“Who are the Halpians?” I ask, needing confirmation.
“The ones in the armour. The ones that also set fire to that farmhouse,” he reveals.
The colony men. The Halpians are the colony men, it all makes so much sense. That’s why Becker had been looking for Guy, it had been the colony that had attacked his home in the first place.
“I ran, and a couple of the Halpians followed. I took one of them down and lost the other in the. There was no way they could keep up with me when weighed down like that with all their armour. I left my home and my people behind me Dale. I ran for the rest of the night and the following day, and then well, I found your hunters and then I woke up to you and your family.”
So that’s why he had stumbled into Avlym half-dead. I’m amazed he made it as far as he did, a day and a night of running in his state, a smart man wouldn’t have gambled on him surviving the journey. My anger and resentment towards his treachery is still in the back of my mind, but looking at the now fragile vulnerable boy, or prince I suppose, in front of me, my heart softens slightly. Despite who he may be, we are around the same age and I doubt I would have been able to survive the ordeal that he was put through.
Dusk has properly set now, and I can no longer make out the details of Guy’s face, which is probably for the best. I haven’t forgiven Guy, I’m not sure I ever will, but he’s all I have for now. I consider heading for the opening of the den, no matter how much I distrust my companions it would be foolish to try and sleep in the open, bare to the creatures of the forest.
“I thought they were all dead.” Guy’s statement roots me to my seat, “I left my people because I thought all was lost, but no I just abandoned them. Edwyn is a fine warrior who had been first to support my father, he would always go with him on hunts to protect him. If I had joined him, joined my parents, maybe I could’ve helped.” Shame fills the air taking me by surprise, how am I to comfort the boy who just admitted to be the son of the man who killed my father?
“My people needed me,” Guy’s voice cracks, “and I just ran away, and now they’re dead.” Gentle sobs rocked the log besides me.
“Not all of them,” Edwyn has returned without our noticing, he stands behind us with a hand on Guy’s shoulder.
The young prince startles and rises to meet the hunter’s gaze. His eyes search desperately for a glimmer of hope.
“No?” for the first time today Guy sounds his own age, without any commanding tone conveying power and authority. He sounds childish almost.
“No, I found you whilst hunting for survivors. A few of us managed to escape, they’re hidden away in the mountains, where the Halpians can’t find them,” Edwyn assures the young royal, who looks moved beyond words. Fresh tears reach the dirt below as Guy’s shoulders shake with uncontrolled relief.
“We have been looking for you since the attack,” Edwyn reveals, “when I heard the splashes in the stream, I couldn’t believe my luck. I need to take you to see your people, they’re less than a day’s travelling from here and we can set off at first light.”
Guy turns to me in the moonlight, even in the shadows his eyes seem to radiate with a new light, a fierce hope accompanying barely contained optimism, “They’re waiting for me. I know we’ve hurt you, but you took me in. I don’t want to leave you to die in this place by yourself. I can’t make you come with us… but I hope you do,” with that he disappears inside the den, Edwyn gives me a searching look before following.
I sit at that log long into the night, longer than I should have given the dangers of the forest. Some wild cat or venomous creature could quite easily bring about the death of me as I ponder my options. At least ponder is the illusion I choose to lie to myself with, I know I have no choice but to follow them into the mountains, but that doesn’t mean I have to like the thought of shadowing the boy I cannot trust into the land of people he commands.
Part of me is still trying to comprehend the prince’s story, all that has happened to him, and all that brought us together. It occurs to me that maybe we have always been on the same side without knowing it, both of us having encountered the cruel tormenting fist of the colony but without the other for support.
I think of my father also, hunted down from a distance by a rage-fuelled king of a people we thought were spiritual creatures. The man I had never been old enough to truly know, taken from me by mistake, I fume at the injustice of it all. Some part of me recognises that that too was the colony’s fault, not that I forgive the king for his crimes. It all leads back to the colony eventually, almost all of the wrongs in my life, the conditions my family and Avlym have had to struggle through, it has always been them.
Eventually I cannot put off sleep any longer, I’m going to need the rest for the new day. As I duck inside the shabby den, I spot Edwyn
