“They’re not bad people mind you.” He said. “Merely poorly skilled pickpockets and fruit cart swipers and the like.” No one seemed particularly interested in this until he mentioned the strangest of things. “There was a man in the lowest cell who said he knew you quite well, Hoxley.”

  “Oh?” she asked. “And how did you learn this?”

  “Robert and I were doing exactly as you asked by keeping our hands to ourselves in the bowels of the castle when the poor ravenous souls came crashing against the iron bars of the cells to receive aid. Being criminals and ruffians, we couldn’t let them out, mind you but we did however hand out some bread that was a little hard, not that they really complained.”

  “Loxo, please arrive at your point sooner than later.” She said.

  “I was just getting to that, Hoxley dear.” Said the pirate. “Goodness, you’re on edge. Now then as I was saying, all of the prisoners came bursting against the bars to stick their arms through and as I handed out rations, I told all of them that they were now under the care and grace of you, Hoxley dear. Of all the people in those cells, there was one man in the back who never got up from where he sat against the back wall with his arms and legs crossed.”

  “This is the one who said he knew me?” she asked

  “The very same!” The man didn’t seem to be very moved by the bread and water brought to them but when I happened to mention your name he asked if you just might happen to be a centaur which of course I concurred that you were.”

  “Loxxxxooooo.” Hoxley said with some agitation.

  “Fine fine, he said his name was Atticus and that he had to speak with you.”

  “Atticus.” Hoxley said with a shocked expression as she almost choked on her bread and butter. “Loxo, was this man a sizeable man with large arms and hands?” she asked

  “Why yes, he was a sizeable brute. Not the kind of man anyone would want to quarrel with. Funny you should mention large hands. He had fists the size of a small hen each.” Hoxley’s eyes grew wider, if that was possible.

  “Loxo, tell me the truth.” She said. “Did he have blue eyes, and a grey moustache wider than his mouth?”

  “I couldn’t see the color of his eyes in the darkness of those cells but yes, he did have a sizeable grey moustache now that you mention it.” Hoxley put her food down and handed the infant in her arm to the prince sitting at her side before pushing herself up to her hooves.

  “Where are you going?” asked Ignatius.

  “Loxo, take me to this person at once.” She said

  “Now?” asked the pirate “But I’ve just buttered my second piece of bread and poured myself a fresh glass of goat’s milk.”

  “Loxo, now!” she stomped. Everyone in the group looked unnerved as they’d never seen Hoxley become so animated so quickly.

  “Alright, alright, now it is. Follow me.” The pirate said, taking a slug of milk before stuffing the bread in his mouth and getting to his feet. “Why should I get to have less rest than the others? All I did was everything you asked of me and now I’m getting yelled at for doing a good job. You know, Hoxley dear, a lack of gratitude is not a becoming attitude for a maiden such as yourself.”

  “Do you want me to come along?” asked Ignatius.

  “I think this is a matter I should handle myself.” She replied without looking back. Loxo led her away and down multiple corridors before spiraling their way down some stone stairways into the basement. The darkness matched the dankness, parted only by the light of the torches they carried. When they arrived in the cell block, dirty and desperate faces pressed themselves against the bars pleading for help. Hungry, needful hands grasped at the hope of getting her attention. To her credit, Holey had never seen a dungeon as it was always to follow her fathers’ advice to never act in such a manner that one would be thrown into one. The people in the cells were all so pitiful and unkept. Smells of body odor, urine, and waste assaulted the nostrils.

  “Help us, help us,” the prisoners pleaded. “Mercy, food, a scrap of food, water please, mercy.”

  “Show me.” Hoxley told Loxo.

  “Stand aside,” Loxo told the prisoners. “Get back, the lady wants to see who’s in the back of the cell.” The men parted and Hoxley raised her torch for a better view. Sure enough, sitting at the very back was a burly older man with his head hung. Upon his face was a long grey beard and moustache. His hands were the size of a small hen each as they hung from his knees which he’d pulled from his chest.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’m looking for a man, a soldier named Atticus.” She said aloud. “Do any of you go by that name?” The man slowly raised his head.

  “Is that the voice of Hoxley of the plains who delivers letters to every hamlet in the land?” asked a gruff voice.

  “Yes, that’s my name. Might you be the one known as Atticus?”

  “That’s…my name.” the man grunted as he got to his feet. Loxo’s eyes bugged as the man’s size and girth seemed to double once off the ground. He was a towering beast of man, large enough to make even Ignatius look small in comparison. The prisoners within the cell quickly parted to get out of his way as he approached the bars and wrap huge fingered hands tight around them.

  “Might you and I have shared one another’s company upon many a dusty trail?” Hoxley asked

  “We have, but only in summertime.” He replied. “You’ve grown, Hoxley of the plains.”

  “And you’ve been put in a cell.” She said “Tell me the truth, Atticus. Why are you in this cell? What crime have you committed in this land that you’re locked away?”

  “The king gave me a task I could not complete.”

  “And what was your task?”

  “To return his kidnapped daughter, the princess.”

  “The princess has been abducted? By whom?”

  “Dangerous men who move in shadows. They keep an undead thing dressed in black rags as a puppet that can cast magic like a witch. But I’ve seen it with my own eyes. It is not a witch that is living. It has glowing blue eyes in a rotten skeleton face that follows its master wherever he goes. I was tracking them as was the king’s want but they vanished into the desert where footsteps in the sand cover themselves daily. The fiend used blasts of green lightning to kill the four men I had with me before it used powerful gusts to pitch me down a ravine. I lost consciousness and when I awoke their trail had gone cold. I tried to follow them. When I returned without his daughter and men the king had me jailed. I swore fealty to his crown and offered to continue searching but his rage was too much. I fear he will have me rot in this cell.”

  “Undead things?” Loxo said to Hoxley. “Green lightning? Green lightning started those fires in the forest that nearly cooked us alive.”

  “You’ve seen it?” asked the man. “You’ve seen the things that prove I’m not a liar?”

  “We have.” She replied. “This is your only trespass? You have no other charges?”

  “None.” Said the man. “I was only seeking justice for a girl taken. If given my freedom and more time, there is hope that I could still return her to his majesty before something terrible befalls her.”

  “What of the rest of you?” she asked as she looked around the cell. “What are your charges?”

  “Drunkenness.” said one.

  “Thievery of food.” offered another.

  “Drunkenness, pickpocketing, insulting a king’s guard,” said the others

  “Abuse of a chicken.” said an odd-looking fellow standing by himself away from the others. Hoxley and Loxo each raised an eyebrow.

  “Is there nothing else?” she asked to which there came no reply, only silence. “Very well then. I’ve come to speak on behalf of the king. It has been decreed that you all are to be free people and given leniency for your crimes upon the condition that you serve the crown’s needs for heavy labor for three days. Are there any amongst you who would deny this opportunity and wish to remain imprisoned?” The room became so silent that one could hear a mouse fart. “Very well then. I’ll see to it that arrangements are made to have you freed. Once out of your cells you’ll be given the chance to clean yourselves and be fed before you begin your tasks. Do not mistake his majesty’s leniency for weakness. Anyone not following directions will be sent back to these cells and your punishment may even be more severe. Have any of you any objections?” Again, only silence. “Remain calm and we’ll have some proper food and water brought down shortly.” Hoxley then hung her torch on the wall so that the prisoners before she departed. “Come Loxo.” She said to the pirate as they began to climb the steps to the higher levels. “We have to talk to the others.”

  “Hoxley, are you mad? Letting the king’s prisoners free could cost you your head!” he said.