The Sleepers had never enjoyed anything more than the days that followed the destruction of the beast and the defeat of Zor. It had been a complete victory, and now it was the Zorians who were under the military government of the Madrians. There had been celebrating and feasts, and the only dark hour was when the king banished Count Ferrod.
King Alquin stripped the count of his honors, saying, “You deserve death, but you are my kinsman. Instead, you are banished from my kingdom forever.”
Aside from that, all was enjoyable.
The time came, however, when Josh knew that it was time to leave. They had one final time of good-byes with the friends that they had made in Madria and made promises to come back if they could.
Then the Sleepers rode back toward the sea, where they planned to resume their vacation.
As they rode along, Reb suddenly said to Wash, “I wish I could have had that critter mounted.”
“What critter?” Wash asked. “The beast?”
“The beast. Of course he’d be too big to keep, I guess. And he would take a lot of stuffing.”
Wash laughed aloud. “You think of the craziest things. Who would want to stuff that thing?”
“Well, they had Stonewall Jackson’s horse stuffed. Little Sorrel. And Roy Rogers had Trigger stuffed. He’s in a museum. I saw him once.”
“I think Trigger and Little Sorrel are a little bit different from the beast of Zor. I never want to see that thing again—alive or dead.”
Abbey was riding on the other side of Reb. She sniffed. “A fine romance between a prince and a peasant girl, and all you two can talk about is stuffing beasts and horses!”
But Reb just smiled. “All in all, it was quite a party.”
Wash reached over and slapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll say this. You did good, Reb. Your dream idea was what pulled it off.”
“You didn’t do bad with those horses, either. But the ideas—we know where they really came from. As usual, Goél gave us the right ideas just when we needed them.”
“It could have turned out so different,” Jake went on. “The noose could have broken, or you could have missed.”
“Wait a minute. I never miss!”
“Sure you do.”
Josh and Sarah, riding in the lead, could hear Reb and Wash arguing. When they had pulled their horses slightly ahead, Josh said, “I’ve learned a lot from our adventures in NuWorld, Sarah. Mostly, I’ve learned I can always count on Goél. He hasn’t made a mistake yet. And I learned something else from this last adventure.”
“What’s that, Josh?”
“I learned that I was just about as bad as Alex, wanting my own way.”
“Yes, I guess you were,” she said placidly.
“You don’t have to agree with me so quick!”
Sarah laughed and whacked his arm. “You’re my prince,” she said. “But I’m glad you learned something. We all did, Josh.” And then a twinkle of fun came into her eyes. “Now you won’t mind cooking dinner for me and serving me and bowing down. It’ll be good for your humility.”
Josh knew she was teasing. He laughed, and the two rode on, the other Sleepers following. And presently all disappeared under a canopy of trees as the sun beat down.