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“You think we should try getting out of the ropes?” Dave asked once Queen Elissa and the guards had been gone for a while.
“Is that a question you even need to ask?” Luther grunted as he struggled.
They’d been tied with their hands behind their backs and their feet to each other.
“I haven’t been,” Amelia replied, feeling sheepish that she hadn’t even worked to see if the ropes the guards had retied could be loosened.
Luther moaned. “Am I the only one here who wants to get back home?”
“I just didn’t think we’d actually be able to get out,” Amelia replied.
“Can we try at least?” Luther asked, standing.
Tied together, the other two started to fall as he did.
“Watch out!” Dave said. “You’re making it worse. Give me a bit, I’m working out a plan.”
Luther flopped back to the floor and sighed. “You aren’t gonna be able to think your way outta these ropes. Maybe the bricks are rough enough to break them?”
“We can try!” Amelia said, feeling a rush of hope as she began to rub the ropes around her wrists against the bricks. “Do you think we can use the sundial to get back home?”
“I’ve been trying to figure that out,” Dave said as he began working on the ropes as well. “The cow should work, I still have it here in my pocket. I think it landed on the word I think it landed on the word Yesterday, but when we were trying earlier, we never actually put it there. I think if we put it on the actual word it’ll take us back.”
“That’s great,” Luther said through gritted teeth. “But what if they’re back before we’re done here?”
Amelia was worried about that too. She didn’t think Queen Elissa would just let them have the sundial back, not unless she trusted them. “Can we try to help her?”
“Why would we do that?” Luther asked.
“She might give it back to us if we can prove we’re on her side,” Amelia said. “You know, and help them figure out what to do with King Piggy.”
Dave jerked forward. “That’s it!”
“Team up with the side with less spears?” Luther said, rolling his eyes. “Brilliant.”
Dave held up a hand. “No, I just got free!”
“How’d you do that?” Luther asked, astonished.
“A trick I learned in Schroll’s!” Dave said, his face bright with excitement. “If you’re tied up, you get your hand really sweaty and—”
“—Okay, okay I get it,” Luther said. “Can you help us out?”
Dave was already trying to untie Amelia, when they heard people moving outside the hut. Light from torches came through a window, along with the smell of cooking meat. They could hear people preparing a meal.
Luther’s belly growled.
“Now’s the moment you’re getting hungry?” Amelia asked.
“I can’t help it!” Luther said, his voice urgent. “Let’s finish up here and get that sundial!”
Dave was struggling to get Amelia’s hands freed. “I still can’t believe we’re actually here, doing this. It’s all so cool!”
“It won’t be if King Piggy shows up,” Luther said, pulling at the ropes. “Trust me, we don’t want to be here when that happens.”
“We’re never gonna have another chance like this,” Dave said, slipping a finger between one of the knots. Amelia’s hand slipped out and she shrugged the rope off her.
“Now you’re deciding you want to stay,” Luther replied, sounding stunned as the other two began working on his ropes. “We have to get the sundial and get out of here. I’m not getting trapped in a time when everyone smells like this!”
Just as one of Luther’s hands came free, they heard everyone approaching.
Dave looked from Amelia to Luther and back again before they all buried their hands in the ropes like they were still tied up.
The door burst open and Queen Elissa stepped in with a half dozen more people.
“I can’t believe it,” Queen Elissa said.
She threw a big roll of leather onto the floor and sat at the table. Everyone looked angry, they were ignoring the kids.
A servant brought two large skewers of roast meat, a stone bowl full of grapes, dozens of pressed raisin cakes, and three clay jugs of milk. The adults sat and began to eat.
Luther’s stomach rumbled and Amelia looked over at him.
Luther scowled. “I’m really hungry, okay? And I can’t reach the sandwich in my pocket.”
Watching the others eat was making Amelia hungry too.
“I just wish they would share some,” Luther said.
The adults ate in silence for a few minutes. No one looked happy.
“My Queen,” Puto finally said between bites. “King Iarbas was upset. He had hoped to marry you. But saying no that way was not wise.”
“I will not remarry!” Queen Elissa said angrily.
Again, something about Queen Elissa’s late husband tickled Amelia’s mind.
“I know, my Queen. But you could have tried to make a deal,” Puto replied.
Queen Elissa blew out a breath. “Anna, my sister, do the people of the land want us to stay?”
A girl at the table leaned forward and Amelia gasped. It was the girl with the spear. Now that she was seeing Queen Elissa and Anna beside each other, they could not be mistaken for anything but sisters.
“They do, Elissa, more than ever,” Anna said.
“Would they leave King Iarbas and follow us?” Queen Elissa asked.
“In a heartbeat,” Anna said. “They like Iarbas as much as you do.”
Queen Elissa smiled. “That much?”
The others chuckled.
“Would they stand up to our brother for me?” Queen Elissa asked.
“Only if you give them land to live on,” Anna replied. “They want to be able to make lives for themselves also.”
“Iarbas owns all the land in the area. All, except what we can cover with that,” Queen Elissa said, pointing at the roll she brought in.
Puto stood and unrolled the leather. It was large and brown. “Iarbas told us we can have as much land as this ox hide can cover and no more.”
“And if we don’t have any land...” Queen Elissa said.
“...then the people in this country won’t follow us, even if they want to,” Anna finished. “They’ll have no place to call their own, except the little Iarbas loans them.”
The adults stood around the ox hide looking worried. Amelia could see the problem. There would never be enough land. The ox hide covered just a small part of the room. There was not even enough space for everyone there to stand on it.
Dave leaned in and rubbed his head against her shoulder.
“What’re you doing?” Amelia asked.
“I’ve got a bad itch,” Dave replied.
Amelia swallowed. That was never good. Dave’s head always itched when he thought about solving a hard problem in a crazy way. She just hoped it wouldn’t be like it had been a couple of weeks before, when he figured out how to make a mountain of spaghetti explode as part of a school project to show what happened at Pompeii.
It didn’t end well.
“You think we should remind ‘em we’re here?” Luther whispered.
“Nope, I think that’d be a bad idea,” Dave said, still rubbing his head against Amelia’s shoulder.
“The hoops they’re gonna make us jump through for that sundial...” Luther said.
“Hoops?” Dave asked. “Hold on! That’s it! It’s brilliant!”
“What is?” Luther asked.
“I know how to use the ox hide to get them enough land!” Dave exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.