Free The Palace (Bell Mountain Series #6) by Lee Duigon Page B

breath knocked out of her.
     
    Martis swung himself down from the back of a trooper’s horse.
     
    “I’ll go,” he said. “One man on foot can get through where twelve on horseback can’t.”
     
    “You’re not fit for it, Martis,” Kadmel said, as kindly as he could. “That blow on the head—”
     
    “From which I have recovered!” Martis finished for him. “I’ve rested all I need to rest, and eaten enough of your rations to get back my strength. I’ll go to Silvertown.”
     
    “And what about me?” Ellayne’s voice broke. “Do you think I can just say ‘Oh, well,’ and go home?”
     
    “You’ll obey your father’s orders, miss,” said Kadmel. “And mine!”
     
    Martis walked up to Aswyll’s horse and held Ellayne’s hand.
     
    “It’ll be all right,” he said. “I’ll pose as an outlaw and get into Silvertown. There’s always a welcome there for traitors to Obann. I’ll find Jack and get him out. I’ve had harder missions than this. You know that, Ellayne.”
     
    Wytt watched and listened. In his own way, he understood what all these Big People were saying. But when he started chattering, only Ellayne understood him. That was a gift that she and Jack had received at the top of Bell Mountain.
     
    “I go with Whiteface,” he chirped to Ellayne. “We find Boy.”
     
    “Oh, don’t be silly, Wytt!” Ellayne said. “Martis can’t understand you when you talk.”
     
    “That’s true,” Martis said. “But I can understand enough so that Wytt could help me get there safely.”
     
    “Then take me, too!”
     
    “I promised your father I wouldn’t let you face any danger,” Kadmel said. “You stay with us, Ellayne.”
     
    “I’ll run away!”
     
    “I’ll tie you up, if I have to.”
     
    “The sergeant’s right, Ellayne,” Martis said. “My best chance is to go alone, with Wytt to help me get there—no scouts will be able to sneak up on him. It’s our only chance. If you went, too, it’d be twice as dangerous, with only half the chance of success—a chance that’s small enough already.”
     
    They were all so right! And it was all so wrong, Ellayne thought.
     
    “Give me a kiss for good luck,” Martis said, “and pray for me.”
     
    In the end he had his way. He and Wytt went off together. No Jack, no Martis, and now no Wytt! When the troop turned to ride back to Ninneburky, Ellayne rode with them, feeling lonelier and more forsaken than she’d ever felt in her life.
     

 
    CHAPTER 11
    How Jack Was Offered a Crown
     
    The morning after the day they first met, Enith went next door to see Ellayne and was told by a maid that Ellayne wasn’t home: “She’s had to go somewhere,” with no further explanation. But in the evening she got the story out of Aunt Lanora, who didn’t always know when to keep things to herself.
     
    “The poor baroness!” And here Grammum would have stopped her, but Grammum wasn’t there, she’d gone out to visit someone, so Aunt Lanora just went on. “First the boy taken by river pirates, or some such—and now Ellayne gone off with soldiers, trying to rescue him! The poor lady can hardly see straight, she’s so upset. And in the middle of the night! To let a young girl like Ellayne go riding with a bunch of troopers, when she ought to be in bed … Honestly, I don’t understand it! I don’t know what the baron could have been thinking, to allow it.”
     
    It certainly was very strange, Enith thought. She couldn’t imagine any girl being allowed to do a thing like that. How could Ellayne rescue anybody? But Aunt Lanora didn’t know about Wytt—he was always careful not to be seen by any of the baron’s household staff—so there was no way she could understand the situation.
     
    “Ellayne went out on a horse? In the middle of the night—with soldiers? To chase pirates?” Just saying it made it seem all the more incredible.
     
    “I’m sure I don’t know what this world is coming to!” Aunt Lanora