The Rugged Edge

Chapter 34: Caught

Seven years of innocence,
relative, to be sure,
Seven years of anger and
toil, quite assured.
But now I find those seven years
worthless and quite wrong.

. . . . .

The following night we didn't go back to camp.

The day of the infiltration, we waited impatiently and uneasily for the raid that night. But something seemed to be going on through the day.

About half of the guards were missing from their posts around the castle, and there was a lot of noise coming from near the cellar.

"Bessy, do you know what's going on?" Geraint asked when we visited the cook in her kitchen.

"No, I don't," Bessy said, but she sounded worried.

She knew all about the infiltration, of course, but she wasn't a part of it. She was as confused as we were about this particular issue.

When we went to the stables, I asked Arlie if he knew what had happened.

"No clue, Your Highness," he said cheerily.

We didn't find out until we asked Fabian later that afternoon. He was impatiently doing his various jobs. We noticed that as he worked, he continued glancing towards the basement from which strange sounds erupted.

"Fabian," I asked. "Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes, Your Highness." He seemed excited to tell. "Last night, Eldon caught a spy near the north wall! He, of course, reported this to the king, who locked the spy up. I think he's questioning him right now." Fabian sounded as if he desperately wanted to be part of the chaos.

But Geraint and I gave each other a significant look. This was a problem. We knew that it had been Roland that had been sent in. What would he tell?

"Hopefully he won't reveal anything," Geraint said as Fabian wandered off. "But I'm staying close to you anyway. We don't want our future queen in danger. If Collum finds out..." He trailed off, leaving the unfinished sentence to guesswork. But we both knew that if Collum found out about Geraint and I being part of the rebellion, he would be very angry and likely to act rashly.

The sky darkened and the familiar grey gloom crept over Rokenfort. Collum didn't come to dinner, and Geraint stayed with me, both of us wondering anxiously. What could have happened?

A few hours passed before anything else happened. Then Cadence came up to us, wringing his hands.

"Geraint," he said. "The king says he needs you in the dungeons. The princess can be left as long as he needs you. It shouldn't take long."

Geraint glanced at me nervously, but had no option but to go with Cadence.

I was left standing in the blackened stone hallway, feeling a sense of dread. I felt very alone and somewhat insecure. Had Collum learned anything about Geraint? I realized I was scared for him. I was just about to go down to the dungeons to see what was going on when Collum himself came storming up the stairs with two other soldiers.

"You!" Collum shouted. He was angry. Very angry. His features were tense, and his protruding veins beat to a rhythm of malice. "You are a traitor!"

The long hallway felt too big and I was defenseless.

I should have run. But I was frozen with dread. I didn't speak.

"You spied for a horrendous and primitive rebellion, in an attempt to take the throne away from me!" he shouted, his voice reverberating along the empty hall. "It is my throne! Do you understand? Mine!"

I stepped back. "It was never your throne," I said, my voice ringing surprisingly clear, considering how much I shook. "I should have been queen when I turned fifteen. Of course I want the throne. I want it to make Rokenmeine green again. I want it to be what it once was. You ruined it. My mother never did anything, and you blamed her for it! You blamed her for it... after you killed her!" Now I was shouting, too.

The guards behind Collum stepped back, not desiring to hurt me now that they knew my intentions, but afraid to go against Collum's orders to protect me. They stood frozen.

Collum advanced, drawing his sword. "Killed her? I never killed Giovanna! She was witless and useless, but she was beautiful, and she did not hinder my power. Killed her, did I? Is that why you want the throne? Want to kill me back, do you?" he taunted. "Want to avenge your dear, sweet mother?"

He was a foot from me, but I didn't step back. I knew that the wall was just behind me. There was nowhere to go. He had pressed me into a corner and trapped me.

"You... you didn't kill her?" I asked, shocked beyond my fear of the danger.

"No! I did not kill your mother, traitor!" Collum sneered. Then he grabbed my wrist with a grip like iron and dragged me away.

He pulled me up stair after stair. At first I fought, but he was too strong. I couldn't get away. I wished desperately that Geraint were there.

Up and up we rose, higher and higher until we reached the third floor. He dragged me through the winding corridors, and I gave up the struggle. I simply let him drag me.

He pulled me to the entrance to the left center tower and pulled me farther still. Up to the top, where a trapdoor was, locked tight. With his free arm, Collum pulled out a long silver key and unlocked the door, throwing it open and pushing me up.

"I'll deal with you later!" he sneered. "I have an infiltration to send off running."

Then he slammed the trapdoor shut and I heard the lock click.

I sat against the ancient stone wall, with my arms around me knees and my eyes frozen in a single position.

It wasn't Collum. He hadn't killed Giovanna. He had been angry and rash, but I knew he hadn't lied. He hadn't killed her.

So who had? Who had killed my mother?

And then it hit me.

I knew who had killed her. I had no firm reason to believe it at all. I only knew it. Maybe I was simply blaming it on someone else that clearly disliked me, because how could he have done it? Not to mention why. But I believed it with all my heart. Who else? He must have done it to be king. But why would he want to be king?

I didn't care. I felt anger surge up inside me, but I didn't move. Shock had frozen me in place. It wasn't Collum.

Those words rang in my head for I don't know how long. It wasn't Collum. Over and over I thought them, until they were concrete in my mind. When I was seven years old, I came to believe Collum killed her, and for seven years I held it true. But now, repeating a single statement over and over in my head, I was able to wipe away those seven years of toil and of anger.

Only now, I was angry with someone else, though I had no proof that he had killed Giovanna. Still I believed it with my whole being.

"It wasn't Collum," I whispered in the dark.