With a gleeful chuckle, Sanemi dropped the ransom note and the golden crown into a dirty linen sack.
When he'd knotted the sack to the saddle, he turned to Genya. "Soon as I'm within a swint of the castle, I'll turn the beast loose. Guard our prisoners!"
"I'll tie them up," Genya wheezed, giving his heavy brother a foot up into the royal saddle.
From the doorway, Michikatsu watched Sanemi vanish into the tangled maze of tree limbs and brambles. Then he glanced about at the bare furnishings, the hanging ropes of garlic bulbs, the bed straw, the chest of stolen goods. He'd need some trickery to escape.
Muzan fixed him with a smirk. "You're clever, all right. But a common dunce all the same."
"Gosh..."
"A cartload of gold and jewels! The ruffians would have been content with a mere jingle of coins."
Michikatsu's eyes swung back to the bed straw.
There was his escape!
"A cartload of moonshine," he said. "It'll never be forked over."
"I'm the prince! Father will have to pay it!"
Michikatsu began burrowing like a barn mouse under the moldy straw. "Not a bit, he won't."
"Father will foam at the mouth!"
Michikatsu was disappearing, limb by limb, under the straw. "Think again. It'll be clear as water the note's a scrambly-witted fake."
"Father'll keep me under lock and key after this!"
"It won't fool a soul, that note. How could you have written it? Everyone in the castle knows you can't so much as sign your own name."
"I never needed to before!"
"It's me that's in the soup. I'll catch it for your mischief running away. And I'll catch it again when the tutor claps eyes on the handwriting. He'll say, 'Michikatsu! This is Michikatsu trying to line his own pockets.' Your father'll scrag me with his bare hands! So I'll be obliged if you'd help me nip out of here."
"I promise you my protection," announced Muzan with sudden generosity.
"I'll protect myself," said Michikatsu. "When that plaguy Genya comes to tie us up, tell him I slipped out the door. Soon as he bounces off after me, I'll make a break for it."
"You'd leave me with cutthroats?"
Before Michikatsu could answer, he heared the sharp squeak of a door. He held his breath.
"Boys, you won't mind if I truss you up like a Christmas goose."
There came a sudden pause, and Michikatsu's heart began to thump.
"Where's the prince?" Genya snapped
Michikatsu heard Muzan answer without the slighest hesitation.
"Him? Over there. Under the straw.
YOU ARE READING
The Whipping Boy || Kokuzan/Michizan Vers. ||
FanfictionSet in medieval times, The Whipping Boy tells the story of how a spoiled prince and his cunning whipping boy escape kidnappers and become allies.
