The Forgotten Kingdom

Chapter 5

    Desmond’s head was filled with questions – he’d found the brick weird, but it was important enough for Mayor Hyram to hear about? And it was a path? There was an outpost in the woods no one knew about? What kind of bandit outpost had a brick path? He was so caught up in trying to decode these mysteries, he didn’t realize they’d arrived at his home until the guard he’d ridden with was ushering him out.

    “Remember, you aren’t to tell anyone the mayor is interested in what you found. Not a soul.” The guard pushed Desmond forward to his house, before getting back in the carriage. Desmond watched as it drove off, when he could no longer see it he let out a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding in.

    At the same time he relaxed, the door opened and a second later he felt arms around him.

    “Oh Desmond you’re back, what happened? Why did the mayor want to see you?” He turned around in the embrace and saw the worried look etched on his mother’s face and all his questions came to the forefront.

    “It’s nothing mother, I should get back to work or-“

    “Oh, scorch work,” she scoffed, leading Desmond inside, “I can tell you’ve been rattled, and work can wait for a day.” She led Desmond to sit at the table in the kitchen.

“I… mom I don’t know if I can talk about it,” he said leaning forward, his voice nearing a whisper.

    Before she could reply, the front door open and Desmond jolted to a stiff-backed stand, as if he expected Mayor Hyram himself to be standing there, flaming blade in hand.

    Instead, he saw Elsabeth, sweating and panting, still wearing her apron and gloves she wore at the forge.

    “I heard… guards… here…” she panted out, before leaning against a doorframe.

    “Ellie what in fire’s name are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at Gilford’s right now.” Their mother asked, standing with her hands on her hips. Desmond couldn’t help but note the irony that just a moment ago she had told him work could wait.

    “Well excuse me mother for being worried about the family,” Ellie said, standing straight herself, looking like the mirror image of her mother. “The old man said I could come home and check.”

    “How’d you even find out about it? Are you gossiping at work instead of forging? Is that why our plow’s still broken?”

    “Oh it’s always the plow with you, mom,” Elsabeth groaned, before pulling off her gloves. “Where’s dad? Is that why the guards were here?” She asked, an edge of concern knit into her expression.

    “No he’s gone to market with the cheese,” their mom said with a tension-relieving sigh, her shoulders relaxing as she settled back into her seat. “I’m glad you were worried, Ellie. They were here for Desmond. He was just about to tell me why.”

    Both women affixed their gaze to Desmond, making him feel just as cornered as he did in Mayor Hyram’s sitting room. He knew better, but he couldn’t lie to his family, and besides, Mayor Hyram had said he expected the loggers to talk anyways. What harm could it really do to tell his family what he found?

    Then the threat rung in his mind. Was it a threat? A warning? An order to keep quiet? Desmond couldn’t tell.

    His family was always there for him.

    But what if telling them put them in danger?

    What if keeping his simple discovery of a brick in the woods a secret was what put them in danger?

    What if-

    “Oh out with it already! You’ve been staring at your hands for ages!” Elsabeth shouted, bringing Desmond out of his head and back into reality. Elsabeth had taken the seat he’d been sitting in before she threw open the door.

    “Ellie don’t yell at your brother like that, the poor boy’s clearly nervous,” their mom said.

    “Oh you’re right, mom, I’m sorry Dezzy, did I hurt your feelings?” Elsabeth said, her voice dripping in sarcasm that, for a moment, made Desmond angry.

    “You didn’t hurt my feelings! Fine, I’ll tell you,” he huffed, sitting down and crossing his arms over his chest, “I found something when I was delivering tools for Gilford and they think it leads to a bandit camp. Okay? Don’t tell anyone I told you because Mayor Hyram explicitly told me not to tell anyone.”

    “What did you find?” Elsabeth asked, her interest clearly picking up. He could see the spark of adventure in her eyes that always, without fail, led to trouble.

    “It doesn’t matter, El.”

    “Of course it matters, the mayor wouldn’t pull you out of our house if it didn’t matter.”

    “Elsabeth that’s enough, he doesn’t have to tell us.”

    “Come on Desmond, you’ve already broken your promise, you might as well tell us.”

    “It was a brick! Okay, it was a brick,” Desmond said, just wanting to get the questioning over with.

    There was a long moment of silence, and a pair of confused faces, after Desmond’s confession.

    “A brick?” Elsabeth asked.

    “They dragged you to that no good Mayor’s mansion for a lousy brick?” Their mother asked, placing her hands on the table just a little too hard. Desmond always forgot that Elsabeth got her fire from their mother. “Why I have half a mind to march right up to that gate and give him a piece of my mind. A brick, of all the burning things a brick?”

    “Have to agree with mom here, Des, what’s so special about this brick?”

    “Apparently it was a part of a path or something.”

    “A path?” Elsabeth asked, not even attempting to hide her excitement.

    “Stop right there, Elsabeth,” their mother said, directing her passion at her daughter. “I wanna know where the mayor gets off causing such a fuss over a brick, but you’re not going snicking your nose in embers like you always do.”

    Elsabeth groaned and crossed her arms, “Fine, mom, I won’t go looking for the only interesting thing that’s happened in this town for a decade.”

    “If you do I’ll make your world a lot less interesting, and that’s a guarantee,” their mother said as she stood. “Desmond, I meant what I said about not working today. But Ellie? You’re helping me with the goats today.”

    “Mom!”

    “No arguing missy,” she pointed her finger at her with just as much confidence and power as Mayor Hyram had pointed his blade at the bandit all those years ago. Desmond half expected Elsabeth to catch on fire.

    “Fine. Whatever you say, mom,” she said with a defeated sigh, the pair of them walking off and leaving Desmond alone in the house.