A high price to pay
Edwina bid the princess farewell and went to see to the queen, who had fallen ill from the long ride through the storm, rain, and cold. The worsening cough was causing the most concern and nothing seemed to help.
Fionsrah awoke the next day feeling a bit woozy in the head and tingling in her limbs, but she could hear and speak properly again. She was given a good breakfast and then fell asleep again. Thiara, however, was slowly being taken by her illness. Breathing became more difficult for her with each passing hour and her coughing brought up blood from her body. She was told that Fionsrah was doing better and the apothecary was confident that the princess would recover completely. This pleased Thiara, all the efforts were not in vain. She conveyed to Edwina and Hanna, who were caring for her, that she wanted to see the princess before the burning in her lungs finally took her senses away.
"Oh Mami no, what's wrong with you?" Fionsrah said. Thiara tried to say something, but only managed a cough. Edwina replied, "She's very, very sick." "Will she die?" Fionsrah wanted to know immediately. "Maybe," replied Edwina, who was never afraid to face the unpleasant truth. Thiara took her daughter's hand in hers and smiled. She let Hanna help her to open the chain of her amulet, and she also slipped off her signet ring, which was threaded onto the chain and now worn by Fionsrah. She stroked her weeping daughter one last time before collapsing exhausted, offering no resistance to the death that threatened to consume her.
That evening, King Ferohn and his knights returned to the castle. They had set out to put a stop to the robbers who were lurking in the western forests and attacking travelers between Olmfingen and Bookwood and from Chatelanovia to the pass through the Kegelzahn Mountains The mission was finally successful, but it was not easy to catch the robbers.
The king and eight of his knights had first gone to Bookwood.
Bookwood is in part a small island in the Arne, so the Arne was naturally divided into two streams and could easily be used for the operation of two sawmills. These where used to saw the large logs that the forests provided into boards for trade and building. Originally there was just one sawmill. Monks had founded a small monastery near the mill, where they made paper from the sawdust produced. The Paper could then be bound into books which were then passed on to other monasteries or sold to traders. Bookwood further developed settling furniture manufacturers, carpenters, sculptors and cabinetmakers as well as a lager second sawmill. There were also three taverns and a wagon maker to meet the needs of traders who passed through or wanted to buy goods. The monastery in time was expanded, had a large garden with fruit trees, a large library with writing room and its own church, which was built of wood. In Bookwood there were also three taverns and a wagon maker to meet the needs of traders who passed through or wanted to buy goods.
The king and his knights took up quarters in the monastery and waited to receive news of a raid by the robbers. But nothing happened, the arrival of the king and his knights had caused some uproar and the robbers were warned and kept quiet. After a few days Ferohn decided to take off his armor and leave it at the monastery. Instead, he bought a carriage in which he hid the swords, pikes, bows and halberds, and they traveled to Olmfingen incognito. In Olmfingen they sold the carriage. To the surprise of the king, his first knight who had been entrusted with this task was able to make a decent profit, he then bought a wagon like those used by traders, loaded it with some supplies, wine and cooking utensils and so they set of back in the direction of the pass.
The king and the first knight Richard sat on the cart box rains in hand. Five of the knights hid inside the tarpaulin covered cart, with weapons at the ready. Two knights led the remaining horses behind them at a wide distance and could be called with a horn. And indeed, when they turned off the road to Bookwood and set out on the way to the pass over the Kegelwallberge, it was only two hours when they were stopped by five masked men with drawn swords. Three of the men who wanted to inspect the cart were immediately killed as the knights attacked with pikes and halberds. The two robbers who blocked the way with their horses fled, the king and the first knight had been handed bows from the inside of the cart, and arrows were already flying after the fleeing men, but only one found its target and another hit the poor horse. The cart started moving again, four knights jumped off, and one blew the horn, now it was time to chase down the fleeing men and hope they would return to their robber's lair. The fresh tracks of the galloping horses were well seen, and the still red scattered blood drops were recognizable. Soon they were overtaken by the six knights, after another half an hour, the tracks lead away on the right side of the slope uphill into the forest. They stopped the cart. Ferohn and Richard shouldered a Pike and bow each and set out to follow the others. The slope was not very steep and after following the increasingly numerous tracks for a while, they even condensed into a trampled path. After a while, they heard horses, they hid behind bushes but it was the six knights returning. "My king, we have found the robbers' hiding place, they have set up their headquarters in a lumberjack's hut," spoke Sigfried, one of the knights. "Continue" spoke the king. "We cannot attack them on horseback, the forest is to thinned up front of the hut, but we could sneak up from behind through the forest and ambush them. "We need to be careful, there were also children and women there." "How many men do we have to deal with?" asked the king. "We have seen two," replied the messenger. The king decided to proceed as suggested and they could sneak up from behind unnoticed.
The two men in front of the hut immediately surrendered when they saw the majority against them. The king called out, "In the name of the king of Arnenland, lay down your weapons and surrender, the house is surrounded." The door of the hut slammed open and a large bearded burly man came out, with hes sword drawn: "If you think I'm going to let myself be locked up in a stinky jail, then you're mistaken. Which one of you bastards should I kill first?" But before he could put his boastful announcements into action, he made a gurgling noise and fell forward with a knife in his back. "Die, you wretched son of a bitch! I've been waiting for this moment ever since you took my beloved husband from me," a woman who had appeared in the doorway broke into tears after her act of revenge. The last of the rascals they caught in the hut, he had received an arrow in the leg after the failed raid. Now the robbers were caught and the trade routes through Arnenland were safe once more. Trade would flow and swell untarnished with fear to Olmfingen and further down the Ringowyn to the Atlassea and distant lands.
The king returned to his castle with three captives. He thought about celebrating his success achieved by cunning and persistence, but what he found on his castle quickly ruined his festive mood. His loud and disobedient daughter had put herself in danger, and his beloved wife had taken her place, now lying on her deathbed. She had also paid a high price for this, the lesser the tax revenues of almost a whole year gone. For the worst the king held the hand of his queen his love his support, she the center of his life, how could this have befallen her? As he remembered when he saw her for the first time, they were both still children, prince and princess at the court of Chatelanovia. Even then destined for matrimony, they got along so well, they had been good friends long before they got married.
Thiara tragically perished the same night.
Ferohn could not forgive his daughter Fionsrah, and he could not bear the sight of her, as she was a spitting image of her mother as he new her at that age.
Fionsrah was banished from court life, she no longer ate at the table with the king. She had no access to the chambers that might have been occupied by the king.
Drenched by bitter regrets in vain, drowning in a deep well of sadness, deprived of love, lost in longing She spent her time crying. After weeks in her room nurtured kindly by her maid Henrietta she could eventually be encouraged to attend school then the church, where Bartolomeus Zeus was now teaching. In a small writing room with library attached to the nave Johlanda and Fionsrah got there further education. Johlanda was lucky enough to still be able to go to school with Fionsrah, but Johlanda was not always happy. She was required to spend considerable time with Fionsrah, whose erratic moods frequently exhibited disturbing and distasteful traits.
