Eritopia

No Place for a Prince

There was more chat Martin couldn't hear until a voice he recognised as one of the original group spoke. 'Got to go change the guards. We're looking after him next.'

'Who?'

'The Wolf. I told you. Mustn't let 'im settle. We must bang on the door every twenty minutes and wake 'em up.'

'Them?'

'The Wolf, and there's a little man with 'im.'

Martin stepped back. He told his father what he had heard. They slid back into the shadows. As the group came out of the restroom he pointed out the one who had been talking.

'He's the one we need to follow.'

****

'I can't breathe,' Jod was saying.

Not-Bear lay on the floor panting. His nose was right next to the door. He kept hearing footsteps come and go, whispered voices. He felt soft wisps of air come under the door, which he sucked up gratefully.

'When are they going to come back,' he asked.

Jod sat in the corner, tired and disconsolate. 'Come here, lie down, act like a wolf.'

'I wonder what the others are doing,' he said.

****

The Palace dungeons were on three levels, with thirty-two cells on any given floor. All were full. Half were for dissidents and criminals, the others for new army recruits. There were no windows to the outside. The only air came from beneath the door or through a single air brick high in the wall above it.

Beetle and Martin were following the two soldiers. They crept after them, then waited till they turned a corner. They would then creep up to that and look around to see where they turned next.

'What are we going to do when they stop?' Beetle asked.

Martin had armed himself with a large pickaxe handle, which he waved as if to beat someone. 

'With this,' he said.

Beetle had a frying pan. He'd never hit anyone, or anything, with a frying pan before. He'd once thrown a punch in a drunken brawl but ended up way off the mark and suffering a beating.

'I don't think I can do it,' he said.

'We've discussed this,' Martin said. 'When we find where they're keeping Jod and the wolf, the only way to free them is to knock the guards unconscious. Come on.'

As they got to another corner and looked around, they could see the two men. But there was another figure standing with them. Huge, black and bearded, and as the two relief sentries arrived, he was entering a cell.

****

'Well, this is no place for a prince, eh?'

As the door opened, Not-Bear jumped back. Light poured in from the lamp-lit corridor. Melos stood before them.

The door shut behind him.

'What did you say?' Asked Jod.

Melos ignored him. He spoke to Not-Bear. 'I know about you,' he said. 'Much more than you know yourself.'

Jod interrupted. 'Gordon told us everything. Not-Bear is a prince. And you must be Melos, he told us about you too. Not a prince, I gather.'

Melos chuckled, and it was a hearty sound. 'Wise little man,' he said. 'Gordon – I take it he is one of The Brotherhood – only knows what we have allowed him to know.'

'We?' Not-Bear said.

'I have brothers too,' Melos said.

What do you want with us?' Jod asked.

'You came to see me.'

'We came to see the King. Not his henchman.'

Melos bent down and observed Jod. 'The king cowers in his rooms. He is weak and afraid of you, wolf. His thoughts are consumed by an ancient prophecy. It states that the coming of a stranger will take away the power from the city as a new Cycle begins.

'That's what we intend to do,' Jod said.

'With what? Teeth? Small hands?'

'There's an army of us.'

'Where?' He laughed. 'That's what the King fears too. But I wonder about your Brothers. There are not that many of them, they live among the citizens, and on the fringes of the city. Not an army.'

'There are animals,' Jod said.

'Animals. Like during the One War? The animals have become soft. I have seen it myself. They won't fight.'

Jod started to doubt his own argument.

'We came to negotiate,' said Not-Bear. 'To see if the animals and the city can live in harmony again.'

'Impossible,' said Melos. 'You know it. You think the Insiders are weak as well. Why else would you have left them?'

'He was looking for his name.'

'Your name! The Elders could have given you that at any time.'

'Well, now I know I am a wolf,' said Not-Bear. 'And I have status where I come from.'

'And where is that, exactly?' said Melos.

'Across the mountains,' Not-Bear said. But he wasn't sure himself. Gordon hadn't shared that much.

'I too come from far away,' said Melos. 'And I was with you in the forest. I saw your struggles with the hyenas.'

'Melos,' Not-Bear breathed. He turned to Jod. 'The dark hyena, Jod, do you remember?' He turned back to Melos. 'But how?'

'Gordon told us about that too,' Jod said. 'Croneyman, he called you, able to change kind, wanting to govern the world for your own gain.'

'Very accurate,' Melos admitted, nodding. 'Unfortunately, out here, far from my home, my powers are limited. But as for my intentions, who knows, they might change.'

'So, what do you want in all this?' Not-Bear said.

Melos straightened. 'I'm not sure,' he said, 'but I know the King cannot get it for me. I tire of this part of the world. Now I have seen you, Wolf, I know we will meet again. There is a bigger prize at state, but not for this city, and certainly not for this King.'

He smiled. 'Have your fun. Fight for the common good. If you win, remember my words. A greater prize, when we meet again, and a proper name.'

He left the room. There was a scuffle outside. The door swung ajar. When Jod and Not-Bear peered out, two guards were unconscious on the floor. As they stepped out they saw another strange sight. At the end of the corridor Martin and Beetle, makeshift weapons raised above their heads, were coming towards them.