Maria Pia Oelker - In The East

As soon as morning came, Antonia would open the windows of his room to call him to his daily duties and give him time to calmly prepare for the first lessons. She would immediately notice his absence, and, in her simple mindedness, she likely would not wait to sound the alarm to help him out. She would likely scream, waking everyone up.

The prince smiled at the thought, but he could not scorn the nurse for this. With her, he was always very indulgent, because he loved her deeply.

He entered the woods through the fallen fence and jumped into the saddle. He walked quickly along the path that ran behind the castle and arrived on the road that led to the passes in less than half an hour. He slowed down his horse a little and began to look to the eastern horizon. The pale yellow was getting warmer and there were some touches of bright pink near the cradle of the sun. In a few minutes, perhaps ten, fifteen at the most, the sun would appear from behind the pass between the two highest peaks, illuminating the tips of the great towers of the palace and waking Antonia, the servants, and then, increasingly dangerous for him, the butler, his mother, and his teacher.

“He will scream to no end " he thought with a grin " and he will wear his shoes down by walking up and down the corridors and halls. He will get angrier and he will melt at the idea of having me in his hands to get revenge. They won’t have any power over me. No one will have any power over me anymore.”

The stablemen were not very diligent at that time of the year because almost no one went on horseback when the king was not there and the noble beasts were not let out until later in the morning, when the weather was warmer. So, he thought, more precious time would pass before they found out that his young chestnut was missing and connected the two disappearances.

The road began to rise rapidly, skirting the swollen river of muddy water. When the prince saw the old tower, he decided to stop. He forgot that he was in a hurry and that he absolutely had to get to the pass before it was late in the day and that the number of men and animals increased to the point of forcing him to hide in the thick of the forest so as not to be seen. He knew that there a barely checked secondary road that went to the other side and emerged directly within the borders of the neighboring state. He had once been told about it by a boy from the stable whose cousin was involved in salt smuggling. But he wasn't sure he could find it and he didn't want to run the risk of being recognized by someone and being brought back. He shivered in the cold of the morning at the idea of what would happen to him if ...

But the tower drew him in. He left the horse tied to a tree a little distant and well hidden, then he slowly opened the door and carefully climbed the uneven steps. Almost without realizing it, he found himself crying silently and the more he tried to get more strength, the more he sobbed, his tears running down his cheeks and nose. He kept rubbing his face with the sleeves of his clothes and felt increasingly unhappy.

“ I am a prince,” he told himself, and instead he was just a small lonely fugitive.

Finally, he arrived in the room where he had been with his father and opened the window on the river. He took a deep breath and calmed a little. He placed the ladder against the hatch above his head and, with some effort, managed to open it.

The upper room was lower, and the windows were simple square holes, slightly larger than his head, which turned into slits on the outside of the walls.

It was stuffy and full of cobwebs.

In one corner there was a recess dug in the thickness of the wall. A stone resting on the shelf of the niche had some letters engraved on it, perhaps the initials of someone who had been there. The prince picked it up to see if there was something hiding underneath, but only a small black scorpion came out with its tail raised as a sign of clear threat. The child instinctively withdrew, and the scorpion disappeared quickly up the wall.

The prince went back down and closed the trap door. As he approached the window, he saw that someone was crossing the bridge and heading towards the city.

He too wished he had the courage to do it; introduce himself to his father and tell him: “ put me in prison but keep me with you.”

But he was sure that the king would immediately send him home without even listening to him.

He would stay there. He would lock the tower from the inside, hide the horse in the nearby shed, and no one would notice his presence.

He could stay a few days and then ...

No, it was too risky. He absolutely had to cross the border that night.

He began to fear being there alone, but he also feared coming out into the open.

He curled up in a corner and covered himself with the blanket. He tried to read a few pages and eat a piece of bread.

After a few minutes, he had fallen deep asleep.

He woke up by late afternoon and he heard many excited voices talking under the tower.

He looked cautiously and immediately withdrew, flattening himself frightened against the wall beside the window.

His father was down there.

He hurriedly left the room, taking refuge upstairs. He closed the trapdoor and sat down, heart pounding, in the darkest corner. He wished he was as small as the scorpion he had discovered under the stone of the niche. A few minutes later, he heard the king's steps up the stairs and his voice calling him.

His voice did not sound irritated, but he was not going to answer.

Perhaps they would be convinced that he had stopped there for a while and then walked away up the mountain. It was his only hope.

His father opened the trapdoor and went upstairs.

He hid his head in his arms, curling up even more in the dark.

The king knelt beside him and took him in his arms.

"Here you are you little devil!" He exclaimed.

He did not dare look up and felt his head explode as if a hammer pounded inside his brain every second that passed.

"You are not answering me?" The king asked again.

His hands around his knees clenched convulsively, turning purple in an effort to resist his father’s hands that tried to pry them loose.

“ Do you want to stay here a little while longer? Do you want me to come back down and wait for you to calm down and talk to me man to man?”

He nodded affirmatively.

The king got up and left him alone.

After a few minutes, the prince decided to go down to face him: he would not return to the castle, he would rather throw himself into the river.

His father was at the foot of the ladder still leaning against the trapdoor.

“ Father “ said the child, trying to keep his voice steady “ put me in prison for the rest of my life and have me whipped if you want, but don't send me back to the castle. Please.”

“ Why did you run away? Where did you think you were going? “ asked the king.

“ Past the border.”

“And what would you have done?”

“ I do not know. Maybe I would have become a stable boy. I don't want to go back to the castle anymore. “

“ You already said that; yet it seemed to me that you had revealed to me one day that you could not live far from your mother.”

"She no longer loves me as she once did," the prince noted bitterly.

“ She was upset by your escape.”

“ She didn't have to betray me .“ He fell silent for a few seconds, then concluded

“ You didn't have to betray me either.”

“ I never did it,” observed the king.

" Oh yes! You promised you'd be back soon and instead you forgot about me immediately. You left me alone with the teacher and my mother did the same thing.”

" You're too old for these whims.”

" They are not tantrums, but nobody understands me. Everyone thinks I am just a little fool who doesn't want to study and who can make fun of himself. I ... I won't explain to you, father, but if you send me back to the castle I will escape again and again and eventually throw myself into the river.”