A Journey to a Hundred Worlds

“Do you happen to know anything about Liam’s past?” Michelle asked Rose, the innkeeper. It was two days since she had been taken in in exchange for her work as a dishwasher. She learned that Rose seemed to look upon Liam with motherly affection as he was an orphaned street kid, supposedly.

“Oh, why do you ask?” Rose inquired, surprise in her voice.

“Just wondering,” Michelle replied, barely containing her impatience. She had been waiting for the opportunity to ask the question ever since she had had the exchange with Vale. Ever since then, she had known that she needed to prove her instincts to be true.

“Well, I do know a bit about it,” Rose conceded. “A few years back is when he first arrived here in Vassenberg. There were stories that he had lost his memories of almost everything, only remembering what had happened in the last month, and even then his memory was spotty. He had been kicked in the head by a horse, and it was lucky that all he lost was his memories, not his life. Well, he’s been living here for so long, I sometimes forget he can’t remember everything that happened in his life. And he’s such a sweet child.”

Michelle nodded absentmindedly in agreement. So far her guess was being supported by what Rose told her. Now, it was time to try to get Liam to remember.

***

Liam entered the inn as he always did at midday for lunch. After working furiously, Michelle had made sure to finish cleaning all of the dishes in time so she could sneak out to talk to him. She saw his eyebrows go up in surprise at seeing her.

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” he asked her when she reached him.

“I wanted to ask you something. Could you come out back for a minute?” Michelle ventured pensively.

“I guess,” Liam replied, eyebrows still up near his hair.

They went around to the back of the inn which was generally quieter than the front which had the street full of people. Michelle turned to face Liam when they stopped, and, before she had time to loose her steam, she launched her planned attack, “Do you think that you are Prince William?”

Liam’s eyebrows flew even higher upward, now hidden underneath the messy fringe of his hair. “Me? Prince William?” he sputtered in disbelief.

“Well yes. I think that you are Prince William. You seem like an important person to me. Let me try to jog your memory.” Michelle grabbed the edges of her skirt and curtsied, saying, “Prince William.”

Liam’s eyes grew distant for a moment. And then a name escaped his lips, “Elizabeth.”
Michelle waited expectantly for him to say more.

“I…remember now. I can’t believe that I couldn’t before,” Liam muttered. “I am Prince William. At first I just wanted to escape castle life for a bit and hang around with boys my age, but then that horse kicked me in the head and I lost my memories of when I was a prince. Well, really, I lost all of my memories. But I was around the friends I had made and who didn’t know my secret, so I all I regained were my memories as Liam. But just now, you reminded me of…Elizabeth.” The way he said the name Elizabeth was so tender, Michelle knew exactly what the namesake meant to Liam. The thought made her smile to herself. “Elizabeth…I hope she’s still okay. I hope she hasn’t forgotten or given up on me… I have to return to the castle! But…I’ll miss my friends and especially Rose. And you too, Michelle, although I hardly knew you for long.”

“You know you can always still visit Rose after you become King,” Michelle pointed out simply.

“Oh, right, I’m going to become King…” Liam breathed in awe. “But I don’t think I’m ready yet. I mean, I’ve had no time at all to prepare for this. I…I haven’t had any time yet to just sit and think of the repercussions of all this, what impact it will have on me, exactly.”
“I’m sure you will do just fine,” Michelle encouraged him. “After all, you have a good heart and a good head. I can just feel that you’re destined for great things.”

“But how will I ever even get to the castle and how will I prove that I am indeed Prince William?” Liam asked her.

“I just can’t believe it,” a voice said from right behind Michelle, causing her to jump. She spun around to find Vale. “You were actually right,” he continued, “I guess that means I have to come along to help out. Elizabeth you said she was? Is she a princess or something?”
Liam took on a sly look at the apparent eavesdropper. “Yes, she is a princess actually, and she usually comes to visit the castle a few days out of every month, usually at the beginning of the month. So in a few days she should be there. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, this just keeps getting even more and more perfect,” Vale muttered underneath his breath. “Well, if you had the relationship I think you did with her, she would easily recognize you and she could vouch for your claim so all we have to do is get you to the castle and get her to see you. Then you should get onto the throne and become King.”

“Do you really think such a simple plan will work?” Liam asked skeptically.

“Look, whether or not the plan is simple has no bearing. What does is that I’ll make this plan work,” Vale answered.

“So we’re just going to go to the castle and ask to see Elizabeth?” Michelle piped in.

“‘We?’ Who said that you were going to come along?” Vale remarked.

“Of course I’m coming,” Michelle argued. “I want to help out.”

“Why do you have to stick around me so much?” Vale snapped.

“Why do you have to be so cold?”

“Um, could the two of you please stop arguing?” Liam interrupted. Once they did he continued, “Of course both of you can come if you want.”

It took a few moments for the words to sink in.

“Whatever,” Vale finally said, obviously still annoyed.

“So where exactly is the castle?” Michelle asked.

Liam looked at her like she was crazy. “Right next to Lenned, two days journey on horseback from here…”

“So we would have to walk all the way there?” Michelle mumbled dejectedly.

Vale reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a leather bag. Judging by the noise made by it, it contained coins. “No, we will be riding horses. I should have enough to buy two. You and Liam can ride one together.” He handed over the bag of coins to Liam. “You can go and buy them.”

As soon as Liam left, Michelle took her chance, “Where did you get all of that money?” When she got no reply, she asked yet again, “Hello? Where’d you get it?”

Vale sighed greatly. He took a few minutes to consider the question before replying, “How’s about we make a deal? After we get out of this world, I’ll tell you. Until then, stop asking me all of these questions before you end up regretting it.”

The ominous words Vale had said weighed on Michelle’s mind as they waited for Liam to return. When he did, Liam was holding the reins of a chestnut colored horse along with a dark bay one.

“This is Cinnamon,” here he pointed to the chestnut horse, “and Thunder.” He then pointed to the dark bay one before handing over its reins to Vale. “You know how to ride a horse, I assume seeing as how you did suggest buying horses?”

“Yeah,” Vale replied, putting his right foot into the stirrup before swinging over onto the back of Thunder with the ease of a person who has done something many times before.

“Um…” Michelle began, eliciting an eye roll from Vale, “I’ve never actually ridden a horse before…”

“And that is why you’re riding with Liam,” Vale pointed out. “All you have to do is hold his waist when we gallop.”

“Okay…”

As Liam mounted Cinnamon, Michelle observed how he swung himself over. When it was her turn, she tried to imitate the movement with as much grace as possible. She settled in behind Liam as smoothly as possible. She really hoped she hadn’t looked stupid or clumsy in Vale’s eyes, otherwise she would probably never hear the end of it for as long as the two ended up working together on things like this.

With her now on the horse, Liam shook the reins and dug his heels into the sides of his horse. Cinnamon started at a gallop, surprising Michelle who instantly grabbed Liam’s waist. The galloping jolted her up and down, but Liam seemed to say seated pretty firmly. Of course that was since he was a prince and had obviously had plenty of horse-riding lessons along with hunting atop one and training in combat atop one. Vale, too, seemed to be completely at home atop Thunder. This made even more questions about his background rise up in Michelle’s head. She couldn’t wait until they reached the castle so that way they could move onto the next world and she could interrogate him until she was satisfied.

Until then, though, she would just enjoy the exciting feeling of doing something so important. It shocked her when she really thought about exactly what she was doing. She was going to put the rightful king on the throne where he belonged. She, at this very moment, was riding on the same horse as His Royal Majesty, hanging onto him tightly to keep from falling off. Everything felt like a dream, ever since she had had that horrible one. Thinking about it reminded her of the reason why she needed to find a way to move onto the next world: She needed to find her brother, wherever he was.

‘Drake,’ she thought to herself as the three of them sped through the forest on horseback, ‘I’m coming for you. I’ll find you and then we’ll both go back home to Mom and Dad.’