The Rugged Edge

Chapter 12: From the Tower Room

I could not have called it brave,
but only resolution;
I could not have called it strength,
only dedication.

. . . . .

When dinner's remaining silence came to an end, I hurried to Professor Alastair's room as quietly as I could. I didn't want anyone to find me and ask awkward questions.

It was a long way to Professor Alastair's study. From the dining room, I had to climb two sets of stairs before reaching the tower, where I had to climb the long, winding spiral staircase that led to the center tower.

I knocked on the grainy wooden door when I reached it, and Professor Alastair opened it for me.

He was a squat little man with grey hair and a little bald patch on the top of his head. His brown tunic was tied and his boots were buckled neatly; he was an orderly man. He was also very strict, but I loved him anyway, and I didn't want him to get locked away because of me.

"Your Highness!" he exclaimed. That's what he'd always called me, no matter how many times I told him not to. "What brings you here so late?"

"I have a question about the notes we took today, and I wanted to ask you about them," I said, with every last bit of caution against someone hearing us. "Can I come in?"

"Yes, of course!" he answered.

The tutor's study, where I had my daily lessons, was a round tower room lined with bookshelves. There were no torches on the walls, so candles were used instead and they lay all around the room. A small table stood in the middle of the room, covered in books in orderly stacks. In fact, everything was organized and neat in the drafty tower room, even though water could be heard pattering into a little wooden bucket in the corner whenever it rained. On the wall opposite to the door was the little curtained entrance to Professor Alastair's bedroom, which I assumed was as cramped, drafty, and leaky as the study.

As soon as the creaking door clicked closed, I turned and said, "Actually, Professor, I have something I need to talk to you about."

He looked at me blankly for a moment before he seemed to snap awake. "Of course! Please sit down, Your Highness."

"Thank you." And I did, the professor sitting across from me as if we were going to learn about the properties of zero. "Professor, did the king, Collum, tell you not to instruct me on Rokenmeine's laws?"

Professor Alastair looked very taken aback. "He... did, as a matter of fact."

"Professor, I am very sorry, but I'm afraid he may be angry with you. I know that you have never gone against anything he has told you, but he may have been brought to believe so," I said quickly, hoping that Collum wasn't already heading up the stairs with a pack of soldiers.

"Your Highness, I'm afraid I don't understand. What is going on?"

I glanced at the door. Just then, I heard a shout of command coming from far down in the barracks, confirming my hunch. I knew that Collum was gathering soldiers to arrest Professor Alastair for supposedly telling me about a forbidden subject.

"Professor, I don't have time to explain right now. Hurry; we need to leave," I said, jumping up and heading towards the door, not forgetting to grab a heavy stack of books from off the table as an idea struck me - just in case.

The professor still sat, frozen and with a look of utter bewilderment on his face.

"Hurry!" I repeated.

And he did. I sprinted ahead, running down the long spiral staircase and onto the third floor, and he ran behind.

We skidded into a spare room and found a closet inside. I hurried into it, gesturing for Professor Alastair to do the same.

"Your Highness, what-" but he didn't finish because the sudden sound of boots on stone erupted down the stairway. The sound came gradually closer, eventually passing us. Just as the soldiers reached us, I heard Collum's voice shouting down the hallway, leading the group.

"To the tower, men! Geraint, you lead; you three go behind him, and you two stay outside. Careful, he may try to escape." And then, as if as a side thought, I heard Collum say, "Telling her things I strictly forbade him to! How dare he!"

When the footsteps died down to nothing, I eased open the closet door, spreading dim light onto Professor Alastair's stricken face. But he didn't speak as we hurried away to the kitchens. I was still carrying my heavy stack of books.

Once we were at the kitchen door, I spoke in a whisper. "Professor, stay here. If you hear anyone coming, hide, and when they leave, come back here."

The professor nodded, his normally neat tunic tied crooked. I realized I'd finally scared him speechless.

My plan only fully developed as I ran into the kitchen, careful to skid to a stop in front of the kitchen maid and stop to catch my breath.

"Rat... a rat... in the library..." I panted. "Nicole's on the chair... she won't catch it..."

The kitchen maid became pale (she liked rats as much as Nicole, the housemaid, did), but she dropped her spoon and left, supposedly to help Nicole catch the rat.

I wondered what the kitchen maid would do when she found no Nicole and the library empty of anything but dusty and stained books.

Bessy stood there. "And why didn't you catch it?"

"I needed a distraction," I said, going back to the door. I opened it cautiously and motioned to Professor Alastair to come in.

He stood there, frozen, on the kitchen floor.

"Professor, I'm really sorry, but I seemed to have made the king believe that you told me about a particular law," I said. "A law that I needed to know about. I hadn't realized that you were told not to tell me about it until afterwards, although Collum didn't tell me so. But I have a safe place for you to go until all of this is over."

I felt terrible. He had no clue what was going on, and all he'd done was obey orders.

"So Your Highness," the professor asked, "is not in league with the king?"

"In league?" I was surprised.

Professor Alastair had seemed, until this point, to be weak at the knees with confusion, and all of a sudden he comes out with the word league, which not only implied closeness to Collum but also plotting alongside him.

"I am not in league with the king. In fact, I am in league against him," I said.

"Ah," murmured the professor. Now he did look confused. "I see. I'm afraid I believed you were close to or in with Collum in some way. I am very sorry."

"No matter," I answered, trying to smile despite the trying circumstances. "But you should probably hide. I need to talk to someone before we go." I turned to the cook. "Bessy, is there a place where Professor Alastair can hide until I speak with Geraint?"

Bessy was suddenly all business. "Yes, of course," and she opened the largest cupboard in the kitchen, which, though full of clay pots, provided space for Professor Alastair to sit snugly amidst the cobwebs.

And then I left, taking my heavyweight books along with me.