Sir Rowan and the Camerian Conquest (13 page)

Rowan and Mariah waited while one thief tied a bandage around
the other’s arm and both thieves became busy returning all of the stolen goods back to the house. The men looked quite humiliated during the task, but Rowan was not done with them. On their last trip, Rowan took their horses and tied them up on the far side of the home.

“Hey, where’s our horses?” the larger brute said with a scowl on his face when they exited the home.

“You will have your horses back when you’re finished paying for your crime,” Rowan answered. “Down in that grove of trees you will find cut wood, an old mare, and a cart. Load up the cart with the wood; then bring it back and stack the wood neatly alongside the house on the south side.”

The men sneered and hesitated. Rowan stepped toward them with his sword ready. “Hurry along now, before I feel like using this again.”

The men ducked their heads and started toward the trees. Rowan could hear them grumbling at each other as they went.

“Having fun?” Mariah came to stand beside Rowan.

Rowan just smiled as he watched the men disappear into the trees.

“I didn’t know if you remembered how to use a sword after all these months,” she said. “I guess you must have been pretty good after all,” she teased.

Rowan lifted up the sword and saw the mark of the Prince in the pommel. “It’s a beautiful sword,” he said. “Where did you get it?”

“My father has three more in a trunk in my bedchamber. He believes in being prepared.”

“I’m glad for it,” Rowan said, “and for your quick thinking. I don’t know what—” Rowan looked down at Mariah and saw the cut and bruise on her forehead from the brute’s attack. He reached up and gently pushed her hair away from the injury to inspect it more closely. “You’re bleeding.”

Mariah shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

“Come.” Rowan took her hand and led her to the well. He drew a bucket of cold water, then dampened a clean cloth and gently cleaned the blood away. He held the cool cloth on the bruise.

Mariah looked up at him. “Thank you.”

“I have a long way to go to catch up to you,” he said. “But I’m willing to stick around and try if you’ll let me.”

Mariah smiled briefly, then turned away and looked toward the trees where the would-be robbers were working.

“Should we feed them?” she asked.

Rowan was stunned by her question—and by this glimpse into the beauty of her heart.

“I reckon that would be the princely thing to do,” he replied.

Rowan watched the two men closely as they stacked the wood beside the house, making sure they did the job with excellence. When they were finished, they looked like whipped puppies begging to be let go.

“I have one more task for you two before you leave,” Rowan said.

“Look, mister,” the bigger brute said, “we’re real sorry we tried to steal your food.”

“Yes, I’m sure you are,” Rowan said with a smirk.

“And we promise never ta bother you nor the lady agin,” the smaller fellow added.

“That would be wise since if you do, you’ll have more than an arm to bandage,” Rowan said. “Now, go to the well and clean up. Lady Mariah is preparing a delicious meal for us to enjoy.”

The two men looked at each other in astonishment. They started toward the well, but Rowan held up his sword as a gate to stop them.

“I expect you’ll be very polite to Lady Mariah and have good manners at the table,” he said solemnly.

“Yes sir,” the men replied.

By the end of the day, Wallen and Wilbur had eaten a satisfying dinner and heard the life-changing story of the Prince. They left as changed men … with an invitation to come back and hear more.

That evening, as Rowan passed Mariah’s open door on his way to the outbuilding where he slept, he found her kneeling over a trunk on the floor.

“How’s that forehead?” He leaned against the doorpost.

She turned her head and stared at him but said nothing. She then turned back to the trunk. She lifted something from her lap, and only then did Rowan realize what it was. Mariah gently laid Palson’s folded shirt into the trunk and closed the lid.

“I’m sorry.” Rowan felt like an intruder. He quietly turned on his heel and left.

He went to the outbuilding and began gathering his few belongings—mostly clothing Mariah had given him. Though he was not yet to full strength, today was evidence that he did not need Mariah’s care anymore. In an instant his presence around her home had become extremely awkward, and he knew it was time to leave.

He went to the stables and began saddling Biscuit. Before long, Mariah came and leaned on a post nearby. Rowan glanced over at her and continued to work as he talked.

“You’ve strengthened me and brought me back in more ways than you’ll ever know, and for that I will be eternally grateful. Today I realized that I am not here because I need your help anymore. I’m here because…” Rowan stopped and looked at Mariah. “It’s just time for me to leave.” He fiddled with the tack as he added, “I’ll need the horse to get to the village, but I’ll get another one somehow and send Biscuit back to you.”

Mariah came to stand in front of him. As she looked up, he gazed into her eyes and was captivated by them once again.

“Palson was indeed a good man,” Mariah said. She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “And so are you, Rowan. You too have strengthened and healed me in ways you’ll never know. I don’t want you to leave.”

Rowan looked down into blue eyes that were clearly welcoming him into her life. “Are you sure, Mariah?”

She gently smiled and nodded. “I’m sure.”

He reached down, lifted her hand, and gently kissed it. “I am not worthy of you, Mariah, but I promise to endeavor to be so for the rest of my life.”

Mariah smiled at Rowan in a way that made him feel as if he could single-handedly defeat an entire legion of Shadow Warriors for the Prince.

That day Rowan and Mariah pledged their love for each other. Over the next few weeks, Rowan and Mariah’s courtship affirmed their hearts for each other, and they made arrangements to be married in the village. There was no dancing or feast, no gala parade, just two hearts that quietly chose to love each other and to live their lives one for the other.

THE RESOLUTES

With each passing month, Rowan grew stronger. He trained daily with the sword, and Mariah joined him to take up where she had left off with her father years earlier. Their love grew into a true partnership: Mariah completed Rowan, and he completed her.

They spent a happy winter in the cozy comfort of their farmhouse, the joy of their new love touched only by troubling reports about more changes in Laos and the other cities of Cameria. Rowan returned from hunting one spring morning to see a neighbor from the village cantering away from the house. Mariah waited for him at the door, a worried expression on her face.

“Nora had news,” she told him, her eyes filled with anguish. “It’s just as we feared. The Knights of the Prince have been banned in Kroywen.” Her face crumpled as she added, “The haven has been closed, the leaders arrested. Oh, Rowan …”

Rowan pulled her to him, his heart heavy. “I was afraid this was coming,” he said. “Laos will be next.”

He felt her nod against his chest. She sniffled heavily, then pulled back enough to look him in the eye. “It’s time, Rowan.”

He took a deep breath. “I know. We’ll talk to Reginald tomorrow and work out something about the farm.”

The decision was made in an instant, but it had been brewing all
that winter. Many long evenings by the fire, while sleet scratched against the windowpanes, they had talked of finding Mariah’s father and brother and of joining the cause of the Resolutes. As isolated as they were, news still kept trickling in of disturbing developments in the cities. And though part of them longed to remain isolated from the cares of the rest of Cameria and enjoy their quiet life a little longer, their hearts could not turn away from the cries of the oppressed. Good people were suffering and possibly dying, and both Rowan and Mariah felt called to do everything in their power to stop it.

For months now, they had known it was just a matter of time before they left. Now they both knew the moment had come.

Within a week, they had boarded up the farmhouse, entrusted the remaining animals to neighbors, and packed enough provisions to last for several weeks of travel. With two riding horses and a pack horse, they set out east. They made a point to bypass Laos, for there was no need to enter it and risk being imprisoned. After a two days’ ride, they found themselves drawing near to the Boundary Mountains, where Zetta had said the Resolutes were camped.

But where in the Boundary Mountains were they?

“When he is strong enough,” the old woman had said, “come to the kingdom’s first sun.” But what did that mean?

“The sun rises in the east and first strikes the highest peaks of the Boundary Mountains,” Rowan mused.

“Yes, and Zetta looked southeast of Laos when she said it.” Mariah pointed. “That’s where Thunder Mountain is.”

The peak of Thunder Mountain pierced the sky just to their northeast. The mountain was only one of many in the seemingly endless range that ran from one end of the kingdom to the other, but they considered it their best shot.

The mountain wasn’t so uniformly steep that they couldn’t navigate it with their horses, but it still took them three days of hard climbing to reach the lofty tree line. The air was thin and cold here, and they decided that the Resolutes surely would not have made their base higher than this. They could see the city of Laos far below them and thought how
unthreatening it seemed from here. They combed the western face of the mountain another three days, but could find no trace of the resistance forces.

One morning as they were trying to shake the chill from their bones by huddling around a small campfire, Mariah leaned into Rowan, and he placed his arm around her shivering shoulders.

“It’s a shame we don’t have a little sun on this side of the mountain to warm us in the morning,” Rowan said.

Mariah nodded, then slowly looked up at Rowan with a countenance of illumination. Then Rowan realized it too and shook his head in disgust. “We’ve been searching on the wrong side of the mountain!”

They laughed at themselves, but the revelation warmed and motivated them. They quickly broke camp and started their trek to the eastern face of Thunder Mountain … where the sun first struck the kingdom.

They finally arrived on the edge of a beautiful, lofty mountain plateau where the snow melted into ice-cold streams. Green grass and vibrant wildflowers shared the landscape with evergreens and deciduous trees bursting forth with new life. They dismounted for a short break, long enough to marvel at the beauty of it all.

“From up here, it seems as though everything is right in the kingdom,” Mariah said with a radiant smile across her face.

Rowan looked at her and nodded. “As long as we’re together, I think it shall be.”

Mariah put her arm through his and squeezed, then froze. “Did you see that?”

“See what?” Rowan followed her eyes, looking just ahead of them to where the trees became thicker.

“I’m not sure, but something moved up there—perhaps a deer or a mountain goat, but something moved.”