One Hundred Tears In The Sunset

Chapter Nineteen

'I shall never let my guard down. Never let her down for she is all I have to lose now.'

****

A loud cry into the deep dark night was what pulled the Princess from her dreamless sleep. The air was so cold to the skin she could barley move. Her limbs seemed frozen in place, the breath from her lips turned to a white mist,

"Brooke?" She hissed, "Did you hear that?" Teyha slowly sat up. Her whole body ached worse than it had before she had slept. The loud cry echoed eerily out again,

"Go back to sleep Tey." He grunted from the shadows,

"But it could be..."

"Sounds like a fox to me." She heard the clank of a bottle and a soft chuckle from Brooke. Teyha's whole body wanted to lay down and sleep but there was something about that cry. Something about it that made her gut drop ten feet down. The cry came loud and clear. The sound of a person in pain?

"We have to help them!" She pushed herself up and steadied her swaying head with a hand on a tree,

"Tey." Brooke sighed but she heard him stand up as well, "It's really nothing to do..." The cry came again. This time it sounded young, and like a boy. Teyha froze in horror,

"Oh. Oh it's Clarence, Brooke!" She whispered.

****

Brooke stood in the dark straining to hear into the shadows. He dropped the glass bottle on the floor and tried to stand straight. His body felt like it would collapse in two bits but the whiskey had helped. It had numbed the pain for a moment and stilled his racing mind for a few hours,

"We have to go to him." Teyha was only a dark shadow in the air but he imagened her horrified face. Her grey eyes wide open in the night,

"It's not him." He muttered just as the cry echoed out again. Brooke's heart stopped beating. He gasped back a terrified breath because the Princess was right. Somewhere in the distance someone was crying out and that someone sounded alot like Clarence,

"Brooke, we need to..."

"Yes. Yeah ok. Stay behind me." He grunted and started to jog steadily through the woodland. While the Princess was sleeping he had twisted his wrist back in place. The pain had screamed through his lips but Teyha hadn't woken up. Now his hand was paining but working again,

"What do you think has happened?" She gasped behind him. Brooke didn't answer. His pulse was racing so fast, his mind was clear, he couldn't think about what might be happening not yet. The cry came nearer this time. The man skidded to a stop and turned to Teyha,

"You stay here." He muttered,

"But..."

"No listen I have a reason. What ever is happening is bad. Clarence is no wimp he wouldn't cry for nothing. I don't want to worry for you as well." He snapped and raced through the trees. Brooke thought she would try and follow but for once Teyha stayed behind him. Ahead in the trees a soft fire glow echoed gently. He frowned and slowed his running feet until the harsh barks of a voice rang out and met his straining ears,

"We know you went with them." Someone was saying,

"I nev'ar I didn't even know 'e 'ad left! I only wanted ta go and 'ave an adventure!" The small voice was obviously Clarence's. Brooke felt like someone had punched him with ice, until he had heard the boy talking, part of him had wanted to believe it really was a fox,

"We have witnesses who have seen you with this man! Brooke Heathingdale is crazy and you protecting him is just as crazy!" Brooke could see the outline of a guard holding a fire lamp in a small circle of trees,

"Ya calling Brooke crazy is the only thing 'round 'ere that's crazy!" Clarence snapped. The guard held a wooden bat and smashed it against the boy's face. Brooke wanted to jumped from the trees and rip up the guards face up. Anger rushed over him but he held it back. Clarence could take the blow even if he cried out loudly,

"Where is he? You realize if you do not tell him the truth I am aloud to dispose of you in any way I wish." The guard grinned in the orange light and Brooke heard the soft chuckles echo from around them. There were more guards in the clearing, around ten or more sat along the floor resting for the night. He stared in utter shock at how close him and Teyha had been to them,

"Then dispose of me! Ya'no Brooke is worth ten of ya, and the Princess is worth a million! I would happily put down my worthless life for them!" Clarence grinned widely and his brown eyes flashed to the trees were Brooke hid. The man sucked in a breath. Could Clarence see him? And if he could what if the guards eyes darted to the shadows?

"Just shut the scum up Bill! I'm trying to get some sleep!" Another guard shouted in anger,

"Do you know where Brooke is heading? Tell me now or I'll cut your throat."

"Now le'me see, even if I do tell ya, ya still cutting me throat. But I wouldn't tell ya even if ya were telling the truth. I wouldn't even tell the devil if he stood in front of me promising ta take me ta hell." The boy stared up at the sky and then let his gaze fall on Brooke. He winked with a smile, "There's too many guards here to do anything, and I've liked my little adventure. I'm 'oping ya get some happyness in life. Ya deserve it."

"What the hell are you talking about?" The guard was frowning but Clarence was staring at him with a sad smile. It was true if Brooke jumped out to save the boy the guards would kill him and Clarence in seconds and no one would be there to protect Teyha. He had to clutch the bark of a tree to stop himself from datring out into the clearing. The servent boy stared up at the stars,

"Do you know where he is?" The guard held a small knife to the boy's neck. Clarence flinched slightly but he kept his gaze on the sky. Brooke stuffed his hand in his mouth biting down on his hand. The burning pain kept him from crying out, or jumping to his own death by trying to rescue Clarence,

"Yeah I know where 'e is." The boy chuckled,

"Where. Where?" A thin line of blood had started to roll down Clarence's neck as the blade pushed down into his skin. The boy didn't answer and for a moment Brooke saw fresh fear flash through his brown eyes. How can this happen? A vision flashed through Brooke's mind as he remembered a hundred memories...

A young servant boy trying to steal his shoes...Brooke running after him and catching the cocky boy...

A late midnight moon gazing down on Clarence as he sneeked out to visit him.

The soft smell of just cooked bread that the servant boy had stolen for Brooke.

The day when Brooke had decided to teach Clarence how to read and the endless words which followed.

The time when Clarence had picked him up from the forest floor after he drank too much.

They had been friends, man and boy. Clarence had helped Brooke through the darkness of his days, had shown him that light can seep from the darkness. Now the servant boy stood with a knife at his throat welcoming death to save Brooke yet again. Only this time there was nothing Brooke could do to help the boy.

"Just s***h his damn throat. I need some sleep and he don't know anything. He's just messing us about." A guard grumbled breaking into Brooke's vision. It didn't happen like it would have in a novel. In a novel Brooke would have been able to tackle from the trees and slay down every guard and save Clarence.

*

"Until our next life then." The boy whispered and kept his eyes open staring at the million specks of glittering stars. The sky was so dark tonight, the wind was chilly. Everything around Clarence seemed beautiful. He should have been scared, terrified, yet the boy was oddly calm. He knew Brooke was in trees watching. He couldn't see the man but some part of him just knew. The knife on his neck barley hurt, the drips of blood rolling down his skin tickled. Clarence smiled softly keeping his gaze on the laughing stars. His Mother had once told him the stars were everyone in life who had shone and now they shone brightly in heaven. He hoped he would be a star. Maybe he would see his Mother now? Maybe she would greet him in the skies with the kind smile she always used for him. Clarence felt a tear leak from his eyes but somehow the drip of salt hardly felt real in the moment. The boy wasn't sad, he shouldn't be crying. The guard shouted something to him but Clarence didn't hear. Instead he could hear a song forming in the wind, a warmth circling his face like the sun was shining from somewhere in the night. A pure peace filled every limb of the boy, liquid sunshine pumped through his veins. The world seemed to disappear around him and was replaced with golden light. The song was louder now, a sweet sound that reminded him of sunny days spent in flower gardens and honey cake juicy in the mouth. Clarence couldn't remember when the knife sliced deeply into his throat but he knew he was dead.

The last thing the boy saw in his life was the deep kisses from the laughing stars.