The young prince twiddles his thumbs nervously. He’s not exactly sure how to interpret the powerful aura emanating from the woman whose hand is clamping down on his shoulder. His face suddenly flushes with heat. He feels extremely foolish to have discussed his predicament out loud in the middle of the street with a complete stranger. Who knows how many people heard him. He looks around. There are a few other bar goers who have filtered outside, a few families settling in for the night, a drifter slumped up against the side of a building. None of them seem to be paying him too much attention. Even still, was it a mistake to trust a stranger with so much information?
The woman smiles at him. It’s a warm smile. She seems genuine enough. She doesn’t look to be much older than Lex is, maybe two or three years. She cocks her head to the side. “Well?”
Lex looks down. “You, ah, you heard that? That was-- that was supposed to be kinda a private conversation.”
“I didn’t hear everything. Something about going to Atlantis and you needing a bodyguard to get there safely?” Tay did, in fact, hear a bit more than this. In particular, she heard that this kid is claiming to be the prince of New England. It may not be true -- in fact, it almost certainly isn’t true, it doesn’t make sense that the prince would be all the way out here by himself -- but this could be the out that she’s looking for. She steals a quick glance behind her. More and more members of the town watch are filtering into this side of town. Surely they’ll be occupied by the pizza boy’s stunt in the bar for at least a little while, but the odds of her getting into that chapel are slim. If this kid is who he says he is, then that’s more than enough of a prize to make the mission a success.
Lex looks up at her. She’s taller than him, but only by an inch or two. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s, uh-- it’s not really the kind of thing I want to talk about in the open. I don’t really want random people listening in and, well, case in point, you are, well, no offense, ma’am, but you are a random person.”
She gives her best adorable laugh and smiles. “Then let me introduce myself. My name is Tay. And you are?”
Lex looks around. He’s already given out more information about himself than he should, he’s a bit hesitant to do it again. “Um, Lexington. Lex, actually. But, yeah, that’s also something that’s kinda under wraps.”
“Nice to meet you, Lex. There, now I’m not just a random person.” Tay can feel herself starting to sweat. For her, keeping up appearances as a nice, kind bystander is the equivalent of trying to lift up a school bus. Also, although she doesn’t want to get her hopes up that this kid is in fact Prince Lexington Adams, the fact that he’s being cagey about his identity makes her think that he’s the real deal. For the last hour or so, she’s been in the proverbial desert, and Lex is an oasis mirage of a talking cheeseburger. She smiles even wider, feeling the strain of holding the school bus above her head. “Now we’re friends.”
It’s as if she spoke the magic word. All at once, Lex’s demeanor changes. No longer is he hunched hover, playing with his thumbs, glancing all around like a squirrel. At hearing her call him that word, he’s now straight at attention, all smiles, eyes gleaming with boyish naivety. “Friends?”
He’s taken the bait. Tay goes in for the kill by giving him her widest, brightest smile yet. “Let’s walk.” She puts his arm around his shoulder and gingerly steers him away from the bar. Underneath a not so thin sheen of sweat, Tay is doing her best to keep a calm and friendly demeanor. Underneath that, though, she’s doing mental back flips and fist pumps and victory dances. She can’t believe the incredible stroke of luck she’s had. She doesn’t like to be in the habit of counting her chickens before they hatch, but she’s having a hard time not envisioning the looks on everyone’s faces back at home when they see what she brought them. The only thing left to do is for the two of them to get out of Camp Trin without being caught.
As they walk through the streets, she keeps a watchful eye out. Just as she’d hoped for, guards are bee lining from the tunnel to the bar. She was only half paying attention to the brawl that just went down between the pizza boy and that behemoth of a woman, but she was almost certain she’d heard the name Daisy Montego getting thrown around. If that’s true -- if she really is one of the Montegos, then that should keep the town watch occupied for just enough time for Tay to slip out of Camp Trin with her new little piggy bank before anyone in town knows what’s happening.
Lex cranes his neck up to her. “Um, Tay? It’s Tay, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Where are we going?”
“We’re getting you out of Camp Trin.”
“Oh.” Lex looks forwards again, and they walk a few more steps in silence. Lex bites his lip and looks up at her again. “Um, why? Why are we doing that?”
“I thought you said you wanted to go.”
“Well, yeah, I do. But, it’s, you know, it’s not like we’re just making a little trip. I need to go far. Like, far. You know where Atlantis is, right?”
Tay nods. She knows where Atlantis is. Or, at least, roughly where it is. A long fucking way away, far enough south where the winters are like summer. She’s heard of places like that, but she’s never been. Her family mostly stays around Upstate and the areas around it. She has no intention of ever going that far south.
“Don’t you think we should take a minute to, you know, talk about it? Discuss payment, whether or not you’re up for the task? Or, like how we’re gonna get there?”
“Free of charge.”
“Oh-- wait, really?”
“Yeah. I, uh, I just feel compelled to help people when I see people who need help.” She thinks back in her life and tries to find a single instance of her ever helping anyone other than herself. The mental Rolodex spins and comes up blank.
Lex is all smiles. “Oh wow. Wow, wow, well that’s great news! Father will be so happy to hear that! Keep this hush hush, but my father, he’s the king. King of New England. I’m not sure if you overheard earlier, but I’m the prince.”
“Maybe let’s keep that part quiet, shall we?” She tries to keep the venom out of her voice, but the last thing she needs right now is for any other vultures to descend on him the way that she already has. Or, even worse, for the town watch to wise up and figure out who this kid is. They already probably wanted Tay dead, but if they knew she was actively kidnapping the prince, they’d throw her to the bugs without even thinking about it.
“Right, right. Good plan. Well, okay, so that’s great that you want to help me, but I still feel like, you know, maybe there are some logistical things we need to figure out before we start our two thousand mile journey south? My old bodyguard--” Lex stops himself. He doesn’t really want to talk about Taran. He’s pretty ashamed of the whole leaving-him-to-die thing he pulled earlier. Definitely not a very knightly thing to do. He shakes his head. “I used to have a caravan and a cyclist, but, yeah, don’t really have them anymore. I just feel like we should-- look, I mean, I’m not the most athletic person in the world, and it’s a pretty far way to walk.”
“We’ll find a cyclist along the way.”
“Okay. But, it’s like, midnight right now, so where are we gonna find one?”
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“We’ll find one tomorrow.”
“Right, that’s kinda what I was planning. But then, shouldn’t we stay here? If we just start walking south, we’ll be in the middle of nowhere tomorrow. And, I’m pretty tired. And hungry.”
“We can’t stay here.”
“Oh. Why not?”
Because the entire town is a few minutes away from descending into Salem-esque hysteria, and Tay is going to be drawn and quartered and burned alive and cannibalized if they find out what she’s doing. That’s what she wants to say, but that wouldn’t be a terribly diplomatic answer. He is obviously right -- from his perspective, leaving Camp Trin right now doesn’t make a lick of sense. She tries to put him at ease with some good old fashioned vague fear mongering. “This place is dangerous. Not safe here.”
“Woah. What do you mean?”
“Well, not everyone here is as kind and generous as I am. When I see the prince all by himself, my heart yearns to help him. But if other people were to see you, they may be slightly more... opportunistic.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, someone might want to use you. They might, oh, I don’t know, want to bring you back to their clan of roaming bandits so they can ransom you back to King Adams for a ludicrously, inconceivably, uncountably large sum of money, enough money that could set them up for the rest of their lives.”
Lex looks up at her, then looks around. He suddenly feels very vulnerable. They’ve made their way outside of the populated, well lit part of this district. They’re getting closer and closer to the tall iron fence that separates Camp Trin from the wilderness outside. “Oh. Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. And weirdly specific.”
“Take that pizza boy you were talking to earlier. Who knows what his deal is. For all we know, he’s already told everyone in the bar about who you are.”
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t worry about him. For starters, he’s probably long gone by now, I watched him pedal up to the north side of town. Secondly, I know he’s a good guy. I happen to be a very good judge of character. That’s how I know that you’re being honest with me.” He looks up at her and smiles. She tries to reciprocate, but she’s just about drained her reserves of thespianism for the evening. Best she can do is give him a limp thumbs up. “I know a good guy when I see one,” Lex continues, “and you two are both good guys.”
“Right. Well, either way, not everyone here is a good guy, so gotta get you out of here.”
Lex starts to nod, but he’s interrupted by the deep roar coming from his belly. He rubs it, trying to soothe it. “Could we at least get some food first?”
“What? No.”
“I haven’t eaten since this morning, and I pedaled all the way here from-- well, somewhere. Like I said earlier, I’m not really the athlete type, I kinda feel like my legs are made of pudding right now, and, oh man, I could actually really go for some pudding right now. And, honestly, I’m so tired, I could just pass out right now. Are you sure we can’t just stay one night? Maybe get up early in the morning and--”
“We’re leaving now.” The kindness in her voice is gone. Pure venom, fueled by the anxiety of what will happen to her if she can’t successfully leave Camp Trin with him in tow.
Lex stiffens up at the sudden shift in her tone of voice. “Oh. Um. Okay.”
Tay sighs. “I, uh, I know a place outside the city where we can get some food.”
“Oh. Okay. Maybe we could make a camp or something when we leave? Take a quick nap?”
“Fine. But only once we’re a good distance away from town.”
“So, like, do you know how to make a camp? Is that a thing that people just know how to do?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t we need, like, a tent? Or blankets? Rope, or something?”
“Nope.”
“You can just, like, make camp?”
“Yep.”
“Out of nothing?”
“Yep.”
“Woah. Okay, yeah, you are definitely the right person to be my bodyguard, that is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“Yep. Pretty cool. Now, we need to be very quiet. This is the hard part.”
They come to a stop. They’re a safe distance away from the light and the din of town. The iron fence is right in front of them. Tay looks through the bars and sees salvation waiting for her in the treeline beyond it. She’s so close. Just one final step.
“Hey, uh, Tay?” He twiddles his fingers. “I don’t know if I mentioned or not, but I’m not really, like, super athletic.” He looks the fence up and down.
“I’ll help you climb it.”
“Awesome. That’s awesome. But, also, I can’t help but notice that there’s some barbed wire up at the top there, and that doesn’t look like it would be, like, totally the most fun for me to climb over.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“Totally. Totally totally. Um, but, I think there’s like, a main gate that we could go through on the other side of town? Actually, I know there is, I came through it to get into town earlier today. It, like, definitely exists and would hurt a lot less.”
“People would see us. We have to climb over the fence here.”
“Yeah, right. It’s just, I’m very soft, and--”
“Lex. We’re going over the fence. Now. End of story.”
“Yes. Okay. Sorry. Tay. Ma’am.”
Tay wants to just hog tie him now and hurl him over the fence. It would be a lot easier, and she’d get a good rush of schadenfreude from seeing him tied up and miserable. The kid is making kidnapping him an infuriatingly annoying task. But, alas, kidnap him she must. He’s the only chance that she has. All she needs to do is to get her little piggy over this fence and she’s in the clear. She’s so excited about the prospect of her life not sucking for once that she doesn’t hear the sound of approaching footsteps coming up from behind her.
“Going somewhere?” Tay spins around, her hands instinctively digging into her satchels. She expects to see the guard from earlier, but instead she sees a different, yet still familiar, face. Well, to call it a face is a little disingenuous. There really isn’t much face visible for her to recognize. What Tay recognizes is the entire getup. It’s that vagabond that Tay had noticed earlier in the northern part of town. She’s wearing a long, gray hoodie that extends down to her knees. Her legs, her arms and hands, and even her face are all completely covered in bandages and straps of cloth. The only parts of her that are exposed are her eyes and the skin around them. It’s pretty dark over here, but Tay swears that both her eyes and skin almost look gray.
Tay gulps. She’s not one to freeze up, but there’s something unnerving about the woman in front of her, beyond the obvious fact that she looks like some kind of mummy. “Just leaving.”
The girl in the hoodie, who will from this point on be referred to as Hoodie, shakes her head. “Not with him.”
Something about her voice makes all of the hairs on Tay’s neck stand up. She’s got an accent that Tay can’t place, but that’s nothing compared to the quality of her voice. It somehow has both the qualities of someone speaking through water and someone speaking with gravel in their throat. A shiver runs down Tay’s spine. Something isn’t right. She prods Lex. “Come on. Let’s move.” She leaps up and grabs onto the fence. As she’s thinking about just how it is that she’s going to get Lex up and over, she feels a hand grabbing her ankle. Before she knows what’s happening, she finds herself flying backwards through the air, landing hard on her back.
She’s on her feet in an instant, her hands again in her satchels. She glares into the gray eyes of the mystery woman in front of her who’s now standing between her and the fence. And, more importantly, between her and Lex. “Who the hell are you? What’s your problem?”
Lex is very confused. It’s clear from Hoodie’s body language that she’s intentionally standing between him and Tay, but he doesn’t really want her protection. Her voice makes him want to throw up. “Uh, yeah, who are you?”
“Better question is, who are you?” She extends her right arm at Tay, the long sleeve of the sweatshirt draping over her outstretched finger.
Tay shakes her head. “What? I don’t have time for this. Lex, we need to go.”
“Lex, stay behind me,” Hoodie commands. “She’s not here to help you. She’s a Marauder.”
Lex crinkles his nose. “A what?”
Tay doesn’t give Hoodie a chance to explain herself. She grabs three of her sharpened credit cards from her left satchel, turning her left hand into a cat claw. She swipes at Hoodie, but Hoodie blocks with her right arm without so much as flinching. Tay quickly does the same with her right hand, arming up and slashing at Hoodie. Again, Hoodie blocks, this time using her left arm. Immediately, Tay can tell that something isn’t quite right. She’s had plenty of her attacks blocked before, but none of them have felt quite like this. She doesn’t know exactly what’s wrong, but something about the impact of her right arm against Hoodie’s left feels off.
Suddenly, Tay feels the horribly unnerving sensation of Hoodie’s left arm wrapping around her own. Not Hoodie’s hand, not Hoodie’s fingers, Hoodie’s arm. It’s slithering around Tay’s arm like a snake, completely limber and boneless.
“What the fu--” But before she can finish her very eloquent thought, Hoodie yanks her and launches her over her shoulder, sending Tay flying into the dirt at the base of the fence. Tay gets up, but she’s visibly shaken. The feeling of the arm wrapping itself around her like a boa constrictor was bad enough, not to mention the immense amount of strength that it must have taken to throw Tay around like she was a rag doll. Tay’s been in a lot of fights, but it’s painfully obvious that this opponent is unlike any she’s ever faced before. She can tell she’s in over her head. Hoodie, this person-- maybe person isn’t even the right word-- whoever or whatever this hooded figure in front of her is, Tay is not equipped to fight her.
And yet, she has to. At this point, she doesn’t have a lot of options. Option one is to climb over the fence right now without Lex, which would mean going home to her family empty handed. This is, almost without question, the worst possible option. The only other option, then, is to fight this thing in front of her, hopefully beat it, and hopefully get a hold of Lex again so she can get him over the fence before the authorities show up.
As if on queue, Tay feels a warmth spreading across her cheek. She turns and sees torchlight shining at her. Before she has much time to do anything, a dozen guards stand around her and Lex. Wait, what? Just her and Lex? She looks around to find that Hoodie is gone. Nowhere to be seen. No trace of her, other than that bizarro feeling that seems to be stuck on her arm like a bad rash. Tay tries to figure out what possibly could have happened. Where could Hoodie have gone to hide? How could she have gotten out so quickly? None of it makes any sense. Not much point in trying to solve that puzzle, though, because for now, Tay is much more preoccupied with the impending understanding that she is absolutely fucked.