Ghost of a Forgotten Past

Chapter 6- A Hidden Truth

Her eyes adjusted to the poor light and she could make out several people sitting around the walls of the bar, and others were crowded at tables, all went quiet when she entered Lanora could feel every eye was on her. She cautiously shuffled to the bar and asked for a room for the night, the bar tender a large burly man with a rough cut grey beard and hard brown eyes handed her a small brass key, eyes were still on her "second room on the left, and you better keep the door locked' he quietly instructed, motioning towards the watchers. Nodding her head in understanding she ascended the narrow stair case and came to the landing she spun left and found her door. She inserted the key and turned it the lock clicked out and the door opened, silently hurrying through the door she shut and locked it again. The room was quite spacious, pale red drapes covered the window, and a small wooden bed shunted up against the wall provided the only means of sitting, a blackened fire place being the only thing offering welcome. Lanora knelt and lit the splintering wood she sat on the floor taking in the radiating heat from the flames. Dust coated everything the floor the walls the window and even the blankets, she could tell this room hadn't been used for a while, spider webs laced the ceiling and corners of the room, it appeared to be un-kept too because some places of the pine floor was rotting and falling away. She pulled the thin mattress off the bed and dragged it over to the fire. Making sure the fabric of the mattress wouldn't catch on fire she exited the room, locking the door behind her and pocketed the key.

As she walked across the main floor of the tavern all eyes were on her again. A man that was hidden in the shadowed corner spoke "that was quite a show you put on out there miss" Lanora froze he continued "where did you learnt to move like that? I've never seen anyone move as fast as you did" she thought for a minute staying where she was, slowly and carefully said "my father taught me" after she had said this the man grunted as if to say yeah right your lying but he remained where he was and she left, she walked over to Phantom untied him and led him away to venture out through the town. Gracefully moving along the dirt tracks they explored the town starting with the centre and working their way out, Lanora noted all the easy way outs, dead ends and paths that would hopefully confuse anyone she wanted to lose. Heading out into the more country farm lands there were hardly any trees and those that were there were dead or dying, looking at the castle and surrounding grounds she said out loud "you could hardly call this a kingdom to be proud of although it's what scar-face has turned it into". They wandered around for a while longer their hearts heavy from all the greys and browns; there was no colour no cheer. A sound was carried to her ears, spinning in the saddle she caught sight of eight riders moving quite quickly. Doing a one eighty degree turn they faced the oncoming riders and waited to see if it was those whom tried to find her home prince Nathaniel and his knights. The riders slowed to a walk when they neared the first few farm houses.

After Nathaniel and company had reached the forest they had followed the hoof sized holes made by Phantom in the deep rotting leaves. They had been traveling for an hour thorough the cold yet humid environment when they came to Lanora's sleeping hollow, Nathaniel jumped down from his horse handed the reins to Bane and studied the area "something was lying here for quite some time but it also got up in a hurry and moved towards Trundle town" he declared "I guess that's the way we go then" voiced Bane moving off after, Nathaniel had taken the reins. Following the exact trail which Lanora had forged through the spindly black undergrowth, they came to the corpse of the woman at the base of the tall tree; she still had the same look of pain and terror, except now the blood was mostly dried. They stopped at the overturned cart and heard the whimper of the woman with her baby, who thought that the king and evil one were back. Nathaniel dismounted and slowly edged around the side of the cart keeping his hand on the hilt of his sword ready to draw if need be, as soon as he saw the woman he stopped and firmly asked "who are you and what happened here?", the woman looked up at him and replied "that's the same question he asked", "who asked?" inquired Nathaniel now confused, "the Shadow of course" she simply said, "the Shadow, How was he here , we haven't seen him at all on our journey" "he came through late last night on a big black stallion" answered the woman. Nathaniel questioned her some more and the knights scouted around for any other people only finding seven more survivors, whom the woman was glad to see, after making sure they were going to be alright they left for the castle at a full gallop.