Chapter. 5 A Knight to Remember
Waiting becomes a painful task. The men are being served some very fine chicken that the King's son snuck in for them. The door to the captain's quarters opens up and slams against the wall! The King makes an announcement as he sweats very badly. King Cramshaw shakily announces: "WELL! Well well well! I don't know how to say this but, I am forced to believe you are correct. In this letter, Marcus changed some of the details in his story and I honestly can not believe him! It's not hard to remember how things happen when it's fresh in your mind, nonsense! That damn brute. So, I won't have to kill you 2." Trent looks at Gorn very quickly and now he looks back at King Cramshaw. He calmly asks: "Does this mean you will help us fight? And take by my father's town and, and and restore peace?!" The King takes another step closer to Trent and doesn't even blink while taking a deep breath. He tells Trent: "If you think... for one dull blade of a moment... that I would risk having war with your King Marcus then you must be as rotten on the inside as your father's corpse boy! I would never put my men or my town of wonderful citizens in harm's way!" Gorn decides to cut into the conversation and says: "We need help, we need to take back our town... think of the effect it could have if his evil thoughts spawn an evil army and they March in Jurden's direction!" The King turns his head and clears his throat. He moved his head back and forth facing both men. He tells them: "This battle is personal. I will not help you fight. I will give you the tools you need to win the battle for yourselves. Trent! Here is some quills and parchment papers, your father always gave you credit as being the best at writing battle strategies. And now go outside, I'll have my men bring you some weapons and armor. And don't open your holes with any complaints either! The equipment I'm giving you guys is worth more than the gold you guys gave me." Trent quickly rebuttals saying: "But, but wait by now Marcus has all of my strategies! I can't just..." King Cramshaw yells: "Yes you CAN boy! You can and you will, take this quill and these papers." The men start to leave and Trent turns around and hesitates to say: "Wait... may I please have those letters from Marcus? The old one and the new one?" The King looks confused but he hands them over to Trent. The men are outside now. The equipment is given to them with a satchel and two horses. Trent puts his papers and his quill carefully into the bag as well. Trent and Gorn get on their new horses and they are being escorted to the big boat by a guard whom lets them use it free of charge. When they are on the boat they both stay very quiet and focused. Trent is thinking about what he should do to kill Marcus, and how. Gorn is thinking about what in the world can Trent come up with for a battle strategy that is going to work. He has doubts in Trent because they both realize that Marcus has all of Trent's known battle strategies. Once the boat arrives to the dock, the men get back on their horses and ride off. Gorn looks at Trent and yells: "Where are we going?" Trent whips his neck around and yells back: "The Chapel at West Horn, we must return there and find out what happened to the agreement that became purged!" Gorn nods his head in agreement. They are riding for a long time going straight, and at one point Trent thinks to himself: "Should we stop and give the horses a rest?! Oh no I suppose not, if we did it may be a very tough struggle to get them to run for us again... I feel horrible to do this but, we seriously should just keep going! There is a lot at stake!" So they just keep going and going. Once in awhile Gorn would switch his hands around on the saddle. Trent would occasionally look up at the clouds.
At last, they arrive at West Horn and they see the Chapel. They let their horses rest and put some food down for them. They both quickly run up the stairs and head inside. They look around briefly and don't see anyone. They walk to the back hall of the Chapel and finally they see someone. Gorn says his greetings: "Hello, we came from afar! We were trying to see what help you may be able to give us!" The man in the hall turns around. His name is Bertram, he has seen Trent many times in his life for they used to do good trade services under the guidance of King Norman. King Norman knew that the best and most clean water was at this town of West Horn, and it was disheartening to learn that Marcus cut off all trade with them. Trent can only imagine what water has been the substitute... So Bertram looks at Trent and gleefully says: "Trent! My boy! It has been a long time! And oh nice to meet you too my new friend! I must say I am surprised to see you here... your father told me how angry he was with me when he felt swindled..." Trent now emotionally bursts out saying: "Woah! WOAH! What in the world do you mean? My father, loves, or ugh loved your trade services! Marcus was here wasn't he?!" Bertram looks puzzled and says: "Marcus? I don't know who that is? But your father sent me this letter, come I'll show you... and dear oh dear it has taken a toll on our town! We have been struggling so much ever since." He shows them the letter and Trent decides to ask: "Where is another letter from my father? Do you have another one? Marcus MURDERED my father! He's the one who killed him and became the new King and stopped the trade with you!" Bertram hands over the letters and Trent looks over them. Bertram sits down and looks at the floor. He sighs and says: "I... did not even, even know that King Norman was dead. I am at a loss for words! I do not know this Marcus person but-" And as Bertram is talking, Trent cuts him off and while holding the letters saying: "Look! This is more treacherous behavior! These letters have completely different handwriting on them! The one you got recently was a lie! A sham! My father always loved having your town's water supply, Marcus did this! DAMN HIM!" Trent starts walking back and forth with anger. Bertram puts his arm on Trent's back and tells him: "I'm very sorry, I wish I could help, also I wish I could've seen this coming..." Gorn watches as Trent goes into his satchel and he has a confused look on his face. Trent pulls out a quill and some parchment paper. He hands them to Bertram and asks him nicely: "Can you please do me something? Somewhat, ugh, bit of Justice! May you write down your story from your understanding?" Bertram hesitates for a moment and then grabs the stuff. He doesn't say a word out loud, he just does what Trent asks him to do. A few minutes later and it is complete. Bertram hands them over to Trent and he puts them away in his satchel. Bertram watches as Gorn and Trent walk away. Bertram says one last thing: "Good luck, God be with you!" Trent turns his head while walking and gives Bertram a head nod.
They head out to Nathleen. Trent looks over to Gorn as they are riding on their horses. Trent starts thinking out loud: "Well... last time I was at Nathleen I didn't receive such a warm welcome! So whatever lies and propaganda that Marcus sent to King Kromsted, worked. I was to be killed on site, I couldn't convince anyone to listen to my side of the story there. What are your thoughts?" Gorn looks over, clears his throat and responds: "I don't know if Marcus got my name out there... it is worth a shot to send me in there and see what I can find out. This is different armor that I'm wearing, so this should help my disguise! If it doesn't help, than I'll help myself get involved in a blood bath!" Trent signals to Gorn that he agrees.
The look of Nathleen, beautiful on the outside, torturous on the inside. As they get close, they split up and ride in different routes towards the walls. Trent is trying to scale the sides of the walls of Nathleen that aren't held up by doors. Gorn rides straight to the entrance. He looks through the hole in the door and sees a narrow view. In his view, there is some homes, some food gardens, and a stairway leading up somewhere. 'Where could that lead to?' Gorn thought. So he watches as there is a horse coming up to the door entrance. It is a man holding a bag, and he's making a lot of commotion. He watches as another horseman comes traveling down the outside stairway holding another bag, and Gorn comes to a conclusion: it's the mail! That is where the mail comes from at Nathleen! So the door opens up slowly and loudly. Gorn runs off to the side and hides. The horseman holding the mail rides off, Gorn carefully glances over at the door as it starts closing... and quickly loads a sharp arrow on his bow! *fling!
The arrow goes through the side of the bag of mail and directly into the guard's side! The guard screams in agony! He rolls off of his horse aggressively, stands up and pulls out his sword! He yells out: "Come out you coward!" He turns around and at that very moment receives an arrow to his throat! It slices it's way through his Adam's Apple. Gorn runs to the newly deceased body and in a rush, takes his armor off and trades it with the dead guard. He is proud of himself, he thinks of a very smart idea, be the mail carrying guard in disguise and use the mail bag that was ripped as an excuse to go back to Nathleen's mail building. He pets the horse and feeds it some of his rations to gain it's trust. After a few minutes, Gorn rides back to Nathleen's entrance door. When he gets there Trent crawls out of a bush. Gorn goes over to Trent before he alerts the Nathleen guards that he needs to enter. He conveys his plan to Trent: "I'm gonna make it in, and steal our important papers! I can do this, his voice was bulky like mine anyhow. Watch for me Trent!" Trent nods his head up and down then quickly crawls back into the bush. Gorn walks the horse over to the door and knocks on it with the dead guard's sword. *knock! *knock! *knock! The door's slot slowly slides open. The guard inside wipes his eyes in disbelief and says: "Where do you think your going? Are you lost? Hath you drink Ale?" Gorn tries to muffle his voice deeper and responds: "Look at my bag! A hole came about, I need a new one, hurry up and let me in!" The guard snarls and shuts the door's slot. In a flash, the door opens up very loudly. Gorn rides up the stairway very rapidly! He gets inside of the building and sees there is a lot of piles of papers! He briefly looks at the top of the first pile and it is a recipe; he moves to the next pile and it is a trade agreement with another town; he moves to another pile and it is a story about how a horse jumped on a rock and broke it's leg... Gorn can't help but say "Stupid!" out loud. He moves onto the next pile and sees some letters from King Norman, his curiosity is rising and his eyes are perking up. He looks at the papers underneath and keeps going as he looks at the bottom of each paper letter he is scrolling through. So far they all say 'King Norman' at the bottom. Ah! Finally Gorn finds a letter from Marcus! He grabs all of the King Norman letters and the letters from Marcus. He folds them up and shoves them in his clothes. Trent watches as guards run outside of Nathleen and find the dead body of the guard that a small blood trail led them to! Trent freaks out as they all hurry back to Nathleen! Gorn tries to jump back on top of the horse, but he's quickly being restrained by some guards! With his arms being held back behind him he looks around as he is being dragged towards the King's Castle. He pans his view left for a few seconds... now right for a few seconds... now back for a few seconds and he actually sees Trent hiding behind some horses. Trent watches as Gorn is being pulled by his arms. Trent Slowly scales the side of the King's Castle, one carefully planned footstep at a time. There is a bunch of openings on the side of the Castle that Trent is on, but one side has something different: lit candles. So he puts his ears by that opening and decides to wait patiently. He thinks about just jumping in quickly, he also thinks about slowly and quietly jumping in to see where about he is. In the midst of waiting, he hears Gorn yelling at the guard dragging him! He listens as the prison door closes and the guard walks away. Trent climbs in quietly and walks slowly towards the prison doors. The first thing he notices is that Gorn is now completely disarmed! He looks at Gorn and before he even says anything, Gorn extends his hand holding the letters out! Trent grabs them and whispers: "I have GOT to get you out of here! I just have to!" Gorn looks down the hallway and quietly responds: "You have what you need, I don't know what your battle plan is but I trust you, just as King Norman would have! Take back our damned city!" Trent starts becoming emotional. He looks at Gorn and says: "I can not thank you enough my friend, this was a true act of kindness and you should truly be honored and rewarded as a knight of the highest honor, shall I set you free!" Gorn shakes his head and raises his eye brows up as high as possible. He looks at Trent again and says: "Wait! Give me a dagger! I'm sure I can fit that through this small open area here!" So Trent reaches behind his back and hands over the dagger. Trent feels dizzy, he asks Gorn: "So what are you going to use it for? I don't know how the locks here work exactly... I will look for the proper key." Gorn holds the dagger and tells Trent: "I'm, going, to need this for where I'm headed..." Trent quietly walks away towards the closet and searches for a key or some kind of small metal material to open up the lock. In his head he figures that Gorn will wait until the next guard comes to see him and he will kill him with his dagger. The walls begin to shake, the candle's light's begin to dwindle, there is a convoy of guards coming with King Kromsted! The King speaks to Gorn while Trent hides under a bunch of worn out helmets stashed in a corner. King Kromsted clears his throat and announces: "Prisoner! Thievery will not be tolerated! I sentence you to ten seasons of lockdown! After which you will be exiled from Nathleen forever! Good day, wicked one!" Gorn is hiding his dagger under his foot and he calmly asks King Kromsted: "Well, I'm willing to abide by the rules, gracious King. I've made a mistake in which I have earned a reasonable punishment for. I won't beg you for your sorrows, but I will beg you everyday for my freedom. I challenge to a standard prisoner release duel." The King looks at his guards and bursts out laughing. He turns back around and looks at Gorn to tell him: "Ha! You really think I am going to do away with your luxurious living situation by putting you in a dirt pile? I should think not!" Gorn gets angry and yells: "But King, these are the rules! Every town has this rule! If your scared, so be it, but don't ruin your reputation and rank by cancelling royal tradition!" The King looks at the guards and can't stop laughing with arrogance. He looks at Gorn as he's walking away and says: "Prisoner! Rot in hell! Ha, after I heard a prisoner used illegal weapons against King Norman do you really think I would trust one of you peasants ever again? No! No means no! You die now, next stop now, guards a grow tiresome, let's get to the dining hall for some delicacy before bed..." Gorn is stark mad with anger. He watches them walk away and he can't believe with all of his willpower that he doesn't have a chance to duel for his freedom just like he has seen prisoners do many times in his life. Trent waits quietly as the guards escort King Kromsted away. Once he can no longer hear them he goes over to Gorn's cell and looks all around the room for him, but has no luck! Trent wonders how he has escaped? He puts as much of his head through the door opening that he can fit through and he looks down to find a gruesome discovery... Gorn is dead! He has killed himself with Trent's dagger! Trent tries to speak as he starts crying, a few tries of getting the words to come out have been failing. He finally is able to speak, but only briefly, Trent's last words to Gorn is: "You shall not die in vein! My friend, you shall not die in vein!" He wipes his tears off of his face and goes back outside of the castle through the opening. Trent looks over the walls of the town to see that his horse is nowhere in sight! So he watches for the last horse available is tied to the guard's barracks. He crouches down and watches... the guard comes up to untie the horse. Trent rushes up to him with a sword and an excess of rage built up! He grabs the guard and throws him on the ground, pummels him with punches and puts the tip of his sword up to his throat! He is about to slit his throat and murder him and all of the sudden he has a change of heart. He decides to hit the guard on his head with the back blunt part of the sword handle to knock him out, and he takes the horse and rides off! He can't explain why, or make sense of the situation, especially considering all of his anger. But he feels like for some strange reason, his father was watching him at that very moment and he couldn't kill him. He rides out of the city back towards his old home...