“Eva, I’ll explain everything when we get out of here. Now we should go or we’ll be in grave danger” George said. So we went back the passageway and then out of the castle. On the way down the castle I asked George
“George? What did you do next?”
“Um…we went with Martin to their rooms and he explained some of the conditions of the people which were way too horrible. As we were going as spies to the neighboring city we changed our names. Elisa was changed into Eva and I got the same name and Adam was changed into Carlo” he said.
“Carlo? So Adam’s Carlo?”
“Not here, Oliver” he said and we walked in silence. I didn’t know whether Eva listened to what George said or not. She was just walking like the dead. George said he knew an abandoned house in the city. We were searching for it. Searching was difficult. All the houses were alike. Finally we found it at the edge of the city almost near the archway. We went in. there were two rooms. As soon as we entered the house, Eva asked
“How am I here?”
“You time travelled and you are here” I said childishly.
“Shut up” she bellowed and asked again. She was surely confused and her confusion has changed into anger.
“Eva look, this part is just the beginning. At the end of the trip you’ll understand everything. Now go and get some sleep. You’ll be tired after a long day. Tomorrow we have a lot of travelling to do” George said. But Eva was not convinced. She started to protest but she stopped herself and went to a room and slammed the door. Maybe tiredness has overpowered her. As George said, it was really a long day. We have fought a war and got hit by stones and time-travelled. Believe me you have no idea how much of your energy will be sucked if you time-travel. I and George took the second room. Before going to sleep George said
“She has gone through a lot, Oliver”
“What does that supposed to mean?” I asked. But he didn’t answer. Instead I heard a snore from him. So I tried and calmed my mind as much as I could and went to sleep. After two long days I had a peaceful dreamless sleep.
The next morning I woke up at six in the morning. Actually I did not wake up myself. George woke me up by saying
“Wake up, Oliver. They must have started by now.” I got up and wiped the sleep off my eyes by rubbing it and asked
“Where’s Eva? Is she awake?”
“Of course she is. She has gone to the town to buy three horses” he said
“Horses?”
“Yes. You can’t walk all the way to a nearby city, can you? Now get up and don’t go back to sleep” he said and went out of the room.
“Hey. Hey George, wait. Is it safe? You know, people know her” I asked.
“Yeah it is dangerous indeed. But she covered her face with some bed-sheets and said that she needed some air. So I let her go”
“She can’t get air in this building?” I mumbled.
“Honestly, Oliver you should be more grateful to get a house to spend a night” George said in a tensed tone.
“Okay George, just saying. Don’t get tensed” I said and when I finished we heard a scream outside the house. It was definitely Eva’s voice. We went out and saw Eva chasing a small boy. The boy had a bag in his hand.
“Hey stop. That’s my bag. Give it back” Eva was shouting and chasing him. George went and stood in his way. But he cleverly tackled him and ran to the left. Then I started chasing him though I was not a good runner. The boy ran through narrow streets making it harder to chase him. He turned into a street but I skipped it and turned into the next street. Both the streets were parallel and both were connected at the end. I ran to the end of the street and stood there waiting for him to crash into me. That’s what happens in movies, right? But this boy turned to the other side and ran away but I did not give up. I chased and tried the same for the second time. This time the boy was not so lucky because the only way he could run was through me. The opposite side was a dead end. He came straight and crashed into me almost knocking me to the floor. I fell. He tried to run but I pulled his leg so he fell face first to the floor and groaned as his nose was badly hurt. The boy was lean. It was obvious that poverty had hit him so hard that it made him steal things. He was wearing a ragged linen shirt. I grabbed it and lifted him up. He raised his hand to his face to defend. He was scared of me.
“I am not going to hurt you” I said and plucked the bag from his hand. There were almost a hundred gold coins in the bag. I took ten coins out and gave it to the boy.
“Do not steal anymore. Okay?” I said. He got the gold coins, nodded his head and ran away from that place. Then I went back to the house. Eva and George were waiting for me. When they saw me they asked in unison
“Where is he?”
“I let him go with ten gold coins. He was just a boy. It was clear that poverty has hit him” I said. I expected angry faces from both of them. But the reaction was different.
“You did a great job, Oliver” they said and we went to buy horses. George said he knew a man who was a horse dealer and he also said that he had supplied horses for the army once. We went to a stable. The shopkeeper was fat and he was sleepy. He directed us through his stables and let us to pick the horses we liked. As soon as we entered I saw a horse and chose it. George whispered in my ear
“Feeling sentimental Oliver? He’s not your Max”
“At least he looks like him” I said. The horse I chose was like it was a clone to Max. So I chose him and the others chose theirs. The man fixed the price of each horse as thirty gold coins.
“George, do you have more money? Because if we spend ninety gold coins for horses this bag becomes empty” I asked
“Don’t worry. I’ve got three bags full” he said. We paid the money and went home with our brand new horses. We took our belongings which were not much. Just some water in earthen pots and some fruits, then started our journey to Leicester.
We travelled past the war field, the oak forest in which I got stabbed in the thigh, the place where king Augustin’s war camp will be set up in two weeks of time and the forest in which I fought two tigers. I recognized all the places until we crossed the forest. George was leading us and he seemed to know the way. As soon as we came out of the forest the whole scenario changed. It was just nine in the morning but the weather made it like noon. The place was very hot and humid and very brown. I started sweating a lot.
“They must have reached the city by now” George said. I could see an archway in the distance.
