The Boy With The Arrows

C H A P T E R • T H I R T Y T W O

I tried to prevent my feet from crunching on the cobblestone as I hastened after Tommy, hoping that nobody would pay any attention to me until after I had secured the discs. Tommy was headed towards the busier end of the city, which made me nervous. I knew Schlatt was in the city somewhere, even as my brain began to conjure up scenarios where he jumped out at me and surprise attacked from every corner. The last time I'd seen him, granted, he had been drunk, but the time before that he had tried to kill me, and this time I didn't have a bodyguard to help me. That was what was so dangerous about this mission - I was alone, and any help I could call upon would take time to arrive. Under ideal circumstances, there was no way the queen should have been in my position, but war was not ideal circumstances. I wondered where they could have found to hide the discs here that would be safe from prying eyes? Perhaps they had built a vault?

My confusion mounted as Tommy turned into a much wider path that led towards the gates of the city. Here, I was hesitant to follow him, aware of the higher security that must exist in such a place, and I hung back hesitantly. Being with Wilbur gave me some form of protection - a reason for being here. However, Wilbur was not with me anymore, and I suspected if he did know, he wouldn't stop the guards in whatever they decided to do with me.

I halted beside a building that appeared to be a store of some kind, and watched carefully as Tommy paused at the gate. Several guards stepped out from their posts within the towers, however they evidently recognised him, and soon allowed him to pass. However, Tommy did not leave the city, as I had expected. Instead, he headed for one of the guard towers, and stepped inside. I watched with a sinking heart as the door closed after him. How was I supposed to follow him in there?

I watched the guards as they took up their positions once again, and puzzled over the problem. There wasn't much I could do, apart from waiting for Tommy to return. After a few minutes, I noticed movement at the top of the wall, and Tommy's blonde head emerged, hair tousled with the wind that was inevitably blowing a gale up there. Then, to my surprise, he reached down over the side of the wall, arm stretching to reach for something small I could see attached there. My eyes widened, realising it was a pair of discs - one green, and one purple. As Tommy's hands came into contact with them, they began to shrink before my eyes, growing smaller and smaller until all I could see was something glinting in the palm of his hands. And I realised for the first time why the rings were referred to as discs.

George was right, they were enchanted. And it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. They had been hidden in plain sight all along.

Tommy descended from the top of the wall, emerging from the bottom of the guards tower, and now that he was closer I could see that he had slipped the rings over his fingers. I drew in my breath sharply. This was what I was here for.

Tommy left the guards, and headed back towards where I had been lurking. I retreated hastily, trying to think quickly. Tommy was much taller than me, and I'd need to take him by surprise if I wanted to have any hope of intercepting the rings before they were taken to the ceremony. Thankfully, the road was quiet in these parts - nobody was planning on leaving the city any time soon, and the pathway to the gates were abandoned, apart from the guards stationed at the walls. I waited until Tommy was out of sight from the guards, and then leapt out behind him, simultaneously reaching up to cover his mouth with my hand and kicking the backs of his knees. He fell to the ground with a squeak, which was all that escaped between my fingers, before his arms came up to grab instinctively at my hand. I'd been waiting for this, and it was all too easy to grab the rings off his fingers with my other hand and slip them onto my own.