Prince Aero beats on the inside of his door, shouting at the guards to let him out. One yells back that he still has three hours before he is to be escorted out of the castle.
Aero is ready to explode! He has not even attempted sleep at all. He has paced his floor all night. Every word spoken to him by Marco and his brother John Henry has his blood boiling still!
The mixture of rage and humiliation is too much for him to take. He needs out of this room, and the guards placed outside his door will not allow it. The fact that his weapons were confiscated while he was at the feast adds another layer of irritation. A defenseless man awaiting a death march.
Suddenly there is a commotion outside the door. The conversant rattle of the key in the door. Aero readies himself.
The door flings open.
The dark figure of Ser Stephan enters the room. Aero exhales.
“If you don’t mind, I thought we would get an early start to the day.” Stephan says with a smile on his face.
“I agree.”
“Get dressed, meet me in the hall as soon as you’re ready, I have breakfast packed for the road.” Stephan utters as he tosses Aero his sword belt.
Aero wastes little time. His bag had been packed for days, a habit from his military days. He slips into a proper outfit out of the pompous frills his father forced him to wear last night. Without hesitation, or thought to look back at his room, he exits the room.
As the two men walk down the hall accompanied by a half dozen guards, Aero stops at his adolescent sister Shoala’s room. Gently opens the door and peaks in to find her safely sleeping in her bed. He is relieved, yet terrified. He will never be able to protect her again. Her comfort or horror is now in the hands of Marco and John Henry; unless David can find strength and support to stand against them. Aero just knows he must leave at once to give them a chance.
As they exit the private hall into the public portions of the castle, the early risers of the elite of the city take note. Slowly a clap is formed that follows the men all the way out of the castle into the city square.
Why wouldn’t they clap? Publicly everyone has been told that Aero volunteered for the mission on behalf of the crown. The prevailing thought in the capital was that the catalyst for the waning of the dynasty was due to the loss of the sword to Meego. The symbol of unity and power was lost to those disgusting sand people. Never mind that it was originally lost in the first Civil War when King Paul fled the city.
As the men descend the steps from the castle into the square, Aero notices that Matthew, Will and Stephan’s squire are all waiting on them at the bottom of the steps with horses at the ready. Matthew standing by a covered wagon. A thought passes through Aero’s mind that Matthew must have prepared for the journey. It was good seeing him take something serious in life… aside from drinking.
Upon meeting up with the group at the bottom of the stairs they all greet each other, Aero appears even grumpier than Will.
Aero can’t help but notice that Will’s wife and kids aren’t here.
Will looks at Aero and speaks “Thank you for making sure my family is taken care of, it means a lot.”
Before Aero can respond, Stephan tells the group to turn back to the crowd and wave. Seemingly, David’s public relations work has rubbed off on Stephan.
The men turn and wave. Matthew more enthusiastically than the others.
Aero looks around as he waves, he first sees Marco and John Henry at the top of the stairs. Aero’s wave slows as his blood pressure rises. The look of outrage barely begins to form as Stephan reminds Aero to smile.
He does so.
He takes his eyes off Marco and John Henry, he tries to find David and to a lesser degree his father, but they aren’t around.
After a minute or so of waving, Stephan tells everyone to mount up, everyone gets on their horse, except Matthew who climbs onto the wagon. Aero can’t help but notice that the wagon has an additional horse attached to it. Aero allows a moment of levity as he imagines that Matt had been racing his wagon all night with these racing horses.
The street exiting the square is lined with people clapping as they go by. Only the early arrivals get to see the march out of the city. Had the group waited until the scheduled time, it would have been a logistical nightmare.
Stephan leads the group off the hill and into River Bend. As they ease into the dirt town, the clapping stops. The poor don’t care what rich person does what.
However, most notice Ser Matthew. The common folk of River Bend have embraced him as their champion. It is very rare for a commoner of the dirt town to rise in the ranks, so they celebrate Matthew’s achievements.
It takes a few minutes of navigating the overrun crowded streets but finally they arrive at the bridge that exits the capital. After the group cross it, Stephan thanks the guards that were following them and sends them back to their duties.
As Stephan returns to the front of the wagon Matthew looks at Aero and speaks “That was the finest funeral procession I have ever been a part of.”
Aero is close enough to Matt to smell the ale on his breath. “Have you been drinking all night Matt?”
“Just most of the night, and you will thank me for it later.” Matthew responds.
“Okay, I want to start this trip off by making some good time. Let’s get a couple hours of hard riding in, before we take a break.” Stephan interjects as he speeds off.
Matthew and Stephan’s squire immediately follows leaving Aero and Will looking at each other for a moment. The Aero races off leaving Will to catch up.
All the men ride quietly and swiftly. Aero doesn’t understand why Stephan would want to begin the trip with such urgency, but he welcomes it. He also wonders if an inebriated Matt should be driving the carriage at such high speeds. Aero’s thoughts can’t help but return to Marco’s words and the danger he is leaving his family in but leaving was the only way he could ensure that their blood wasn’t on his hands.
Try as he might, he can’t get the John Henry conversation out of his head either. He wishes he had known how big of a snake his brother is… He hopes David will be alright without him or Stephan.
After a solid two-hour sprint, Stephan leads the caravan down a side road towards a watering hole for the horses. They worked hard and deserve refreshments.
Once the horses are led to the water, Stephan pulls the group together. “Okay, cards on the table right now. What happened? Matthew go!”
“I was in the Grove Stone late. I was about to call it a night when two castle guardsmen walked in. They were laughing and carrying on and didn’t see me in my corner spot. I sat and just listened for five minutes as they bragged to everyone about what Prince John Henry had done to his little brother. I thought they were confused about who it was, but they laughed about the dolphin rider as they reenacted their scene.” Matthew pauses and everyone turns to Aero “I don’t want to talk about it, continue Matt.”
“I slipped out as soon as I could, it took me some time to slip through the castle but finally I found Ser Stephan and told him what I had heard. He then sent me to get the wagon with the racing horses and Will.”
“I then asked some of the men that I trust if they heard anything. They had rough details but it matched Matthew’s story enough that I didn’t want to take any chances. So, I got you as soon as the horses and wagon were ready.” Stephan follows up. “What happened last night, Aero?”
Aero pauses for a moment, he hesitates as he remembers Marco’s words, but he fully trusts Stephan and Matthew and at this point is confident that he can kill Will and whatever Stephan’s squires name is to protect his family.
“During the feast Marco pulled me aside and revealed that it was his idea to send me to Meego. He said that my deeds as a knight were becoming well enough known that I posed a threat to him. So, he convinced my father to pass over John Henry to send me so I will be eliminated. He took the dagger David gave me last night and said that if I tried anything other than going to Meego, he would have that dagger used to kill David, both of you (pointing at Stephan and Matthew) and my father. Then he would either install John Henry on the throne or arrange his son to marry Shoala to make his bloodline the new crown.”
“What about John Henry? What did he do?” Stephan asks
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“It’s not important.” Matthew says in support.
Aero feels humiliated but grateful that Matt knows what happened between he John Henry and is willing to keep it private.
“Fine, anyone have anything to add?” Stephan asks.
A silent pause among the group for a moment, then Will raises his hand.
“Yes Will.” Stephan calls out.
“It…it’s nothing, I probably shouldn’t bother you with it.” Will responds.
“Will, I know you don’t want to be here, none of us do but have you heard what’s went down? The crown is under attack, our leaders, our friends and families are going to die if we don’t trust each other. If you know something, share it.” Stephan pleads.
“Okay…Okay… One of Marco’s men, a guard that was on watch at my home told me that my family was dead if I didn’t report back to them with updates. They want me to take you into Meego myself Prince Aero, or my family dies. So, we are in the same boat, you must to go to Meego! PLEASE!” Will shouts as he bursts into tears.
Aero realizes that everyone in the group and their loved ones is marked for death if they don’t complete their mission. Will’s breakdown is just an outward expression of the feeling in everyone’s stomach.
Matthew places his arm around Will for comfort and tells him everything will be okay. Will doesn’t buy it.
Stephan speaks up “As I said, it’s time to put all cards on the table, that includes me.” He turns toward the wagon and calls for someone to come out. The wagon begins to rock back and forth as a someone is climbing out from a hiding spot. To everyone’s amazement, Prince David steps out.
“Brother!” Aero exclaims as he rushes over to him “you can’t be here; we have to get you back immediately.”
“No!” Stephan shouts. “He’s not safe there.”
“Stephan, we have death behind us and death in front of us… nowhere is safe.” Aero retorts.
“Then we will have to be cunning in our next steps, we have to get to Meego but we have plenty of time to do it. We really left a month earlier than we needed to. So, we can take side roads to out of the way places, all the while having Will send back reports that show progress towards Meego, just not progress of where we actually are!” Stephan responds.
“Aero is the royal delegate on this march, and I will be Dave an advisor from River Bend. No one call me prince or David. As far as this journey goes, I am just another commoner helping a royal.” David explains.
“But you’re the future King!” Will responds wiping tears from his eyes “you should be the delegate.”
“No, I am not, or I won’t be as soon as Marco finds out I am missing. John Henry will be named the heir. Therefore, I am just another guy.” David answers back.
Stephan speaks up “Dave is right, Aero is the delegate, and he is in command. We will follow his lead.”
Everyone shakes their heads in agreement. Matthew speaks up “I hope he leads us by a bar soon.”
Everyone mounts up on their horses, Dave sits next to Matthew on the wagon and they begin their journey towards death in the northeast. They ride for Meego!
Relics of the Old Age 