Royal Messenger

"Once again, I thank you Sir Charles", said the King " You see King Henry of Sundown has vowed to sign a treaty that will end this war. However, most of his border Lords are still hostile and won’t end the war unless they see a treaty that is signed by both kings. Also, they won’t agree to let any of my messages cross the border. So it leaves us in a very awkward position and in order to prevent any more large battles between our two kingdoms we must act with all haste".

"So what do you ask, do we do? Well it’s simple really, I’m going to send all of you on the same mission", said the King "Out of all of you, at least one of you should be able to get by the border Lords and deliver my signature to King Henry".

"I’m not going to lie to you this mission will be extremely dangerous, not only will you have to deal with the border lords but you’ll have to deal with the elements as well".

"However, I must now return to my other dealings at the moment so I wish you the best of luck and a safe journey", and with that the King turned on his heals and strode out of the room with the royal guard following close behind.

Once the King had left, the room remained silent; every man within it was dumbfounded.

Jordan felt like he had just been sentenced to death. He was supposed to cross enemy lines and go deep into enemy territory in midwinter! He knew that all the other men in the room were feeling the same thing. Even if he succeeded how did he know that it wasn’t just a plot to exterminate King Theon’s Royal messengers. Since it was more than likely because King Henry was supposed to be obsessed with conquering Atheon. The Royal Messengers had played many large roles in winning past battles against the Sundownians so that would give him more than enough reasons to betray his word, enabling him to destroy King Theon’s Royal Messengers.

"Alright men, we have our orders, so lets get to it!" ordered Sir Charles who had just come back to consciousness. It wasn’t everyday your entire troop was sent away.

They left that very night. They decided to travel in threes until they reached the border of Sundown then the separate groups would split up as well in order to increase the chances of someone getting past the border. Travelling to the border was very uneventful for Jordan, who had been matched with two capable messengers: John Stone and Richard Williams. They didn’t talk much. Everyone seemed to be concentrating on what they were going to do when they got to the border.

Then Jordan was alone. They’d reached the border as a group then split up. Jordan had decided before he even left King’s Keep that he would take the mountain passes that go directly to the Tower. The official residence of King Henry. He knew that none of the other messengers would take that route even though it was the quickest way to King Henry because in the winter the storms in the mountains are more likely to kill you then any of the border lord’s soldiers. However, Jordan was willing to risk it because there weren’t going to be any border patrols in this area. So, he started his journey.

It felt like it was never going to end. An endless ever rising stone slope that had patches of icy sections and other dangerous traps for the unwary.