Rylan kept her head down, telling Anaya to do the same. She glanced behind her at the Princess. There
was fear in her eyes, but she wasn’t panicking.
Your mother would be proud, I just
have to make sure you see her again, she thought. There were riders behind them. She hoped they
didn’t have bows.
“Faster! Go ahead of me!” she
yelled. She moved between the Princess
and their pursuers. Rylan looked ahead
and just barely saw three new riders charge in from their left. One collided with her, but the horses kept
their feet. Rylan stayed upright and grabbed
the enemy rider and yanked with all her strength. He didn’t fall, but he had to right himself
and Rylan was free of him.
“Keep going! Don’t stop for
anything!” she yelled at Anaya. Another
rider pushed into Rylan, and the woman on the horse leaned over and grabbed
Rylan’s shirt in both fists. Rylan
clamped her thighs around the saddle and held on, punching her attacker as much
as she could. She hit the woman a few
times, but one of the other mercenaries had come up on the other side. A blade slid along her ribs eliciting a sharp
pain as it cut into her. She felt that
same blade against her throat a moment later.
“Don’t stop, Anaya, don’t stop!” she cried.
“Don’t be a fool girl!” the woman mercenary called after the
Princess. “Come back or we’ll cut your
maid’s throat right here!” Rylan watched
as Anaya stopped and slowly turned to face them. No no
no! Go! Run! She wanted to yell at
her. She couldn’t move without being
cut. She felt a trickle of blood down
her neck as she tried to keep her balance above the blade.
“We don’t have all day girlie.
Come back over here and you’ll both live.” The woman said. Rylan knew they were lying. There was no way to get out of this alive if
they were taken.
“Run.” She whispered. She
felt the blade dig deeper into her neck.
“I’ll stay, but you let her go!” Anaya yelled. Rylan watched as another man came up behind
the Princess on foot and yanked her off her horse. She yelped and tried to fight him but the man
grabbed her by the torso and threw her to the ground. Anaya hit the dirt and Rylan heard her grunt. The man pulled Anaya up and wrapped a rope
around her, cinching her arms to her body.
Then he smashed his fist across her face. The Princess collapsed and Rylan nearly leapt
off her horse onto the sword in front of her.
Only the woman’s grip of her shirt kept her in place and her throat
uncut. The woman pulled out some rope to
bind Rylan’s hands.
* * *
Erros followed the tracks made by
the Princess and her pursuers. He was no
Queen’s Ranger but the trail was easy to follow. Not far from where he had fought the three
men he saw signs of a scuffle on the ground.
The dirt was churned up and hoofprints were all over, facing in all
directions. More than two horses for
certain. At least one person had been
thrown to the ground as well. Had they
managed to take the Princess and Rylan? There
was some blood on the ground, but not much.
They had likely been alive at this point. He looked for the others, but the Queen’s
party was out of sight. He looked back
down, then around again. No one else was
near. He was on his own and the only one with any idea of where the Princess
and Rylan had gone.
The trail was not difficult to
follow, save that Erros was going as fast as he could without losing it. He
also tried to keep aware of his surroundings.
It wouldn't help if some rearguard ambushed him before he reached the
Princess. He backtracked at least once,
cursing himself the whole time. The
trail finally ended at a road. More of a
cart track than a proper road, it was one of the small tracks leading away from
the Coast Road
“If I were kidnapping someone,
someone who I wanted to keep away from the Queen, I would not go back to the Coast Road
“What would you know?” he asked the
beast. He remounted. Most likely they had gone further away from
the main road, and he turned inland.
“Sweet Ancestors, let me be right.” He said.
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