~ Henry

  Six, seven, eight… Henry looked up from his fingers. “Eighteen?”

  Robin shook his head. “No, see here, you forgot to add the tens column. Twelve plus sixteen equals twenty eight.” He tapped the equation in the sandbox with his writing stick.

  Henry sighed and put a hand on the side of his head. “Rats. I keep forgetting to do that. When I start counting it's like I can’t remember anything else.” He leaned back, accidentally knocking his head on the wall of the cave. After a quick ow Henry continued. “Why am I having so much trouble with this?.”

  Robin sat down next to Henry and patted him on the back. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Me and Alice and William did.”

  Henry stood up and threw his hands up into the air like he was frustrated. “That's the problem! I feel pretty stupid, being the only one in the group who can’t do maths, or even read nor write more than his own name.” He was ranting now, pointing at the sandbox like it owed him money. He had stared at that thing for hours, looking at all the swiggles and symbols that everyone else in the gang seemed to magically be able to recognize as letters and numbers, but they might as well have been Ibbenese for all Henry could make of them.

  Robin frantically tried to think of something to cheer his friend up. “It’s okay. Remember what Barret said? Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. You’re way better at football than I am, right? That’s your strength.”

  That seemed to mellow Henry out a little bit, and the boy sat back down and only slightly slumped forward. “I guess. I just wish Barret was here. He always knows how to help when I can’t figure this stuff out.”

  “Yeah, where is Barret? His lessons should be over by now.” Robin looked around the cave as if Barret would pop out of the dark corners and say boo, but all he saw was the usual collection of stuff. William was the only other person present, and he was sitting on the other bench across from them.

  William just shrugged from where he was reading the book Barret had smuggled out of Honeyholt’s library for them. It was a book of stories for children, commissioned by a former Lord Beesbury for their children, and had easy to learn words and lots of colorful pictures drawn in it. Barret had said Maester Robert never even checked that section of Honeyholt’s library, so they didn’t have to worry about it being thought stolen.

  A voice from the cave entrance broke the silence. “Yo, whatcha all doing!” Alice said as she half-slid across the stony cave floor, her skirt hiked up and her shoes covered in dirt. She almost fell before catching her balance and dusting her hair off. “My mom made me show her how to make those crochet flowers today cause everyone was asking where Jenny got hers, so I had to keep redoing steps over and over. It was sooo boring. I wanna do something fun!”

  Henry looked confused. “I thought you liked working with your hands?”

  “Sure, when I’m making something that’s interesting. Not doing the same thing a bunch of times. I like it way better when Barret has some new idea for me to make. That’s a challenge.” She looked around the cave and frowned. “Where is Barret?”

  “That’s what I was wondering.” Robin said.

  “Me too,” William said, although he hadn’t looked up from his book.

  “That makes six of us.” Henry said.

  “We have to work on your counting,” Robin said, before returning his attention to Alice. “I was just thinking how his lessons are usually over by now. Do you think he’s doing something else today?”

  Alice scoffed. “You think he would do something without telling us? No, he’s probably trapped in one of Maester Robert’s conversations.” She sat down next to William and huffed. “This would be so much easier if we could just go to Honeyholt and find him, instead of just wondering all day.”

  “Why don’t we?” Henry asked. When everyone stared at him, he continued. “Well, Barret showed us that servant’s entrance at Honeyholt. We could head up there, pretend we’re supposed to be doing something in the castle, and find Barret with no one the wiser.”

  Robin and Alice looked at each other in semi-surprise. “It’s not the worst plan.” Robin said.

  “My mom helps to make those yellow and black belts Honeyholt servants wear, so I could probably tell them I’m making a delivery.” Alice added.

  “This is a bad idea,” William said as he closed the book. “But I’ll come along. Someone needs to make sure you all don’t get caught.”

  Alice jumped up and pointed to everyone else. “Okay, meet back here in two hours with all your stuff ready. We’re gonna sneak into Honeyholt!”

  ~

  Henry didn’t know what you needed to sneak into a castle, so he just spent his time looking around the cave for whatever he thought could be useful. Most of the two hours was taken up by Henry playing with all the various toys and weird things he found in the pile, like a carved wooden board that you placed on top of a cork cylinder and had to try and balance yourself on, or practicing the game Barret made up of throwing old rusty horseshoes at stakes driven into the dirt.

  About the only thing he could thing that would be useful in the pile was the bundle of rope sitting in the corner, so he threw that over his shoulder as he heard the other members of the gang returning to the cave.

  Alice was carrying a bunch of Honeyholt servant belts, Robin had some suitably clean enough clothes for everyone that he probably borrowed from his siblings, and William was wearing a shoulder bag that he opened to reveal a bunch of dried meat. “My father’s delivery to Honeyholt is coming up. Figured it would help convince people that we were delivering things if we get caught.”

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  After they all got changed, Alice had them huddle up. “Okay, remember, we are bringing goods to the castle. Our parents told us to deliver them ourselves, because they are so proud of what they made.”

  Everyone nodded and started the trek up the hill. The cave was already halfway up, so it wasn’t that bad of a walk. Eventually, they crested the hill and the gates of Honeyholt were in sight. But they didn’t continue ahead. Instead, they split off from the main path and made their way around the castle on a smaller dirt trail that led to the servants entrance at the side of the castle. They approached the sturdy wooden door and Alice waved for Henry, as the strongest of the group, to knock.

  He approached, suddenly very nervous and kicking himself for suggesting this plan, and swallowed before he rapped at the door. Soon enough, it creaked open slightly and a head half-poked itself through the crack.

  “What do you want?” Said the voice. It sounded like Henry’s grandfather, old and annoyed at everything. Henry much preferred a voice like Old Tim, who always sounded like he was going to break out into a whistle.

  Thankfully, it was at that point that Alice took over. “Hello, we’re here to deliver our parent’s contribution to the castle.” She made sure to push her hands forward so the belts were in full view.

  The old man narrowed his eyes, while Alice widened her smile. After a few seconds, he grunted and opened the door fully. “Drop them off at the big building beside the garden. Do you know where that is?”

  “Yes mister,” Alice said with a smile and a nod, “my mother brought me with her on her last delivery.”

  “Good,” the old man said as he leaned back in his chair, “that means I don’t have to get up and guide you brats.” After we had all filed in, he closed the door and placed a hat on his face. He was already snoring as we exited the entrance hallway.

  The castle courtyard was abuzz with activity, servants moving back and forth with bundles and messages and tasks to complete. Everyone was so busy they didn’t seem to pay much attention to the four new children that walked along the path.

  Henry was so preoccupied with staring at the massive walls and tall spires to notice when Robin stopped and spun around to face the group. They collided and Henry bowled over the smaller boy. “Sorry, Robin! Are you okay?”

  Robin took Henry’s hand and got up. As he dusted himself off, Henry saw that it was only Robin’s pride that had been injured. “Yes, I’m fine. Lets just split up and look for Barret. Remember, be sneaky.”

  Everyone nodded and started walking in different directions. Alice towards the keep, Robin towards the servant’s quarters, and William started heading off the path into the grass and gardens. Henry didn’t really know where to go, so he just walked along the outer wall of the courtyard.

  After about ten minutes of walking, Henry was startled by a voice from behind. “What are you doing?”

  Turning around, it was a servant girl, probably around his age. She had a washing tub under one arm and the other pointing accusingly at Henry. He mustered up all his mental wits, all his brainpower to come up with a believable excuse. “Uuuuuuuhhhh… I’m looking for grumpkins.”

  The girl frowned. It seemed Henry’s answer was just stupid enough to sound believable, cause who would make that up? “Grumpkins? In Honeyholt?”

  Henry nodded. “Grumpkins are everywhere. They pop up from the ground, like flowers or weeds.”

  “What can they do?” She asked, half curious and half scared.

  “Oh, all kinds of stuff,” Henry said in a leading tone. He remembered Barret telling him about something he called cold reading, which was a mummer’s trick where they would pretend to read your mind, but they were really just letting you tell them what you were thinking without you realizing it.

  “Like, can they,” she leaned in close to whisper the next part. “Can they give you nightmares?”

  Henry had her. “Worse, they can make your nightmares come true!”

  The girl let out a small squeak. “How can I stop them?”

  “Well, if I find any, I’ll get rid of them. But for you…” Henry tried to remember what Barret said about what to do if you were having nightmares. He had mentioned taking deep breaths would help, right? “You should breathe deeply in your nose, and blow it out your mouth. Grumpkins hate the sound of breathing, so do it at least ten times before going to bed and you should scare them all away.”

  The girl muttered Henry’s instructions under her breath before nodding and smiling at him. It was a beaming smile, one full of happiness and honestly. “Thank you! Good luck with your hunt!”

  As she ran off with her washing tub, Henry felt a little bad for lying to her. But he didn’t have much time to think about it because soon enough the rest of the gang had spotted him. They seemed to have finished their searches and reconvened, and they made their way over to where Henry was standing, next to a small wall that separated the courtyard from the inner bailey.

  “Any luck?” Alice asked. When Henry shook his head no, she huffed and stamped her foot. “None of us found anything either. I thought it was going to be easier.”

  Robin laughed. “You thought sneaking around a castle was going to be easy? It’s not like Barret is just going to be right in front of us.”

  At that moment, a voice could be heard from the other side of the wall. It was a quick yell of pain, but the gang recognized it from that time they had all dared each other to climb trees and jump off from the high branches. Barret had climbed the highest, and therefore his fall had hit the hardest. The cry was almost exactly the same as that time.

  Henry looked at the wall and shook his head. “He was in front of us this whole time?”

  “Nevermind that, how are we going to get inside the keep? I don’t think we can make an excuse for that.” Alice said.

  Robin started muttering. “Maybe we can put on those servant belts you mom made. No, someone would notice four new servants. Should we try and sneak through the door? But…”

  As he planned, William walked up to Henry and tapped the bundle of rope. Henry handed it over and William took the spool on his shoulder. Then, he leapt up and started scaling the rough stone wall. Once he reached the top, he threw down the rope for the rest of the gang.

  Robin only noticed when the falling rope hit his head. He looked up and blushed. “Or we could just do that.”

  Once all of the gang was atop the wall, with Henry helping to pull Robin up, they looked into the inner bailey and saw a scary sight. Barret was indeed there, but he was not alone. Situated in the middle of the open area was a flat and clean training yard, where Barret’s older brother Alan was standing.

  Both him and Barret had wooden swords in their hands, and they were sparring in the same sense that a wolf eating a bunny was technically a fight. Barret had his sword up in front of him, and Alan was wailing at the younger boy. Each blow rattled Barret’s arms and made him take more and more frantic steps backwards, until he fell on his back and let out another rough yell.

  Henry couldn’t stand the sight of his friend being hurt by his own brother. And by their reactions, the rest of the gang couldn’t either. William had already tied the rope to one of the stones that stuck out from the top, and Henry started climbing down into the inner bailey. He landed and waited behind the ring of trees that grew next to the wall as the rest of the gang joined him.

  “What do we do?” Robin asked. He was clearly nervous, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off of Alan the entire time he was climbing down the rope.

  “Barret would probably know the best thing to do.” Henry said as he balled his hands into fists. “But I know what I want to do. I want to punch that guy.”

  As the rest of the group let him know how stupid of an idea that was, Henry started walking towards the training yard. But before he cleared the trees, a commanding voice cut through the air.

  “What are you doing, son!?”

  It was Lord Beesbury, and he looked pissed.