When they reached the gate, all passed through in single file, the guard yawning his boredom, his eyes dull and tired from a long day, she assumed. Outside, she increased her pace and passed the family, soon leaving them behind and almost catching up with others who were on the road ahead. When the shadows of overhanging trees grew deeper, she stepped off the road and ducked into the forest.
She had a blanket taken from the bed, but the night was warm, and she intended to walk for much of it. She and the Knight had traveled with the setting sun at her back to get to the Palace. She would do the opposite to return.
But she intended to follow familiar landmarks, if possible. Everything on the trip had held her attention because she’d never left the Earl’s Castle in eleven years, so in her mind, she remembered it all. Or did she? Hannah started to retrace every step with Sir James, from the arrow striking her father from the depths of the night to the river they crossed to reach the farm where they got the horses, and then on to where they found the sorceress called Evelyn in the tall trees.
From there it became vague. She’d been tired and scared, and the back trails had all looked much alike. Wait, she remembered the valley with the farm where they had ‘bought’ the old wagon and mule after using the ‘grapes’ that made the farmer forget. From that farm, they had followed the road all the way. She only had to remember the way from that farm back to the tall trees, and even if she got lost, she could ask people for directions to the trees that touched the sky. There could not be many places where the trees grew to that size.
Her near panic reduced to the more common fears of tripping in the dark, wild animals attacking, highwaymen camped on the paths she followed, sudden cliffs to fall down, lakes to drown in, and bats. She hated bats. The night turned darker as the moon set and she decided that the distance from the Palace would be enough to protect her. She sat under a fir tree and spread her blanket around her like a cloak as she ate for the first time that day.
She woke with the sun and mentally marked where it rose. She’d follow the road to the farm where they ‘bought’ its wagon, but from there she would keep the morning sun in her face. That should take her back, and then to the forest with the huge trees and the sorceress with the floating pink dots and Evelyn.
The road was off to her right, but too far away to see or hear the people traveling on it. Even if there were not hundreds of people trying to find her to collect the reward, Hannah found she enjoyed the new experience of walking on the paths made by animals instead of roads. Being exposed outside in the open left her anxious. Her entire life had existed around one small castle, and mostly inside the morning kitchen. Her brief excursions had been within the protective stone walls. Being able to see to the horizon left her a little uncomfortable, while the trails closed in and welcomed her with folded arms. Protected her.
As these thoughts were slipping and sliding in her mind, she watched all around her with the wonder of seeing it all for the first time. The leaves of one plant were scalloped while others were smooth or jagged. The bark was different textures and colors on the trees. Even the ground changed as she neared streams and it grew soggy, or when walked under trees over ground that felt as hard as stone. Her mind was looking, watching, wondering, and learning when she first heard nearby voices.
She paused in mid-step, too scared to lower her foot. The hunters, she’d listened to, always say that movement is what you see first; not color or shape. You watch for movement like deer, alert and poised, ready to flee. A successful hunter remains motionless, not even turning his head.
Many evenings she’d sat outside the tavern and listened to the men talk about hunting, and it all came rushing back to her. Some had been an exaggeration or outright lies, of course, but there was usable information, too. Hannah slowly turned her head and looked to where she’d heard men talking and laughing. Not more than ten steps away, behind some low brambles, three men gathered in a circle, concentrating on something on the ground in the middle of them.
She couldn’t move away. One had his head down, but his face would be looking directly at her if he even slightly looked up. Any movement and he’d see her. Only the stand of bushes and brambles knee-high grew between her and the three men. They were so intent on what lay between them that none paid attention to their surroundings.
They dressed in clothes almost as ragged as hers. Their hair appeared oily and bits of leaves stuck to the long hair of one. Between them, on the grass, were a few copper coins, probably the loot of a recent robbery. They were trying to split the coins between them, but the numbers were not working out, as one shouted, “Yer’ takin’ the most.”
“Am not,” the one facing Hannah snapped, and he shuffled the positions of the coins again.
The third chilled her when he snarled, “Five small coppers ain’t nothin’. We should be out there finding that little girl.”
“I think she’s just a bedtime story to get us all caught by the Knights,” the first speaker said. “But I should get two coppers because I’m biggest.”
“You want to fight me for them?” another said, half standing, his fingers curled into fists. “Because I’m the oldest, I should get two.”
Hannah had lowered her foot to the ground and eased slowly back, as slow as a cat approaching a mouse, while at the same time bending low to hide behind the brambles. She lifted her other foot and put it behind her and started to move further back when a twig underneath her toe snapped. She froze, moving only her eyes.
At the small sound, all three men spotted her. Instead of running, she made her voice husky, to sound like a boy and said, “I was just passing by.”
“Get over here,” one said.
Hannah debated her chances of running far and fast enough to escape. She might make it. But if she didn’t, they’d be angry at having to chase her. If they were three steps further away, I’d run. She moved a full step closer, acting confident, “What do you want?”
“I said get over here.”
Hannah took one last assessment of the situation and decided she had no option but obey. She went closer and said, “I was just walking down the trail and heard you talking.”
“So you decided to stop and sneak up on us, did you?” The shorter one asked. He stood shorter, wider, and older than the others. His two front teeth were missing, but he didn’t lisp when he talked. Perhaps they had been missing for so long he had gotten used to it.
The other two deferred to him, letting him do the talking for all three. Hannah paused, a few steps from him. “No, I said I was just following the trail, and I was. I didn’t hear anything.” Her fear turned to anger slowly. If she had been innocent, which she was, her actions would have been the same.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“The better question is who are you and your friends.”
“What’s that matter to you, boy?”
Good. He believed she was a boy. Her disguise had fooled him, so far. “It matters because my father and two older brothers get paid by the King to keep this part of the King’s road clear of people like you. They get a reward for each highwayman they turn over to the Knights.”
The story sounded good to her ears. She’d taken parts of what she knew and woven it into a convincing tale. Hannah used a limp smile that generated confidence and one she hoped they would believe.
“Oh my,” the short one said in mock horror, holding his hand to his mouth pretending to be afraid. “And they are so good at catching the ‘Highwaymen’ that they dress you in rags?”