Sir Rowan and the Camerian Conquest by Chuck Black

froze as he realized it would be impossible for them to make it through the trapdoor in time. He looked about for a weapon as the door was forced open, sliding the bed across the floor.
    “Come out!” the deep voice of the mysterious knight ordered. He stood as broad as the doorway.
    “Who are you?” Rowan asked.
    “I am a Knight of the Prince. Come out! We haven’t much time. Soon they will be back with reinforcements.” The knight kept his sword at ready while he lifted the bed with one hand and turned it onits side to clear the doorway. He motioned for the three of them to follow him.
    Mariah and Zetta looked at Rowan, who shrugged and nodded. He still didn’t trust the knight, but what choice did they have? They followed the knight down the hall into a scene of utter chaos. Chairs were overturned, lanterns broken, walls slashed, and eight sentinels lay dead, sprawled across furniture and floorboards.
    Rowan looked at the knight and marveled. The scene reminded him a bit of the day he was captured, but he definitely preferred this outcome.
    The knight led them out to Aldwyn’s stables. Once there, he turned and glared at them. “It is paramount that I find Sir Aldwyn.”
    “Why should we believe you?” Rowan asked.
    The man hesitated. “I am Sir Lijah of Chessington. I am on a mission, and I was told that Sir Aldwyn could help me.”
    Zetta threw a shawl over her shoulders, then walked up to the man and stared into his eyes. After a moment of strange silence, she turned and looked at Rowan and Mariah. “I believe him. I will take him to Sir Aldwyn.”
    Zetta turned to Rowan. “I’m afraid you wouldn’t survive the journey.” She looked up to the Boundary Mountains, then back to Rowan and Mariah. If they were going to the mountains, Rowan knew she was right.
    Zetta put a hand on Mariah’s arm. “When he is strong enough, come to the kingdom’s first sun. You will find us there.”
    “No.” Rowan tried to stand tall and look strong. “Mariah is going with you.”
    Mariah looked at Rowan and opened her mouth to protest, but Rowan grabbed her shoulders.
    “You have already done more for me than you should have. You may find your father and your brother up there, and I’ll not stand in the way of that.” Rowan smiled at her. “Go with them. I know of a place here where I can rest and recover.”
    Mariah’s eyes softened. For the first time since they’d met, Rowansaw tenderness for him beyond just that of a nursemaid, and it warmed his heart. Perhaps in another time or place, their lives might have crossed with a more fortuitous outcome, but here in the midst of rising tyranny and impending war, it would not be so.
    Mariah lifted a gentle hand to his gaunt cheek, then turned and helped Lijah tack up the horses. When all was ready, she handed Sierra’s reins to Rowan and mounted up with Zetta and Lijah. Sir Lijah hurried their departure, and Rowan saluted his good-bye. With tremendous effort, Rowan managed to climb onto Sierra’s saddle. He looked toward Mariah and saw that she was looking back at him once more. He waved, then trotted Sierra out of sight behind the stables and stopped. He leaned forward onto Sierra’s neck and waited … waited for the next wave of sentinels to come. There simply wasn’t enough life in his body to go on.
    Random regrets flitted through Rowan’s mind as he sat there. The marauders had indeed killed him in the end, for he was just a shell of a man with no hope of becoming anything more. Any prison in Laos would have to be better than the cave prison of the marauders, he reckoned. He wondered how different his life would be today if he hadn’t let arrogance and the appeal of fame and fortune draw him into their net.
    After a few long moments, he heard a galloping horse approaching and didn’t care. The horse and rider flew around the corner of the stables. The steed whinnied as the rider pulled it in.
    “You are a very poor liar, Rowan,” Mariah said. “You