The Knights of Time and the Forgotten Book

Chapter 12: Villa Melzi

“I apologise,” Amador said. “This must all be my fault.”

“No it isn’t, Amador, don’t blame yourself,” I said.

“But it kind of is. Why were you taking us to France?” Brandon snapped as he packed the few belongings we had in the cart. “You knew we needed to get to Vaprio D’Adda fast, and you tried to take us in the opposite direction.”

“I was only following the path I knew how to take. Besides, I was just going to take the east road after staying here overnight. How do you know your way around Italy so well, do tell me. I don’t recall you saying that you’ve been here before.”

The tension between Brandon and Amador at that precise moment was as sharp as a knife. They glared at each other and I could see Brandon suspected Amador didn’t have good intentions and he blamed him for the misunderstanding.

“I’m a big fan of maps,” he said.

I didn’t suspect Amador. When I tried to see what his true intentions were, I didn’t see anything peculiar, and I found Brandon was being unfair to jump into conclusions.

Jeremy, on the other hand kept silent and I could see in his eyes that he was analysing the situation, possibly trying to find an answer to something which didn’t need an answer.

But I, on the other hand, couldn’t take the glares and hostile tones of voices.

“Guys, please, it was just a misunderstanding. Either way, we’re all fine. We aren’t wounded. The cyborg Spek was only warning us. Let’s just continue with our journey.”

Amador and Brandon looked at each other one last time before Amador took the reins of the old donkey and the cart slowly started to move again.

It was dawn by then, and I was exhausted. So were the others. Brandon looked like he was in a horrid mood, but Jeremy looked unchanged; with the same two purple bags under his eyes. I knew he was used to sleepless nights.

Apart from that, we were terrified. Any noise coming from bushes or trees made by animals would cause me to flinch. I kept glancing all around me until I felt Jeremy’s hand touching my wrist. I looked at him, and he smiled. For some reason, that seemed to calm me down a bit.

After a bit, I decided to check the state of their wounds. Jeremy’s nose seemed to be getting better and it wasn’t as puffed up as it was the day before. However, Brandon’s leg got worse to the point where it was all inflated and bruised.

“This isn’t good,” I said as I looked at his leg. Brandon grumbled. “It’s getting worse.”

“I'm fine. I think I can soldier on,” he said.

“Let’s just hope we don’t get attacked by Speks again,” Jeremy said.

I bandaged his leg with new dressings. I tried to find any other useful supplies in the first aid kit, but there wasn’t really anything useful in there. I sighed.

***

We eventually stopped for a drink of water from a river, since the donkey also happened to need some rest. When Amador went to fill his animal skin pouch with water, we jumped off the cart and looked a bit around.

“How much time do we have left until we reach Francesco Melzi’s estate?” asked Jeremy.

“If we hurry, we might be there by night fall,” Brandon said looking away from us, with an annoyed un-Brandon-like expression on his face.

“Okay, why are you acting like that?” I asked.

“Acting like what?”

“C’mon, you’re acting like such a jerk and you’re worried and suspicious of Amador. It’s not like he wanted for us to be chased by Speks.”