Rowena Through the Wall: Expanded Edition by Melodie Campbell Page A

the apron to my waist so that it would drape on both sides to cover bare skin.
    The broach I carried within a deep skirt pocket. I laced the pocket shut, just to be sure.
    Ivan came to get me.
    "Sargon has already set out with his knights," he said.
    In the yard, the carts were pulling out while our men mounted their horses. Lightning pranced over to my side.
    "We can ride ahead of the carts," Grandfather said from his own great horse. "I've told the men to go on as they like. We can travel at our own pace, you and me."
    We took turns galloping and walking our horses to give them a break. Lightning was a darling and she loved to do my bidding.
    "Did your mother teach you to ride?" Grandfather asked.
    We had been traveling for over an hour.
    "Actually, I taught her ," I said with a smile. "I've been riding since I could walk. My father came from a ranch and I was always messing around in the stables. Mom rode, but not hard, if you know what I mean."
    "Was she a good mother to you?" His voice broke.
    "Oh yes, the best. She was pretty, always laughing and I adored her. So did Dad. I miss her every day."
    "You are so like her."
    "And so are you in many ways. Everything about you reminds me of her and makes me feel comfortable." I recalled a memory. "She loved to dress me up in long dresses. I guess she was missing the ways of back home, but I didn't know it then."
    We had nearly reached the river. We dismounted for a bit to give the horses water. I scrutinized the spot, taking in every detail. I needed to remember the point where the river went north along the forest to the split tree.
    "Why did she lea ve here?"
    Grandfather sighed. "She was the youngest girl left in the valley―the last female born before the curse took effect. Already the predators were circling. You have experience of that and she was younger than you, not more than fifteen. I meant to marry her to someone I had chosen, but she didn't want that."
    She had never told me this. My poor, dear mom.
    "I think she made a bargain with a sympathetic witch, but I don't know for sure," Grandfather said. "She disappeared one day with all her jewelry. We never saw her again. We would have known if she had been taken by a man from this island."
    Lightning nuzzled me and we mounted again.
    "Child, how did she die?"
    I'd been expecting this question.
    "Her heart stopped. She had a weak heart. None of us knew it. She died one night in her sleep."
    How fitting that the woman who was all heart should die of a weak heart.
    It was dusk when we arrived at the great castle of Sargonia. And great it was. The walls were at least ten feet thick and topped with crenellations and merlons. Atop them, a line of archers stood ready. Gray towers rose into the sky on all four sides. A huge dry moat ran around the periphery.
    The iron gates were open and the drawbridge down. As we approached, I could see many men in the yard―perhaps a hundred. Chickens and ducks ran wild across the dirt. Everything and everyone was in frantic motion, readying for battle.
    Men of all ages stopped and stared as we passed. A few bowed their heads, but most just gaped.
    It was eerie to have so many eyes on me. Uncomfortable, I scanned for the stables that ran alongside one great wall.
    Ivan crossed the courtyard to help me dismount.
    "This is quite a place," he said. "At least two hundred live within these walls. And another two hundred close by."
    "We're weary," Grandfather said, groaning and dismounting stiffly. "Are there activities planned that we must attend tonight?"
    "No." Ivan handed off my horse to a groom. "I'm to show you to our rooms and food will be brought up there."
    "Thank the Gods," Grandfather murmured.
    We had been riding so long that I found it difficult to walk up the steps to the castle entrance. My legs didn't want to work.
    Inside, we found ourselves in a long entrance hall.
    "The great hall is beyond those double doors," Ivan said. "It's three times the size of Huel. Everything here is