Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK I - Chapter 48

"We all have to leave."

As Liofia said this there was a momentary pause, as Box, Goola and Julen tried to grasp her meaning. Slightly puzzled as to why she'd been brought back to their cell.

"We can't leave," replied Box, stating the obvious.

"No, we can - and we have to. We've been told we have to leave the Maiden Lands. We'll be taken to the coast. From there we can head by sea to wherever we please."

"So we've been banished," observed Eldskeep, grinning.

"Correct."

The other three still looked confused.

"But we can't leave. We need to head to Aunt Ellever's house. We were almost there when we got arrested."

These words felt hollow as Goola uttered them.

"Why must we leave?" Julen then interrupted, suspecting he knew the reason, "Did you tell them what you'd seen in Patina?"

"I didn't tell them anything, but they probably know already and don't care anyway."

"So you told them."

"No," laughed Liofia, taking a degree of satisfaction in how wrong the accusation was.

"So why do you have to leave too?" asked Goola, more politely, "And why are we leaving with you? Are you escorting us back to Patina?"

"We're definitely not going back to Patina," laughed Liofia, again enjoying the fact that she was so much more clued up than they were. "I have to leave for my own reasons. I may tell you on the journey out of here, if I choose to - there'll be plenty of time. As for you lot, you'll be free to go off on your own travels when we reach the mainland. I'll probably be wanting to part ways with you by then anyway."

"But who are you? And why should we listen to you?" queried Julen again, getting evermore wound up by the enigmatic answers she was giving.

Liofia looked at him.

"Perhaps I will tell them what happened in Patina, after all."

She enjoyed winding him up, but as his cheeks flushed red with annoyance, she began to take pity. Conversely, the light humour made Box and Goola both warm to her, and they felt an instinctive liking. Albeit, still, the puzzlement remained.

"But why should we trust you?" Goola asked, repeating Julen's question. Her calm dolour eliciting a less sardonic response.

"You don't have to trust me, but we all have to leave. It's a royal commandment, from Queen Aglaia herself. I'm no different to you. We just have to go. That's it. If you don't take it from me you can take it straight from the guards when they come to collect us."

"So who are you?" quipped Box.

"You can guess on the journey."

Resigned that more answers weren't forthcoming Box tried to weigh up the situation in her mind. The realisation that they now would not be going to Aunt Ellever's house hadn't quite sunk in, though an instant sense of disappointment came at the thought. As for returning back to the mainland? Where would they be heading? Would they just go home? What else could they do? It was such an odd set of circumstances, and it left her feeling disorientated. Goola, likewise, felt the same. Here they were, sat in a dungeon, far from home. Julen had killed someone. It was almost dream-like. For Julen himself this was even more so the case.

The guards entered. By now night-time was fully falling, and the only illumination came from the oil lamps dotted around the dingy dungeon hollow. The little window, high above Box's head, offering nothing but the darkness of the night.

"Where shall we be heading off to then?" wondered Eldskeep, as they were escorted out and down a long passageway, towards the crisp starry night.

"I say the Northern Kingdom," stated Princess Liofia, with confidence.

"I agree," concurred Eldskeep.

The other three, by now stoic in their endless uncertainty, didn't try to argue. The gang of four now a gang of five, as they travelled to the port, to hitch another ship back across the Eastern Ocean.