The Greater Challenge Beyond (The Southern Continent Series Book 3) by Jeffrey Quyle Page B

blue, white, and silver gown she had changed to.  It provided a startling alteration in her appearance, confirming her claim that she was a princess, though Grange had never doubted it, as she had an indisputably regal air about her.
    She motioned for Grange to circle around the table to join her, and he obediently complied.
    “This is my uncle, Goala, the Earl of Skengare, and his sons, my cousins, Oehla and Skore,” she motioned to each of the three with her.  Grange had met Skengare at the castle gate, an older man who was true to the Southgar archetype of pale, light-haired, and thin.  Oehla was heavier than his father, but similar, while Skore had a head of thick auburn hair that differentiated him from the others in his family.
    “He’s my father’s brother,” Hope explained as each of the men stuck hands out and shook with Grange.
    “Where did you two meet?  Where have you been?” Goala asked.
    “Let’s be seated, uncle.  I’m famished!” Hope insisted.  “We’ll tell you the whole story while we eat.”
    Grange was pointed to a seat across from Hope, as Goala sat at the table’s head and the two sons, each slightly older than Grange, sat on the sides of the table as well.  Servants delivered plates of warm bread, which all the diners immediately began to eat.
    “It started when Acton spoke to me in a dream, and told me to rescue Jenniline,” Hope began her story.  Oehla guffawed around his mouthful of bread, spewing crumbs across the table.
    “I snuck south to find her,” Hope ignored the action, “but I was caught in the near wilderness by the Bloomingians.
    “They took me captive and held me, and they said they were going to force me to marry the Bloomingian pretender to the throne,” she explained.
    The men all looked at Grange, who shook his head sorrowfully.
    “They said it was going to be their way to restore their line to the throne,” she explained.
    “They told me that she would either be married or they would ransom her for money and weapons,” Grange interjected.   “I couldn’t stand the thought of that.”
    “Grange came to my tent, and we talked, and then he came back and smuggled me out at night,” Hope resumed her story.  “Then we traveled for four, almost five days to get here, and now we’re safe,” she smiled.  “Thanks to Grange.”
    “So you’re from the Bloomingian camp?” Goala asked Grange.
    “No, I was walking through the wilderness on my way to Southgar, and got swept up by the Bloomingians.  I didn’t know their camp was there,” Grange answered.
    “Traveling through the southern wilderness?  From where?” Skore asked skeptically, as a large dish of wide noodles was delivered to the table.
    “I met Jenniline at the Yellow Spring.  I drank the water there, and now I don’t remember anything,” Grange answered directly.
    “So you were traveling with Jenniline?” Oehla asked.
    “For a while,” Grange answered.  “But we split up.  I couldn’t travel as fast as she could.  She left Hot Springs a day before I did,” he told them.
    “And they told this story to you too, about how they found this wandering boy in the wilderness?” Goala asked Hope, as platters of sliced meat were also added to the table.
    “Well, Grange told me some, and they said some of the same, and I just heard a little more here,” she answered.  “He told me about Jenniline in the wilderness.  He knew that Trensen was with her before he died.”
    “Trensen’s dead?” all three men looked at Grange.  “How could that be?” Goala asked in a hollow voice.
    Grange hesitated.  He didn’t want to describe how the others in the group had been possessed by the small demons.  It wasn’t a believeable story, he knew, though he’d lived through it.
    “It was an accident,” Grange tried to gloss it over.  “All three of them, Burr, Trensen, Anthel, they all died, and I was injured,” he lamely tried to explain.
    “What kind?” Oehla started to