Chapter Three
Bethan was like no one that Aaron had ever met before; she was so practical and wise for someone who was so young. She floated around her wooden home, tidying any mess and collecting new materials to create more furniture or tools.
“Hungry?” She asked him, as he sat on a stool, woven from twigs and branches that she had made for him overnight.
“A bit,” He lied; attempting not to show weakness at the fact that he was starving. Even without the recent events, the Black family had been struggling to find food and he had had very little to eat in the last few days.
She walked to a small corner of the den and pulled out a small wooden box from underneath a pile of rags. The box was half full of a minute amount of food such as a loaf of bread, three potatoes and two rotten apples. Bethan grabbed the loaf of bread, tore it into two pieces and handed it to Aaron.
“Thanks,” he smiled, biting into the bread slowly, trying to savour it and make it last.
She returned his grin as she sat down besides him with her own half of bread, “We’ll have to steal some more food soon, my stock is running low.”
“You steal food?” He gasped, stopping eating the bread that she had given him for a moment.
“I have to,” She replied, “It’s not something that I’m proud of but if I don’t steel, I don’t eat. You don’t mind living like this do you?”
Aaron looked at the girl sat nest to him. He had always thought that he had lived a very poor and unfortunate life but now, sat next to a girl who had no family, no home, no money and even no name, he saw how life could have been so much worse for him.
Bethan didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would complain about her lifestyle or moan that she didn’t have fancy ball gowns and ponies like the very rich girls in the country. She was so much stronger than Aaron and yet her face told him that she was so much younger.
His parents had always taught him how stealing was wrong and you must always live honestly and on the right side of the law. Some advice this was; his parents were probably sat in a dungeon somewhere, waiting to be punished for something that they wouldn’t tell their only son. Life was too unpredictable to always follow rules and obey what other people tell you to do.
“No, of course not,” Aaron answered, “You have to do what you have to do.”
She grinned at him; her eyes sparkled like jewels as she grabbed his hand. “Come on then,” she pulled him up, “We’ve got work to do.”
Bethan led him out of her home, out of the forest and towards the town that stood before them.
“Before we simply rush the castle and attempt a rescue mission, we need to collect as much information as we can.” She told him.
“Like what?” Aaron questioned, eager to get started on reuniting his family.
“We need to know if your parents are actually being kept in this castle, why they’ve been taken and how much time we’ve got to sort this all out.” She replied.
“I see,” He agreed, speeding up so as to keep up with Bethan’s quick walking. “But how are we going to get that kind of information?”
“Well,” She slowed down as she realised how much faster than him she had been walking, “I suppose our best option is to go to the centre of town and check out the town records; that’s where I found out what I know about my mother.”
The great town seemed a lot larger than the last time Aaron had come here and a lot more like a maze that he wouldn’t be able to find his way through. When he had come before, he had planned a route as he stood on top of a hill that allowed him to view the whole of the town and how he could get to Linchester’s castle, but this time he found himself completely lost. If it wasn’t for Bethan, he would have never found him way.
The centre of town was quite near to the castle so that it could be viewed from any point around as a reminder to the fact that Linchester lived nearby and his guards were always watching. This point was heavily populated by market stalls and working class citizens and, as Aaron and Bethan walked around, they saw men locked tightly into stocks and a group of laughing children throwing rotten fruit into their faces.
“Get away from me you cruel vultures!” Screamed one of the men towards the hysterical crowd watching him suffer.
“Now, now.” Taunted a drunken blacksmith, “This’ll teach you to go stealin’ from other people’s property.”
Aaron’s eyes narrowed at the heartless remarks erupting from the crowd. “Just forget about them, Aaron.” Bethan placed a hand on his shoulder, “We need to go and find the town documents.”
He allowed himself to be pulled away from the crowds and towards a small wooden building that Bethan had told him contained the town records.
She walked forwards, grabbed a thick bundle of paper, tied together with string and attempted to search for any mention of Veronica and Andrew Black. “Can you read?” She asked Aaron.
He shook his head, “No, sorry.” He looked blankly at the records, “Can you?”
“Only a few words.” She replied, “I’m not able to read this though, your parents could be anywhere.”
He rested his head in his hands. “How are we supposed to find them?” He sighed, “How are we supposed to know if they’re even here? How are we supposed to know if they’re even alive?”
Bethan bit her lip, “I’m not sure,” she whispered, “I guess that we’ll have to look for someone who can help us read this.”
“But how are we going to explain why we need to find out what’s happened to a peasant farmer and his wife?”
“We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” Bethan replied annoyingly.
“But-“ Aaron spotted a familiar face stood outside the building at one of the market stalls selling vegetables and fruit. Bethan looked in the direction that he was looking.
“Who’s that?” She asked.
“He lives in my village,” He answered, “I saw him the night that they came for my parents.”
“Does he know who you are?” She wondered, “Because we don’t want anybody recognising you as your parent’s son.”
“No, he doesn’t know who my parents are,” Aaron smiled, “He works on the same farm as me but he doesn’t know what family I come from.”
“Maybe he knows something about why they took your mother and father.” Bethan exclaimed.
“It’s worth a try.” He agreed, “He’s always seemed reasonably friendly when I’ve spoken to him before.”
The man offered a bag full of vegetables to the stall owner, took his money and began to walk away. “Quick,” Bethan hurried them towards him.
“Excuse me, sir.” Aaron said as the man turned around to view who it was that was talking to him, “I was wondering if you could help me.”
“Hey, you’re the boy who tried to push past the guards the other night.” The man smiled, “You work on my farm.”
Aaron nodded, “I’m sorry to bother you sir,” he continued, determined to remain polite, “but what was going on the other night?”
“When the soldiers came?” He looked towards the small boy, “Why do you want to know?”
“Our mother’s worried,” Bethan interrupted, seeing Aaron’s struggle for an excuse, “She thinks that they might be coming back.”
“You can tell your mother not to worry, sweetie.” The man reassured her, “Those soldiers only came to arrest some villagers and take them to this castle.”
“Really?” Aaron acted surprised, “It must have been something important for it to include Kind Richard’s soldiers.”
The man lowered his voice, “Well,” He looked around to check that nobody was eavesdropping, “What I hear from the market traders is that they took two people charged with treason.”
A lump caught in Aaron’s throat, “Treason?” How could his simple, peasant parents have committed treason?
“That’s what I hear.” The man continued, “They were arrested for committing treason against Lord Linchester himself and he’s order them to be hanged within 30 days without trial.”
“What?” Aaron exclaimed, Bethan giving him a warning glance not to let the man know why he was so worried.
“Thirty days?” She questioned, “That’s a long time for people who Linchester is eager to get executed.”
“Well, that’s the thing, you see.” The man answered, “Linchester wants them to be executed sooner but it’s law to have a government official present but there isn’t one qualified to oversee a hanging until after 30 days.”
“Oh, I see.” Bethan replied, acting very well to sound as if this was simply unimportant gossip, “I bet Lord Linchester wasn’t too happy about that.”
“No, he was fuming,” agreed the man, “I heard that this couple must have done something terribly wrong for him to hate them so much.”
Aaron couldn’t listen to any more. He walked away from the man, who was still happily chattering away about his parents as if they were heartless criminals.
The man frowned as Aaron stormed away. “What’s the matter with your brother?” He asked Bethan.
“He just got a bit frightened by the soldiers the other night,” She replied, “I’m sorry, sir, I must go after him.”
“Don’t worry about it,” He replied as she began to chase after Aaron, “Tell your mother not to be too worried.”
“I will.” She told him, shocked at how easy it had been to get the information out of the idiotic man but upset for Aaron about what they had heard.
“And remember,” the man added, “You didn’t hear any of this information from me.”
Bethan began to run and caught sight of Aaron racing towards Linchester’s castle.
“Aaron!” She yelled, sprinting after him, “Aaron, wait. Please don’t do anything stupid.”
He looked to his new friend as she caught up to him, “Stupid?” He panted, “Why would I do anything stupid? I’ve just found out that the only family I’ve got has been sentenced to death by the most powerful lord in all of England and you tell me not to do anything stupid!”
“Aaron, just listen to me,” Bethan attempted to grab his arm as he stormed towards the castle. “Just come back with me and we’ll figure out a plan.”
“A plan?” He raged, “A plan won’t get us there quick enough! A plan won’t change the fact that my mother and father are stuck in a dungeon waiting to meet their own death!”
“Aaron, please-“ She tried to look Aaron in the eyes but he couldn’t look back at her. He forced his way away from her and ran towards the castle gates, picking up a wooden support off one of the market stalls and thrashing it in the air.
“LET ME PAST!” He bellowed, hitting out at the guards that surrounded the mighty gates. He forced all of his strength into crashing the wood into the face of a nearby guard, who fell to the ground with an almighty thud.
“You there!” Thundered another guard, drawing a sword, “What do you think you are doing?”
“I need to get past.” Aaron ordered as he waved his pathetic weapon menacingly at the man who addressed him, “I must get past!”
“We can’t let you do that, son.” Replied the guard, a villainous expression painted onto his face.
Aaron tried to attack the guard but the elder man blocked his attempt and then took a swing at his challenger. The glistening silver sword cut deep into the small boy’s shoulder, narrowly missing his head and neck.
Aaron collapsed in pain. Blood poured from his wound a pain soared through his body as he fell to the ground, smacking his head on the hard floor.
The guard stood over the boy as he wavered in and out of consciousness. He clutched his mighty sword in his mighty fist, lifting it above his head to finish the fight.
Racing towards the limp body of her first and only friend, Bethan kicked out at the guard, hitting him with unbelievable strength in his chest. The guard staggered backwards towards the wall as a second kick knocked his weapon from his grasp and another to his head knocked him unconscious.
A crowd began to gather at the scene and a large group of guards arrive and glare at Bethan with great suspicion.
“Help me!” She cried, holding onto the wall as if she needed it to support her, “there was an attacker who came and took all of my money!”
“Where did he go?” A guard asked her, believing her story as to the number of unconscious people surrounding her.
“I think that he went that way,” She pointed away from the castle, into the distance, “These poor guards and my friend tried to help but he had a sword and I fear that he may have killed them.”
The guard placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder as he sent a group out in the direction that she had pointed and another to check that the guards and Aaron were still breathing.
“Could you please wait here and we’ll see if we can capture that little thief?”
Bethan faked a sob of gratitude and she went to sit by Aaron. She looked to the guard that had taken the place of those who were watching the gates and knew that she had to get rid of him in order for her to get away and get Aaron to a safe place.
“Please,” she whispered to the guard, “Could you get something to stop his bleeding?”
The guard looked at her, knowing that he couldn’t leave his post guarding the entrance to the castle. She forced a tear to trickle down her cheek and looked deep into his eyes.
“Oh, of course.” The guard gave in and turned away. Bethan pulled a cloth from her pocket and tied it around Aaron’s painful wound.
Checking that no one was watching her, she lifted his limp body onto her shoulder with sudden and amazing strength and carried him away. Praying that Aaron would be okay, she walked as quickly as she could to her small, lonely home.
