The Hibernian Runaway

Chapter 13

 Will woke right before dawn and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. It had been two weeks since Queen Josephine had come to Araluen to demand back her prisoner. A week later, an agent of hers came back and repeated the Queens demands, but King Duncan didn’t comply. The agent had walked out angrily and announced that he would be back again every week until King Duncan complied.

 “Will, King Duncan would like to see us.” Will heard from behind his closed bedroom door.

 “I’m up. I’ll be out in a minute.” He called. He sat there on the bed and stared at the ceiling, hoping that Crowley would be at the meeting that day.

 Halt banged again on his door, loud and obnoxious. “Halt!” Will shouted. “I’m getting dressed. Give me a minute.”

 “Hurry, before the Hibernian gets here.” Halt shouted through the door. “King Duncan wants us.”

 Will opened the door and glared at his mentor. Halt was wide awake, having stayed up all night, watching Lilly from a corner. The girl had made it through the infection and was starting to get back her strength. He knew that it was about time that they handed her over to the Queen.

 Halt turned and started to walk down to the Throne Room. Will walked after him, barely keeping up.

 “King Duncan doesn’t want to give Lilly back to the Hibernians. I agree with him, but he has no choice.” Halt explained. “Which is why he asked us to see him before his is forced to yield.”

 Halt pushed right through the throne room doors without knocking. Crowley was already there talking with the king.

 “-we can follow them until the coast, but once they get there, we’ll have to stop.”Crowley said in a hushed whisper. He looked up as they approached.

 “I don’t like the thought of handing this girl over.” King Duncan explained. “And I get the feeling that we’re not being given the entire story.”

 Halt understood what King Duncan was saying. He believed that this girl wasn’t just a murdering maid. And whatever she really was wasn’t being shared.

 “So you want us to follow them?” Will asked, obviously coming to the same conclusion that Halt had.

 “Yes.” Crowley answered. “But we want you to listen for any excuse, even if it’s a small one, to keep them in Araluen.”

 “How small?” Halt asked, already coming up with multiple fabrications that would delay the Hibernians.

 “Even if they owe a single copper.” King Duncan replied.

Lilly heard the footsteps on the other side of the door before they opened. Then voices.

 “Has she said anything since she’s woken up?”

 “No. She hasn’t moved from the chair, except to eat and to relieve herself.”

 The door opened. The Princess’s husband, Horace, and Ranger Will stepped through, followed by a nurse. Lilly made a point of staring at the floor. She heard a sigh from Will and knew that the Ranger sympathized with her.

 “Lilly, I’m sorry, but-“

 “I know.” She said. She got up from the bed and walked past Will and out the door. She kept staring at the ground, thinking of Daniel and Nial. Lilly heard her two escorts pause and then follow her. She stopped at the door and waited for her escort to catch up. Horace stepped past her and pushed open the doors.

 Lilly walked in after Horace. He walked past King Duncan, who was sitting on the throne, and took a spot behind the Princess. She was sitting next to her father, heavily pregnant, but erect with a spine of iron.