The trumpets kept sounding the alarms, but did not drown out the drums. The sound echoed through the halls and into his room, where Padrig had felt the vibrations on the floor with his bare feet when he first woke.

He had no time to panic, as that was not what a leader does during times like this. Padrig had been fumbling with a difficult shoulder strap on his ornate breast plate when his mother charged into room.

"Mother, help me."

Helena pulled on the straps and loosened them, tossing the golden breast plate onto the bed. "What are you doing?"

Padrig looked at the pieces of his armor on the bed. "I am defending my people, but it begins with defending my own life and limb. I need that armor.”

"A king’s place is on a throne, not on the battlefield," she snapped. "The boots of braver men have mud and blood caked on their soles for a glimpse of the glory of serving you. A chariot waits for us in the garden to take us to Vilholmer."

"Then why give a king a set of armor and a sword if he cannot use them?" he pouted.

"Set your hand upon your sword if it sets your mind towards duty and valor, but still we must go, and in haste my dear," she told him.

He grabbed the sword in its ruby encrusted scabbard off the rack on the wall and ran out of the room with his mother. Milloje the knight was waiting in the hall with two other guards.

"What is happening beyond these walls?" Padrig asked.

"They've breached the castle, your grace," Milloje said.

“What do we do?”

“The Queen Mother has horses waiting in the gardens,” he said. “I will take you there.”

“What about you, Sir?”

“On my life, I guard the Manse.”

The knight led them down the stairs of the keep and turned toward the guest quarters. A scream from down the hall made Padrig pause.

"That was nearby," he said.

"They're in the chapel. The inner courtyard is overrun," Milloje said. "We need to go through the guest quarters toward the Eastern Hall."

"But should we not go toward the screaming?" Padrig asked, pointing with his sword.

Milloje didn't answer. He led them down the hall leading to the guest rooms. The rooms were mostly empty through the year so they didn't encounter anyone. Halfway through the hall the knight stopped at the heavy banded double doors toward the Eastern Hall. The two guards pulled on the doors when the enemy spilled into the other end of the hallway. Arrows flew through the space of the hall. One of the guards fell, and an arrow struck Padrig in the rib.

Helena screamed.

“Take him!” Milloje shouted at her. “Follow the hidden passage. I will buy you time. Go, and don’t look back.”

She picked up her son who was now wheezing from his injury. She helped him down the Eastern Hall, and the door behind her closed but she did not look back. She heard the knight’s muffled taunts and the clash of swords against steel, but she still did not look.

She opened a closet door and helped Padrig into the supply closet. At the end of the closet she opened a hidden door and entered a tunnel with stairs leading down. The boy gasped and grunted but he did not cry. Helena cried for him.

At the bottom of the passageway Helena unlatched the door and opened out to the garden shed. She helped him out into the garden. The summer dahlias surrounded them, as did the screams from the fighting.

The white chariot with the golden flags of Aredun waited for them, harnessed with two white horses. A single guard manned the chariot.

The door from the shed burst open. Three soldiers spilled into the garden. They were dressed in black and had full helms painted with the faces of the dead. The guard leapt off the chariot and drew his sword against the soldiers. He shouted at them to climb onto the chariot.

Helena helped Padrig into the chariot and held his hand. Milloje stumbled into the garden, his left arm bleeding and limp but his right arm bore his sword, also dripping in blood. The side of his head had been cut and his ear was gone.

"Back to the chariot!" he shouted at the guard. He cut down one of the soldiers.

Helena screamed as one of the soldiers grabbed her leg. Padrig shoved his sword through the soldier's belly. The soldier made a gurgling sound and tried to grab at the boy. The guard returned and pulled the soldier from the sword and flung him down.

Milloje staggered to the chariot. “Tell Captain Delger I fought well,” Milloje gasped with his mouth full of blood. “Now go!”

“The Gildemanse is lost, come with us,” she pleaded.

He shook his head. “On my life, I guard the Manse.”

The horses charged away. Helena finally looked back and saw the knight on one knee, swinging his sword with a weak arm as more invaders poured out of the shed. She turned back to the boy, whose lips were covered in his own blood.

"Mother, my armor," he whispered.