After their escape from the reservoir, Lewis and Emily headed north-west, taking an old track through the forest that stood in the foothills of the Tristan Mountains. Briefly, they had paused beneath an ancient fir tree where the snow hadn’t made it to the ground for something to eat.
For the last half hour, their journey had been carried out in silence now that Emily had stopped questioning him about everything they saw in the forest. Now she seemed content to stare in wide-eyed wonder at the forest around her. What was life like in the castle if she had never seen anything like this before?
‘Is that a deer?’ she asked with sudden excitement. Looking up, he was just in time to see the creature disappearing between the trees, startled by her outburst.
‘Yes,’ Lewis replied, grabbing her arm as she made to follow the deer into the woods. Pulling her back onto the path, he ushered her on as the ground began to slope downward. ‘We’re almost there.’
‘Where exactly are we?’
‘Fir Forest,’ Lewis explained. ‘My parents used to own a cabin out here in the forest. It’s where I grew up.’
‘Used to?’ she queried. He could see the look of confusion on her face as she tried to figure out why he was bringing her somewhere they no longer owned.
‘Well, technically they still do,’ Lewis said. ‘After my father died in a hunting accident, my mother went to stay with her brother. I had just joined the guard, so I was in Tristan. As far as I know, she hasn’t been back to Fir Lodge since then.’
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,’ Emily said apologetically as Lewis became more interested in the roots sticking up out of the snowy track at the thought of his father. His death had always been a mystery to Lewis, and his mother had refused to talk about what had happened.
‘It’s fine.’
‘Is that it?’ Emily asked after several minutes of silence. Looking up, Lewis saw her pointing at a large wooden cabin that had come into view between the trees. He nodded.
Quickening his pace, Lewis moved ahead of her as he walked down the gentle incline to the snowy cabin. Since he had last been here, the wooden walls had become significantly more weathered. Running his hand along the wooden wall, he felt Emily’s presence behind him. ‘It’s been so long since I’ve been here.’
‘Why didn’t you come back?’
‘At first I didn’t want to because my father’s death was still too raw. Then patrols with the guard in Tristan took over, and I never found the time,’ Lewis said.
‘You’ve got the time now,’ Emily said thoughtfully as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
Shaking his head, Lewis shrugged her hand off. ‘We can’t stay here more than a couple of days at most. It won’t be long before they realise that I’m gone.’
‘You don’t have to do this, you know,’ Emily said as she followed him around the side of the cabin. ‘You’ve already saved my life once, and you got me out of the city. You could just point me in the right direction and go back to the city.’
‘There’s nothing left for me there now. You heard what Commander Redmond said: If I go back, I’ll face trial. A snowflake has a better chance in a fire than I do of winning that.’ Behind him, he heard Emily laugh.
Pushing aside the thin covering of snow in front of the door, Lewis revealed an old, sodden doormat. Crouching down, he slipped a hand underneath it, feeling around for the key that had used to reside there. He had no idea if his mother had left it there before she went to The Green Valley.
‘What are you doing?’ Emily asked when she had stopped laughing, watching him curiously.
In answer to her question, Lewis stood up, holding a rusty old iron key that matched the lock between his fingers. ‘I always told her it was a bad place to hide a key.’
Kicking the doormat back into place, he stepped up to the door, slipping the key into the keyhole. With a surprising amount of force required, the stiff lock finally opened. Turning the door handle, he pushed the door open to reveal a dark, dusty room.
With the light from outside flooding through the door, he managed to find an old oil lamp that had been left on the side. While he fumbled around in the dark with the matches, Emily stood in the doorway looking around the room, her long shadow falling on the smooth floorboards.
‘I can see why your mother kept this place,’ Emily said as Lewis struck a match, the lamp flaring into life. Holding it up, the light stretched into the corners of the room. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘It was pretty nice growing up here,’ he agreed as his eyes passed over the dusty paintings that adorned the wooden walls. Moving across the room, he pulled open the maroon-coloured curtains.
One by one, he revealed the frosted windows, allowing the weak sunlight to flood into the room. Only when they were all open did he set the lamp down on the shelf inside the door, extinguishing it again.
‘Don’t just stand there letting the cold in,’ he said when he realised that Emily still hadn’t moved.
Blinking, she snapped out of her thoughts. ‘Sorry,’ she said, pushing the door shut behind her and putting the bolt across before she turned back to the room. Taking an interest in a painting of a snowy forest, she glanced at him. ‘So, this is where you grew up.’
‘It is indeed,’ Lewis replied as he turned his attention to the stone fireplace.
‘What was it like growing up in the forest?’
‘Lonely,’ Lewis said after a moment of consideration as he built a small fire with the wood from the basket beside the fireplace. ‘For years, the only person I knew was Robyn because we both used to help at my grandparent’s bakery in the city.’
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
‘I know what you mean,’ Emily replied sympathetically as she appeared at his side, watching curiously as he lit the small fire with a match. ‘It was lonely at the castle.’
‘How could it have been lonely there? There must be people running around everywhere,’ Lewis said as he looked up.
‘There are, but, well, I didn’t really have any friends there,’ she said quietly, wandering away from the fire.
‘Surely you had family to keep you company sometimes,’ Lewis said as he stood up, watching her back as she looked at something on the small wooden table.
‘That was the problem,’ she said slowly. ‘At the castle, I’m what they call a Sister of Tristan. There are seven of us altogether. Normally, they are selected from the families of the rich and privileged. I don’t have family to keep me company because I don’t have one at all.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Lewis said guiltily as he saw her lift a hand to her face.
‘I have no friends at the castle because I’m different,’ she continued, appearing not to have heard his apology. ‘I’m not from a rich family; I was just plucked from an orphanage in the city by Sebastian.’
‘He picked you himself?’ Lewis asked in disbelief. It was almost unheard of for the king to leave the castle except for royal engagements.
‘So I’m told. It happened when I was really young. The only life I’ve ever known was that in the castle,’ she said. ‘I’ve always felt like I’m missing something, though.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Lewis said, placing a hand on her shoulder in what he hoped would be a comforting way as he passed.
‘It’s okay,’ she replied quietly. ‘Maybe when we aren’t being hunted by bounty hunters, I’ll be able to find some answers.’
‘Maybe,’ Lewis agreed as he started opening cupboards at random, searching for anything that might still be edible. Since their quick meal under one of the fir trees, they had only been left with about half the bread they had set out with.
It wasn’t until he opened the second-to-last cupboard that he found anything. Tucked in the back corner were half a dozen tins. Pulling them forward, he stacked them up on the small work surface.
‘What’s that?’ Emily asked as she appeared next to him.
‘Dinner hopefully,’ he replied as he brushed the dust off of the labels. It looked like it would be tomato soup for tonight. Pulling the tag from the top of one of the tins, he opened it, sniffing at the contents.
He had no idea how long it had been sitting in the back of the cupboard, but it smelled okay. Curious, Emily leant forward, sniffing at the tin in his hand as he shut the cupboard.
‘What is it?’ she asked, tilting her head to one side.
‘Tomato soup,’ he said as he picked up the large cooking pot that sat in the corner of the room. ‘Can you get the other tins?’
Scooping up the unopened tins in her arms, she followed him back to the fire. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had tomato soup before.’
For some reason, it didn’t surprise him. Soup in general was something that had become a staple for the poorer families in the city. It was something he doubted they would ever think of serving in the castle. Hanging the pot over the fire, he added a couple of small logs to the flames. When he turned back to the tins, he found Emily sitting on the floor, her eyes closed as she wrinkled her nose.
‘You’re supposed to heat it first,’ he explained, trying not to laugh when he saw the soup on her finger. ‘It will taste a lot better hot.’
‘Good, it tastes terrible cold,’ she said as she looked around for something to wipe her finger on. Pulling a towel from the small table beside the fire, Lewis threw it to her. ‘Thanks.’
‘It shouldn’t take too long,’ he said as he opened a second tin, upending the contents into the pot that hung over the flames. ‘I’m sorry, it’s probably not what you’re used to at the castle.’
‘It’s alright,’ she said with a smile as she got up, wandering over to the small table that sat between two chairs underneath the window. ‘It’s nice to be a normal person for once. Apart from the running for your life part, I guess.’
Turning away from the fire, Lewis picked up the empty tins, putting them on the side beneath the cupboard where he had found them. Before he could unpack the remains of the bread that he had brought with him, Emily yelled on the other side of the room.
Spinning around, he saw her jump away from the table, a small cloud of dust appearing in the fading light. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘It just destroyed it.’
Confused, Lewis walked over to her. On the table was a dusty board game, the pieces still set out. In the middle of the board, there now sat a small pile of ash where one of the pieces had been.
‘It’s okay,’ he said as he scooped up the ash, placing it on the table at the side of the board. As he took away his hand, it began to glow as it rebuilt itself, the tiny man pulling a bow off his shoulder, ready for the game again. ‘I’m guessing you never played Guard at the castle?’
‘No,’ she said, looking closely at the piece that had just reformed in front of her eyes.
Sweeping the pieces off the board, he scooped them up and handed them to Emily. Brushing the dust off the diamond-shaped board, he tucked it under his arm, heading over to the table that sat by the fire.
‘I’ll show you,’ he said as he set the board down, taking the pieces from Emily.
‘How do the pieces rebuild themselves?’
Glancing up, he saw her examine the Archer that had been destroyed closely. ‘I don’t really know,’ he admitted. ‘This set used to belong to my father. He was the one who taught me to play.’
‘Can you teach me?’ she asked as he directed her hand towards the empty space at the back of the board that he had left for the Archer that she was holding.
‘I don’t see why not. We’ll eat first, though; it’s almost ready,’ he said, stirring the soup before he looked back at the board.
‘Okay.’
Leaving the soup to bubble quietly, Lewis stood up, moving across the room to the cupboard next to the one where he had found the tins of soup. Opening the door, he pulled out a pair of faded white bowls and plates.
Taking a knife from one of the drawers, he sliced up the bread as best as he could with the blunt blade. When he was satisfied, he wrapped up the remains of the bread and tucked them back into his bag for the morning. Pulling two spoons from the drawer, he pushed it shut again.
Stacking everything on top of the plates, he made his way back to the fire. Emily was still sitting in her chair, examining the piece that had blasted the Archer to pieces earlier. ‘What are these called?’ she asked, holding them up to him.
‘Those are Towers,’ Lewis explained as he set the plates down on the table, checking on the soup quickly. ‘When a piece gets within three spaces of a tower, the Tower will destroy it.’
‘Doesn’t that seem a bit overpowered?’ she asked as she looked at the two Towers that had been placed so that they stood five spaces apart on either side of the board where it narrowed.
‘A tower only has two charges,’ he said as he lifted the pot from the fire by its wood-covered handles. ‘After it destroys two pieces, it will break. That or if it uses one of the charges on a shield, then the Shield will reflect it back at the Tower and destroy it.’
‘This sounds complicated,’ Emily said uncertainly as she took the bowl of soup that Lewis held out to her. ‘Thanks.’
‘It takes a while to learn, but when you get the hang of it, you’ll be fine,’ he said as he poured the remains of the soup into the second bowl.
Taking one of the pieces of bread, he tore a piece off, dipping it in the soup. As he bit it, he glanced up at Emily. She was looking between him and the bowl that sat in her lap. Tentatively, she picked up a piece of bread, mimicking his actions. Pausing, he watched as she bit the soup-covered bread.
‘It’s definitely better when it’s warm,’ she said, swallowing the bread in her mouth. Dipping the bread into the soup again, eagerly, she pushed it around the bowl, soaking up as much of the soup as she could.
‘I told you,’ Lewis said as he returned to his own food. ‘I can’t believe you never had soup at the castle.
‘I know. This is amazing!’
Smiling, he watched as she tore off another piece of bread, her attention fully focused on the bowl in her lap. It was fascinating, he thought, to see someone react like this to something he considered to be so ordinary. With one last glance at her, he turned his attention to his own soup.