Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 64 - The Last Survivors.

The grounds of the kingdom was depressing as before. Now there were no dead bodies around but white bones that may have been picked by carrion-eating birds or even animals. There were no signs of life, it was as though the rebels stormed into the kingdom and left dead bodies around without a single care and then heads to another nearby town or village to continue their massacre.

He once heard that some rebel leaders regard these killings as a kind of sport to them. Totally ignoring loot and spoils of war, it was as though their main objective was a body count. The more bodies they managed to cut down, the more coins they might get from their boss leader.

Eagle stopped the wagon right inside the entrance of the Manor and disembarked. Their main objective is to perform the last rites as the 6 of them dug a shallow grave on the ground at the back of the Manor where the once beautiful garden where the old king and Queen used to have tea while watching their Prince and Princess and some of their friends play around.

The 6 of them dug 3 shallow grave about 2 feet deep, 1 foot wide and 2-foot length. There was no need to build a full-sized grave as they knew what would be waiting for them when they entered the main hall of the Manor. After digging the 3 graves, they stored their tools and took 3 hemp sacks. These sacks would be used to ferry the remains of the Royal family.

Even though the process may look a bit disrespectful, but its the least they could do as mentioned by the Prince. They went behind some overgrown rose trellises, felt around the stone walls and with a slight push, the wooden door that was made to look like part of the stone wall creaked open. The three of them entered and quickly covers the ground and retrieved their Princess remains and placed them inside one of the sack.

The clothes she last wore were carefully bundled into one sack and the tiara and some of her rings and bracelets were removed and placed inside the sack along with the clothes. The door of the cellar was slowly opened and peered through. Seeing no impending danger, they quickly went to seek the old King's and queen's remains and stored their dry white bones inside individual sacks.

Eagle saw a few rings and ornaments on both King's and Queen's skeletal fingers and clothes, asked for forgiveness as he removed them. These would be useful for the Prince and Lady in the future. The great long sword above the mantelpiece, the family coats of arms as well as 4 flags bearing the colours and crest were also taken down.

Eagle passed the sack of bones to his men, "This is His Majesty, The King and this is Her Majesty, The Queen. The Ladyship will be collected when we exit from here. Take these and take care of it with I go to our Prince's bedroom in search of his things he wanted us to get."

"Eagle races upstairs, bounding 2 steps at a time and went inside the bedroom. Along the walls of the second level were high windows, that allows the moon and sunrays in without the need for additional light. And from that vantage point, Eagle thought that he saw some movements away on the other side of the Manor.

Eagle was taught very well in his main profession. "Whenever you have even a grain-sized doubt of your situation, stop, observe, evaluate and take evasive action." There might be some human life activity, after all, he thought to himself.

He saw some shadows lurking around and not jumping about and by not using vocal commands, he surreptitiously signals to his subordinates, he pointed to his eyes, showed up 3 fingers, then performed a thumbs down and show the direction of where the suspected 3 enemies would be coming from.

They saluted and carried the crest, longsword, the 4 sacks and headed out through the cellar where one picked up the Princess' remains. They silently went to their wagon and placed the items inside, before they slowly advance, using the moonless night towards the general direction of the enemies.

3 figures, a woman and 2 men were seen hobbling around, almost seemed to have lost their will to live for the next few days. Both 3 were wearing tattered guardsmen clothes and they looked emaciated from the lack of food for the past days or even weeks.

From their scouts' evaluation, it seemed that these 3 were the conscript from the barracks some miles from the kingdom. They might have been hit first before they could raise an alarm and defend this Fort.

One of the scouts took no chances nor throw caution to the wind as he nooked an arrow on his bow and let the arrow loose and landed with a thud, just inches away from the trio's feet. Taken by surprise, the trio could not even manage to unsheath their swords.

One of the scouts, after he had shot the arrow, moved to another secluded location and raised his voice -

"Down on the ground"

"On your knees"

"Hands on your head"

"Do not make any unnecessary movement"

"Identify yourself"

The trio who had been trained to handle and be captives during their training knew that luck wasn't on their side and fate is in the hands of one that shot the arrow. But deep down they somewhat knew that the one who shot the arrow might be from the conscript.

The trio, threw their weapons in front of them, knelt on the ground and places their hands on the heads and closed their eyes. It was as though they might be expecting an arrow to land on between their eyes if they made any sudden movements.

"Michelle Ramsgate. Swordman. Rank 1."

"Nolan Broadrick. Swordsman. Rank 1."

"Oscar Wilkinson. Swordman. Rank 1."

"We were from Gillman Barracks. No other survivors. Everyone was killed. Everything was burned down. We escaped death because we were resting that time as we were on guard duties the night before. We three slept underground." the guardsmen named Michelle spoke up first.

"We stayed back in camp and buried our comrades underground. There was 1 company with 2 platoons and there were 108 men and women made up of swordsmen, archers and spearmen. We had inhumed 200 plus bodies in the underground place where we had hidden."

"We survived there, expecting allied forces to come and rescue but none came. In the history lessons, we learnt that this is the war between England and France and the ones that had massacred our comrades were non other than One-eyed Jack."

"Are you..."

"Eyes front soldiers...Here is something to satiate your hunger right now. There's nothing for you to scavenge for food here. This place is dead. No one is ever coming to render assistance." Eagle spoke up from behind them, making them shocked since they knew the arrow came from the front and yet there someone casually approaching from behind.

They saw a friendly face when the person who spoke to them appeared in front. He held half a loaf of bread and he broke it into 3 parts and handed it to them, who thanked them and began to eat immediately while still being down on their knees. They find the bread very interesting as it was the first time having bread with sweet corn kernels, a hint of cheese and sugar.

"Even if you find food here, it's pretty useless except for grains, flour, seeds, wine, beer and ale. I don't think any of you would like to be drunk at all. How long have you been in and out of this kingdom?" Eagle inquired as he eyed with scrutiny and found that they were good men after all.

After the trio had explained all that Eagle had needed to pry from them, the trio stood up, picked their weapons and sheathed them at their sides. They were not sure what to do now. They can't be here, there was no one else, there's no food and no one is coming for them.

"Excuse me, are you an advance party allied force? Or the French?" Nolan asked after he smacked his lips and literally licked his fingers after he had finished the morsel.

"Gawdon Bennet! There is mawer where i' came from. If I am French I won't be speakin' C.o.c.kney, am I? I 'ave a task fer yew an' it is up ter yew ter decide if yew wan' tag along awer not." hearing those familiar words the trio sighed with inexplicable relief.

"Alright. Locate 3 c.h.e.s.ts. 1 for ladies winter wear. And the other two for men's winter and children's winter wear. Once you're done, drag them here to the side of this Manor. We have other matters to attend. You can find those clothes at the nobles' houses. Don't ask what they are for. Take the instructions and do it. I was from Gillman too."

"If you are from Gillman, then you should know this is the Macleod's Manor. His Majesty King Richard and Her Majesty Queen Silvia. If you are here, are you looting them? What impudence...!" Oscar spoke out in disgust but he too had no other choice. Survive or die.

"Yes, it's the Macleod's Manor. We are looting them. Go about your task, we would be looting other places as well. Find sone other clothes and change to civvies. We don't want you to dishonour this fallen Kingdom."

The trio hurriedly went in search for 3 trunks to fill it with winter clothes. "Weird fella. If he wants to loot, why does he needs winter clothes to loot for? In the next month and a half, it's going to be summer...! Then he goes talking about dishonour... Who is that guy anyway?"

"I don't know, Nolan. But he seems to be a nice guy. I wonder how many he is with but right now we just do what we need to do then." Michelle replied as they entered a nobles house and saw a small leather trunk, empties its content and search for the winter clothes that was to find.

The large leather trunk was able to fit 2 people inside and as for clothes, it would be as many as 100 or more pairs...!"

=*=

After Eagle had earlier signalled to his men about the presence of people, he enters Audemars bedroom to locate the false bottom of his wardrobe and retrieved a palm-size leather pouch that was bulging to its seems.

He poured the contents in his hand and find that there was numerous assortment of precious stones. Then he touched the false bottom again and felt that there was a kind of inclined wooden surface and had a sizeable s.l.u.t on it.

"Forgive me, my Prince. I just need to see what's inside." Eagle thought to himself as he felt around and found a small knob. When he pulled the knob that was placed right inside the wardrobe, it releases a seamless drawer in front. He pulled it out and saw a lot of silver coins after he opened up its lid.

He chuckled to himself at finding the treasure, "I guess my student did follow my instructions that time. He learnt the value of money and would squirrel away a single silver from the age of 5 till 18. Haha... Never knew he would direct me to this. Well, it could be exchanged for some gold coins to make it lighter though, this must be thousands of silver in here. It should be enough to grow GraceHaven after all.

He took the c.h.e.s.t and pouch and headed down before he saw that the trio was already down on their knees and realised from their uniforms, they must be those conscript from the barracks nearby.