Anais Timbley - A deadly beauty

Chapter Three: The Knights

The next morning of a better day than the previous was welcoming Little Anais. For a first time, the ill-fated and devastated girl stepped out from the darkness of sorrow. Although she was still in deeply grief, generally her feeling was getting better day by day. That morning, she wore the peach-coloured gown which Mother Maiseline had left in her room the night before and walked in the dining chamber. The nuns, while being busy with some other kids who were crying and asking where their parents were, seemed surprise when they saw Anais.

"Mother, the child is here!", called a nun.

"You have been better, haven't you?", asked another.

Anais took a glance through the crybabies also in the chamber. There was a little girl who didn't cry but sitting silently in a corner.

"Who are they, sisters?"

"They are children who lost parents, just like you", replied a sister.

The dining bell ringing, all kids sat on the long-table except for one who was still sitting in a corner. Mother Maiseline and an other nun carried out a large pot of soup and a basket of bread, prepared to share. Noticed the child in the corner, Mother Maiseline put the pot on the table and approached the child, asked gently:

"What's the matter, my child?"

"I... I miss... my father and mother... I've gone a long way... Uncle Scarlet brought me here... I'm scared...", cried she.

Anais turned at the girl and looked with a familiar yet sympathetic sight. The two girls that shared the same fate...

After breakfast, Mother Maiseline called Anais over and showed her the little girl from far-away. The girl looked like around seven years old, with dark blonde hair reached her shoulder, wearing a dirty yet fine dress, just looked down when Anais stared at her with curiosity and familiarity.

"Who is her, Mother?", asked Anais.

"A Rebels' child, just like you. The Royal has planned to annihilate our Rebels from the root, thus you must conceal your identity, your surname if necessary. You must not let them know you are the children of the Rebels, or you will be the hunting targets of the Guards", explained Mother Maiseline, "The reason why we Rebels are targeted, is the fact that we act exposing and directly, thus we are a greater threat in the eyes of the Royal"

"What is this girl's name, Mother?"

"Lucille Shakespeare. I still didn't know why her parents were assassinated, as they weren't actually concerned..."

Suddenly, there were some knocks, and a familiar yet strange voice of a man calling her name made Mother Maiseline gasped in extreme surprise.

"You are still... alive...!"

A minstrel carried a lute, wearing his trademark feather hat and old but fine robe, waved greetings to Mother Maiseline.

"It has been a while, has it not, Abbess Maiseline Kertineur?"

Such unknowingly surprise made Mother Maiseline so glad that she nearly bursted in tears.

"Long time no see, Sir Alan...!"

"I'm now just the fellow minstrel Alan-a-Dale of the past. I have to admit that even with a former reconnaissance like me, it was hard to escape from their target..."

"So you might have heard that news..."

"Yes, the Spymaster's tragedy, I have heard of that during my escape. It seems that except for you, the abbess, I am the only one left who survived"

Alan-a-Dale, an old friend of Mother Maiseline, by somehow had appeared here just in the middle of the fire. He then asked the children to go out for a while for them to have a private time together. Mother Maiseline led him to the rosary room and had the door closed. Alan-a-Dale then took out a notebook from his pocket and gave to the abbess.

"What is this?"

"The Spymaster's diary, Will Scarlet found it under the ruins of the family's burnt-down cottage, and he has informed me of the incidence. Then Little John met me at Winchester when I was on the run, he asked me to deliver this to you..."

He then showed Mother Maiseline a scroll. She grabbed and opened it.

"LeTourt?", sighed Mother Maiseline, with a faint smirk, "I have lost enough acquaintances... and they still decided to join the Rebellion?"

"Since Her Highness' death, the Knights have been their most wanted targets. And, well, we got the responsibility to protect the latter generation, by the Spymaster's will"

In the meanwhile, outside the walls of a luxury life inside the castle, a starving mother and her child wandering around and begging anyone she saw just for a piece of bread or something they could eat. She encountered a tall man who hid himself under a long cloak, seemed quite scary.

"S... Sir, please... my child has been starving for days... We cannot pay the taxes, and... my husband was imprisoned... because he killed a King's deer...", pleaded the mother.

"Again...? Because a deer was killed?", murmured the man. He then took out four gold coins from his pocket and gave to the poor mother. "Go on and buy your child some bread", told he.

The cloaked man continued walking into the town, and bumped into a muscular man appeared to be puppeteer by accident. He quickly said sorry and intendedly left but was stopped by the passenger.

"My fellow, no, milord, you acted astoundingly... so much that you fooled even your dearies"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not a Guard, milord. I am the Knight"

"You can't be a Knight. You are rather a Squire", smiled the man.

"So you saw through it", chuckled the puppeteer, "I'm not actually a Knight, but I'm doing what my deceased master had never been able to accomplish, for him, and the 'Will of Eden Rose'"

After just a brief talking, they left and went on their respective way. Maybe it was just a conversation between two strangers about something that made them curious. However, things weren't as they seemed.

The puppeteer did mention "the will of Eden Rose", so what actually is it? Who were the Knights, and did they concern to the Rebellion?