Leo put her shirt, coat and boots back on while Tilliante braided and pinned her auburn locks back on. Finally, Leo put the hat back on her head and pulled open the door. At the top of the stairs, a terrified Dorejamus sat almost eating the collar of his cloak. "Baby, are you okay, I heard someone yelling at you at the top of your lungs, is everything okay?"
'Couldn't be better, sometimes a person needs to be shaken up!', laughed Tilliante.
The brain teaser almost tumbled down the stairs when he heard the words leave her lips after all this time. Tilliante pressed a kiss to his forehead and ran down the spiral staircase. The hem of her dress swayed behind her. Leo sprinted after her.
Robert's jaw dropped wide as he saw Leo return with a smiling Tilliante behind him. Leo hoisted himself onto the horse and extended a hand to Tilliante. "She's talking again, but now we have to convince her father."
Tilliante sat down in front of Leo in the saddle and smoothed out her dress. She pressed her nose into the horse's mane and opened her throat wide. She sang into the sunlight. Above the hoof-treading of the mounts, her voice rang out with the most beautiful sounds through the Leafy Forest. Jack Bulton fell off his cart when he saw them trotting by, but luckily Erva, the Acorn witch, caught him and for the first time in his life he was grateful for that monstrosity.
The trio drove out of the forest, into the streets of the city where more and more people left their homes excitedly. They turned their gaze to the horizon where a laughing and singing Tilliante appeared, as if a miracle had rescued her from her silence. Robert was deeply impressed by Leo's performance. He resolved to go inside next time, whatever the next assignment might be. He didn't want to miss out on this again.
It seems that it took blood, sweat, tears and especially heaps of saliva before Tilliante was able to convince her father to release Hendrik Deerclaw. But the rich stinky man finally realized that he would give his daughter anything if she didn't cut herself off from the world for such a long time again. He even managed to shake Henry's hand while the guards held the ex-prisoner, probably because he could barely stand on his feet due to the chill of the dungeon that had crept into his bones. But Tilliante solemnly swore on her golden-blond locks that they would make up for the lost three years as soon as possible. After which Henry fell to his knees, because one of the guards happened to scratch the crown of his head and the other put his hand over his mouth to hide his yawn. The young man took advantage of the moment caused by his loss of balance to propose to his beauty. Then a beautiful serenade broke out, mixed with many snotty tears on Tilliante's part, and she ordered all the nurses in the castle to give her fiancé the treatment of a king. After her father muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "I'll give you my daughter's hand, but dare to hurt her someday and I'll let you quarter," he had a huge party organized in honor of his daughter's return and her beautiful voice.
Although Leo and Robert were also invited, they politely declined the feast and returned to the palace, tired but satisfied. Robert was dropped off behind the castle garden. He crept through the bushes to the place where he had hidden the burlap sack, changed his clothes, and made his way back to the crowd unseen.
Leo let the cheering reception of the waiting crowd pass her by and she made herself out as quickly as possible under the murderous gaze of Jack Bulton. Now she stumbled up the long spiral staircase with a hot bowl of soup. Behind her there were uneven footsteps, but she was too tired to glance over her shoulder. It was Robert who ran after Leo and couldn't hide his admiration. How on earth had he managed that? He followed her into the room, held the door open in a friendly manner and suppressed a laugh as Leo threw himself onto the four-poster bed with a run-up. 'So, that's it for today. Tomorrow we'll take care of the Acorn witches."
Robert nodded and still couldn't get anything out. Leo only took off her boots and then crawled under the sheet, hat and all. She looked smugly at her visitor who drew the curtains and shut out both the late sunlight and the cheering. Slowly, her eyes slid shut. Robert muttered a stray "Sleep well," and snuck out of the room, wondering why on earth he had followed Leo. Because he felt lonely in the big castle? Because he was curious about what exactly he had told Lady Tilliante to convince her? Because he had no idea how the councillor would react to the presence of the acorn witches? Robert felt a slight headache coming on as he walked down the stairs.
In the bedroom, Leo pricked up her ears until the kicking sounds died away and then slipped out of bed. She locked the door, emptied the soup in one gulp, and freed herself from the men's clothes. She hid back under the sheet and waited for sleep to pay her a visit not much later.
Robert had muscle pain all over, presumably from horseback riding, something he rarely did. He tried to sit as still as possible on the patio chair because when he moved it hurt. Lilian, who was sitting in front of him, didn't seem to notice.
"I wonder if anyone has managed to make that beautiful Tilliante speak again," Lilian said, sipping her cherry tea. "But most of all, I wonder if everyone survived the encounter with the acorn witches."
Robert smiled. He knew the answer to her first question. To her second question, however, he had no answer. He had seen the piglets and Alex Tikker hanging in the tree, but the mayor didn't look so good when he had already sunk far above his knees in the absorber. Robert also wondered how Arian and Jack Bulton had fared.
Suddenly, Robert jumped up. "Ouch!" He grabbed his aching buttocks.
Lilian was shocked. "My goodness Robert, are you okay?"
Robert did not answer, but ran as fast as he could back into the palace, ran up the stairs, and looked for Leo's room. He drummed violently on the door. He heard some stumbling and then the door opened. Leo looked amazingly equipped.
"The jerk witches!" cried Robert. "They're coming today! How on earth are we going to explain that to Siel?!'
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Leo put her hand on Robert's shoulder. "Calm down. I suggest we don't explain it at all. We go for the surprise effect. The assignment was to get Tilliante to talk and she succeeded.'
Robert nodded, but Leo saw the doubt in his eyes. 'You just make sure you're where you need to be on time, we'll see.'
Before Robert could protest, Leo had closed the door again. In addition to the severe muscle pain, he now also felt an anxious headache coming. He leaned his forehead against the stone castle wall for a moment and closed his eyes. He thought of the councilman's dark gaze and felt a shiver run down his spine. Robert took a deep breath and left for the Regional Gate.
On a wooden stage just next to the gate, the other judges were already waiting for him. He saw the beautiful Madam Haclaire in a dress as blue as her eyes. She sat between Dirrek, who was taking a nap, and councillor Siel. Siel was sitting on a chair with a high back and had his cape folded around him in such a way that only his face was visible. The pace-fast sat on the edge of the stage and let his legs dangle off. It took a while for Robert to realize that the dangling had a certain rhythm and that the tempo faster was calculating the time for this.
Along the Regional Gate, the walls and on both sides of the wide cobblestone road that entered Azucar, people and animals stood as far as Robert could see. It was a colourful mass with flags and pennants. Their laughter and talk most resembled buzzing bees.
Dirrek stood up and pulled out a golden horn. He blew it twice and the crowd fell silent. Siel unfolded his cape and slowly stood up. "Dear compatriots, thank you for being here in such large numbers today. In a moment, all living candidates will walk or ride into this gate. If the assignment is successful, Lady Tilliante will also be present. We, as a jury, will judge everyone's execution of the assignment and only the best will advance to the next round, provided they are still alive of course.' Siel smiled, but his eyes remained dark. 'I would like to give our candidates a round of applause!'
A loud applause accompanied by cheers and roars rose from the people. The pacemaker regretted that he didn't have a sound meter in addition to his tempo time device to register this.
On the horizon, on the hill of the forest of leaves, the first candidates appeared. At the very front were Slander and Vlander. You had to look very closely to distinguish the two little gnomes on their long horse. Although they were both safe and sound, they looked very angry and seemed to be discussing something with big arm gestures. Behind them was Jack Bulton. The contrast in size was huge. Jack sat on his cart with his arms crossed. Siel was pleased to see him again, but suddenly his eye fell on someone who was sitting next to Jack in the cart. Siel couldn't see who it was, but she was ugly, he could see that from afar. Her hair was all over the place. Siel swallowed an annoying tickle in his throat. Slowly, Slander, Vlander and Jack Bulton came closer.
The faster let out a cry of "You don't mean this!"
Siel finally saw who was sitting next to Jack in the cart. She was a Acorn witch, a horribly ugly Acorn witch. As if that wasn't enough, three more carts appeared on the mountain, pulled by large wild boars. In each cart were some wide-greying acorn witches. Siel felt nauseous and Madam Haclaire took Dirrek's hand in fear. As the carts got closer, the people became quiet. They stretched their necks to see what was going on. In the first cart of the acorn witches, Hörk, Pörk and Gnörk sat close together on the bench. Their pigs' heads were red from hanging upside down. In the second cart was Alex Tikker who was crying silently. But the most disturbing thing was the occupants of the third cart. Behind a jerk witch with a particularly thick head, lay a brown gunk. Robert had to blink twice before he realized what it was. The gunk moved, and he saw a hand go up in the air and back down. It was actually the mayor! Since the gunk covered his entire body, the witches had only fished him out of the sludge at the very last moment. The aldermen were nowhere to be seen. Robert was so shocked that he didn't even see Leo, Arian, Lady Tilliante, Henry Deer Claw and Baron Tubaak coming behind the acorn witches. They all stopped in front of the stage.
Siel would have preferred to turn around and seek the peace and quiet of the throne room, but that was not possible right now. He cleared his throat. "I see that there have been some unexpected complications." He looked around. Everyone held their breath. "But the good news is that we have Lady Tilliante in our midst! Give her a warm round of applause!"
Relieved, everyone started applauding with their hands or paws. Robert clapped along with bated breath.
Siel took the floor again. "Lady Tilliante, your beauty does not surprise us, but can you speak to us?"
Tilliante slipped off her horse and took the stage. She shook hands with Siel as she lifted her dress to greet. She waved to the people. 'Dear Ythsenaars, I am so excited to see you all!'
She heard the cries of the people, the laughter, the curious murmurs, and the surprised sighs. "Indeed, I have decided not to remain silent any longer. And as soon as the jury has found an heir to the throne, I would like the substitute king to be present at my and Henry's wedding." She smiled at her Henry in love.
The cheers erupted, the flags went up again and for a moment everyone forgot about the presence of the acorn witches.
Siel raised his hand to silence the people. "Dear compatriots, the jury will now retire to hear each candidate and thus come to a joint decision. Thank you for your trust and your patience. Lilian has already provided pasties to ease the wait.' As soon as he said this, a long line of butlers and cooks appeared, carrying large platters of fragrant pasties with which they walked past the people to make as many people as possible happy with the goodies.
Siel nodded to the rest of the jury. "Let's get to work, gentlemen! And lady," he added, escorting Madam Haclaire off the stage.
3 hours, 48 minutes and 17 seconds later, they agreed. Siel had the three piglets and Alex Tikker taken care of by Dr. Amandee. If they recovered in time, they could still participate in the next assignment. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the mayor. Not only had the poor man almost absorbed the sludge with skin and hair, the gunk had also affected a part of his memory so that he currently had no idea who he was and what he was doing here. Siel had him transferred to the courtly hospital. Arian was summoned to any kind of chestnut beer, brandy and castle gin because he had drunk so much after his courageous encounter with the wolves that he had not made it to the Grey Vulture Castle at all. Slander and Vlander had gotten lost and had gotten into such a fight that they ended up accidentally tearing up the map and had no idea where to go. Jack Bulton had met them on his way to the royal palace and had shown them the way back. It had taken Leo Niel 2 hours, 6 minutes and 58 seconds to explain the presence of the acorn witches and to convince the jury to open the Bladerbos to visitors during the annual tree festivals. Siel eventually agreed to give them a patty from Lilian as well, but for the time being refused to proclaim them ministers of forest, leaf and tree fruit. That was up to the replacement king to decide. Since all candidates had made a creditable attempt and, with the exception of the mayor, had made it back in one piece, they were all allowed to go through to the next round. Siel added that the group had to be thinned out for the final assignment as he only wanted three candidates at the start.
In the end, both the jury and the candidates, with the exception of those who were temporarily staying in the hospital or who were sleeping off their intoxication, such as Arian, reappeared before the people. They each received a ribbon for courage and spokesmanship. Siel then ordered everyone to put themselves back at the service of the daily activities so that they could think about the next assignment.