Chapter 3A Chapter by Jamie BrewsterChapter 3 Jack
plunged through the night like the ground behind him was aflame. Desiree’s fiery hair flew in her face while
Annabelle’s dark locks flew out behind her, reaching back toward the smoldering
remains of her home of eighteen years.
They galloped farther and farther away, not stopping even as the air
turned freezing and they could barely see a yard in front of them. Neither had had the time to grab a cloak,
though they didn’t regret their haste.
Annabelle’s heart was beating in her throat as she felt Jack’s powerful
body moving beneath her and heard his hooves beat the ground. She felt like crying, but the tears would not
come. Her face was a steely mask. Desiree
steered Jack from the coast, heading south and east toward Levamen. She didn’t know the forests well, but she
would never forget Ember or the village she inhabited. The cold of the night, or rather early
morning, did not reach her in the deep recesses of her mind. She thought of nothing but the destruction of
Mulciber, the second home that had been ripped from her. She had nothing. Her clothes were gone, her meager possessions
were gone, her only sister was gone, and she was running toward a strange hope
in the form of an unfamiliar, illustrious person who may not even remember her. She felt Annabelle cling to her back and felt
a small bit of relief that she at least still had her dearest friend. She was still necessary, she still meant
something. As long as Annabelle lived,
there was always hope that things would change. They came
to a halt near a small pond as the sun rose.
The water looked relatively clear and clean, though Desiree didn’t see
any fish swimming in it or animals drinking from it. The huge oak and maple trees surrounding the
water blocked out most of the wind that had been following them from the north.
Desiree slid off Jack first
and then helped Annabelle from the saddle, both of them moving stiffly after a
full night of galloping. Jack’s sides
were still heaving, so Desiree took his bridle off and let him roam around and
cool down. Being a former battle horse,
he was trained not to wander too far from his rider. For a moment, she and Annabelle stood in
silence, both still feeling raw and exposed.
“Quinn,”
said Annabelle silently, breaking the silence. “What?”
asked Desiree blankly. “You
should call me Quinn now. There will be people looking for me, and a tall,
dark-haired blind girl called Annabelle hanging around so soon after the raid
is too obvious. I will be Annabelle
Quinlan Lee again when the crown rests on my head. For now, I am Quinn.” Desiree
nodded thoughtfully. “Makes sense. Ember will probably recognize you, but it
will at least be a bit harder for others.
Maybe we should cut your hair as well?” Quinn
grimaced. “Let’s hold off on that a bit,
shall we?” Desiree
chuckled numbly. They made
their way over to the pond and splashed water on their faces. The sun was beginning to warm them up, so
they felt comfortable enough to dunk their heads and hair into the water and
wash off the memory of fire and noise.
Desiree’s hair hung in thick curls around her elfin face, while Quinn’s
heavy, dark brown locks trailed down her back, pushed away from her long
features. They lay back in the sunlight,
soaking in the warm beams while Jack munched on some grass nearby. Both were still reeling from the surreal
events of the night before, and they took the time to put together the jumbled
pieces of scared memories. “Do you
think Scott will be alright?” Quinn asked, once again breaking the silence. Desiree
rolled toward her and grimaced, though she knew it was lost on the young
woman. “I honestly don’t know,
Quinn. He’s a good fighter, that much we
know for sure.” Quinn quirked her lips,
remembering Scott’s insistence that she knew how to handle a sword decently
even if she couldn’t see the target. She
recalled long nights of fun, if mostly fruitless practice, followed by stories
of Scott’s adventures in faraway lands, plentiful despite his young age. “I think he’ll be alright,” she said
softly. Desiree heard the fond tone and
smiled slightly to herself. Scott had
always been a favorite of Quinn’s, though she claimed there was never anything
romantic to it (even though Desiree always thought that he’d make a fantastic
King). They were like brother and sister
for years, almost longer than Desiree had known the runaway princess. She hoped for her friend’s sake that he was
still alive. Once
again, Quinn broke the silence. “This
rather throws a wrench in the plan, I fear.
If my father has indeed been killed, which I suspect, then any action of
Scott’s will be too late. Oliver is
King, and I am as good as dead if his men find me. Based on what just happened, I do not believe
he will even allow me to live, even if I support his rule and remain in the
shadows. I am a threat, and he may be
weak and easily influenced, but he would never allow anyone to challenge his
position on the throne " he is too vain for that. His head is nearly too large for the crown.” “The
people would not allow you to remain passive anyway,” interjected Desiree
forcefully. “You’re the only member of
the royal family who has shown a peasant respect in the last hundred
years. There is no way the People’s Princess
would allow her kingdom to suffer, and he knows that. You’re too strong for your own good,
Quinn. Don’t think that he doesn’t
recognize that.” Quinn sat up and rubbed
her hand over her eyes, her face never breaking its stony expression. There was silence for a moment, and then she
frowned. “Desiree, do you hear
anything?” Desiree
looked around cautiously and raised an eyebrow.
“No. Why, do you think there’s
someone nearby?” she whispered. She knew
Quinn’s blindness afforded her impeccable hearing and smell, as evidenced more
than once in the more mischievous moments of their childhood. Quinn shook her head. “No. I
think that there is no person or animal other than Jack in at least one hundred
feet. I have not heard a rustle or a
bird call since we stopped. Do you see
anything?” Desiree
scanned the area more closely and realized Quinn was right. She hadn’t stopped to think about it, but the
more she looked, the more unnerved she felt.
Nothing was moving, not even the wind.
Jack’s munching was the only noise.
“There’s absolutely nothing here, Quinn.
No squirrels, no deer, not even waving branches.” Quinn
nodded slowly and carefully got to her feet, turning in Desiree’s
direction. “I think we should
leave. There is something not right
about this place.” “Right
there with you,” Desiree muttered, and she quickly rounded up Jack, helped
Quinn on, and took off out of the clearing at a brisk trot. Even Jack, who was still exhausted from his
night-long sprint, seemed eager to leave. “The whole
forest is like that,” said Desiree as she looked more closely at her
surroundings. “I don’t see anything
except us in any direction. Even the
trees have less life than usual.” It was
true. The normally tall, vibrant trees
were rotting and their leaves were spotted with disease. Few ferns grew, and the soil beneath Jack was
dry and unhealthy despite recent spring rain.
It was like the roots were closed off from nourishment and the leaves
were not receiving the sun’s warm light.
“We’ll ask Ember about it when we find her.” “Do you
think she will be able to help us?” Quinn asked. “You told me about her before, many times,
but we have no guarantee that she will be interested in harboring
fugitives. From what I hear, she is
already unpopular with the Crown.” “Well, she
should be. She’s been quietly
criticizing your father for years; I think she has a pretty good grasp on just
how little he is doing to prevent raids, and she herself is probably the only
one keeping Levamen safe. Without her,
it would have been pillaged by Sinder years ago, but she’s just powerful and
well-known enough for them to know that invading her forest would probably
prove to be unwise.” “Why have
I not heard more about this before? From
the way the nobles speak of her, one would think she was nothing more than a
mildly rebellious country healer, not a line of defense! How do you know all of this?” Desiree
snorted. “Quinn, even you must know how friendly some of the maids get " well,
got " with the nobles, my sister included.”
Her tone became uncharacteristically sour as she thought of her Abby
again. “They’ve been worried about Ember
causing trouble for years, but the King didn’t want you to know, and I knew
that if I told you then you’d storm into his chambers and demand that he treat
her with more regard. Mind you, he
really should’ve. Hell, she’s the only
reason you’re alive, even if you did lose your sight! But I think he was worried that she would
rile up the peasants and you’d help, which you would’ve, and that’s the last
thing he wanted. Wouldn’t have done any
good anyway, the bounty hunters would have just slaughtered all the rebels, and
he would’ve known that I had told you and I would have been taken away. I wanted to tell you, but you’re too
determined and stubborn to just sit there with that information and not act on
it.” The redheads words grew heavy as
her southern accent leaked into her voice, as it often did in times of
stress. Heavy, formal words had never
felt natural to her. Quinn
thought for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders. As much as she hated being kept in the dark,
she trusted Desiree. The maid had
basically raised her, even if there wasn’t much of an age difference between
them, and she owed Desiree her life. The
information gave her more confidence in Ember being someone they could
trust. Like Desiree had said, Quinn was
widely known as the People’s Princess, and surely Ember wouldn’t turn her
away. If she did, they would have
nowhere to go. “If we
ride quickly and don’t stop, we can make it to Levamen by nightfall and we
won’t have to spend another night out in these godforsaken woods,” Desiree
muttered. Quinn nodded and gripped
Desiree’s waist tighter as they rode on through the silence. The odd aura of the forest was niggling in
the back of her mind. She decided that
she’d ask Ember about if the witch proved to be friendly. For the moment, she closed her eyes and let
Desiree steer them toward temporary solace.
They left
the tainted forest behind them and rode briskly to the healthier land in the
south. By the time they reached Levamen,
the strange quiet in the clearing had nearly been forgotten. © 2013 Jamie Brewster |
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Added on August 27, 2013 Last Updated on August 27, 2013 Author
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