On the way back from their round, in the middle of the afternoon, Delys and Respetus took a wrong turn and found themselves face to face with four heavily armed men and women. They had blue puffy garments covered by thick and shiny metallic plates. They looked as surprised as Delys and Respetus were. Although they had mauls and lances, they showed no hostility toward the habitants of Cozy Forest.

Hostility or not, Delys and Respetus reacted the way they always did in such situations. They each grabbed a glena and took a bite. Within seconds, they were gone. But they didn’t just disappear in front of the stranger’s eyes. They were smarter than this. They ran toward the biggest tree. As soon they got behind the trunk, they turned themselves invisible. As always, the intruders chased them, but when they got to the tree, they found nothing.

Delys and Respetus were still there though. They carefully moved out of the way without making noise or flicking off ferns with their knees that could have alerted the guards of their presence. Once they were a few yards away, they stood still and waited. They thought the guards might chase them, but they didn’t. Looking closer at them, those three women and one man weren’t in top shape. They looked exhausted. They were covered in sweat under their helmets. No wonder they’re sweating if they’ve been wearing these heavy protective clothes all day. Delys listened to their incomprehension and watch them fall on their ass, ready to give up. But give up what? Where these the folks chasing after Mallory? They must be.

One of the women guard removed her helmet and threw it at her feet. “I’ve had enough. I need food. I need sleep. I need to rest.”

“It’s a shame these two weird looking folks ran away. We could have asked them some questions. Maybe they’ve seen the prince.”

“What people? Do you see anybody? There’s no one here.”

“But there were. We all saw them, didn’t we?”

“We saw what? An illusion. A collective hallucination. That’s what it was.”

“There’s no such thing as…”

“We’re all exhausted, Kruper. We just dreamed about what we wanted to see. Forget about this illusion. They weren’t the prince, anyway. We’re all tired. I say we take a break before heading back to the castle.”

From their position, Delys and Respetus could hear them loud and clear. They stood and listened while the guards agreed to call off their search for the prince.

“Why did Prince Mallory leave the castle? It makes no sense. With Prince Dufferio poor health, he was destined to be king.”

“I liked Prince Mallory.”

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“So did I.”

“Aye.”

“Aye.”

Delys couldn’t refrain a quirky smile.

“He was kind, you know. He never abused his position. He treated everyone the same. And he knew my name. Can you imagine? Little old Manon behind the big ugly helmet. He knew my name. He always said hello to me.”

“He knew everybody’s name. Even outside the castle. He was, you know, a man of the people. He was a good lad. I am going to miss him.”

“I can’t believe he’s gone. I used to work his corridor, you know? Fifth floor at the East Tower. Used to see him every day. Sometimes exchanged a few words. I even escorted him a couple of times to the market, on days when we had too many foreign visitors. I’ve watched the boy grow.”

“So did I. I remember when he was born. The king was still around. It was a much less happy time back then. When prince Mallory arrived into this world, the queen never looked more happy. Do you remember? I’ll never forget how she just couldn’t stop grinning all day. She didn’t smile like that for her first born or for the little miss devil.”

The other guard whistled. “Careful when you talk about the princess like this.”

The woman ignored the advice. She kept on talking. “The queen must have known she’d sprouted a special one. A good one.”

“So special he is now gone.”

“Yeah.”

All four guards dropped their heads at the same time.

“It’s funny, you know. You think you know someone because you’ve watched them take their first step, their first meal, watched them grow into a man. You’ve seen them every day. Yet, they go on and do something like this. And now all I can think is: we didn’t know the first thing about Prince Mallory.”

“Remember how we used to mock him, gently? When he was spending so much time at the market, speaking with the blacksmiths and whatnot. We thought he was politicking back then, didn’t we? We thought he was ordering weapons by the hundreds to prepare a coup. Yeah. How wrong we were?”

“Do you think it’s possible he didn’t run away? That maybe he was abducted?”

“Nah… the cooks spoke to him and saw him through the back gate. He was alone, and he had a large bag of provisions with him, and a traveling cape. He obviously planned this.”

“Now, out of all possible times? When half of his family is bedridden? I don’t understand this.”

“Prince Mallory didn’t want to be king. What’s hard to understand about this?”

“Who in the world wouldn’t want to be king of Castle Bartack?”

They each paused to think. They stared at their feet. One of the guard was staring at the position where Delys stood, but she knew she couldn’t see her; she was only looking at the tree behind her.

The male guard sighed heavily then got up with the help of his lance. “I don’t know. I really don’t. Come on, let’s go back to the castle.”

“I hope we can find our way out of this wood. Some people say Cozy Forrest changes every day.”

“Changes? What changes?”

“Layout. Shape. I don’t know. But, we shouldn’t linger.”

After they were sure the guards were far enough, Delys and Respetus expired the glena grains.

After listening to the guards’ conversation, Delys could not hold her tongue. “Did you hear that? They were talking about Mallory.”

“Yes. They seemed to like him.” Respetus shrugged his shoulders. “It’s both unusual and nice.”

“Why is that unusual?”

“As far as I know, most lords aren’t exactly popular with their people. Face to face for sure, but Mallory wasn’t there, and they still spoke highly of him.”

Delys became pensive. She hummed and nodded, her big eyes fixed on the horizon.

“We should head back,” Respetus said after a reasonable time.

“You’re right. I want to see Mallory. I’ve got so much to ask him.”