The Letter, Part 14
“Good evening, sirs!” the low voice called from the wilderness just outside the estate’s guardhouse.
The guards stood in a circle just on the inside of the gate, trying to speculate as to the identity of the riders who ventured so late at night into the southern forest.
“State your business!” the lead guard said.
The voice from beyond the gate was heard again after just a short pause. “We bear the emissary of the Lady Telematrice, come all the way from Lystria to secure an audience with Sir Hancock,” it said. “I have the royal papers to demonstrate our identity most sincerely.”
The lead guard was absolutely astonished by the man’s words. Why on earth would the Lady Telematrice send a representative such a great distance to speak with a comparatively low-ranked land baron? “I will look at those papers!” he replied.
He walked up to a small cabinet built into the gate, hearing a great deal of scuffling coming from the other end. Tentatively, he pulled the draw toward him, revealing a gold-embossed royal seal stamped onto the palace’s official letterhead.
He turned his head back to the other men, all searching anxiously for a response. All he could do was shrug. “It’s them all right,” he whispered.
The guard strode to the left side of the gate while his counterpart took his place on the right. Together, they began to hoist open a narrow opening in the gate.
“We’re sorry,” he said as the emissary and his men rode their horses through the gap. “It’s not often we receive royal visitors.”
The lead horseman, presumably the emissary, approaching the guard, a total of six men behind him.
“We are looking for the firstborn heir of Bancock,” the emissary said. “The lady has business with him.”