Ned looked up as a small falcon landed on the side of the cart.

"Hello," he smiled at it, waving with his free hand, "you're very handsome."

"Shoo!" the older guard said, flapping at the bird with his glove. "Go on, get out of here."

They hit a bump in the road hard. Ned felt himself bounce and fell sideways into the younger knight who steadied him firmly with a strong hand.

"Hold tight, kid!" he said, looking over his shoulder with a frown. Scary men were attacking the cart! They wore rough brown clothes, and their straggly hair sprawled across their greasy foreheads. One of them grinned at him wickedly through yellow and black teeth. Ned found his horse returned to him quickly and he squeezed them both tightly to his chest as the knights drew their swords.

A shouting crowd surrounded them on all sides. All he could see was a sea of reaching hands. An old lady closed her hand around his knee. Ned hit her as hard as he could with his horse until she finally let go. She was more interested in grain than him. Ned bit his lip. His knight-friend had vanished into the crowd leaving him alone. His eyes stung.

Then a friendly face broke through the throng, and gentle hands took his. Ned looked up at the pretty lady, looking for reassurance in her bright eyes. He found it. Her voice was soft, gentle, not at all like his Mama's voice but reassuring, more like his nanny's. He let her help him down from the cart.

"We should help them," he told her as she guided him through the crowd. Tugging on her hand he pulled them both to a stop. "They're knights and my friends! We can't just leave them!" Ned tucked his horse under his arm again and held up Sir Hugs with both hands so the lady could see him clearly.

"This is Sir Hugs, he's a knight too. Sir Hugs says you never leave a man behind! That's not onny...onny-er-ble." He struggled to wrap his tongue around the word he only knew because sometimes when he was very lucky, his Papa would read him bedtime stories about the knights of the round table. His eyes swum with tears.

"Please!" he implored her, "we can't just watch! It would be wrong." The falcon had followed him. It was perched in a nearby tree. Ned turned his attention to it, looking around the nice lady's legs.

"He didn't mean it when he told you to shoo!" Ned called to it, his lip trembling, "please, Mr. Falcon, can you do something?" Taking a deep shaking breath, Ned turned his grey eyes on Ciara again, wiping his cheeks on the back of Sir Hugs' head.

"Why did those men attack us?" he asked her, "it wasn't very nice. And those knights were going to see the Queen and Princess! They're the good guys." He sighed his frustration, stamping his foot just a little. "I don't understand.