"Farrel?  Where is Ty?" Ildri asked anxiously as she stared at the wolf.

A low keening whimper was her only answer. 

"Where is he?" she asked again, even though she was not certain that he could understand and knew that he could not answer and she already knew that something was terribly wrong.  Farrel would not have come alone if there was any way he could be with Ty.

A horrible vision of Ty hurt and bleeding like Saul had been flashed through her head.  "Is he dead?"

Farrel stared at her.  "Was he captured?"

Farrel whined again.

Ildri closed her eyes.  What was she going to do?

It was clear that there was nothing that she could do to rescue him herself.  If he had been taken prisoner Ildri would not stand a chance against them.

Her only hope and Ty's was to reach the capital and somehow convince the king that she actually knew what she was talking about.

Ildri prompted Sarabella into motion and the horse seemed pleased to comply.  They went through the forest as fast as the horse could go.  She was dimly aware that Farrel was following behind her.

They reached a place where the forest ended and fields began.  Ildri and Sarabella burst forward into the sunlight.  She was encouraged to see signs of civilization and she led the horse around the fields of waving grains.

Eventually they came near to a house.  There was a chicken coop and a barn alongside a vegetable garden.  A woman working in a large straw hat looked up in alarm.

"I'm sorry, but could you tell me how far I am from the capital?" Ildri asked, hoping the woman would know enough to tell her.

The woman seemed less concerned about her odd presence after looking her over.  "It takes my husband about an hour by oxcart to bring crops to the city.  You can surely get there faster than that on a horse.  Just follow that road," she explained, pointing.

"Thank you," Ildri cried as she urged Sarabella on.

Ildri let Sarabella run and Sarabella seemed more than happy to do so and they passed farms and houses, a small market and the occasional inn.  It did not take long before Ildri could see buildings and walls that surely signalled her arrival at the capital growing in the distance.  As she galloped into town she wondered where Ty's wolf dog had gone, but she spared it no more than a thought.

She entered the walls of the city, but no one challenged her.  She supposed that she looked nonthreatening and she slowed Sarabella to a walk so that the horse would not run over any hapless people on foot.

Ildri followed what seemed to be a main street and looked around.  She had seen spires of the castle in the distance but the buildings obscured her view now that she was in the city.  She had never imagined so many people in one place.  There was too much happening and too much noise and movement for her to take it in.

She reminded herself that she needed to get to the castle.  For something that she had not thought to be concerned about it seemed a most daunting task now that she had arrived.

It seemed that every street she turned down led her in the wrong direction until she was woefully lost.  The dread was getting worse with each wrong turn and her belly felt like lead.

Finally she gave up.  The first harmless looking person she saw was a bored looking street vendor selling vegetables.  He was a skinny looking adolescent leaning with his face propped against one arm.  Ildri wheeled Sarabella around to speak to him.

"Do you know how to get to the castle?" she asked.

He started and looked up at her.  She wondered what he thought about seeing an old looking woman on a horse.  Finally he answered.  "Doesn't everyone?"

Ildri bit back her annoyance.  "Obviously not me.  Now where do I go?"  She tried to make her voice sound commanding like chef's so that he would not question her further.

Apparently it worked.  He lifted his face off his hand and pointed.  "Just go that way.  You'll reach a busy street and if you turn right and follow it you'll find yourself at the castle easily enough.  What do—"

"Thank you," Ildri said sharply to cut off any more discourse.  She whirled the horse around and went the direction that the boy had said.  She followed his directions and to her immense relief tinged with a bit of surprise, she could see the castle far down the street.

Ildri urged Sarabella down the street, following the flow of traffic.  The castle loomed high above her.  There were guards at the gate.  She slid off the horse and walked towards the guards, leading Sarabella by the reins.  She swallowed hard and spoke, surprised at how little her voice shook.  "Please, I need to speak to the king."

The guards exchanged incredulous glances.  One of them spoke.  "Ma'am, you can't just demand an audience with the king."

Ildri took a deep breath and tried to think.  She was unsure of how much she should say to these men.  "I was taken kidnapped and ended up in a camp full of enemy soldiers.  It can't wait.  And T—" she stopped suddenly, wondering if she should even give his name, "one of the king's men has been taken by an enemy."  Her voice wobbled at the last word and quite without meaning to, Ildri burst into tears.

The guards looked terribly uncomfortable with dealing with a crying woman.  Ildri spoke between her involuntary sobs, "I think it might have to do with all the assassinations... and Anya Smyth—Davies, that is.  Please," she begged.

"I'll get someone," the second guard volunteered as if he was trying to escape.  He turned and went through the gates.

"There, there," said the guard who remained with a wary expression.

"I'm sorry," Anya sniffed, wiping her eyes.

"There, there," the guard repeated.

Ildri laughed nervously.

The second guard returned.  "The steward will see her.  Follow me please, ma'am."

"Thank you," Ildri said in a quiet voice.  "What about the horse?" she asked.

"I'll take care of it," the first guard said.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

As she walked through the doors to the great castle, it finally sunk in that she had made it.  She had managed to go somewhere by herself.  Yet there was still so much in front of her that she felt small and insignificant.  She was trying to see the most powerful man in the kingdom, she, little Ildri of Wildwood.  It seemed absurd.

But Ty had been captured and she did not know how long he had left.

They reached a room.  It seemed to Ildri to be some sort of sitting room or waiting room or something, but what did she know of such things?

"Wait here," the guard said.

"Will he be long?" she asked quickly because she saw that the room was empty.

"He'll be here any second."

The guard went and stood outside the door.  Ildri noted that they were not leaving her unwatched.  She supposed it was wise considering the political unrest that was so prevalent in Edelland.  They had no idea who she was.

Then a man entered the room.  He was short, no taller than Ildri but he carried himself with a proud and pompous air that Ildri immediately disliked.  Though he looked nothing like her, he reminded Ildri of the housekeeper back at Wildwood.  She too thought that she ruled the castle.

"You have enemy news?" asked the man immediately.

"I need to speak to the king," she said.  "It is urgent."

The man sat down in one of the chairs and motioned for Ildri to sit as well.  He arranged the folds on his luxurious clothing.  Ildri gritted her teeth.  What might they be doing to Ty even as she waited?  Would they dispose of him the way that they had planned to with her?  Had they already gotten rid of him?

"Then you must first tell me who you are, and then state your request," he said.

"I don't have a request!  I have urgent information and I must speak to the king."

"What is your name?"

"Ildri of Wildwood.  And we must hurry.  He's been taken—"

"Who has been taken?"

"I don't know if I should say, or how much I should say.  But he is the king's man.  And the soldiers took him away.  I don't know where, but there was a camp near Wildwood.  They were going to kill me, but he saved me and then we came to warn the king.  He thought that the soldiers were from Scelus!"

"You're hysterical, please calm down," the steward said, holding his hands out in a pleading gesture.

"I'm not hysterical!  They have him, and they might kill him."

"Who?"

"He never told me what to do or how much I should say!  I don't even really know his name.  It was never the plan that I would be the one to talk to the king!  Just please, let me talk to him."

"I'm afraid that I can't do that.  Now, you said that there was an encampment near Wildwood?"

"Wildwood?"  Lord Wildwood was in the capital the day she had left Wildwood.  Could he still be somewhere in the very same castle as Ildri herself?

"You said Wildwood," explained the Steward slowly.

"Is Lord Wildwood here?  The Marquis of Wildwood?"

The steward thought for a time.  "I do believe he is, yes."

"Lord Wildwood is here!?" she nearly shrieked for joy.  Ildri forced herself to be more calm.  "Please, let me talk to him.  He'll know what to do," Ildri begged.

The steward considered her for a long moment and then nodded.  She felt quite sure that he had agreed mostly to shuffle the duty of dealing with a madwoman off onto someone else, but Ildri did not care.  Lord Wildwood was in the capital. 

Lord Wildwood would know what to do.