In Search of the Count

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“Her Majesty will hardly welcome an interruption from us!” Rhodri’s natural fear contradicted his claims of importance without hesitation.

“We don’t have to interrupt,” Claire said. “We just want to listen.”

Rhodri goggled. “Spy on Her Majesty the Queen?”

“Why not?” Annabelle snapped. “She has you spying on us!”

Rhodri colored dark green. “No, no! Enjoy your company! Showing you the lay of the land, making you at home in Court, just, just-”

“Listen to me, Rhodri,” Claire said, “this magician is the man who kidnapped us away from our parents. We escaped from him, but now he’s found us he will hurt us any way he can. You don’t want us to get hurt, do you?”

“No, no, not at all!” Rhodri’s eyes flicked to Bettina. “I don’t want you to be hurt, Claire.”

“Then you should help us. We’re not acting against the Queen. If we get caught you can tell her the whole thing.”

“In fact,” Annabelle added, “the Count is a bad, bad man, and may be a threat to the Queen. It’s your duty to help us. To help us help her. She’ll thank you.”

“No,” Rhodri mumbled, “she won’t.”

#

Gerhardt ran through the maze-like hedges with no idea which way to the palace. He was short for his age and couldn’t see over the shrubbery, and there was no sun overhead by which he could get his bearings. He darted down a left-hand passage and spied a group of yellow and red peppers at the end of it. Panicked, he dove through the privet. He rolled out the other side just at the feet of a running Mirabelle, who toppled over him in a spray of mulch.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry,” he gasped.

Mirabelle scrambled to her feet, head craning around, looking for danger.

“What’s chasing you?”

He sat up. “Nothing. Avoiding some peppers.”

Mirabelle stopped dusting off her dress. “Capsicum?”

“No, just people. People peppers.”

“Honestly, Faintheart, get a hold on yourself!” She helped him up. “You know what we should do? We should just walk right into the palace, as if we were going to our rooms, and see how close we can get to you-know-who.”

Gerhardt mumbled, “You were running, too,” but his sister ignored him. They made themselves relatively presentable and strode on their way.

#

Adolphus jogged back to where he and his brother had seen the Capsicum Chief trying out his new knife. The lawn was deserted but for sliced, hacked, and gouged squash bits. He started circling the palace. The Queen was sure to have her own entrance to the grounds from her private chambers behind the throne room. Adolphus reasoned that an uppity, full-of-herself vegetable like her wouldn’t walk through all those corridors to get outside like she makes everyone else do.

He spied a discarded ball and stick beneath a shrubbery and picked it up. He proceeded around the palace walls, tossing the ball and catching it with the stick, which had a net at the end for that purpose. When he saw a guard standing at attention outside a section of hedge-wall, one of the points that made the five-petaled flower shape of the palace, he jogged by without looking, keeping his footfalls heavy. Making a game of tossing the ball over his head and spinning around to catch it, he checked on the guard every few yards. When he was well past, the guard became absorbed in something he pulled from his pocket. Adolphus arced towards the wall, moving more quietly.