The Kings Son

Chapter 15

Dove's tent loomed ahead of Oliver as he made his way over to it, feeling foolish and dumb he almost turned and walked away. Reaching out with his hand, he knocked on the tent pole patiently he waited for a response. When no response came, he tapped again, several moments passed and still no answer, pulling the tent flap open he stepped inside, looking around he saw that it was empty.

Alarmed he looked around to make sure, Dove had simply vanished. He turned walking back outside almost running into Flo as he did. Stepping back quickly the handmaiden looked around frantically. "Miss Vivian is gone, I came back to the tent to check on her, and she's nowhere in sight."

Wiping a hand over his face Oliver rolled his eyes, seeing Flo on the verge of tears he wrestled with his emotions soothingly he said. "Just wait here, I'm sure she'll be back soon. I'll go get Lee and we'll go look for her there's nothing to worry about." Nodding, Flo fought back a sniffle and curtsied before turning to walk into the tent.

Hurrying through the camp Oliver made his way back to the fire looking for Lee, seeing no one around the fire he made his way back to their tent, he found Lee getting ready to bed down for the night. "So how di..."

Interrupting Lee, Oliver blurted out. "Dove's gone, Flo went looking for her but can't find her."

"Damn it Oliver sometimes your such an asshole." Grabbing his weapons off the ground Lee walked over and pulled his boots back on. "Can't just be nice to her, oh nooo you gotta keep teasing her and teasing her, just because she had a crush on you when you guys were little."

Already feeling bad about this accidental misunderstanding, Oliver missed most of what Lee had said his thoughts bouncing back at the last second. "What about when we were little?"

Giving Oliver a scalding glare Lee walked past him. "Never mind we need to find Dove before someone else does."

Oliver sighed, the last hour had been a painful one and now it was getting worse in the form of a headache. Kicking at a rock he saw jutting out of the ground he sighed again, all over a simple slip of words, slapping himself on the back of the head he turned and left, hurrying to catch up with Lee.

Oliver, Lee and several volunteers stood surrounding a table, a large map in front of them, not much good at public speaking Oliver let Lee lay out the current situation. Pointing to a section of the map Lee spoke as loud as he dared, everyone huddled close to listen to what he had to say. "This is where we are," Lee's finger made a circle on the map before sliding it over to another section. "Over here as all of you know a couple miles away is the tree sitting by Hangman's Fork.

He watched several men shift uncomfortably as he spoke, "I know it gives even the hardiest of us the jitters during the day and terrors at night." Many of the men nodded, admitting that the young Prince was right "I would like to rule out the possibility of Miss Vivian going in that direction, but we cannot, its dark and she doesn't know the lay of the land."

"I need four volunteers to go in that direction, one of you will carry a torch; the other three will fan out in the darkness as back up should the torch wielder be attacked, I'll let you decide who is who." Lee waited a moment to let his words sink in, four men quietly volunteered. "Whichever one of you holding the torch should be in full armor as you'll be the biggest target, the three in the dark will need to be lightly dressed so as to make as little noise as possible, take weapons that can be hidden or covered so they do not reflect the moons light giving you away."

Lost in contemplation Oliver remained quiet his eyes roaming the map, wishing he could find Dove's location hidden among the lines and drawings of ink covering the parchment, Lee's hand tapped him on the shoulder. "Come on we've got to find her." Seeing they were the only two standing there Oliver frowned as his eyes went back to the map, his brother impatiently waited "We got to go everyone else is already out looking."