Remnant of Power

Chapter Three

Mal

At noon, Mal walked through the market looking for food. Ignoring the appraising looks of the market girls, he went straight to the pie stall and bought a rabbit pasty and a handful of apricots. But as he crammed the pie into his mouth he thought how strange it was to eat the whole pie to himself; normally he gave half to Yoldas. As soon as he got back to Carthaven tonight, once he'd done his chores, he'd search the whole village till he found his dog.

Licking his fingers, Mal looked across the square towards the stalls, and gulped. This morning when he left his cottage to look for Yoldas before meeting Gared, an unknown black dog had been lying in Yoldas' favourite spot in between the neighbours' cottages. Now, the same dog was sitting motionless next to the leather stall, watching him intently. As he got up to buy food for Sam and Gared, the dog followed him at a distance.

"Gared," said Mal in a low voice, handing over his friend's pasty, "this morning, I noticed that stray dog outside the neighbour's house. Today, when I ate my pie, I realized that it was sitting nearby, watching me, and just now it's followed me back here to the stall. I've seen it before. When Yoldas disappeared before I remember seeing it skulking around the cottage next door. Why is it here now? What's going on?" He nodded his head to indicate where the dog was standing.

"Have you been at the mead again, Mal? He's just a stray dog." Gared pulled his handsome face into a grimace.

A bell clanged loudly behind them. They turned around. The town crier was standing in the middle of the market, two soldiers on either side of him, one was a captain wearing a sash bearing the King's insignia - a gold sword across a black castle. The crier rang the bell three more times and began to shout.

"Hear ye, hear ye, city folk, hear ye! By order of His Most Royal Majesty, King Ulric of Arvad, all young men will be detained in the city for a short period today. His Most Royal Commander and his troops will be collecting the young men very soon for an urgent enquiry into His Majesty's missing nephew. The Most Royal Commander will be arriving at any moment. When he arrives, I will announce further instructions. There is nothing to fear, and no-one will be detained after the investigation has taken place."

A voice called, "Oh yer, like what happened in Bridgetown, and Farmtown, and Whitton, and Fordbridge you mean? They all got taken away in chains, and some were killed." Murmurs of agreement swelled through the crowd.

A louder voice yelled, "We don't want no soldiers stopping us getting out. Block the gates so they can't shut 'em!"

"Seize that man!" shouted the captain. "He's causing an affray! Hold him still!" More soldiers thrust through the crowd in the direction of the heckler, as the captain shouted "By order of the King, no-one is to leave. Seize the young men!"

A wave of panic pulsed through the city folk. People began to run from the soldiers, shouting at others to follow them. Men nearby picked up planks, knives, bottles, anything, to use as weapons. Gared and Mal looked at each other. A troop of soldiers on horseback suddenly flooded the city square. Mal saw Gared pull his scarf tight around his neck and then he felt a nudge on his leg. He looked down. It was the stray dog. It trotted away from the crowd, then back to the stall, then stopped, looked back at them and whined.

"I don't like all this, Mal, and what's that dog doing? D'you think it wants us to go with it?" asked Gared. Mal looked up to answer but then saw a group of soldiers pushing towards them.

Several of the soldiers were dragging young men with them; some were bleeding heavily.

Mal instinctively tightened his hand around the dagger he always wore at his waist.