and his brother the nicknames Frank and Jesse, in honour of the great American outlaws. He took the gold bar from me, all the while trying to avoid eye contact, and showed it to his father. King Bwika eyed the bar, and casually accepted my gift with a flick of the wrist. Jesse handed it to one of the dozen advisers that were standing in the shadows behind the throne and it disappeared inside his robes.
‘That is the second time you have referred to my son as a “Jesse”. What does it mean?’
Wow, this guy had a good memory, better than mine. I racked my brains for Jesse’s real name and then it came to me – Codna. ‘The first time I met your son was in the Hall of the Oak Throne, when my father bestowed on you the freedom of the Oaklands. I mistook Codna for someone I had known in the Real World and when we met socially afterwards I used the name as a small joke.’
‘So because your father gave me permission to walk among the Oaklands, lands that I should rightfully own, and because you make idiot jokes with my idiot son, this gives you the right to spy on me?’
I shot a quick glance at Jesse. He looked like he had been slapped. ‘I have no reason to spy on you, Your Highness, I come because my father is ill.’
‘Ill?’ he said in a tone that made me realise that illness was a concept he had never encountered.
‘It’s like a mortal wound that we cannot see, Your Highness. I need to find healing magic or he will die.’
This made the Brownie monarch think, which I suspected was something he didn’t do very often. ‘Is he cursed?’
‘That may be the cause. We need to get to the Isle of the Tughe Tine that lies off the edge of your land.’
King Bwika threw his head back and laughed. ‘What? Are you looking for help from the Grey Ones?’
‘I don’t know what I will find, Your Highness – I only want to save my father. For that I will do anything.’
The smile on the Brownie’s face vanished in an istant. ‘Your father,’ he said, his voice filled with contempt. ‘The last time your father was here… No, I lie – your father was never here. It was your father’s father, Finn. Finn stood and called me “a supercilious toad” and then spat on the floor, there, before he left. I was a young king then, he was fortunate. If he had done that today he would have left with a bolt in his back.’
The more I hear about my grandfather the more I think we all would have benefited if he had taken a few anger-management classes. I stood and walked to the place where the King had pointed and dropped to one knee. ‘Was it here that my grandfather spat?’
King Bwika stood and walked down the steps of his dais. Towering over me he pointed to a slab of marble floor directly in front of his feet. ‘It was there.’
‘Then let me spit on the same spot,’ I said and I spat. Then I pulled my sleeve over my hand and used my shirt to clean up the spittle. ‘So that I may wash away the memory of it. I, Conor of Duir, do humbly apologise for the rudeness of my ancestor.’
I didn’t know what else to say, nor, I sensed, did the King. He looked up and scanned the faces in the room, then said, ‘Go. My guards will escort you to the ends of the Keep grounds to the Peninsula Trail. There is but only one way to go from there and you must go alone – I cannot spare you a guide. Report to the alder trees daily.’
‘Thank you, Your Highness, we shall leave at dawn,’ I said, moaning silently to myself.
‘You will leave now, before I change my mind, and you will not rest until you are off the Keep grounds.’
He gestured with his hand. The honour guard surrounded us and escorted us quickly from the room.
We found Araf resting on his bed.
‘Is your foot up for a hike?’
‘Why,’ the Imp said, ‘are we going on one?’
‘The King says we can go, if we go now.’
We began to pack. It didn’t take long. It’s not like our welcome prompted us to put all of our underwear in drawers. I was almost ready to go when I answered a soft knock at the door.
Standing on the other side was the young prince with a cloth parcel in his hand.
‘Jesse,’ I said, extending my hand, ‘or should I say Prince Codna. It’s good to see you again.’
He looked confused and then shook my hand like he had never done it before. ‘No, I like Jesse,’ he said with a nervous smile. ‘My brother and I still call each other Frank and Jesse when we are alone.’
‘Are you going to be one of our escorts to the Peninsula Trail?’
‘Oh no,’ he said with a nervous laugh, like that was a ridiculous notion. ‘No, I came because… Well, I stole this from Castle Duir and have been worried that it has been sorely missed by its owner. I would like for you to return it.’
I took the parcel and opened it. Inside was a round piece of brass. ‘You stole a doorknob?’
Jesse shrugged. ‘Frank got some better stuff but that Dahy man found it and took it back.’
‘Well, thanks,’ I said, rewrapping the parcel. ‘I’m sure there is a door somewhere in my castle that someone is just dying to open. Speaking of Frank, where is he?’
‘My brother prepares for war,’ he said with a quiver in his voice that made me look at his face. He was almost at the brink of tears.
‘Hey, guy,’ I said, motioning him over to a set of chairs. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Demne,’ he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve, ‘you know – Frank. He’s in the Torkc Guards.’
I searched my memory for the meaning of torkc. ‘Pig Guards?’
Jesse laughed a little at this. ‘Boar,’ he corrected.
‘So what’s so bad about that?’
‘I never get to see him any more and I’m worried about him. The Torkc are the first to attack in a war.’
‘But the Brownies aren’t at war with anyone.’
‘They’re not?’ he said, beaming at me. ‘Did you sue for peace?’
I didn’t answer that right away, I didn’t know what he was talking about. Just as I was about to ask, Tuan came to the door flanked by guards saying that the Brownies were insisting that we leave immediately. The guards made Jesse nervous. I told them to give us a sec.
‘Thanks for returning the doorknob,’ I said. ‘Here, I have a present for you.’ I reached into my pack and took out the green-handled knife that was thrown at Brendan on Mount Cas. ‘Take this and give it to Frank; it’s a throwing knife. The gold tip will make sure the blade hits its intended target. Maybe it will keep him safe.’ I resheathed it and handed it to Jesse.
He smiled and then hugged me. That Jesse is a cute kid.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was dark outside but I could just make out two Brownies waiting for us at the end of the drawbridge.
‘Hi, Dell, miss us?’ He didn’t answer; he and what’s-his-name just turned and jogged into the night.
It was our turn to slow these guys down. There was no way we were going to go full pelt in pitch darkness. Yogi called a halt, dismounted, stripped off and handed his clothes to Tuan. He said he wanted to travel as a bear because his night vision was better. The Brownies came back to yell at us for stopping just as Yogi did his change thing. He towered over them and growled – they shut up. Yogi took the point behind our guides. He growled and snarled almost constantly so we could at least follow the sound. It was difficult going and the further we got from the castle the worse the trail became. Soon we had to take our branch-whipped faces off of our horses and power walk behind Dell and what’s-his-name, who constantly told us to hurry up. I decided that when we finally got to where we didn’t need the guides any more I would give Yogi permission to eat them.
It was about an hour before dawn when we reached the borders of Fearn Keep and the beginning of the Peninsula Trail. Dell asked Essa, ‘What’s for breakfast?’ and she pulled her banta stick out of her pack. Bravely, I got between them and pointed out to Dell that they might not want to hang out with a hungry bear and a much more dangerous princess.
Dell stared daggers into my eyes and said, ‘We will meet again,’ then the two of them ran off the way we had come. In the distance I heard Dell yell something that sounded like, ‘In Duir.’
Tuan started up a fire while Yogi got dressed. We were all too tired to pitch tents so we just huddled up in
