Chapter 1

  The sky was cloudy that day. In the distance, thunder roared and a flash of light seared across the sky. Amyas felt a drop of water fall on his nose and he looked back up at the man carrying him. Not much could be seen in the dark, but Amyas caught the man’s twinkling, green eyes gazing into the darkness ahead of them. He tried to make a word form in his mouth. 

  The man glanced over both his shoulders. He seemed desperate and scared. His arms were trembling. 

  Amyas shivered, nestling himself further into his blanket. He felt a small form nearby him shiver, squirming fitfully in its sleep. The man must have been holding another child. A baby even.

 A flash of lightning and the heavens let a torrent down. Another flash and Amyas looked up at the man’s face. He couldn’t tell if it was the rain or not, but he thought the man might be crying. Amyas felt sorry for him but couldn’t think of a way to comfort him.

  “Don’t worry, little guy.” The man had caught him watching and forced a tight grin. “You’ll be fine soon enough.” 

  Amyas believed him, it was as simple as that. 

  Lightning struck again nearby and with a loud rumbling thunder clap. 

  The man slowed his pace. He’d been running nonstop and was shaking vigorously, panting, and struggling to catch his breath. “It's alright. This is for the best.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than Amyas. 

  Amyas smiled in reply. The man knew what he was doing, of that much he was certain. 

  Orange flames danced behind them suddenly. There was shouting and dogs were barking. Amyas tensed when he felt the man hesitate.

 He started to cry. 

  “Shush, buddy. Please don’t cry now.” The man rocked him gently. 

  Amyas quieted at the calmness in his voice, looking back at the man for his comfort.

 He bolted into the next patch of trees, heading towards the city lights in the distance. The voices were getting closer. Every bolt of lightning showed how fast the men were gaining on them. 

  The man saw how close they were and cursed under his breath, stealing a frantic glance around them. He moved towards a rock and ducked behind it, looking down at Amyas in his arms. “We’ll wait here until they're gone, bud. I wish you could come with me, but where I’m going is too dangerous. Be a better man someday. Be able to protect those you love.” His eyes overflowed with tears as he bent his head to kiss Amyas’s forehead. “Your father loves you, bud.” He heard footsteps and craned his neck to see who it was. He must have known because he breathed a sigh of relief. “The others?” 

  The man nodded faintly. “All fine. Are you ready for me to take them?” He gestured at Amyas and the other child. 

  His father nodded. He handed the bundled baby to the other man, kissing it softly on its brow. He then took out a necklace and secured it around Amyas’s neck. “Never forget who you are.” 

  He gave the man Amyas. Amyas stretched his chubby, toddler fingers out, trying to grab his father’s sopping shirt, not wanting to leave him behind. Gently, the man pulled him away and they disappeared into the night. 

  Amyas could still picture the scene, even years later. He had woken up the next morning, and a strange, older fellow was washing him off with a cloth.

  It was Thomas that had found him. He said that he had been abandoned, left to die and he just didn’t have the heart to sit by and do nothing. 

  For a while, these memories would haunt him. Night after night after night, all he would dream about was parting with his father. He had told him that where he was going was dangerous and to protect those he loved. Well, he had no one to love.

  Amyas, now ten years old, glanced out the stained window of Thomas’s little cottage. Thomas was the palace cook and Amyas knew that the promise of a free worker was the real reason that Thomas took him in. He had his house chores but it wasn’t bad. The worst part was that Thomas forbade him to pursue becoming a knight.

  This dream had started one day when he went to the Cadere Fair, the biggest event of the year, and there was a show with two highly skilled knights sword fighting. Amyas was completely captivated. He told Thomas later that night that when he grew up, Amyas was going to become a knight and travel to find his father. 

  Thomas was very upset by that, fearing he’d lose his help. He taught Amyas a lesson with his fists he’d never forget. Afterward, Amyas would never bring the subject up with him again. But that didn’t mean he stopped dreaming about it. Every day, once he was finished with his chores, Amyas would scamper out of the house and find a stick to pretend sword fight with. 

  Every day, of course, except for days like today. The rain pounded down, clinking on the metal roof. Amyas was always pensive on days like these, a straight contrast to his usual upbeat, energetic personality. 

  “Will you get up, Amyas?” Thomas snapped. He snatched Amyas up by the collar of his shirt. “Don’t just sit there and look all miserable. Go make yourself useful!” 

  Amyas nodded. He walked off with one last wistful glance out the window. He was only ten years old but had learned long ago to respect everything that Thomas told him to do. “I’m all you’ve got, boy. ” Thomas had told him one night after he and his friend had been caught stealing apples. “Be grateful.”He had dragged Amyas off and hammered him. Amyas could still remember every scratch and bruise, all tore at his spirit the same. Amyas had been glad when he had felt himself slip unconscious. At least it was some kind of relief.

  Amyas knew Thomas was as close as he had here for father and that was why he was so determined to leave. He would have done it long ago if he wasn’t so afraid of being caught. Thomas would certainly beat him to death. 

   He took out a bowl from the cupboard and went out to the well. Amyas pulled the bucket up and dispensed the water into his bowl. He moved slowly back inside. Carefully, he set the bowl down at the top of the staircase. He took a cloth from a nearby closet, dipped it in the water, and wrung it out, proceeding to scrub at the dirt and grime. 

  The necklace that his father gave him still hung around his neck. Amyas felt his face warm at the thought of that night again. He scrubbed all the more vigorously. The pouring rain was quieting.

  If he could just find his father, he would tell him that he loved him and that all they needed was to be together. His father would realize that he’d been wrong, that Amyas could handle any dangerous situations, and allow him to come with. Who knows, Amyas might even have siblings. Maybe that was who the baby was that night. 

  But for now, Amyas would have to live with Thomas. Everything else in his life would have to wait until Amyas found a way to get away from him. 

  Lucy was grinning. “You did an amazing job.” She agreed. 

  Edith had never felt prouder. The sun smiled down on the rows of roses, irises, tulips, daisies, peonies, poppies, asters, and many more beautiful flowers. They looked absolutely radiant. Their beautiful floral scent filled the air. “Which is your favorite, Lu?” Edith knelt in front of a patch of wild violets.

  “Easy. Poppies.” 

  Edith took the tie from her dark brown hair and it cascaded down her shoulders. She drew a simple pin from her dress pocket and used it to hold a violet in her hair. She stood, laughing girlishly. “How do I look?” She twirled around a couple of times. 

  Lucy sighed dreamily. “You could get whatever guy you wanted, Edith. You’re stunning.” 

  Edith chuckled. “The only guy that I will ever want isn’t a coward.” 

  Lucy bent over and picked a daisy for her blond hair. “You’re too picky!” Lucy joked, giggling. 

  “I have to be.” Edith had her younger sister Zalie to think about.

  Her friend must have understood and was about to say something when Zalie came running up and hugged her sister from behind. “Eda!” She squealed her sister’s nickname. “I had a nightmare.” she whimpered. 

  “Oh, you poor thing,” Edith murmured and turned around to scoop the girl up in her arms and rock her. “Was it a really bad one?” 

  Zalie nodded and popped her thumb into her mouth. “They were chasing me, Eda. I couldn’t get away. I thought it was real.” She stifled a sob. 

  Lucy's eyes displayed her sympathy to Edith but made hand motions to tell her that she had better go. 

  Edith nodded as Zalie rested her head on her chest. “Come back sometime soon, Lucy. We don’t get enough visitors out here.” 

  That was all too true. Edith knew something about her past that haunted her and kept her and Zalie far away from people. She felt that they would be safer if nobody knew they existed, even if she had no clue who they truly were. And that was hard on Zalie. She had no mom or dad, aunt or uncle, and no friends, only Edith. Even with the few friends that Edith had, Zalie was reclusive, closed off completely, with her quiet, submissive demeanor that seemed like it didn’t fit the little girl with the rosy cheeks and lovable smile that stole your heart with one look, her bouncing curls and wide green eyes. 

  “What do you say we go inside and make some pasta?” Edith suggested once Lucy was out of sight.

  Zalie pulled her thumb out “Alright,” she agreed, at length. She cracked a slight grin that showed off her missing front tooth.  

  Edith’s mind was far away as she boiled the water and poured the pasta, made earlier that day, into the pot. She set a timer and waited. Zalie was sprawled out on her stomach, completing a puzzle of a forest. Like she always did when she was focused, she stuck out her tongue.

  I hope Romuald comes by soon. He was an old friend. He’d built their cottage outside Nausil when they moved. Romuald always stopped by every so often to give her news, drop off supplies, or tell her one of his latest tales. He was a wandering minstrel and always had something to say. Other than Lucy, Romuald was the only one that came by. 

  The timer went off. Edith spun around, swiping a strainer from the other counter. She poured the pasta into it until all the water was in the kitchen bucket. “Are you ready to eat, Zalie?”

  Zalie jumped up with a cheesy, adorable smile. “Yup!’ 

৯ … ৯

  Amyas was nearly ecstatic when he discovered the rain finally let up. He and Thomas had concluded the evening meal and Amyas bolted out the door as soon as he could and ran straight for his best friend Hal’s house. 

  Hal had it different from Amyas. His father was an official ambassador for King Irmenhild. Hal told Amyas this even though neither boy knew what an ambassador was. But both agreed that it sounded important. 

  Hal became his friend when he was three, during his first year with Thomas. He was living in the castle then and came to Thomas for a piece of fruit to snack on. Naturally, he and Hal became friends after Hal had stopped by for snacks a few more times. They would hang out together and as they got older, they did a few mischievous tricks on each other.

  “Hey, Hal! What have you been doing?” Amyas called standing outside the seven-foot, iron gates surrounding the Albrecht family manor. The two-story manor was built out of an abundance of gray stone. The crystalline windows were tall and narrow, curving at the top and shaded with ivy growing up the manor, and were on either side of the centered, arched, glass door. White rose bushes grew under the front windows. The path down the house was marble steps, lined with neatly trimmed hedges. 

  Hal hurried out of the house and trotted down the steps, two at a time. “Not much,” Hal replied, obviously lying. He twisted his face up as he always did when he was holding a secret or story. 

  “Spit it, Hal” Amyas rolled his eyes. 

  Hal took a deep breath and hurried through his speech, “guess what? Well, my dad had a guest who said he’d actually been to Elden Wood, and guess what he saw! Beast and other cool stuff but I’ll tell you about that more later. Anywho, he found this.” He held up a wood-carved whistle. It was smoothly sanded and in the center was a carved symbol. It was the same odd symbol on Amyas’s necklace. He snatched it out of his friend's hand. 

  “Where did he find it?” 

  Hal grabbed the whistle back. His eyes flashed with annoyance. “Let me finish. He said he found it in some cave. And get this, he says it's Uhuruan. Isn’t that awesome!” 

  “Uhuruan?” Amyas felt his heart quicken.

  “Haven’t you ever read a fairy tale?” Hal laughed. He skipped ahead, starting down the street. “Hey,” Hal turned suddenly, eye lit up like he had an idea. “Want to go watch some of the guys train? Maybe we could even borrow one of their swords!” 

  “Awesome,” Amyas didn’t waste a second to follow Hal. He waved his imaginary sword at Hal’s midsection. Hal at the last minute jumped away, pretending to volley the attack. Hal lunged forward, thrusting his sword at Amyas. 

  Amyas dramatically fell over, groaning. “Uhh! I’m dead!”

  “Get up, Amyas,” Hal laughed, shaking his head. “We got knight training ahead of us! But first, do you think the whistle was Uhuruan?” 

  Amyas didn’t want Hal to think he was stupid, so he answered, “Yeah. What else could that be?” 

  “But how would it get here? Across Elden Wood!” Hal sent a long wad of spit flying, “just doesn’t make any sense.” 

  Amyas rolled his eyes, “race you!” He took off, beating Hal to the training center by a mile. “I win!” 

  “You always win.” Hal kicked the dirt, “It’s not fair.” 

  Amyas couldn’t let Hal’s mood get to him, not when he was staring into the threshold of a place where real-life knights trained. 

  This Armory was the first section of the castle yard. Amyas glanced over the racks of swords, knives, and other blades. He saw a wide variety of helmets, shields, and armor. It was a room of weapons and secrets. A chill ran down his spine. He turned to Hal, “Let's go in!

  Hal stuttered, “Amyas! Are you crazy?! Do you want to get killed for trespassing? You know we aren’t allowed in there.” 

  Amyas shrugged, his eyes blazing with determination. “Come with me or not.” He didn’t have time to worry about Hal acting like a baby. There had to be a way past the guards and into the Armory. He took stock of the building. It was older, possibly one hundred years old. The brick was wearing away and chipping. He could see into the building through many visible cracks. He thought he heard a fountain somewhere inside. “Wait!” He looked back at Hal, now visibly frightened. “Don’t they have an aqueduct running into the castle yard?” his mind began to piece together a plan. Nearly two miles from the city was the water source, where the water would flow down a sloped pipe. The pipe led to an aqueduct bridge that flowed into the city, but it would be nearly impossible to get into the covered pipe at the bridge. Amyas needed to get into the stream at an earlier pipe. Luckily, there were inspection shafts half a mile back from the bridge. If Amyas could get a schedule for when the workers went to the shaft, he’d have the beginning of his plan complete. “Hey, Hal?” Amyas smirked at his friend, “Didn’t your father have a copy of the aqueduct employee schedule?” 

  “Yeah,” Hal scratched his head, confused. “Why?” 

  “I think I may have a way into the Armory.”