Excerpt from "Snow, Thorns, Apples"

The patch of earth gave way beneath his weight and he plunged down through the soil. He tumbled helplessly and landed hard on his back, the breath slamming out of him. He lay confused on the floor, groaning from the pain of his aching shoulders and brushing away the dirt that fell from the opening on to his head.

When the pain in his back subsided, Hadrian rolled over and paused in astonishment. What he had thought to be an underground cave was in reality a small enclosure. Wooden planks extended high over his head enclosing a room as large as his bedchamber in the castle. Smoked meats hung from the rafters in the ceiling and a large table flanked by seven chairs was set in the center. Hanging from various hooks set haphazardly in the walls were clothing in all sorts of styles, jewelry, pots, pans, unfamiliar utensils and a flotsam and jetsam of various small objects in silver and gold.

He stood up and began to explore. Shortly he found a door leading to another room and saw seven beds, left carelessly unmade. The sight of them reminded him how weary he was and the tiredness fell on him full force. He sank down on the nearest mattress and stretched out his body on the surface.

Random images swirled in his mind as he thought on the bizarre turn his life had taken. Yesterday, he had been a prince. Today he was a vagrant. Would Caled ever know what had happened to him? It was unlikely his father Rafe would tell him. Now that he knew Hadrian was personally acquainted with his son, Rafe might fear Caled would come after him or talk to others about Hadrian's fate. So it was possible Caled would never know. He would think Hadrian had abandoned him --again.

Hadrian was no longer a child who wept heedlessly at every hurt. But he was far from his home, from everybody he knew. There was no one to see him or rebuke him for his tears. So he buried his face in the coarse pillow and cried himself to sleep.

__________

The voices around Hadrian were gruff, lilting and wary by turns. He'd learned his lesson from earlier and didn't move as they chattered around him.

"See, this is what happens when you forget to shore up the roof, Dolen." That voice was exasperated and in a high tenor. A young man then, peevish and irritated.

"I said I was sorry, Gam! Shit, what more do you want from me?" That voice was older and Hadrian could hear scratching as if he were pawing at his head.

"What are we going to do with him? He looks fragile. I'm surprised he survived the fall." This was a sweeter tone and Hadrian could hear the gentle apprehension in it.

"I say we see if he has anything valuable on him. Then we kill him."

"Sirik, no! We're not wanton killers here." This came from an older man and there was gruff concern in his voice.

"Speak for yourself, Dannelus. He's in my bed and I want to sleep." That voice was sullen and the statement was followed by a loud yawn.

"You always want to sleep, Sirik." There was a loud sneeze from that speaker and everybody shushed him.

"I don't know. He looks harmless enough. Maybe he could join us. What do you think?" That man sounded middle aged but unexpectedly jovial as if Hadrian were an old friend who'd dropped in for tea.

There was another yawn and then the sullen youth spoke again, sounding exasperated. "Hussed, he's not a stray dog we can keep as a pet. And I still want him out of my bed."

"All right. I say we wake Sleeping Beauty here and find out who he really is. Then we can decide what to do with him."

There was a poke in Hadrian's back and the first person who'd spoken -- Gam, was it?-- said sharply, "Hey, you there. Open your eyes. You couldn't have slept through all this so get up or else." The jab became more insistent and the voice turned frosty. "That's a dagger poking you in the back, in case you're wondering. You can wake now or sleep forever."

He sounded like he meant it and that dagger was poking him too insistently to be ignored. That Dannelus person had said they weren't wanton killers but that didn't mean they might not kill him if it was expedient. Hadrian gave a sigh and a yawn and rolled over, trying to make it look like he was coming awake in a perfectly natural way. He opened his eyes and stared.
There was a ring of seven men surrounding him, a mixture of looks ranging from inquisitiveness to outright distrust on their faces. Two of them had eye patches on opposite eyes giving them the odd look of twins although he could see that was the only point of commonality between them.

One of the eye-patched men had a scar down his left cheek. He was also holding a dagger; he must have been the one who threatened him. He pointed the weapon at Hadrian now and asked, "Who are you? And don't lie to us. We're don't take kindly to thieves and liars especially when they invade our home."

"Yeah. Thieves don't like being stolen from." Somebody reached out and punched the speaker in the shoulder. "Ow! What'd you do that for?"

"Don't tell him we're thieves, Dolen!" this man hissed. "What if he's a constable or something?" He was short and very thin with tussled reddish brown hair falling over his eyes.

"He's too pretty to be a constable. And look at his hands and skin. Smooth, white and fine as a woman's." The statement was clinical and the tall man speaking peered at Hadrian with a cool black-eyed gaze as if he were some kind of tool he was trying to figure out.

"Everybody be quiet!" That was the gentle voice and came from the other of the two men with the eye patch. He smiled encouragingly at Hadrian and murmured, "Let the boy talk."

Hadrian flushed and sat upright. "I'm not a boy. I'm --" He hesitated. Should he tell these men that he was the prince of Jeynesa? They might expect him to have riches about his person and be disappointed and hostile enough to hurt him when they found nothing.

The thin redhead sneezed again. "Will somebody light the fire? I'm freezing."

"Light it yourself, Stak. We're still questioning our visitor here." The man with the eye patch over his right eye leaned forward, his probing stare fixed on Hadrian. "Well? Who are you?"

"Hades ni Kohler." Hadrian wasn't a common name and they might recognize it as belonging to the heir to the throne. The last name was that of one of the lesser nobles, unlikely to be known to any of these men. Sure enough they glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Hades? Funny name. Sounds like a curse," Sirik mumbled. He blinked sleepily and glared at Hadrian, still miffed the stranger was in his bed.

"Are you good for anything, Hades? Ransom? Money? Work? Food?" The man with the dagger smirked as if the notion of eating Hadrian was amusing. He reached out to pinch Hadrian's thigh and the prince swatted away his hand.

"Don't touch me!" he snapped. He immediately regretted it as the man thrust him back in the bed and held the dagger just above one startled silver eye.

"Don't you get fresh with me, you little pup. I might take offense at it."

"Gam, leave him alone. He obviously fell in here by accident. He doesn't mean any harm." The other man with the eye patch gave Hadrian an encouraging smile. His right green eye beamed out at him as he tugged at his partner. "Don't pay any attention to Gam. His bark is worse than his bite."

"I'll bite him if I think he'll make a meal." Nevertheless, Gam allowed himself to be pulled back.

Hadrian swung his feet out of bed and when the others made no attempt to stop him he stood up. The men backed away and separated. Hadrian realized they were flanking him, all watchful to see if he would make a threatening move. He spread his arms to show that he was harmless. But Gam's one eye spotted something. "Take off your boot!" he snapped.

The soft-spoken one rolled his eye. "What now, Gam?"

"He's got a knife in it, Lio. See?"

"Oh, this? It was given to me by a friend before I was lost in the forest." Nevertheless, Hadrian slowly reached down and pulled out Rafe's knife. He extended it to Gam hilt first and the other man snatched it, looking it over carefully.

"And how did you come to be lost in the forest, Hades?" This was from the tall, dark-eyed man. Hadrian recognized his voice as that of the man who'd admonished Sirik for wanting to kill him. He was of trim build as if he hadn't spend much time in manual labor in his life. Of them all, he appeared to be the calmest. He wasn't friendly but he wasn't openly hostile either. He was obviously a man who withheld judgment until all the facts were in. So Hadrian directed his words to him.

"The queen made my father an offer for his land. He was greedy and cared more for money than me. So he took the offer and now I've lost my inheritance. I decided to try my luck and make my fortunes in the outer lands. Then I came across the small tor above your home. I didn't realize it was hiding a roof and I accidentally fell in. That's all."

The story wasn't an outright lie but it concealed enough of the truth to protect him. He still didn't trust these men not to harm him if they knew his rightful identity. But some weren't willing to accept his story so easily.

Gam tapped the hunting knife on his palm. "So how is it you have no food and no other weapons except this one, Hades?"

Hadrian bit his lip and lowered his eyes. He'd never been a practiced liar save for when he was making excuses to visit Caled in secret. He recalled some of his lover's words to him and summoned a sheepish expression. "I took as much food as I could carry from my home and that knife and set off. I didn't have any idea where I was really going but I hoped to find kindly people who would offer me shelter. It was a stupid plan, now that I think about it. I-I've led a closed-in life, I'm afraid." He finished these last words in a half-hearted mumble as if ashamed of his foolishness and heard the men snort and laugh to themselves.

"It was stupid, all right. Nobody is that civilized or kind nowadays. Things are tough all over, if you haven't heard," Stak said. He sneezed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "I used to live in the southern provinces where every day was sunny and warm. Thanks to digging on our land because the king thought there was oil underneath it, my family was forced to come up north to earn our living. But people in Jeynesa are as badly off as elsewhere. So I became a thief in order to survive." He let out a horrendous sneeze. "Shit. I can't stand this cold northern weather," he muttered.

"My weaving business lost customers because of those foreign machines from beyond the Fetching Sea," Dannelus chimed in.

"My home was plowed under to make way for a new road," Sirik stated.

"Lio and I were both merchants' sons. Lio's a fine woodcarver," Gam began.

"I made all the wood paneling you see around you, Hadrian," Lio stated proudly.

Gam gave him a crooked grin. "And I was skilled at stone masonry. Our houses abutted each other so we've been friends for years. When they both burned down in mysterious fires, we had to turn to pilfering other people's goods. Once we were caught thieving and had the choice of having one of our hands chopped off or losing an eye. Guess which we chose," Gam said, tapping his eye patch for emphasis.

There was a large bear-like man who picked his nose idly while staring at Hadrian. He grinned when he noticed the youth's stare. "I'm Dolen. You have very pretty hair. It looks like the wings of a crow."

Gam shook his head, clucking his teeth. "Don't mind Dolen. He's good-hearted but a simpleton. He was in this home along with other society misfits: invalids, orphans and people not quite right in the head. An order came that the place was going to be cleared out for a factory to make weapons. All the people living there were to be sent back to their families for care. Those without families were to be put to work in the factory-for the most meager of pay, of course."

"So what happened to him?" Hadrian asked.

"Dolen was too slow in the head to understand the work and nobody wanted him. He'd been there so long, no one remembered who he was or how he came to be there. So he was cast on to the streets and we took him in. He's got this dim, childish look that causes people to trust him completely. Comes in handy when we want them distracted." Lio patted Dolen on the shoulder and the man grinned happily.

Hadrian glanced at the last man and he shrugged. "My father had built his stables with their prize-winning horses over someone else's land or so our neighbor claimed. The king sent men to settle the dispute and the ruling came down on our neighbor's side. The stables were razed. Then our neighbor sold the land to the king. You can guess what happened to me next."

Gam glared at him sourly. "Dammit, Hussed. Don't sound so indifferent about it all."

"But the dispute had been of long standing and it was never clear which of us was in the right about it. The decision wasn't necessarily an unfair one," Hussed argued.

"But look how it turned out for you!" Gam hissed. Hussed shrugged again. Apparently his nature wasn't the kind to dwell on misfortune or the unfairness of the world.

The man's attitude clearly bothered Gam. But he made no further comment. He swept his hand at all of his cohorts and said, "There you have it, Hades. The various orders that have stripped us of wealth and home all seem to come from the king. We are all of us victims of his cruelty, spite or ambition. You've found yourself in good company."

"But it's not the king's fault! It's the queen who's behind this!" Hadrian protested hotly.

Gam's eye narrowed. "How do you know that?"