Daughter of the Rebellion

Chapter 16

The journey to Richard's home seemed endless. I was grateful that he arranged for me to ride in a wagon rather than having to walk or ride horseback the way almost everyone else did, but I began thinking we would never get there. We traveled from sunrise to sunset every day, and by the time we neared the north kingdom, I'd lost track of the days. I was pretty sure it had been over a week by the time we finally arrived though.

At first, it wasn't much different from the type of community I was used to. We passed several small villages that looked like mine, with the exception that these places all seemed untouched by the recent war.

Before long, everything became vastly different from anything I'd ever seen. There were so many buildings all together - some of them were three and four stories high! There were entire shops for things like shoes and hats. Even the roads were different. Rather than the dirt roads I was used to, these roads were made out of brick. I couldn't fathom the time it must have taken for them to lay each and every one. The kingdom was enormous, and everywhere I looked, I saw brick roads!

And there were so many people! I'd assumed that the few hundred in and around my village constituted a decent sized population, but after traveling through a relatively small portion of the kingdom, I'd seen several hundred. A few times, the wagon actually had to stop to allow people to move out of the way before we could pass. There must be literally thousands of people in this place!

Rising above it all was the castle. Papa had told me that the castle in our kingdom was grand, but somehow, I never pictured anything close to what I saw in the distance. What would it be like up close? With everything that the king or the ambassador or whoever, was responsible for, I shouldn't have been so interested by what the inside of the castle looked like, but I couldn't help it. I'd never even imagined anything like it.

I'd assumed that the castle was our destination, but when the wagon turned into a large, opulent gate a good distance away, I realized that we must be going to Richard's home. My home I realized, suddenly very nervous.

The wagon bumped along a gravel path, through a spacious front yard, heading toward a gigantic house. It was a brick building with towering white columns and two large curved staircases leading to the porch. There was not one, but two massive doors of dark cherry wood, inlaid with delicate panes of glass which formed an intricate pattern. There were three floors, as far as I could tell, and I couldn't even begin to count the windows, which all seemed to share the same pattern as the glass in the doors. There were turrets and spires, and intricate trim bordering everything. To me it seemed like a castle.

Transfixed, I stared as much as my view from inside the covered wagon would allow, at the largest, most beautiful building I'd ever seen up close.

I was supposed to live here? I would never be able to find my way around such a place.

We drove around the back of the house and stopped near the stables. That building alone was ten times larger than my family's house.

Too nervous to move at first, I clung to the wagon and hoped that Richard would come for me so that I could cling to him instead.

I heard him greet a stable hand, and decided that I didn't want to be quite so dependent on him. Even if I was incredibly afraid, I wasn't completely helpless. My life here was going to be vastly different than it had been over the last several months, and I was probably going to have to interact with many different people. If I had any hope of surviving, I couldn't wait to be rescued all the time. Especially when there was really nothing to be rescued from.

Just as I decided to climb down on my own, I paused, hearing a girl's excited cry.

"Richard!" she shrieked.