take care there!’ Eric scolded them. ‘They’re not stones!’
The servants grumbled and went to milling about together once they were done.
‘All right,’ Eric began to tell Samuel, ‘I’ll take this lot back up to get some more. There should be more along any moment.’
‘Very well,’ Samuel said and Eric darted back towards the tower.
‘Come along, you lot!’ he called his crowd of servants. ‘There’s plenty more where those came from.’
After they had all vanished back into the tower entrance, the guards’ spokesman sauntered up to the wagon to take a look.
‘Where are you off to, then, My Lord-if you don’t mind my askin’?’
‘We’re having a special magicians’ meeting,’ Samuel told the man. ‘It’s very late notice and we have a lot of books to carry with us.’
The guard nodded and peered into the back of the wagon with some curiousness.
‘Would you like a hand, then?’ the man asked.
‘What’s that?’ Samuel asked him, unsure of his meaning.
‘Would you like us to help you? We don’t really have anything else to do. If you’re really in a fix, we’d be happy to help out a member of the Order.’
‘Oh,’ Samuel replied. ‘That would be wonderful-if you wouldn’t mind.’
‘It’s no problem, really,’ the guard stated and he began rounding up his mates at once. ‘Where do we go then?’
‘Almost to the top of the tower,’ Samuel told him. ‘You can’t miss it.’
With that, the four Royal Guards went into the tower after Eric and his servants. Samuel just hoped Master Glim would not panic on sight of them and vaporise the lot.
More servants began to appear in pairs, so Samuel kept busy instructing them about what to do.
‘Put them in! Hurry along!’ Samuel commanded and the servants kept piling in books. All the while, he kept a nervous eye out for any magicians or guards approaching. He knew they would eventually be discovered. It was just a matter of when.
Samuel saw the same servants come down several times and the cab was now filled up to the seats, with the servants piling the books up on the soft leather seating inside.
The sound of hurried footsteps drew Samuel’s attention and Eric came bounding down into the small courtyard.
‘Let’s go!’ he shouted under his breath, waving both hands frantically. ‘It’s time to go!’
Samuel understood immediately and he grabbed the books from the arms of the last servingwoman and threw them in upon the others, shutting the cab door firmly.
Eric was up into the driver’s seat and was already releasing the braking handle. The two horses looked back at him, sensing it was time to leave. Samuel climbed up beside Eric as he began flicking the reins with vigour.
‘Let’s go!’ he called to the horses and the carriage lurched away at once, with the animals’ hooves clacking on the courtyard stones. ‘They’re onto us!’ Eric then told Samuel. ‘We had best be away quickly before the guards arrive. Lomar and Master Glim are trying to keep them busy, but I don’t know how long they can last.’
‘Do you think they’ll be all right?’ Samuel asked with concern.
Eric just smiled. ‘I’m sure they will be. Those two can handle themselves.’
‘How many books did you get? Surely, this is not all of them.’
‘Not nearly,’ Eric replied, but it’s the best we could do.’
Out of the courtyard, Eric shook the reins harder and clicked his tongue, steering the wagon out onto the grass where he could send it even faster. From high above, behind them, the soft boom and crackle of magic sounded. They sped towards the palace gates, where Eric slowed the wagon to a crawl once again. The two magicians nodded and smiled to the gate guards as they passed out. The men eyed them cautiously, but made no effort to stop them.
‘I don’t believe it!’ Eric declared once they were out into the streets. ‘We walked straight in and just picked up their books!’
‘They’ll be mighty angry, I’ll wager,’ Samuel stated.
‘I’m sure of that!’
