Josh and his friends were so well hidden from the busy, inhabited parts of the kingdom that they had ceased to be fearful of discovery. They were aware of patrols that came out from time to time, but the Sleepers had their own guard system. When an alert was sounded, they quickly retreated to a deeper part of the woods. They spent most of their time getting ready for the battle to come. Josh, especially, wanted to see the prince develop into a first-class soldier.
“We’ll have to be like top sergeants back in the old days,” he told Reb. “You don’t make good soldiers by sitting down and eating ice cream sundaes.”
“You mean,” Reb said, “you want me to pour it on him.”
“That’s right. He’s got to learn to fight, he’s got to learn to endure hardships, and I’m putting you in charge of seeing that it gets done.”
Reb went at the business of training the prince with a vengeance. He rousted him out before daylight every morning and took him on hard treks through the deep woods and up and down the mountainside. He completely ignored Alexander’s protests.
One Thursday morning, Sarah was up early enough to talk with Reb about the prince’s progress. “How is he doing, Reb?”
“He’s not doing bad at all,” Reb admitted. “He’s strong and quick, and when he gets in shape, he’ll be a first-rate soldier. All that easy living has made him soft, but I’ll take care of that.”
“Don’t be too hard on him, Reb,” she warned. “You don’t want to get him out of the notion of serving.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be as good as one of Stonewall Jackson’s boys.” It was the highest praise he could give.
He roughly roused the prince by shaking his shoulder. “Get up, Prince. Time to go to work.”
Alex came out of a deep sleep and sat up. If his muscles ached from yesterday’s longer-than-usual hike up steep mountain trails, he refused to show it. “Then let’s get at it,” he said cheerfully.
“That’s the way to talk. Come along. We’ll cook us breakfast and be on our way.”
They did their cooking in the semidarkness, and Alexander ate heartily. Reb noticed that the prince washed his own plate, and he thought, He wouldn’t have done that before. We’re getting somewhere.
“We’ll take some sword practice before we do anything else,” Reb told him.
They picked up their weapons, and Reb led Alex far out from the camp where the noise would not awaken the others. “All right,” he said, turning to face the prince, “let’s see what you got.”
Alexander advanced. These were broadswords, not fencing foils, and it took a strong arm to wield them. The prince was the stronger of the two and Reb the quicker. Time and time again, Alexander would shower blows down, but Reb quickly parried them. Several times Reb could have touched the prince, but he did not. Finally, however, Reb called out, “That’s enough! I’m out of breath.”
The prince was breathing hard, too, but he seemed pleased with the exercise. “This is a lot of fun, Reb. It never was before.”
“It’s fun, but it’s more than that,” Reb said. “When a battle starts and you cross swords with someone, which one of you wins probably will be the one that’s practiced the most.” He rested against a tree and broke off a weed. He held the stem between his teeth and nodded approvingly. “Practice makes perfect,” he said. “You’ve come a long way.”
Alex looked pleased at the praise. They stood talking until Reb said, “Now let’s do some fast walking today.”
They hiked along, carrying nothing but their weapons, and Reb was pleased that Alex was able to keep up with him. He had not been able to do that at first, but now he matched him step for step.
“What was it like back in your world? What you call OldWorld, Reb.”
“What was it like? Well, it was a lot different from this.”
“Who ruled your world?”
“Well, nobody ruled the world. Every country had its own king or its own president.”
“Did your country have a king?”
“For a while. Then we fought a war to get rid of our king.”
Alex stared at him with surprise. “You were traitors?”
Reb shook his head. “No, no. You don’t understand. Let me try to give you a quick history lesson. It was because our people thought they were not treated fairly, and they tried everything they could to get fair treatment. Finally, when they couldn’t, they declared their independence. It was called the American Revolution.”
“Then who ruled after you got your independence?”
Reb broke into a trot. “Let’s speed it up.” He tried to think of the best way to explain. “They had elections back in OldWorld America. People would vote, and the man that got the most votes was the president.”
“So who voted?”
“Well, just the men at first, but after a while the women too.”
As they flew swiftly along the trail, the prince kept asking questions. When they stopped for a break and a drink of water at a small brook, he said, “I don’t see how it would work. What if the wrong man was elected?”
“Sometimes that happened,” Reb said, “but sometimes the wrong man gets to be king. Isn’t that right?”
“I guess so. Still, I don’t think our people would want a president. They like a king.”
After the two hiked all morning, Reb said, “Time to go back, but I’m sure hungry.”
“Too bad we didn’t bring along something to eat.”
“I’ll tell you what. Let’s catch a fish out of this stream. We could start a fire, skin him, and have fish for lunch.”
“We didn’t bring any hooks or …”
Reb laughed. “I’ll show you how to get a fish without a hook. It’s called noodling.”
“Noodling?” The prince’s brow furrowed. “What’s noodling?”
“I’ll show you.” Reb walked slowly along the brook until he found a spot he liked. “You see that log over there? I just saw something move in the water beside it.”
The prince looked at the old log lying half underwater. He watched a moment, then nodded. “Something’s in there, all right.”
“Probably a big catfish. You just stay and watch your Uncle Reb do his stuff.”
“Could I help you?”
“If you want to,” Reb said. “Not everybody likes it. Some people are afraid to do it.”
“I’m not afraid,” Prince Alex said quickly.
“OK. Come on.”
Reb stepped into the water, and they waded out to the log, where the water was waist deep. He said, “Now we’re going to be real still, and what you do is you put your hand under this log.”
“What if there’s a snake under there?”
Reb grinned. “You’d probably get bit, but they don’t stay underwater much. Of course, a big turtle might be under there. I never got bit by one. It’s always possible, though.”
The prince placed his hand under the log, and Reb said, “Now you just feel along it, moving real slow. If we have any luck, we’ll find a big catfish lying under there. In the heat of the day is the best time to catch him—like right now.”
The prince probably did not like putting his hand under the log, but he did as Reb said. Finally he exclaimed softly, “I touched something! It was soft, and it moved.”
“That’s it!” Reb said excitedly. “Now here’s what you do next. Slip your hand under the fish’s belly and stroke it.”
“Stroke his belly?”
“That’s it. That makes them go to sleep—I think.”
The prince did as he was instructed, and Reb grinned. He had not expected the king’s son to show so much nerve.
“Now you be careful of his spines. They’ve got poison in them. Don’t get involved with them. What you do is slip your right hand up, put your thumb in his mouth, and then with one motion you clamp down and you lift him up and you throw him to the bank.”
Apprehensively, the prince followed his instructions. “I’ve got up to his mouth,” he said. “He’s a big fish.”
“You have to do it smoothly now. Grab him and throw!”
The prince may have fully expected to be bitten or stabbed with one of the spines, but he appeared to clamp his hand down on the fish’s jaw. Then with one motion he flung onto the bank a catfish that weighed close to four or five pounds.
“You got him, Alex! You got him!” Reb scrambled to the bank and stopped the fish’s flopping with his boot.
The prince waded out and stared at the fish. “I never thought I could do a thing like that.”
“So now we can have lunch,” Reb said. “You cut us some sticks to put the meat on, and I’ll dress this fellow out.”
“Let me clean him,” Prince Alex said. “I’ve never cleaned a fish before.”
“OK, but it’s a messy job.”
The prince gave Reb a direct look. “I’m going to have to take over some messy jobs,” he said. Then he listened to Reb’s instructions and followed them carefully. When it was over, his hands were messy indeed, but he was grinning. “And now I know how to noodle.”
“You learn quick, Alex. When you set your mind on a job, you do it. Well, let’s have lunch.”
The day after the prince noodled his fish, Alcindor arrived. He had come before both to bring them news and to see how the prince was doing, but this time there was a worried look on his face.
Everyone gathered about him.
Alcindor stared at Alex. “Good morning, my Prince.”
“Good morning, Alcindor.”
“You’re sunburned.”
“Yes, I suppose I am,” the prince said simply.
Then the aide said, “Well, I wish I were the bearer of good tidings, but I’m not.”
“What’s happening, Alcindor?” Alexander asked quickly.
“The pressure is building up. There will certainly be a Zorian attack very soon. Their troops are moving to the front lines right on the other side of the mountains. Something’s going to happen. And more than that, the Madrian patrols are thick, looking for you. The king and queen are worried about you.”
“You tell them that I am doing fine. Tell them I’m learning to be a soldier.”
Alcindor smiled suddenly. “That’s got to be good news for them.” Then he added, “But you can’t stay in this place any longer. The patrols are moving this way.”
“Where can we go?” Josh asked. “Farther back in the woods?”
“No. They will surely find you there,” Alcindor said. “I suggest you go to a village called Pellenor. Find a family there called Starbuck. Starbuck is a good man. He’s been loyal to the king always.”
“Shall I tell him who I am?” the prince asked.
“No. Better to keep it a secret. Indeed, disguise yourself the best you can while there. Even act mentally unbalanced, if you have to.”
They made their plans, and Alcindor suggested something else. “I don’t think all of you should go to the Starbuck farm, either. The rest of you disperse but have a central meeting point. Stay there until the time comes.”
“What time?” the prince asked quickly.
Alcindor drew up straight and tall, and he smiled faintly. “Until the time we must all put our lives at risk.” A cloud came into his fine gray eyes, and he shook his head. “I do not think it will be long.”