The Maze - Tor's Quest Book 2

Chapter 23

It did not take long to find all of their horses, which had scattered during the fighting. None appeared to be injured so they were soon on the move again. They did not travel far before stopping for the rest of the night; just far enough to put a small hill between themselves and the dead bodies they were leaving behind.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and by the time they reached the outskirts of Tennel, Patrick was alive once more and complaining about the state of his clothes.

The previous evening plans for entering the city were discussed. As they were officially prisoners, Captain Kelly was supposed to take them directly to the jailhouse, where they would remain until an official from the palace decided what should be done with them. However, as two of the group were Princes and, more importantly, they had agreed to try to get a message to the Queen, Kelly wanted them inside the palace grounds as soon as possible. When Tor asked what the standard procedure for arresting foreign royalty was, Kelly had been forced to admit that there wasn't one; to the best of his knowledge, it had never happened.

Earlier that morning, one of the youngest guards had been given the swiftest horse and sent on ahead, with instruction to explain the situation to the Commander of the guard. Officially he should report directly to the General, but Kelly doubted that the General's loyalty was to his Queen, so he preferred to try to get Tor and his men into the city without the military knowing.

Tennel had no surrounding wall so the party were able to enter the city without being intercepted. The original city had a defensive wall around it but, over the centuries, the population had grown so much that shops and houses had to be built outside it. The population outside the wall outgrew the population inside to such an extent that the original city became known as Old Tennel and was often referred to as the inner city.

While the palace, courthouse and the best quality inns were located within the walls of the inner city, as was all housing for the upper class, most of the actual workers and their families lived outside. Locally, the people became known as either 'inners' or 'outers', depending on where they lived and where they were born. While an 'inner' could lose her fortune and become an 'outer', an 'outer' could never earn the status of being an 'inner', no matter how rich she became or what titles were bestowed upon her. Her children, however, would be classed as 'inners' provided they were born after their mother set up residency inside Old Tennel. Effectively, this meant that to be an 'inner' you had to both be born and live within the surrounding wall.

The main market square was in the middle of the city, next to one of the gates providing access through the wall, making it easily accessible to all classes. There were no laws about where shops should be, but those selling higher quality, and therefore higher priced, goods tended to be in the inner city.

The barracks and jailhouse, for obvious reasons, were not within the wall. Soldiers had to patrol the inner city and were responsible for the protection of the upper class, but that did not mean that the 'inners' wanted them living close by. The only exception to this was the Queen's Guardhouse, where the Queen's Guards were based. As they were supposed to provide personal protection to the ruling monarch, they needed to be close at hand and the Queen's uncle, who was slowly managing to take over the country, had yet to find a way of moving them to the outer city.

As they passed along the streets, Patrick was looking around, trying to get his bearings. "Do you mind if we take a slight detour?" he asked. "We are supposed to meet our colleagues at the Red Feather inn and I would like to leave a message for them."

"Be my guest," Kelly replied, indicating with his arm the side street they needed to take. While the rest waited outside, Patrick and Tor entered the inn. After a brief conversation with the owner, Tor hastily wrote messages for both Ban and Hawk, informing them they should contact Captain Kelly of the Queen's Guards. Once the two men were mounted again, the group returned to the main road. A few moments later they ran into the young guard who had been sent on ahead.