Home of Ashes

Chapter Two





Oh, I had had seven months to think about how I could escape. It’s not as if I had sat idly by as the time flew past. My whole life had been consumed with ideas ever since I had woken up. There had been so many plots formulate in my mind that surely one would have worked. The only problem was that once I made it to the other side of the castle walls, I had no idea which direction to in go to get back home. I hadn’t woken up until we were well away from my homeland and I didn’t even know what direction they had taken me in. At least if I knew that I would have had a brief idea where I was. All I knew was that I was in Liepner, but the country encompassed mine on three sides. I also knew that I was in the castle of the King and the only reason I had been saved was because of my bag of herbs I had on me at the time of the fire.

The King suffered from ailments that no one had ever before seen. His large chest was filled with bile and his short legs were incapable of moving on their own accord. He also suffered from great bouts of pain and was unable to sleep during the night. With my knowledge, I had enabled him to move his feet back and forth and eased his discomfort. I had also been able to brew a potent sleeping potion that he took every night as the sun set. That had been the hardest one for me to get him to take because he had though that, when his taster tried it, I had killed him. I had almost lost my head that night but had convinced him to wait until the morning and he would then see that the boy was merely sleeping deeply and would awaken refreshed in the morning.

That had happened my third day in the castle. The first two were not something that I wish to re-live ever again. It had helped that I knew their language. My mother was very learned and had taught me much more than herbs and cures. She also taught each of my siblings several different languages that were used throughout the neighboring countries. With my knowledge of their language, I wasn’t as badly beaten as the other girls who had been taken captive. I also wasn’t thrown into the rooms full of soldiers and forced to please them. I was forced to hear the other girls’ screams and listen to the men brag afterwards. Thankful as I was for not having to experience that, I was forced to undress and be scrubbed in a large tub of water and lye in order for me to be ‘fully clean’. They had wanted to try and scrub away my nationality. They thought that my fair skin was hiding something darker then the blood that ran through my veins. It was my bag of herbs that saved my skin then from being ruined for the rest of my life. I had been able to create a salve to use on my poor skin just in time. I took a good look at some of the other girls when it was all over with I was happy that I wasn’t in their positions. They all seemed so uncomfortable in their skins after.

I had finally finished mixing up the King’s various elixirs and had finished contemplating my lot in life for a time. Now I had to take everything up the many flights of stone stairs and wait on the King myself. More than likely I would have to feed him them myself. He may sick but he knew how to act like a royal pain in the butt. Personally I think that he just wanted to try and catch a glimpse of my figure, which was swathed in my oversized shift dress.

The stairs were uneven from their poor workmanship and made it hard to balance a tray. The gray stone that they were made of was worn smooth from the years of people walking up and down them. There were bits missing here and there as well. It seemed that since the King was confined to bed that people thought no repairs ought to be done.

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This was how my life played out for the next twelve months. Never was I appreciated for my work, but I wasn’t thrown into a brothel either. It must be said that it could have been much worse for me. I at least had a roof over my head each night and a meal three times a day, unless I upset the cook. Then I was lucky to scrape anything together.

And so in the kitchens I stayed. The staff never spoke to me unless they were ordering me around. They never called me by my name either. To everyone I was just ‘Witch’ because of the elixirs and salves that I made for the King. It was there that I was busy working on the day that my future took a turn for the better.

The screams coming from the corrals made almost everyone in the kitchens run to the fences. It was common knowledge that the knights were breaking in the wild horses that they had just bought at auction; they had been hard at work for almost the entire week doing nothing but. Still, the screams were new to all of us and we all were curious to why they were happening.

Once I found an open space at the fence, I almost wished that I had stayed chopping the dill. There in the middle of the paddock was one of the burly knights bleeding from many cuts along his torso and on his face. The large demon of an animal was pacing back and forth in front of him. It kept snorting and would rise to attack every few seconds. If I hadn’t of known better, I would have thought that he was breathing fire from his flaring nostrils.

The stallion was a large white beast with black accents along his legs and face. He was by far the most beautiful horse that I had ever seen; surpassing my father’s own prize stallion by leaps and bounds. He was taller than any other I had ever seen as well and his muscles were pulsating with pent up strength. He was almost shaking he was so infuriated.

Without even thinking, I slid through the space between two of the boards in the fence and started to walk towards him. I never even registered the shouts of protest from the people who circled the enclosure. Nothing registered even. There was just this sense in me that I needed to touch him; that I was the only one who ever would be able to. I raised my hand our in front of me and made sure to not break eye contact. I could hear the beats of my heart echoing in my ears and all my blood seemed to rush towards my head. I walked slowly but with determination.

As I neared, he started to calm down and stare at me. I could feel him thinking about what I was doing and how curious he grew. He snorted once more then started to walk towards me as well. The eyes of the people watching started to widen and each of them surely thought that I was about to take my last breath.

We stopped about a foot apart from touching, my arm still outstretched. I slowly uncurled my fingers and wiggled them in front of his nose for him to smell. He took another step forwards and butted up against them, nosing them as he did so. I then made the next step and trailed my hand over his large muzzle and down his long cheek towards his neck. There was an audible gasp from the crowd and whispers erupted as I started to pet him.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw two other knights sneak into the pen and extricate their fellow comrade. I tore my eyes away from his then and stared at them. “Take him to the infirmary and I’ll be there shortly to tend to his wounds. Don’t let him do anything before then,” I dictated to them and the turned my attention back to the horse.

He had started to nibble on the shoulder of my dress and tug at it playfully with his lips. I laughed and patted him again on his strong neck. I then turned to walk towards the fence, only to have him follow me as if he were an oversized dog. A smile of mirth danced across my face and I grabbed a halter from the ground to place upon his head. I had just looped it over his ears when another knight tried to come and grab him by it. The knight had no more than raised his hand when the stallion whipped his head around and almost bit the man’s thumb off. I was startled myself at the sight of more blood but then grabbed the halter myself after fastening it together and turned to the man.

“You can go to the infirmary as well. First though, where do you want him?” I asked. It seemed as if I was going to be the only one to ever be able to touch the horse.

“Place him in the pasture out the North gate, Witch. I want nothing to do with that horse and will have him taken care of in the morning,” he answered angrily. It seemed as though he hated to be bested by a girl.

I was outraged by what he said and flung my arms around the horse’s neck as if trying to protect him. “You’ll do nothing of the sort,” I cried. If I had anything to say about it, the man would die before the horse ever did.

The knight was about to say something more to me, probably something about learning my place, when a booming voice interrupted him. “Leave the girl and horse be Emile. Go and tend to the others. I wish to have a word with the girl myself.”

I turned around to find that the King was standing right behind me. After a year of my elixirs, he was cured of many of his ailments and could now walk again with only the aid of an ornate cane. Both the knight and I fell into bows before him, as was right to do. Upon straightening up, I lowered my head and stared at the dusty ground beneath my feet. The horse rested his large head upon my shoulder as if in defiance against the King.

“Please, Sir, don’t harm the horse. He’s too valuable to do that to,” I whispered meekly after the King didn’t say anything more to me.

“Dear girl, I wouldn’t dream of harming him. In fact, I was hoping that you would take in him exchange for a favor.”

I raised my head to look at his face to see if he was bluffing. There was a look of honesty in his eyes and my heart lightened at the thought of having the horse as my own. “Anything you wish Sir,” I said while trying to camouflage my eagerness.

“It has been presented to me that there have been goings-on in Talos. I’m sending some of my men to investigate whether or not the rumors are true, but I’ll need someone who knows the language and can blend in with the locals. You, my girl, are the only one here who could do that. I was thinking of offering you something else in exchange, but after seeing what you have done today, I changed my mind. I’ll need you to infiltrate the towns that you travel through and bring back any news you find. It’ll be a dangerous job; the penalty for catching spies is death no matter where you are. The worse case is that you are found out and killed, in which case I’m out of a healer. However, if you try to escape my men, you may just die anyways, so it could be a lose-lose situation for me in that regards. If you make it back though, you’ll be promoted to royal healer and have your own proper rooms.” He cocked his eyebrow at me and waited a minute for the information to sink in. “Do we have a deal?” he asked.

I weighed the situation in my mind. With my horse there would be countless ways to escape and not be caught. If I ended up being caught by my people, it would probably be by soldiers and I would find my brothers. Then if I were forced to come back here, I would be living better than I was. It was basically a win-win situation for me.

“We do,” I agreed and turned to lead my horse towards the barn.

“One more thing,” the King called out to me, making me turn back around to face him. “What are you going to call your new horse?”

I pondered over named for all of one second before settling on one. “Freedom’s Revenge,” I answered and walked away, leading my new horse to the stable.

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A week after the entire ordeal in the corral, I was laying on my blanket by the fire. Six days before, I had set out for my home country with Freedom’s Revenge’s, whose name I had shortened to Dom, and three other men, each a member of the King’s army. Neither of them said much of anything to me as we rode and while we had made camp for the night, all they gave me were orders. They called me Witch and seemed to think that if they actually addressed me in a courteous manner they would be damned to hell for all of eternity. Also, they couldn’t seem to lower their social standings to actually speak with a servant.

I wasn’t asleep yet because I could still hear the guards snoring. They were louder than my Papa had been and after so long in the quiet of the castle, being outside with other people was too much to handle. I would have given anything to hear Glenna’s quiet breathing once more while she was sleeping. That was the only time that we had ever gotten along in. In those few hours she reminded me of Marie and how we used to share our bed when the winter grew too cold. Those imaginings helped me to ease the pain of my family’s passing. At times I could almost make myself believe that I was still at home and it had all just been a horrible nightmare. Now I was going back home though and my heart rose a little with that knowledge.

We had made good time that day, riding over the great grasslands in order to reach the other side of the border by nightfall. It felt like nothing else to be back in my homeland. My heart sang from the joy of it all and it beat faster than it had in months. There was a permanent smile haunting my lips and a spring to my step. Gustav had even made a comment of it as I unpacked the provisions that were brought with us. Out of the three I was with, he was by far the nicest to me, and the cleanest.

I rolled over on my blanket and stared into the dying fire. The embers were still a violent red and gave off warmth, though with the summer heat there truly wasn’t a need for it other than to cook our food. Still, the smell of burning wood was comforting in a way. It still made my stomach churn when I thought of the fire, even after a year had passed. The good memories about sitting around the hearth at home outweighed that specific one so it made the sick feeling bearable. Sparks continued to shoot our sporadically from the one actual piece of wood left over and made the night sky look as though fireflies danced before my eyes.

Fire is a very mesmerizing thing to stare at. Once your eyes adjust to the dancing flames you can see scenes unfolding before you. Mama always used to tell us fire stories when we were little. Arthur, Thomas, Bryant and I would all crowd around her large skirts and wait for the fire to present a story to her. She would then tell it to us and try to make us see the pictures in the blaze. When we were little we were never truly able to, but our imaginations interpreted for each of us how the scenes would look. There had been many a confrontation about what color the sword was of the knight, or how many stars were on the magician’s cape.

I was still enthralled with the campfire when Henri turned over in his sleep and opened one eye.

“Witch,” he said, sleep still conquering him, “Place more wood onto the fire.” He then turned back over and started to snore once again.

I knew that if he awoke in the morning to find that I hadn’t done just that he would have my hide. It didn’t even matter whether or not he knew he said it, or if he meant it. If he remembered it would be me they were going to eat for breakfast.

I grudgingly hoisted myself off of the mossy ground and walked over to where I had placed the twigs and branches I had collected. I was sad to see that there was nothing there anymore, the last of it used to make the fire for under the pig Jacob had snared. With a heavy sigh I started to walk a little ways into the bush that surrounded us and tried to find more wood as my eyes adjusted to the light of the moon. I found my selections mostly by feeling the ground as I went and once I had my arms full enough to please Henri, I carefully made my way back to the camp.

Had I wanted to I could have escaped. There was no doubt about that at all. But by taking my horse I would have woken the men up and without Dom I would have never made it far enough to make any distance. The others would have found me by midday and then I would have been punished. It had been the same as when I was at the castle. There truly wasn’t any point to try until the perfect moment arose. Preferably it would happen once I was where I knew the terrain and there would be no chance of being caught.

Suddenly I heard a twig snap by something other than one of my feet. I froze like a deer that had caught the scent of a hunter and listened with all my might. The sound had come from the camp and if it were anything other then a squirrel Henri, Jacob and Gustav would not be very happy. I stayed where I was and waited. After a few minutes there were no other sounds and I started to slowly and quietly tiptoe back to camp. I hugged the branches close to my chest with unknown fear and braced myself to run towards Dom and not look back.

Peering into to the darkness of the night, I could make out the lumps on the ground, which were the others. Each were silent, Jacob wasn’t even snoring. The fire was silently dying in the middle of camp and it didn’t offer any noise either. The only things that I could hear were the scuffling sounds of the horses and their snorts of annoyance. Had I of not been so scared, I would have thought nothing of the quiet and welcomed it with open arms. Any other time it would have meant sleep coming swiftly to me as soon as I lay back down on my mossy bed. I was unnerved though and the silence was making it worse.

The horses were pacing nervously in front of the trees where we had tied them for the night. Dom was kicking out with his hind legs as if he wanted free. He never did like to be kept in confinement for too long. As soon as I checked on the others, I would go and untie him. He would never wander too far from me.

I eased myself closer to Gustav and bent down beside him. By just looking in the poor light, I could no decide whether or not he was breathing. He was on his side, the blanket placed upon him for protection against bugs unmoving with what should have been a gentle intake of breath. He seemed peaceful though, his lips curling upwards in a slight smile. I gathered up my courage and placed my trembling fingers upon the pulsing vein in his neck. My mother had taught me that that was where you could find a person’s pulse if you ever needed to. It felt slightly moist, as if he had been drooling. It was also deathly still. Puffs of breath didn’t even escape his open mouth. I bit back a scream as I realized that he had been killed. Looking at my hand as I pulled it away confirmed my fears. My fingers, usually white, were stained a dark color that I knew would be red in the daylight.

I scurried to my feet and raced over to Jacob and Henri. They too had been killed, their necks seemingly slit as they slept.

This was the work of highwaymen, those who kill and steal from travelers on the roads. Unless…unless it was the Talosan army, their soldiers hidden within the woods surrounding where we slept. I prayed for the second. I knew that I could not deal with robbers. Not right then. For one I wasn’t armed. For another, I was too scared to move.

I made my way towards Dom. He was still pacing and the white of his eves were starting to show. He was scared, which meant that the danger had yet to pass. I drew up to his side and quickly untied the rope that bound him to the tree branch. I then moved and did the same to the other three, feeling that they would have a batter chance at surviving if they faced the wild rather than whatever was lurking in the dark.

Hoisting myself up onto Dom’s back, I heard the first rustling of leaves from behind me. The rustling soon turned to crashing and within seconds a group of caped men darted out of the bush. Then I released the scream that I had kept inside and struggled to seat myself upon Dom’s back.