Alnwick Chronicles

Nine

Adalyn

We still haven't been able to digest it.

It's considered the single most important event in the history of Alnwick, and has been drilled into everyone's brains since the assassination almost 40 years ago. This tale is half the reason behind Queen Muriel's popularity today, and why she's pretty much worshipped.

The thought of the king still being alive has never even crossed my mind.

"How much can we trust this letter anyway?" I wonder aloud. Caelyn and Aerith are on the ground, jumbling and unjumbling the letters in the mud again and again in an attempt to come up with a less preposterous, more believable message. Skyla is wandering around with her hands in her pockets.

Caelyn drops the stick she's been working with. "You're right. We can't even be sure if it was really your mother who wrote it."

Great. Now I'm thinking about my parents again. I glance at Aerith, and I can tell she's thinking about them too.

"Hey, I think we should get going." My gaze turns to Skyla, who's standing a little further away from us and is staring at the trapdoor we escaped through not too long ago.

We decide to go to Nathaniel's house, which is right inside the Metropolan border, and close to our own place. We can't go to our house because those Cold Hollow people might know where we live, and track us down.

God, our life has literally turned upside down in the past two weeks. Our own home isn't safe anymore.

With Caelyn in the lead, we head over to the Old Alnwick marketplace. Hopefully our bicycles will still be there.

I'm not sure how much I trust the story she told us earlier. It does answer all our questions, but it's weird she opened up to three random people she's just met.

As we walk, I look up at the purplish-blue sky. It'll be morning soon. Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion washes over me, and I realize how little we've slept and eaten in over 24 hours. One glance at the others tells me that they too are equally worn out.

"Should we take a break?" I suggest to the group. They all look like they desperately want to say yes, but know it's a gamble. The longer we stay in Old Alnwick, the more danger we're in of being found by Elvira and her buddies.

Aerith exhales. "Let's just get out of here right now."

And so we keep on walking till we reach our destination.

***

"Shit," Aerith says, and I agree. Our cycles have disappeared.

Even if it wasn't the Cold Hollow people who took them, someone might've stolen them. Thievery is very common in Old Alnwick.

Skyla plops down on the ground of the market with dramatic, exaggerated movements and puts her head in one hand. "So dehydrated," she whispers.

I take in our surroundings. There's definitely less hustle and bustle here than there was during daytime, but it's not totally deserted either. Some shops are open and a few people are milling about.

"I'll try to find us some water," I say as I head towards a store.

Aerith

While Adalyn tries to find us a drink, Skyla offers to show me the place from where we had entered Cold Hollow the first time, when I was unconscious.

It's a 5-minute walk to the secluded building she had told me about. It is sandwiched between another run-down, empty property and a low hill, which I assume is a part of the Willowhills.

We don't go too close, just look at it from behind a big oak tree. After the day we've had, we can't be too careful.

Skyla pats my arm. "Let's go up." Without waiting for a response, she begins to climb up the oak. I follow, and once we're pretty high up, we sit on two separate branches as we're not sure if just one will be able to hold both our weights.

"Hey, look at that," I point towards the base of a hill close by, from where are passing things that look a lot like transport vehicles.

Skyla spots them too. "Are they the Queen's or someone else's?"

I squint, and even though I can't be sure in the dark, I think I see the 'M'-shaped crown painted in white on the black body of a transport. The royal symbol.

"Queen's," I tell her.

She looks at me with wide, hopeful eyes. I nod, equally excited, and jump down.

Oof, bad decision. We were a little too high up, and I've landed on all fours. Skyla's more sensible and takes her time climbing down carefully.

"ARE YOU MAD?!" she yells as soon as she steps on solid ground. "Also are you hurt but ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"Oops."

She shoots me a death glare.

"I'm okay," I say.

We make our way back to the others.

***

Ten minutes later, we're sitting cramped up in the back of a royal transport vehicle with no less than fifteen of the Queen's Guards. They agreed to give us a ride as long as they didn't have to go out of their way to drop us off.

The back of this vehicle has no roof, and we're able to see the sky, which is a dark orange right now. It's going to be dawn soon.

At some point, I fall asleep with my head on Adalyn's shoulder, without realising it.

When he shakes me awake, it's morning and it takes me a while to adjust to the sudden bright sunlight.

I rub my eyes and look around. We're still in the truck, but...

"Where's Caelyn?" I ask, sitting up.

"She got down about half an hour ago," replies Adalyn. "She didn't tell us exactly where she was going, but apparently it was close enough from where she got off."

"Oh. Okay."

"We're about to reach the river, by the way." Skyla says from my other side. That's close enough to Nathaniel's house for us to go on foot.

"We have reached the river," says one guard as the vehicle stops. He opens up the back door and the three of us jump outside.

It takes us barely twenty minutes to get to Nathaniel's.

When we get there, the first thing we do is eat. We eat like horses. And between mouthfuls, we tell Nathaniel about everything that happened.

When we get to the part about Cold Hollow, he stiffens up, and his eyes become intensely alert. And when we mention Caelyn, he lets out an accidental "What?!"

"Umm... Nathaniel?" I give him a questioning look. "Is there... is there something you want to tell us?"

We all stop eating for a second. He studies our faces once and gulps. "I do, actually." Then he inhales as if preparing himself for something.

"I know Caelyn." He pauses. "Oh also, I used to work at Cold Hollow."