Free Chosen Ones by Alister E. McGrath Page B

ways of making you tel us what we need to know.”
    Peter squared his shoulders and tried to look brave. “I wil tel you nothing that I have not agreed to, my lords. Of that you can be certain. I am offering to give you this information on certain conditions.” Again that gasping laugh from the Leopard, but the Wolf intervened, motioning the others to silence.
    “We would like to hear your conditions, Lord Peter. Pray tel us.”
    “Freedom for the lady Julia and myself.
    Freedom…and a boat, so that we might return to our own land.” A boat wouldn’t do them much good, he knew. Somehow they had to get back to that garden and make the pond become a portal back to Oxford.
    But freedom had to come first.
    The Wolf nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on Peter. “Rebel ion against the state is a capital crime.
    The penalty is severe and immediate. Traitors must die. You know that. Normal y, we would…” Peter’s heart leapt at the word “normal y.” Surely this meant that they were about to make an exception in his case?
    “Normal y, we would insist on immediate execution. But if you serve us in this way, we wil al ow you and your companion to leave Aedyn. You wil supervise the construction and testing of this weapon, and you wil have your freedom if the test is successful. If it is not, you wil die. Is that clear?” Peter gulped again. This was getting out of control. But what other option did he have?

    “That is very satisfactory, my lord. I have your word on this?”
    “You have the word of the Wolf.” The lord stood and reached out a pale hand to Peter, who took it in his. “Now you wil return to your apartment. You wil remain there under guard while you show us how to build this cannon of which you speak so highly.” At a nod of his head the guards turned on their heels and dragged Peter away from the Great Hal and back to his chambers. He heard the ominous click of the lock as the door was closed behind him.
    He was alone. He looked out of the windows of his apartment. The darkening night matched his mood as one thought whirled over and over through his mind: what reason did the lords have to keep him and Julia alive if the cannon worked?
    Julia had been thrown into a wooden cage just outside the castle grounds, the door locked behind her. Two guards patrol ed outside. As the sun left the sky in a burst of oranges and pinks Julia closed her eyes and wept, enveloped by the deep gloom of hopelessness. There was nothing that she could do or say to make things better. Her fate lay beyond her control. She watched the guards marching up and down with a growing sense of despair. Was there any way to escape?
    Unaccountably, her mother sprang to her mind.
    Not her mother as she had been in the end, lying weak and pale in bed, unable to eat, unable to speak, unable to hold her own children. No, she thought of her mother as she had been in the years before. Strong and tal —just as tal as her husband, and with al of his fire and bravery. She had been, Julia thought, a great woman. She would have known what to do. She would have known how to help the slaves and how to get home. She would have found a way out of this cage.
    Help would certainly not come from her brother.
    Peter had abandoned and betrayed her, taken in by the dark lords of Aedyn and his sil y need to impress, to be on top. She rested her chin on her knees and looked up at the night sky. The stars were winking into place in the purple velvet heavens. And then she remembered Gaius and Simeon, and how they had spoken of the One who was greater than Marcus.
    Surely this was the moment to cal on him. So there and then, on that dark, cold night, Julia asked the Lord of Hosts to be at her side. To stand by her, even in this darkest hour. And to help her set his people free. Then, exhausted, she fel asleep on the uncomfortable floor of the cage.
    Something woke her some hours later—she could never be sure how many. It was stil night, and the guards were stil