The Hibernian Runaway

Chapter 30

           

Lilly and Will watched, breaths caught in their throats, as Josephine waltzed around the room. She kept muttering to herself, waving the dagger around in the air. Lilly kept glancing to Connor's crib, hoping that the toddler wouldn't wake up and draw the attention of his deranged mother. She knew that she had to do something to get him out of there, but didn't know how to do it without waking him up.

Lilly gently gestured to Will to go back down the steps, and they started making their way silently back into the gloom. When she couldn't see the light anymore, Lilly stopped and took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

"Any ideas?" Will asked, taking the words right out of her mouth.

"I don't know." Lilly responded. "We need to get Connor out of there before we do anything with Josephine, or we risk her killing him."

"How do you expect to do that? He's a toddler, he'll make sound the moment you move him." Will said.

Lilly thought for a second, then stopped, realizing that the best way to get Connor out of there was to distract Josephine. And the best way to distract Josephine was to confront her directly. Lily knew exactly what she needed to do.

"When I give you the signal, go and grab Connor." She started back up the stairs.

Will grabbed her arm, "what's the signal?" he asked.

Lilly turned to him with a smile that he couldn't see in the dark. "You'll know it when you see it. Just make sure you get my brother out of there as fast as possible." With that, she ran back up, towards the light at the end of the staircase.

Will barely had time to blink before Lilly was gone. He was startled for a second before rushing up the stairs after her. She was waiting for him at the top of the landing, her copper hair framing the fierce determination on her face. She looked over her shoulder once and walked right into the room. She didn't even hesitate, and Will didn't know why that scared him.

He quickly shook himself from his thoughts and followed her into the room, and walked straight for the cradle. The sleeping prince gurgled in his sleep and moved his lips in a slight murmur. Will gently picked him up and held him against his shoulder.

"Why isn't it my favorite trouble maker?" Josephine spit out. "The favorite lady of Dun Kilty, Lilly O'Carrick." She stepped forward, bringing the dagger up menacingly. Then her eyes fell on the stranger standing over her son's crib with the toddler in his arms. "What do you think you're doing there?" she shouted.

Will opened his mouth to answer with a retort, but he was silenced with a glance from Lilly. He quickly turned as the boy started to wake up in his arms. He looked back before he got to the stairs, a little bit proud to see the young princess standing in the way of the Queen. Then Connor stirred in his arms and Will turned and disappeared down the stairs and into the blackness.

Lilly stayed in front of the mad queen, preventing her from going after her son. She knew that she had to protect her brother and keep the queen preoccupied as the rest of her father's men cleared the castle. Knowing that the queen's game had finally come to an end gave her strength to stand up for what was right and not run and hide. She had changed through her time in hiding, and she knew it.

Josephine stepped forward her face an angry red, "you have always been the one that messed with my plans." She was screaming now, knowing that her time in the free world was over. "You are the one wench I couldn't get rid of, no matter how many times I tried. Persistently in my way." She stopped and the anger drained from her face, and contorted into a flashy grin. "You've left yourself alone," she cackled. "No one will be here to save you now." She raised her knife menacingly and started toward the red headed princess.

Halt shook his head in disbelief as he walked around the dining hall. What was left of Josephine's resistance was passed out with an empty tankard in their hand, or staggering about drunkenly between guards. The entire garrison was in the one room and it made Halt's job quick and easy. But it still left him warily on edge.

"This felt too easy, didn't it?"

Halt jumped, shaken from his deep thought. Crowley had walked up beside him unnoticed, as a Ranger should be. "You're right. No standing of guards, warriors or not, would get drunk and pass out. Especially when there is a power struggle going on for this castle."

One of the captured rebels staggered a bit, and tripped over his own drunken feet. The two King's men escorting him barely moved as they watched him fall to the cold ground in a disorderly heap. Halt and Crowley both turned and watched the three of them out of the corner of their eyes, in case either one of them needed to intervene.

"Come on, get up," one of the guards rumbled, roughly grabbing the drunk by the back of his shirt and pulling him to his feet.

The impaired man stumbled in the air, unable to get his feet working properly, and performed another faceplant into the ground. He rolled onto his side and curled into a ball, groaning in pain.

"I said get up!" the guard repeated, louder this time and angry. The guard grabbed a spear leaning against one of the tables and held it threateningly. "Get up, or I'll give you a reason to stay on the ground!" The butt of the spear swung back, aimed at the drunk's head.

But the wooden shaft never made contact with the poor man's head. Before Halt or Crowley had even moved, King Sean did. He was standing behind the aggressive guard, his right hand clamped on the shaft, saving the drunk from the beating.

The guard whirled around, looking to pick a fight with whoever had stopped him, but he faltered when his eyes met King Sean's. "Your Majesty!" The guard's eyes widened, and dropped to the floor.

"What is your name?" King Sean asked simply.

"Steph-ph-en," he answered almost immediately, fearful of the possibility of punishment.

King Sean took the spear and passed it off to someone's empty hands. He then bent and helped the drunken man to his feet. "We can not assume we are better than Josephine and her men, especially if we act the way they did." He helped the man sit down on one of the benches. "We are all people; all Hibernians. We must treat each other as people, not masters and subordinantes."

Stephen nodded with exaggerated remorse, keeping his eyes down and his head bowed. He quickly walked out of the room before he could turn red with embarrassment.

"Thank you, sir," the drunk man said. "I hope you can forgive me for what I've done."

"All in good time," King Sean replied with a slight smile.

"I hope that your daughter is just as forgiving as you are, my King. She was a special guest of Josephine, which isn't as good as it sounds." The man sighed. "There were times that Josephine would say that if she couldn't keep the kingdom, her second goal would be to kill her. That's when I knew she was too far crazy."

Sean turned and made eye contact with Halt. His small bout of joviality had transformed into fear, and Halt was thinking the same thing. If Josephine was as crazy as she had demonstrated during her botched public execution, then she would kill Lilly, even if it meant dying in the process.

Footsteps on the servant's stairs caught Halt's attention and he turned. Will came down cradling a bundle wrapped in a blanket. As soon as he stopped moving, the toddler in his arms started screaming at the top of his lungs. Sean walked over and took his son from the Ranger, and Connor immediately calmed down.

"Where's Lilly?" He asked, an edge creeping into his voice.

"She was right behind me," Will replied, turning back towards the stairs.

When there was no sign of the copper-headed princess, Halt stepped forward, his hand dropping unconsciously to the knives in his belt. "Something's not right," he muttered.

"Halt."

He turned to face the king.

"Please bring my daughter back."