Chapter Two

“Sir Wesley, you have an appointment in Ambridge with the nobles at eleven thirty. We must continue on our journey if we wish to make it there in time.” A tall and bony man said, with his black hair pulled into a tiny rat-tail ponytail at the back of his head.

The man portrayed as Wesley sighed and put his head in his hands. He and the rest of the crew along with the carriage he was riding in were stopping to rest near a creak. Wesley was currently sitting on a large rock next to the creek. He was enjoying his time in peaceful bliss until someone decided to break the tranquility.

The scrawny man walked back to the carriage where the others were waiting, leaving his master alone to think for a second or two.

Wesley looked into his reflection cast by the creek’s still waters. He was now a man of nineteen, and as being that age, came the responsibilities of adulthood. His father was a rather important nobleman, seeing as how his uncle was the king. Wesley was preparing to become a nobleman himself next year, when he would turn twenty. He was also required to find a wife and start a family no later than twenty five.

Wesley sighed. His life was already planned out for him. He had no control. Well, very little control. So many towns and villages he had been to, so many people he had seen and met. And out of most of those people, the villagers and townspeople, to admit the truth, he envied them. Sure, they were not the richest in the land. But they seemed to be the happiest. They could do whatever they wanted with their lives. They could start their own business or just go unemployed, living off the wonders of the world.

“Sir Wesley, it is getting rather late and we wouldn’t want to upset the nobles with tardiness.” The same scrawny man said from over by the carriage, a ways away. His annoying voice was starting to give Wesley a headache.

Right when Wesley was going to stand up and walk away, when he looked into the creek’s waters for a final time, he saw something, an image. Or rather, a memory. All he saw was the dirty face of an angelic girl, with brown hair put up and brown eyes that seemed to be full of life itself.

Wesley contorted his face in confusion. Who was that girl? Where had he seen her before? He knew he had seen her before, but he just couldn’t place his finger on it. Before he could get a better look, however, a school of guppies swam by and rippled the water, destroying the image in the process.

As Wesley walked back to the carriage, he wondered why he had seen that face. By the look of it, the girl was somewhere around the age of seven or eight. He hadn’t seen any children lately, so that option was crossed out. Where had he seen her?

For the rest of the ride, that face, that dirty yet angelic face haunted his thoughts. He was unable to tare them away from her. He knew neither of her name nor what memories he had of her.

Wesley turned his head up from its downward position. He got it. Maybe if he fell asleep, then he would remember. Perhaps his subconscious would be filing through his memories while he slept, searching for something, anything, of that face.

Wesley closed the curtains in the carriage and lay down on the bench he was previously sitting on. He pulled a quilt over him and put a pillow under his head. He closed his eyes and tried his best to fall asleep. Finally, after ten minutes of waiting, his request was granted.

To Wesley’s great happiness, another request, or wish rather, was granted. He began to dream the memory.

In the dream, Wesley opened his eyes to find himself looking at the same angelic face he had seen earlier. He then heard a voice. He didn’t know where it was coming from. It took him a moment for him to realize that that voice was his own, the words coming out of his younger self’s mouth.

“What’s your name?” He heard himself ask.

He saw that she was hesitant in her answering and wondered why that was. Did she have something to hide? Was there a danger in knowing the girl’s name?

“Miranda.” She said finally, so quietly that even in his dream he had to strain to hear.

Wesley then felt his mouth turn up into a smile. “My name’s Wesley, but you can just call me Wes.” He heard himself say.

Before Wesley could remember anything more, the dream world turned black and he opened his eyes.

Wesley quickly looked around the carriage with a scowl as he heard a knocking noise. Who dared disturb him as he took a trip down memory lane, so to speak?

The carriage door opened to reveal the bony man. “Sir Wesley, we have arrived. You will be staying in one of the mansions of a very important noble here. Follow me to the guest room. The others will get your baggage.” He said and then left Wesley’s line of vision.

Wesley just grunted and stood up. He was upset for he hadn’t even been able to remember the whole memory. He knew that there must have been more to the memory before he asked for the girl’s name. And he knew that there must have been more to it after he had said his. But at least he knew the girl’s name now, Miranda. He would ask the record keeper in the mansion of all girls with the name Miranda. It would take a long time though; he figured there must have been tons of girls with that name.

As Wesley was getting a tour of the mansion and being shown to his room, he was starting to regret the meeting he had later that day with some of the nobles of the decent sized town. He would be meeting five of the twelve nobles today and would meet the rest later on during his stay.

“You will be called down shortly for the meeting.” A servant told Wesley as he opened the door to his room.

Wesley replied with a nod and turned to his room as the servant walked off. He was impressed; the room was a good size. It had a queen sized bed with silk sheets, windows that went all the way from the ceiling to the floor, two giant oak wardrobes, and an oak desk with a comfy looking chair. On the desk he saw a quill and ink.

Wesley walked toward the desk and opened the top drawer on the right of the desk to find parchment. This would be helpful if he needed to write things down, make notes, etc.

Chirping from the window caused Wesley to look up and away from the desk. He walked toward the window to find it open and birds making a nest on a nearby tree.

Wesley pushed a strand of his dirty blond hair out of his face, it had grown down to his shoulders and still contained that same shaggy look it had had ten years ago.

He gave a sigh and looked out of the window one last time before walking across the room and out the door. He figured he’d better get headed now to the meeting room, otherwise it might make him late if he waited for the last minute. The place was big and he was almost sure he was going to get lost.

A relief to Wesley, he had made it to the meeting room right on time. It was then that he was glad that he had started the journey though the building earlier than he was supposed to.

To Wesley’s prediction, and utter boredom, the meeting was a complete and total drag. All that the nobles talked about were taxes, laws, marriage, and if Wesley was looking for a wife. In the brief moment between the question and Wesley’s answer, the other nobles besides the one who had opposed the question, started bragging about their daughters to him.

If Wesley could roll his eyes without anyone seeing him, he would have. He was fighting back the urge to do so every five minutes. But if he had rolled his eyes, all the nobles would have caught it for they were all staring expectantly at Wesley.

After a couple more hours of this, there was a topic that caught his ears, interest, and full attention.

One of the nobles was asking the noble whose house the meeting was being held in a question, and soon every other noble, and Wesley, had become quite interested.

“Mr. Nukeham,” One of the nobles said to the noble who owned the building, “while on my way touring through your grounds earlier this morning, I saw a most unusual sight. I know for a fact that your only daughter is away visiting in another town, so I was wondering why there was a young lady who looked to be around her age in the garden today. She was being escorted by two guards through the garden and into the castle. Would you mind quenching my curiosity?”

“Of course not, my good friend.” Mr. Nukeham said with a jolly grin. He turned his attention not only to the noble who had asked the question, but also everyone else at the table as well. “That, my friends, was a prisoner my men caught just last night. She was being transferred here from the outskirts of the town. She would have arrived last night, but she was giving my men quite the slip. She is quite the little troublemaker.”

“Who is she?” One noble asked.

Even though Wesley didn’t have a particular reason to be listening, he was indeed interested. It was very rare to find a female criminal, especially one as young as Mr. Nukeham’s daughter, to be such a troublemaker as to have a noble worry.

The jolly man laughed, his big belly shaking with him. “A very rare catch. I believe you all have heard of her, she is quite the notorious thief. The girl is currently residing in my dungeons.” He paused for dramatic affect. “Artemis.”

Everyone gasped, except for Wesley, that is. Sure, he’d heard of her, and sure, he knew why everyone was surprised. Artemis had never been caught before, and probably wouldn’t stay caught for much longer. She was a master escape artist. The reason Wesley didn’t gasp like the others was that he knew something was up. A masterminded thief like Artemis had to have had a reason to get caught, a motive to make her try to get caught. Wesley just had to find out what she was up to, and to keep what he knew to himself.

“Are you sure it’s her?” One asked. “Are you absolutely positive that the girl you caught was the thief Artemis?”

“I couldn’t be more certain. She was so obvious once I got a look at her. She looks exactly like how she is described to be.” Mr. Nukeham said with a wide grin, feeling proud that he caught such a criminal.

“So…she’s what? Sixteen? Seventeen?” One noble asked.

“Seventeen. Just about…two years younger than Mr. Wesley, I believe.” Nukeham said as he looked to Wesley to clarify the information.

Wesley nodded his head and said, “Yes sir. I just turned nineteen not but three months ago.”

“Ah, very well, very well indeed. I trust you had a pleasant birthday. That means that nine months from now you’ll be eligible to become a noble. That must excite you. Why, I remember when I first became a noble. It was, what, about…twenty five years ago? I believe that is true.” Nukeham said whilst scratching his chin with his right hand, a look of those deep in thought.

“Is she as beautiful as she is described to be?” A younger noble asked, Wesley guessed him to be around twenty-one.

“Well, you’ll have to see for yourself. She’s down in the dungeons. I’ll allow you all to see her, if you wish. But be cautious, she is a wild one, and even though she is locked up, I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.” Nukeham stated with a grin.

Immediately, all but Nukeham and Wesley shot up in their seats, each with huge smiles.

Nukeham stood and grinned. “Well then, I guess it’s settled. We’ll go down and see the girl.” He then turned to Wesley and said, “Mr. Wesley, would you care to join us?”

Wesley thought for a second, then nodded his head in agreement and stood. He decided that he would check out this girl and then after that, try to figure out what was behind that thief’s mind.

The group of nobles walked out of the meeting room, down a long hallway, took a right corner, a left corner, and then walked toward a steel door guarded by two soldiers.

“We are going to see a prisoner. Let us pass.” Nukeham told the guards. They instantly opened the door for the group to go down the long steel steps.

Once they got down to the dungeon floor, there was steel everywhere. Steel wasn’t as easily penetrated by weapons as wood or other materials were, that’s why it was everywhere. A steel ceiling, steel floors, steel walls, and steel cells.

The group walked all the way to the last cell in the long hallway. All the cells were empty, all but one, the very last one.

The dungeon hallway was lit by torches on the walls. They could all clearly see the prisoner, though there wasn’t much of her they could see.

The girl’s hands were tied behind her back and her legs were tied in front of her, both with metal chains. She had a metal collar around her neck with chains attaching it to the wall behind her, actually, all the chains attached to that wall. She was blindfolded and gagged. She was still and didn’t make any motion as to notice the group, even though Wesley could tell she knew they were there.

“Is she awake?” One whispered to Nukeham.

Nukeham merely grunted and banged on the bars with his fists. This caught not only the groups, but the girl’s attention as well. She turned her head toward them.

“If she wasn’t, she is now.” Nukeham said.

“Untie her eyes; I want to see what they look like.” The twenty-one year old noble spoke.

Everyone else agreed, except for Wesley, that is.

Nukeham nodded and snapped his fingers. The guard that was near them in the dungeon looked at him. “Untie her eyes and her mouth. Why should my friends be so unprivileged as to only get to see her eyes, when they could see her eyes and hear her melodious voice as well?”

Only Wesley noticed they tiny, microscopic blush that swept her cheeks. But it was quickly desolated when the guard opened up the door with his keys. He moved slowly toward the girl, eyeing her warily. Wesley took note of this; this girl must be quite dangerous if a guard was afraid of her while she was bound up in every way possible.

The guard moved his hands to the back of her head and untied the blindfold and the worked on the gag. He held both pieces of cloth in his mouth as he walked out of the cell and closed the door, relocking it.

Everyone stared in awe, even Wesley, and even Nukeham who had seen her before.

There, sitting in front of them, was what looked to be such a creature that an angel could be envious and jealous of.

Her skin was pale and like porcelain, her lips had a natural pink tint to them, her long hair framed her face wonderfully, and her eyes were a chocolaty brown that you could get lost in. Her rich brown hair was completely straight and there was not a hair out of place. She didn’t even have one speck of dirt on her. It was unbelievable.

Even though all were mesmerized by her appearance, Wesley was the first to regain his mind. He had never seen a more beautiful woman in his whole entire existence. But, no matter how breathtakingly gorgeous she was, one could not miss the glare she was giving Nukeham.

Nukeham, however, either ignored this or seemed not to notice. He turned toward the young noble and said, “How’s that for your answer?” He soon after chuckled at the still awed face the young man.

“She’s…she’s…she’s magnificent. It’s hard to believe one such as her would be a criminal, let alone locked up in this dungeon. She’s so perfect.” The man said. Apparently Wesley was not the only one who got lost in her radiance.

Nukeham chuckled some more and turned back to the girl. “Artemis,” he said, “speak, my child. Let us all marvel in your heavenly voice.” The command was evident. Wesley could understand it clearly. The command was only noticeable if you paid close attention. To any other his voice sounded soft and gentle. But not to Wesley.

He could make out the hidden command. Speak or you shall feel a terrible wrath of pain. That’s what the command, no, threat, was. Wesley was bewildered at the thought of anyone hurting such a girl.

Apparently, Artemis could find the threat as well, for she spoke. This only entranced everyone, including Wesley, even further. “I will not subjugate myself for your sick and twisted minds. Stare and goggle all you wish, but you will not get any reaction from me. I will not take part in an ‘activity’ such as this. Unlike you, all of you pathetic so called ‘nobles’, I have morals.”

Even though she didn’t speak kindly, her voice was still a melodious tune, like Nukeham promised. The glare was being ignored, though, for everyone was too busy staring at her unlimited beauty. She stopped trying after around ten seconds.

While everyone was checking her out, up and down, which Wesley found very inappropriate, Wesley was staring at her eyes. She seemed to like the challenge for she too stared back.

It was then that Wesley started to feel bad for the girl, Artemis. She was locked up in here with, what he was sure were perverted men, and admirers who just stared at her and her body. Though her body was covered nicely with baggy clothing, you could only see her face and hair, for the rest was either covered by clothing or hidden from view by her position. Wesley could tell that she would rather wear baggy clothing while being stared at rather than skin-tight clothes that the men would lose themselves even more with.

“Come, you must be seeing the grounds at this time of year, they are lovely.” Nukeham finally said, leading the group of reluctant nobles out of the dungeon. The only one that stayed behind was Wesley. “Wesley, are you coming?” Nukeham asked.

“I think I shall stay here for a while longer.” He replied, still staring into Artemis’ eyes.

“Alright then, my lad, try not to get too entranced by her looks, we wouldn’t want her seducing you into getting her out of that cell, now would we?” Wesley could hear Nukeham’s laughter as it fled the room. The next thing he heard was a door slamming shut.

Wesley couldn’t point it out, but there was something about this girl, when he looked into her eyes he saw something familiar, yet he was sure that he had never laid eyes on her before.

“Could I have a few moments?” Wesley asked the guard, not taking his eyes away from Artemis’. The guard nodded and left the dungeon..

“Artemis, was it?” He asked after a few dozen seconds, still gazing intently into her eyes, neither were backing down.

“That is correct.” She responded.

“Do you have a last name?” He asked curiously.

She shook her head.

Wesley frowned. “Why not?”

To his surprise, she smirked.

“I wouldn’t want anyone stocking me, now would I? It would endanger my family.” She said. You didn’t have to see her smirk, you could hear it clear as day.

“I find it hard to believe that a highly wanted criminal has a family, much less is thinking about them.” He said.

“You are smarter than the others. But, I do have a family. If that’s what you want to call it, though I know for a fact that they can take care of themselves.” She stated.

Wesley sighed and finally broke the staring contest. He ran his right hand through his dirty-blond hair and looked at the ceiling. He removed his hand from his hair to rest at his side and looked back into her eyes.

“You know, they’re just going to ogle at you for the rest of your time here. You might want to get used to it, it will probably be a long while.” Wesley said.

“And what makes you think it will be long?” She asked, curiosity in her voice.

“He’s going to double his defenses. Believe me, I know the man. He’s not going to let you get away. He much enjoys flaunting you off to the world and bragging about his ‘catch’.”

Artemis scoffed. “Please, I could care less about him or any other pampas brained imbecile I’ve met lately. I could take out his men even if he quintupled his forces.”

“That ego will most likely get you killed one day.” Wesley said.

“Perhaps, but I am willing to take the risk. It is far worse to belittle yourself than to be overconfident.” Artemis replied.

“Both are quite dangerous though.” Wesley said. After a moment or so, he spoke again, “You’d probably fit in well with the nobles. They think highly of themselves as well.”

Artemis growled. “Don’t you dare associate me with your sickening kind. Nobles are good for nothing except for raising taxes and lazily and greedily counting their precious money. They do nothing but sit back and lounge all day while the rest of the human population is working like animals, to support your filthy lifestyles.”

Wesley frowned. “You’ve got a big mouth for someone who’s being held prisoner.”

“And don’t forget the king, the worthless king. He’s just as bad as Prince John.” Artemis said.

“Silence. Prince John is dead.” Wesley said, anger welling up inside of him.

“Good riddance too, but I guess somebody had to take his place. The king’s most definitely worse than the nobles could ever be. I wouldn’t be surprised if he himself strolled up to an innocent civilian’s home and took all their money, so that he could go to bed at night with the sack of gold lying right next to him, an iron tight grip on it as if he were afraid that it would vanish into thin air.” Artemis said, even louder.

“Silence! You know nothing of which you speak! You will hold your tongue when even thinking so much as bad thoughts of the king. The king is a great man.” Wesley said, clutching his fists at his side and a scowl upon his face. He stormed off toward the door leading out of the dungeon.

“I used to think like you too once, when I was young and naïve.”

Wesley stopped and turned around, his anger gone and a look of confusion on his face. Artemis’ voice was quiet but he had heard it.

She stared at the wall in front of her, as if in a trance.

“What do you mean?” Wesley asked.

“I used to believe the king was a good man when I was little. But certain events happened that couldn’t go ignored. That’s when I grew up and stopped hiding in the shadows of innocence. Those shadows that are created by adults for young children to hide in, to shield themselves from the truth of the world.” Artemis said.

Wesley turned around and slowly started to make his way to the door. When he had his hand on the knob and was about to open the door, he stopped. Artemis spoke again, even quieter this time. Wesley had to strain his ears to listen to what she said.

“By order of the king, you are sentenced to death.” Artemis said slowly, “I’ve heard that so many times…and there are times when I didn’t have the chance to hear it at all.”

Wesley paused for just a second or two, before opening the door and walking out, sending the guard back in to gag and blindfold Artemis again.