Their quarry slowed and edged to the side of the road, obviously under the impression that their party was only looking to pass them. Natalya reined in her mount with Sir Ruawn, the rest of the Knights following suit. They surrounded the now-stopped carriage and stared down the guards who were eyeing them suspiciously and drawing their swords.
Sir Ruawn held up his shield which was emblazoned with the emblem of the crown. The guards did not put down their weapons.
“Stand down, in the name of the Queen,” he ordered.
Still they held their ground.
The curtains in the window of the carriage were shoved aside roughly and Lord Morven’s pinched face glared out. “What’s going on out there?” he asked.
His dark almost-black eyes scanned the lot of them. Natalya fought down a shiver as they briefly held hers. His white face paled even farther as he caught sight of the emblem on their livery and he clamped his mouth shut. He just stared for a moment.
Sir Ruawn spoke. “Lord Morven?”
The man’s eyes darted this way and that, and Natalya wondered if he wouldn’t deny who he was. His pride apparently wouldn’t let him, however. He sniffed indignantly and put his pointed nose in the air. “That’s right. And what is the meaning of this? I have important places to go, you know.”
Sir Ruawn ignored this. “Do you have a young lady with you?”
“Young lady?” Lord Morven asked with false innocence. “There’s no young lady here.”
Anyone with half a brain could see that he was lying.
“We’re going to have to take a look inside your carriage, I’m afraid, sir.”
“You will do no such thing,” Morven’s haughty voice rose a pitch, making it sound more frantic than commanding.
Sir Ruawn gestured to the Knights and several moved forward. They threw open the door to the carriage and Natalya strained her neck to see inside.
It was empty, aside from the lord. Her heart sank. Looking to Morven, a chill ran down the back of her spine. He was grinning at her evilly.
“You’re one of Lyam’s little whelps, aren’t you?” he addressed her.
Sir Ruawn moved to stand between them. “You will not speak to the lady.”
Morven spat, “She’s no lady; her father is a dirty, common baker. She could have been…” his voice grew strangely wistful.
“It’s okay,” Natalya put a hand on Sir Ruawn’s arm and he stepped aside. “Do you know where my sister, Alina, is?” she asked, not really believing that he would answer her question, but not willing to not try.
He just cackled, his haughty attitude back in full force. Before she realized the significance of this, shouts rang out around her. The Knights were abruptly engaged in combat from all sides. Additional mercenaries must have been hiding in the woods around them, for they were suddenly greatly outnumbered.
Sir Ruawn shoved her out of harm’s way roughly, but was immediately caught up in a fight, his sword clashing against his attackers. Scraping metal and metallic thunks rang out around her. She drew her dirks, ready to defend herself, when someone grabbed her from behind and held a strange-smelling cloth over her mouth.
She struggled against her assailant, but her attempts grew more and more feeble as a weakness descended over her. Her vision became blurry, the cacophony of the fighting suddenly muffled, and sleep washed over her.
Natalya woke as her head bumped painfully against the wooden carriage seat. Her eyes flew open in alarm. Across from her, Lord Morven sat watching her with a sadistic grin. She sat up slowly, her hand searching the folds of her dress for the knife she had concealed there, knowing her dirks must already have been taken.
“Looking for this?” Morven asked, holding up the blade.
She settled back into the seat, never taking her eyes off him. “What do you want?”
“Tsk tsk, that’s no way to speak to your lord.” He sat forward and smacked her hard across the face. Natalya’s head snapped sideways and tears welled up in her eyes. “You will address me only as ‘my lord’ or ‘Lord Morven’ and only speak when you are spoken to.” He sniffed disdainfully down his nose at her. “I swear, your parents really didn’t bring either of you up very well. I blame it on your father.” His eyes lighted on the bench she was sitting on. “You may want to let your sister out of there; it’s probably getting rather cramped.”
Natalya glanced down at the bench, confused. Noticing two hinges, however, she realized that it must have a hidden compartment underneath. She stood - though carefully, not wanting to make Morven do anything rash - and opened the lid.
Alina was curled up inside. As Natalya raised the top, her sister’s doe-like eyes met hers. “Alina,” she breathed, so overcome with relief that her sister was alright she almost forgot that the two of them were being held captive.
“Natalya?” her sister whispered, as though unable to fathom that this could be real.
“Yes,” she answered, taking her hand and gently helping her out of the box and replacing the lid so that they could sit. “It’s me, it’s alright.”
She noticed the large welted scars running the length of Alina’s arms, as though she had been burned over and over again and she felt her insides tugging at her in guilt. If only she had hurried to find her, maybe she could have prevented her suffering. She had known in the beginning that it wasn’t right!
“Isn’t this touching,” Morven sneered at them and Alina’s eyes uncharacteristically filled with fear. “Our whole family together.”
“What are you talking about?” Natalya asked, and cringed as Morven’s hand snapped back to give her another blow. He stopped half-way towards her, however, and leaned back with a contented smile.
“That was just a warning, my dear, to remember your manners. But I’ll give you a break this time. You weren’t raised the way you should have been.”
Natalya glared at him. “Our parents were wonderful.”
His dark eyes seemed to turn completely black. “Your mother was wonderful,” he corrected her, “she just chose the wrong man.”
So that’s what the bad blood between her father and the lord was. Natalya had long wondered why he seemed to have it out for their family, never failing to cause them trouble when he came into town. Luckily, most of the time he had refrained from leaving his castle anyway, but on those unfortunate days he felt like going out among the commoners, her parents had often chosen to do something out of town.
He rambled on, “Your father somehow twisted her mind, turning her against me. We were in love.”
Natalya and Alina exchanged a look. The lord of the land was even more delusional than she had thought. Alina’s expression indicated that she had heard this nonsense before and Natalya wondered what Lord Morven had done with such notions.
He leaned forward and Natalya caught Alina twitch almost imperceptibly away from him. She purposefully put herself between her sister and the vile man. He didn’t seem to notice, he was so caught up in his own reverie. Her stomach twisted into another painful knot. Her sister had been so persistently happy before, so full of life. What if this episode had completely tarnished her forever? Natalya had to get them out of here before Morven could cause any more damage. No doubt the Knights would be looking for them, but once they passed the fork in the road where they could potentially be going any number of directions, they would have a much harder time finding them.
Natalya looked frantically around. The carriage was garishly decorated with gold embroidery and silken curtains. The windows were partially covered by the flowing fabric draped over them, but she could see that the sun hadn’t moved completely out of sight yet, so she must not have been unconscious for too long. There was still hope yet that they were on the road before the fork.
Her eyes lighted on the bracelet that Jeremy had given her. It was a string of beads wrapped several times around her wrist. He had called them worry beads, that when you were worried about something you could roll each one around in your fingers and the worry would be
taken up by the bead so you didn’t have to worry about it anymore. She twirled one around between two fingers. Morven didn’t seem to notice or care.
Alina was watching her, however, her innocent eyes wide and her forehead creased in concern. Natalya waited until Morven was looking out the opposite window before tugging on the bracelet with a quick jerk. The string snapped and Natalya coughed to cover the sound.
Morven glanced back at her and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. She did not move her hands, afraid that the now-loose beads would fall to the ground and give her away. He stared at her for a few moments before making a low grunting noise and ignoring her again.
She carefully cupped her hand underneath the bracelet on her other arm and gathered the beads that were already off the string. She hastily stuffed these in her pocket. Then, ever so slowly, she worked the rest of them off, stowing these away as well. When she had gotten almost all of them off, she edged her way towards the window.
They hit a particularly hard bump in the road and Alina practically flew off the seat, crumpling into a limp heap on the floor of the carriage. Natalya turned to her immediately to help, but Alina caught her eye and flashed her an urgent look, her eyes darting to the window purposefully.
Natalya got the hint and waited until Morven’s disgusted attention was on Alina. He was moving his feet away from her and was wrinkling his nose in distaste, as though afraid she might be sick and soil his fine shoes. Natalya quickly tossed the string with the last few beads still attached out the window and then knelt beside Alina, helping her back up onto the seat.
“What’s wrong with her?” Morven asked, obviously more worried for what it meant for him and his clothing than out of any concern for the girl herself.
“Just weak and got jostled off, I think,” Natalya answered, checking Alina for signs of something more. Though she knew it had been just a ruse, she used the opportunity to try and determine what else had been done to her sister. But other than the obvious burns on her arms, any other abuse must not have left any physical scars.
Natalya weighed their options. Every now and again she would surreptitiously toss another bead in hopes that the Knights would spot them and realize the significance. But she wasn’t about to leave it up to them. Already her mind was whirling how else they could escape.
Morven had her knife and Alina was weakened. Even together it was unlikely that the two of them could take on a full-grown man, even one as pathetic as Lord Morven.
They could wait until he was asleep and jump out the carriage windows, but the space was so small it would take some working at in order to get through and it was likely to wake him. Even if they did get out, the alarm would be raised almost instantaneously and it was unlikely they could outrun guards on horseback. Natalya also had no idea if it was only the initial ten or so guards that he had originally had, or if the hordes of them that had appeared in the woods were also now in attendance.
Natalya had the thought that perhaps the men hadn’t been Morven’s at all, but rather a band of bandits. But why would they attack while a group of the Queen’s guards were there? No, they had to have been protecting Morven. Then it hit her; it must have been his father’s intervention. Morven was always hiding behind his father, and his father was always protecting him, no matter what stupid thing he had done this time.
Alina’s head slumped down onto her lap and Natalya realized that she had fallen asleep. Exhaustion was overtaking Natalya as well, but she didn’t want to stop leaving the trail of beads, and she wanted to wait until Morven slept to see if she couldn’t steal her knife back from him and give them a bit of an edge.
He did not seem to tire, however, as the minutes wore on and Natalya soon ran out of beads to leave. Finally, she could resist it no longer, and she closed her eyes, leaving their fates in the hands of the Knights.
*
Layna entered the nursery and immediately looked for Amelia. When she didn’t see her, she motioned to the other nurse who was currently playing with Phoenix on the floor.
“Where is Amelia today?”
“She’s out sick again, Your Majesty,” the girl answered, one who Layna didn’t recognize. It made her nervous to have someone she wasn’t familiar with taking care of her daughter.
“What about Erryn?”
“She wasn’t feeling well either, Your Majesty,” the girl was beginning to look worried, as though she might be punished for their absences.
Layna picked up Phoenix, trying not to seem as though she was taking her out of the girl’s hands and walked over to where the mages stood in a tight group, speaking in low tones.
“Where is everybody?” she asked, noticing that here too there was a distinct lack of people she recognized.
“A large number of people seem to have fallen ill, Your Majesty. We are working hard to ensure that the Princess has proper supervision at all times.”
Everyone was falling ill? Was it a regular sickness, or some plot to remove those who could best protect her child? She hugged the baby tightly to her.
Layna swept out of the room and towards Amelia’s private suite. It was near the nursery so that she would always be close to the baby, so Layna didn’t have to go far. She stood outside the door and shifted Phoenix to free a hand. She knocked on the door.
“Come in,” called Amelia in a weak voice.
Layna entered cautiously, putting up a protective barrier around Phoenix to block out any germs from transmitting to her.
“How are you feeling?” she asked the older woman softly, who was cuddled up into bed. Her face looked flushed and feverish. Layna sat gingerly beside her, laying a hand on the woman’s forehead. She was burning up.
“I’ve live,” the woman coughed, forcing a smile, “But you shouldn’t have the young one in here, I don’t want to get her sick.”
“Not to worry,” Layna waved off her concern, “I have her shielded. I’m more worried about you right now. How long have you been ill?”
“I don’t know, a while.” The woman coughed. “I think I may have given it to a few other people as well,” she said sheepishly.
“I noticed there’re quite a few people missing from the nursery. I didn’t know half of them when I went in.
“Don’t worry, Your Majesty, everyone who sets foot in that room has been personally screened by me. I promise, even in my absence she is getting the best care.”
“Thank you, Amelia,” Layna said, touched by the woman’s concern for her daughter even during her own discomfort. “Have the healers seen you?”
“Yes, they say it is not something that they have seen before. It must be some new strain of something. I have some fight left in these old bones yet, though. I won’t succumb so easily.”
“You’d better not,” Layna told her affectionately. Since becoming the Queen, Amelia had become a close friend. In the beginning she had been rather demanding and unrelenting, but Layna now understood that it was only because of the harsh world of politics. There had been no few people in the royal court who would have pounced upon any lapse of propriety she had made. It was only through Amelia’s persistent tutelage that she had been transformed from farm girl and maid, to Queen. She excused herself from Amelia’s presence, sensing that the woman was tired and needed rest, and sent in a servant with a bowl of hot broth.
She was in the throne room with Gryffon when Sir Ruawn strode purposefully in and bowed deeply to them. Layna indicated he should stand and speak. He wasted no time.
“We lost Lord Morven and he kidnapped Natalya,” he stated.
Layna was shocked. Almost fifty Knights had been overtaken and Natalya was gone? She waited for him to explain before remarking.
“We were pursuing Lord Morven and had caught up to him,” he informed them. “We had him surrounded and demanded that he open his carriage so that we might search it for the young woman, Alina.”
“Had you told him he was to be arrested?” Gryffon asked.
“Not at that time,” he answered, “
we did not want to provoke him into anything until we knew where the girl was. She was our first priority.”
Layna and Gryffon nodded.
“He had ten guards with him, five in front and five behind, so we were in a good position. However, that was when we were ambushed.”
“Ambushed?” Layna asked in surprise. “How could they have known you were coming?”
“We can only assume that someone in the town alerted him. But we don’t think it was Morven’s own men that overtook us. I would stake my honor on them having been his father’s. I have heard of Lord Morven before; he’s not nearly smart enough to have arranged an ambush, nor good enough to have put together a group of men as talented as those that we came across. His father is well-known for protecting his son. And given the intense fear that Morven was showing until something suddenly changed his mind…”
“No doubt he recognized some sign of his father’s men before you did.” Gryffon nodded.
“Were many Knights injured?”
“There were minor injuries, but luckily none too severe and no casualties. Lord Morven’s father, the Baron, may indulge his son’s illegal behaviors and protect him from the law, but he’s a fairly law-abiding citizen himself. I wouldn’t doubt it if the men were given specific instructions not to harm any of the Queen’s men beyond repair.”
“Well, that’s some good news,” Gryffon acknowledged.
“Was Alina in the carriage?” Layna asked.
“She was not, we are still unsure of her whereabouts. It is possible that we were incorrect in our assumption that he had her. Or at least that he had her with him.”
“But he definitely took Natalya,” Layna reminded him needlessly. She thought for a moment. “I will go look for her with you.”
“Layna…” Gryffon started, but did not finish his protest at the look that she gave him. She was not about to let Natalya and Alina both be taken by Morven. It was bad enough that her ignorance had allowed whatever atrocities that Alina had already suffered to have happened and the massacre at Hardonia. She would see to it herself that things were righted the best that she could.
Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Page 12
