This is a continuation of B is for Birthday. It was followed by F is for Follow, H is for Hunted, K is for King, M is for Mistake, and Q is for Queen. You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.
R is for Rescue 
It didn’t take Barry long to figure out who the queen’s guard, Rory, was. He waited for the proper moment when both he and the guard were alone and Barry spoke to him. “I have a message from the Queen.”
“What Queen? Get back to work!” The guard grabbed Barry by his arm roughly. “We don’t listen to slaves!”
Before the guard could say anything more, Barry pulled out the silken handkerchief and showed it to the guard saying, “Your name is Rory.” There was an immediate change in the guard’s countenance, though he continued holding Barry, as he leaned a bit closer to Barry’s ear.
“Not here,” Rory whispered, “I’ll find a time to talk, later.” Then out loud he ordered, “Now get moving, back to work!”
And that was where he went. Working involved a lot of digging. It seemed that an underground tunnel was being created. As luck would have it Barry found someone he knew, who had also been captured, the fox.
Barry told the fox exactly what had happened since the fox had left him in the forest. The fox, in turn, told Barry his story; how he had led the guard deeper into the forest before his leg gave out and was captured. Since the guard didn’t know about Barry, the fox was the only one taken back to Hyde, whereupon he was thrown in with the rest of the slaves. Luckily for the fox, one of the guards took pity on him and bandaged up his leg. The leg had improved.
As it turned out, the guard who helped the fox, was the same one the queen had sent Barry to contact. The fox introduced Barry to some of the other animals in captivity, the hedgehog, a yellow cat, and a mole. What they figured out, was that the Hyde was building a tunnel to the palace with the intent of either capturing or killing the king so that the magician could take over the kingdom. This was all confirmed when Barry finally got to talk to Rory.
“The queen had been working hard at finding out the specifics of Hyde’s plan. She now knows that he plans to put a spell on the king which will put the king into a trance, that can only be broken by the magician himself. Once done, with the queen’s help, he will take the throne,” Rory explained. “Her hope is that in digging the tunnel, you and possibly some of the animals can create a hidden side tunnel that can get you into the palace before Hyde and warn the king.”
While the fox, mole, hedgehog, and cat were working on the side tunnel, Barry was kept guard at its entrance with his knife, luckily no one found them. Meanwhile, the queen was busy searching out all of Hyde’s books of spells. She looked carefully for spells that could be used to entrap the king. When she believed she found the right one, she sent word to Barry through Rory and set her plan in motion.
When the tunnels were complete, both Barry and the cat, were to escape through the side tunnel and into the palace; the cat, to warn the king and Barry to the Royal Armory to get suited up as a knight so that Hyde wouldn’t recognize him. Barry was to make sure he took the golden shield with him from the armory. Meanwhile, when Hyde entered the tunnel with the queen, Rory was to allow the captives to escape into the woods and run away from the palace. Rory would lead the rest of Hyde’s guards on a chase that would lead them toward the palace.
All seemed to go as planned. The king had all of his guards out of the palace ready for Hyde’s men. Barry was all suited up and standing next to the king in the throne room as Hyde and the Queen walked into the room and stood before the throne.
Hyde pushed the queen aside and claimed, “This Kingdom is mine!” He uttered words of a sleeping spell and cast it at the knight.”
“NO!” yelled the queen.
to be concluded in S is for Surprise
