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.
"We've done nothing wrong Gared, we should just stay here." He shoved a hand through his hair.
The dog nudged him, harder this time, then very carefully fastened its teeth around some loose cloth of Mal's breeches and pulled.
"I don't want to be questioned by any soldiers, Mal. We need to go, and quickly" said Gared, brushing crumbs from his hands. "Whatever this business is with the nephew, they've no reason to talk to us. We don't need to hang around." As if it'd understood, the stray dog let go of Mal's breeches and ran towards the stall.
As Gared stalked after it, Mal hesitated. He didn't want to shame himself in front of men he'd see again when he next helped Sam. Gared strode back and grabbed his friend, just as a shout came from behind them.
"Seize them!"
Two huge soldiers grabbed each of them from behind. Mal's stomach clenched as he felt his arms tied behind him. The rope burnt his skin as he wrenched his arms from the ties, but a soldier punched his head and for a moment Mal saw his vision dissolve into stars. He kicked behind him, and caught one man between his legs. But as the soldier groaned and bent over, two more grabbed Mal, tying his wrists tighter. He was picked up and thrust belly down onto a horse. What was happening? Why was he being taken by the King's soldiers? What did they think he'd done? With a jolt, he remembered the black coach that had been parked next to the two cream ones. Was it because he'd helped the girl?
From his awkward position draped over the horse he looked ahead to the huge castle that dominated the city's skyline. He and Gared and the other young men that had been seized were being taken there, the horses marched along the paved city streets by foot soldiers.
Staring ahead at the castle, he suddenly saw a sight that made his insides heat up, despite his capture. It was the girl from the coach. She was riding side-saddle towards them on a skittish brown horse, in amongst a party of liveried footman and the important looking man who'd shared her coach. Just like before, her hair billowed out around her in a silver haze. Despite his uncomfortable position, their eyes met. He saw her gasp. She looked at the soldiers, and her expression grew stern. As her party trotted towards the group of soldiers leading him, he saw her hand disappear into a bag she wore across her shoulders. Her horse drew almost level with his and he couldn't believe what she did next. Clutching some kind of long hair pin, she leant over and jabbed it into his horse.
It reared, shrieking and Mal crashed to the ground. Her horse reared too, and he found himself lying next to her on the stony street. He felt pressure on the rope that bound his hands, then suddenly his hands were free, and she pressed a tiny dagger into his palm. He looked around for Gared and saw he was still lying over the horse, struggling to get free. Two soldiers cuffed him until he lay still. Mal could see blood oozing from a cut on his head.
The girl started screaming at the top of her voice. All about him more horses were rearing and some had begun to run amok around the city square. Soldiers were pouring along the street. In a minute or two he would be captured again. He looked at her in horror, and she met his eyes for a fraction of a second before giving him the tiniest possible wink.
She gave an ear-splitting shriek. "Help me, help me. You soldiers! Help me now! If anything happens to me, you will answer to the King! Ahhhhh! The horses are trampling me! I'm going to die and it's all because you soldiers won't help me!"
A heavy hand clapped Mal on the shoulder. Without thinking any more about it, he dove to the floor and rolled over, then scrambled to his feet and ran into the crowd. Looking over his shoulder he saw Gared still not moving, lying slumped across his fretting horse now in the middle of the troop of soldiers.
Mal stared at his friend, curdled rabbit pie bubbling in his stomach. Gared, who he'd done everything with since they were small, his friend - who he trusted with his life - was now unconscious, being taken by soldiers to the castle of a wicked and brutal king. And right now, there was nothing he could do.
Keeping his head down, Mal barged through the crowd in the direction of the city gates, hardly looking where he was going. All he could see in front of him was a picture of Gared lying over the horse like a sack of wool, bleeding. He pulled his coat off his arms and flapped his shirt away from his skin as he ran, stopping for a second just before he reached the city gates. Why was he running away? He should be running after Gared, trying to rescue him. He couldn't lose his best friend as well as his dog. But there were soldiers everywhere. There was no way he could fight them all and rescue Gared on his own. He had to do something. Mal coughed and spat. His throat felt so tight he could scarcely swallow. Looking over at the city gates he made a decision. The gates were hardly manned. Had all the guards been ordered to help with the insurrection? Wherever they were, the gates were open enough for him to get out of the city. He'd run to safety and then he'd work out a plan to rescue Gared and find Yoldas.