CROWNS I: Of Desolate Hope | ✔

40. Pat

Pat saw Fred's outstretched arm out of the corner of his eye. That reeks. He quickly took the tomato and pelted the boy in the stocks with them. "This still feels wrong!"

"Nah, it's alright little lord," replied Ben, steadying his hand before launching a tomato. "This is community justice. It's the moral thing to do."

"If you say so."

"I do."

Ben nodded in accord and so Pat continued to throw rotten fruit and vegetables at the guilty party. The offender couldn't have been much older than the age of thirteen but this didn't stop anyone from humiliating him. He knew that if his father was there, he would have been scolded for taking part in the shaming of others. Life away from Greenthorn was liberating but also rather chaotic and when he'd first arrived to meet his friends it was rather queer.

"There's a whole lot of people here," commented Fred. He wandered over to a wooden box, picked out a brown cabbage and began tossing it up in the air, barely catching it each time.

Pat turned to Ben and shared a smile. "You took too much of it, Fred," he said. "I knew it was a bad idea!"

"It's not that bad...is it?" asked Fred, finally dropping the vegetable into a small patch of mud.

That depends on who you ask. Pat studied his friend up and down. He was stumbling and seemed too giddy for his liking. "You can't even walk properly and it appears you can't remember much. I'd say it's not great but it isn't awful."

"I blame you, Lord Hoff," muttered Fred. "You went out and bought it."

That's not even my fault! Pat shuddered, remembering how hard it had been to find everything. First, Thea and the murder and then the strange man in Raven's Park. Pat wasn't sure if he'd seen Thea since that day but there was one occasion where he thought he'd spotted her in a crowd. In an instant, she was gone and he had already turned around in fear of her coming after him. Although it had been thrilling, it was a little too hectic and too much of a stark change from the mundane life in Goodwood. "It was both of you who asked me to get it. I distinctly remember saying it was wrong."

"Oh relax," said Ben, "the whole point of this little trip was to make you a little more like us - calm but fun."

Pat scoffed. "Like you? The wandering knights?"

"The WanderKnights actually but yep," replied Ben, rolling a tomato through the onlookers' legs. "You're not a Lord yet so you don't have to act like one. Our offer still stands - if you ever feel like joining us, there's room for another wanderknight."

Pat appreciated the sentiment. "I'll consider it...one day far into the future. Preferably when we're all dead. That way, I won't have to worry about you two being the death of me."

"Fair enough!" replied Ben, nudging Pat. "Quick, look over there..."

Pat followed Ben's gaze and too watched as the City Guard removed the boy from the stocks. The spritely atmosphere quickly turned dull.

"What are you lot looking at?" asked one of the guards. He was an elderly man and had such a severe look that no one replied. Pat instantly recognized him as the old Captain of the Guard.

Whilst the Guard were shouting and admonishing people, Pat noticed a young girl, with cloth around her face, carefully open the shutters of the shop above. "It's happening," he whispered to Fred, who seemed more confused than ever.

"What is?"

"The thing about someone getting arrested for writing that paper," mumbled Pat, as he watched in excitement as a burly but concealed man approached the shutter with his arms wrapped around a large barrel. This is madness. Before he could even blink, the rancid, black sludge was already dripping off of the Old Captain's bald head.