This is a continuation of B is for Birthday. It was followed by F is for Follow and H is for Hunted, You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.
Before the guard could act, Barry held out the message and said, “I bring a message for the king. It is very important, lives may depend on it.”
The guard paused for a moment, then asked, “Whose lives?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I was told the king wanted this information.”
The guard grasped the message but didn’t open it. “And who might I ask, gave you this so-called message?” the guard queried.
Barry didn’t know how to proceed. So he rambled on with the truth as unbelievable as it sounded. “A fox, that was hurt, who said he got it from a hedgehog who said it was about a magician named Hyde that the king needed to know about.”
On hearing the name Hyde, there was a change in the facial expression of the guard. He was no longer confident in his stance; there was a touch of worry and concern as he lowered his weapon, made a complete about-face and ordered Barry to follow.
Barry was led into the palace. He was led through an immense door laden with gold. He walked through halls with portraits of ancient rulers and sculptures of knights and warriors past; passed large banquet rooms and smaller storage holdings and ended up at the royal reception room itself. The walls were 20 feet high shrouded in red velvet drapes. Other than that there was little furniture except for the royal thrones centered on the far wall. The King sat upon one throne and the other was empty.
The guard explained to the king what Barry had said and handed the message to him. The king glared at Barry with a penetrating eye, then opened and read the message. The king demanded that Barry repeat his story. This time, Barry told the king all that had happened to him since he came home that day.
The king listened intently. When Barry was done, the king stood up and spoke.
“What the fox said was true. No one enters Selat unless they are needed. And indeed you are needed. The hedgehog that gave the fox the message was a spy of mine. His task was to find the magician. If the hedgehog had been found out, he likely would have been killed which is why he enlisted the aid of the fox and the fox of you to deliver this message. The message reveals the location of Hyde’s captives.
Barry questioned, “Why is its location so important and what do I have to do with it?”
The king answered, “For years we knew of Hyde’s activities of enslaving people and others, but since these people meant nothing to us, we didn’t feel it was necessary to find them. The queen, however, a more compassionate person, was very interested in not only finding them but saving them from whatever Hyde’s nefarious intentions were. I humored the queen and made a small effort to find out information, but none was forthcoming. That all changed when the queen disappeared. This, I was sure the work of Hyde and sent out spies, both animal and human, to find his location. Lucky for us one of them found you.”
The king continued, “Since the magician knows everyone from Selat, it would be hard to get to him undetected. However, you are not known, therefore it seems that fate has determined that I choose you to be the savior of the queen and those that have been enslaved by Hyde and put an end to his plans. Good luck!”
Barry had no time to protest. He was given the message, which included a map to Hyde’s location, a knife to protect himself, and a flashlight. He was quickly escorted out of the palace and back into the area where he had been found by the guard. The escort also wished him luck and then left Barry alone to ponder what to do next.
to be continued in M is for Mistake
Oh my, that really escalated quickly for Barry!
(Click the Blog link on the second row) : K is for Kittens