trees.” He sighed. “I can see why the woodfolk couldn’t bear to stay here looking at all of this.”
“Tarkyn, neither time did you intend to hurt anyone,” said Danton gently.
“Tell that to the families of the palace guards I inadvertently killed. I’m sure that will make them feel better.”
Danton put his arm across the prince’s shoulder. He could feel the tension under his hand but ignored it as he began to guide the prince towards his shelter. “Come on. You need some food. You had a tough time fighting that infection. You need to look after yourself.”
Tarkyn’s eyebrows twitched together as he looked in surprise at his liegeman. “When did you become a mother hen?”
Danton smiled reluctantly. “If you must know, I am under strict orders from Summer Rain and Stormaway.”
“Neither of whom care enough to be here in person.”
Silence greeted this remark.
“What?” demanded Tarkyn.
Now that they were walking back towards the shelter, Danton let his arm drop from Tarkyn’s shoulders. He glanced at the prince and gave a slow smile, “I couldn’t think of a response to that remark that wouldn’t sound cheeky or disrespectful. So I didn’t say anything.”
“So you think I’m being petulant, do you?”
“Something like that. Perhaps you don’t realise that the woodfolk were actually feeling physically ill from the distress of having their forest so badly damaged. Stormaway has been coming down from time to time but he’s just not here at the moment.”
“Hmph. Fine. So I jumped to the worst conclusion. I admit it.”
Danton looked sideways at him, “Do I detect a note of anger in your tone?”
“Of course you bloody do. I’m angry with myself for destroying the forest. I’m angry with Stormaway for the blasted oath. I’m angry at the woodfolk for reacting as they did. I’m angry about the whole stinking mess.” He glanced at his friend and gave a wry smile. “And I suppose I’m also embarrassed that I made an idiot of myself running around rescuing everyone from the huntsmen when they were perfectly capable of looking after themselves.” He sighed, “All in all, it has been an inauspicious couple of days.”
“Just remember how much worse it could have been.”
“Cold comfort, I’m afraid.”
Chapter 8
As prince and liegeman neared the woodfolk’s new firesite, a delegation came forward to greet him. He glanced with some trepidation at Danton, thinking that the woodfolk were about to remonstrate with him. But no. As soon as he was close enough, they brought forth a huge bunch of wild flowers and a stone flask of their finest wine.
“Tarkyn, this is to say thank you to you for saving our forest,” said Tree Wind with a big smile. “You are a true Guardian of the Forest and we would all like to thank you for the enormous effort and courage you showed in fighting those ghastly parasites.”
All the surrounding woodfolk smiled and murmured agreement.
For once, Tarkyn’s court training completely deserted him. He stood there, stunned. Danton’s finger giving him a gentle prod in the ribs brought him to a realisation that some words were required from him.
He gave a dazed smile. “Thank you. Thank you very much. As you can probably tell, I am absolutely astonished. I thought you would be angry with me. I feel I have done much that is wrong and little that is right in the last few days.” He took a deep breath and made a better effort to rise to the occasion, “In return, I would like to thank all of you for saving me and helping me when I was infected and for helping me to destroy that terrible threat to the forest.”
The woodfolk parted and Golden Toad, Ibis Wings and Rushwind came to stand before him.
“Your Highness,” said Golden Toad, “We cannot begin to express the depths of our gratitude to you, especially when I saw the terrible suffering you went through as a result of your efforts to help us.”
Rushwind took a step forward, “My
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