The Prisoners of Wyvern Castle

They take boat in the face of the storm

Madeline settled herself for a long wait, sitting as close to Rupert as was decent in company. The early dawn was lightening the horizon, but it could be hours before anyone noticed the Earl and Countess of Penworth were no longer in their respective prisons.

"Food," said Miss Tyler, producing a kettle and a toasting fork. She and Morpeth's supposed secretary bustled about, preparing a pot of tea and toasting bread over the fire, and soon they were sharing around butter and jars of jam and honey.

"I do not have enough plates," Miss Tyler apologised, handing those she had to Lord Wyvern and Madeline.

Polly was persuaded, with some difficulty, to sit down with the gentlefolk and have a slice of toast.

"Miss Tyler calls you Shadow," Rupert observed. "You serve the king as a..." he did not want to say spy, least the man be insulted.

The man who had been presented to Madeline as Davin Umbra grinned. "I have the honour of serving the king in this instance, my lord. He employs me from time to time when he wishes discreet enquiries to be made. And my friend here is known as Mist in my world, my lord."

"The king sent you both?"

"No," Mist replied. "As I told my lady, I was sent by your godmother, the Duchess of Haverford, when she had no reply to her last five letters."

Rupert's face lit with his smile. "She writes every month, and I dictate my reply every month. But I told the Ice Dragon Aunt Eleanor expected no reply. I hoped she would become concerned."

"Thank goodness she did," Shadow commented. "We would have found it challenging to extract ourselves from the dungeon without Mist."

"Polly," Mist said, "we saw a number of people on the path from the castle to the shore. They were leaving the island. Are many of the servants unhappy with Lady Wyvern's rule?"

"Most of them, Ma'am. Most have left already. The islanders have been coming back by night all week, taking off a party at a time."

"But you have not left," Shadow commented.

"I could not leave my lady, Sir," Polly said, moving a little closer to Madeline—whether to guard or be protected Madeline did not know. "Sam—my friend—wanted me go a week ago, but I would not go without my lady, and the rest of them said they'd not take the earl and countess till the last load, or Lady Wyvern and Lord Graviton would find out and maybe stop us. But when I went to get my lady tonight, she had gone."

"You said nothing." Rupert was not convinced, clearly. But Madeline believed Polly. "Polly, when will the boats come again? Tomorrow night?"

"Them that want to go have all gone, Ma'am. But my friend Sam said he'd wait for me till dawn."

"Will he take Lord Wyvern?" Mist asked.

Polly nodded eagerly. "And my lady and my lord. And you, Ma'am, and the other gentlemen, too. But we will have to be quick, Ma'am. The sun is coming up."

"Go and tell him to wait, Polly," Shadow told her. "We'll follow with Lord Wyvern."

Shadow contrived a conveyance by tying broom handles to a chair, so that four of them could carry it. They gently bound Lord Wyvern to it with several cravats, and covered him with a rug against the chill of the morning. Then, they carried him down the stairs and across the courtyard, Mist taking one end of a pole and Madeline hurrying ahead to check no one was about.

They made it to the harbour without any trouble and boarded the small fishing boat, where the islander crew were shocked to see their lord in such a condition. But there was no time for lengthy discussions. The rising sun was racing the approaching storm. They needed to be on the water.

Shadow and Mist, who had been talking together in low voices, announced they would be staying.

"The king will expect a report on Lady Wyvern and Sir James Graviton," Shadow said firmly.

"We must go now sirs, madams." Polly's Sam was apologetic but firm.

Madeline hovered over Lord Wyvern, wrapping the rug up higher to keep the wind-blown rain from his face, but still, she watched the two they left behind as the boat scudded swiftly away from the island dock. They didn't stay for long, soon turning to re-climb the road back to the castle.

The crew fought the wind and the sea the full half-mile between the island and the mainland, and an hour had passed before they were all safely at harbour and in a dry, warm suite in the village's one inn.

Madeline was happy to leave Lord Wyvern to the care of Polly and the innkeeper's wife, since they both seemed to know what they were doing. She came into the sitting room of the suite just in time to hear Lord Morpeth call out from where he stood by the window.

"There's another boat putting out from the island."

She and Rupert joined Lord Morpeth at the window. Squalls crossed between them and the island, obscuring the view, but then they cleared, and there was the boat, fighting its way not towards the land, but up the channel toward the open sea.

"It is a boat, Rupert, and it is in trouble. The waves are so high, and it is trying to run sideways to the wind."

Another squall crossed before them, and when it passed, the boat was nowhere to be seen. No. There it was, hull sideways to the wind, tipping and falling. They lost visibility again, and when the squalls cleared again, the boat was gone.

"The boat has sunk, Rupert. Whoever it was, they have gone down with the boat."

Rupert hugged her close and kissed the top of her head. "I feel certain it was them, Madeline. Your brother and my sister. They will never plague us again."