Chapter 5 Jess
Istared at the signet as I spun it absently around my finger.
I’d always thought it so massive on my father’s hand.
Now, it felt like it belonged on my slim finger even though the weight of what it represented pressed against my spirit far more than the golden band did against my skin.
I had been preparing to rule my whole life but had not expected to actually wear the crown for another twenty years or more.
After leaving home, I expected I never would.
There was plenty of time to be a teenager and rebel, to have a normal life—as normal as life could be for the Crown Princess. Until my mother—
An urgent knock at my door snapped my head up. I straightened my blue blouse and stood before calling out, “Come in.”
Sheriff Wilfred burst through the door with Keelan and an old man close behind.
“Your Majesty, we need you to leave—now.” The Sheriff’s normally placid voice carried near panic as he rushed forward and began tossing my riding clothes into a satchel.
“What? Why? Sheriff, what are you doing? I just got here.” My gaze shot from Wilfred to Atikus, then Keelan.
“Your Majesty, please. There’s no time. We’ll explain on the way,” Wilfred urged. When I didn’t move, he added, “Your life is in danger. We have to go.”
Atikus stepped forward and offered me his hand.
“Your Majesty, my name is Atikus Dani. I am a Mage of Melucia sworn to keep you safe. There is no time for explanations, but I assure you, we will explain everything one we are free of this place. Please come with us. Keelan will lead us out. The Sheriff will follow with your things.”
I was too exhausted and stunned to argue.
Keelan turned on a heel, and I followed.
As we marched down the narrow hall to the back stairs of the inn, I was surprised to find it empty.
There had always been at least two men of the Royal Guard within shouting distance when I was only the Crown Princess.
There should’ve been far more protecting the Queen.
“Where are my guards?” I stopped walking and clutched my chest with my arms.
Atikus bumped into me from behind.
“Sorry, Majesty,” he muttered.
“The Royal Guard is waiting for us in the stables. The Captain arranged for his men to be elsewhere. Please, Your Majesty, we have to go now,” Keelan said.
I eyed Keelan, searching for any sign of deception or deceit, then reluctantly followed him down the stairs and out a back door.
We hustled to a small wooden stable across the alley.
Stalls for ten horses lined the interior of the old wooden barn.
The far corner was hidden by stacks of baled hay.
More hay littered the ground, but the place appeared well kept.
A massive armored man’s head appeared from within one of the stalls where he was buckling a horse’s saddle.
“Your Majesty.” Captain Proctor snapped to attention and offered a shallow bow.
“You? You are in on this?” Jess stammered.
He nodded but didn’t speak. His silence somehow set my blood boiling, and I stormed over to the stall where the giant stood, hands on my hips.
“You agree? You think I should go with these men? These Melucians? What have you not told me? I am not moving until someone explains everything right this moment.”
The man didn’t hesitate. His eyes didn’t waver.
“Your Majesty . . . Jess, I held you in my arms the day you were born. I watched you grow. I’ve protected you, and your family, every day since. Protecting you is my life. I would gladly give mine to save yours.”
Rare, unchecked emotion marred his normally chiseled features, and his voice faltered as he spoke.
“I can’t keep you safe right now. My men are . . . compromised. I . . . don’t know who to trust. I believe Atikus and Keelan are good men. Go with them—for your safety, as well as the Kingdom’s.”
My mouth fell open, but I couldn’t speak. The Royal Guards had been my family’s most trusted knights for generations. There had never been a single incident of treachery or betrayal, at least not one that resulted in a member of the royal family’s death.
The idea of such infidelity was beyond disbelief.
Then I thought about how all this would look, how my people would see things. I’d only worn the royal signet for a few hours, and here I was skulking through storeroom basements under muddy streets and running away. Worse, I was doing it all with foreign—whatever Keelan was.
The whole thing was senseless.
I stiffened my spine and turned to Wilfred.
“Sheriff, I cannot do this. I will be handing the Crown to my mother. She will not need to kill me because the people will beg her to take power from the frightened girl who abandoned them with two of their enemies. I command you to take me back to the inn right now.”
My hands flew back to my hips, and I tried to imitate my mother’s best icy stare.
Proctor stepped forward, but Wilfred raised his palm. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, almost somber.
“Jess, if you stay here, you will die.” His eyes fell away, and his words cut deeper than any blade. “Isabel will probably kill me the moment her feet touch the shore. You will surely follow.”
I glanced at the Captain. The giant nodded slowly, then lowered his gaze.
Wilfred gripped my arm, something he had never done before.
If we weren’t fleeing for our lives, he might’ve lost a hand for touching the Princess, now Queen.
“Please, Jess. If they kill you, we won’t be able to stop any of this. The Kingdom will go to war and thousands, hundreds of thousands, will die. Your people will suffer. Keelan’s and Atikus’s people will suffer far worse. You have to leave to protect them,
to give them a sliver of hope for the future.”
Whatever ice was left in my eyes melted at his plea. The man standing before me now wasn’t the High Sheriff. This was Uncle Sebastiano. The truth of his words wormed their way in, and I felt my rage evaporate.
I whispered, “Where will we go?”
“I don’t know—and you can’t tell me. Who knows what powers your mother may command if the Mages fall in behind her? They could pluck information out of my head, and this would all be for nothing. I trust Keelan and Atikus to keep you safe.”
From behind me, Atikus spoke. “We need to get as far from here as possible before Queen Isabel gets here. We need to go.”
I spun, finger pointed accusingly at the Mage. “She’s just Isabel. I am Queen now.”
Atikus inclined his head. “You certainly are, Your Majesty.”
Moments later, as Keelan and Atikus walked their mounts to the stable’s back door, I found my courage.
I nodded to Captain Proctor and turned to the Sheriff.
Wilfred surprised me again by wrapping me in a tight hug.
He was the father of the traitor who’d turned me over to Isabel, but something in the embrace told me he also carried the burden of his son’s betrayal.
I squeezed him back and gave him a peck on the cheek.
When I turned to follow Atikus, Captain Proctor handed me Dittler’s reins. The magnificent beast nuzzled my neck and licked my ear.
“I’m glad to see you, too,” I said, stroking his ear. “How did you get away, boy?”
“We didn’t find him. Seemed more like he found us. Remarkable horse.” Captain Proctor abandoned protocol and lifted me by my waist onto the saddle. “Up you go.”
When I looked down, shocked the guard would dare “handle” his Queen, he gave me a wink and a bow. “Just protecting Her Majesty. Now go.”
I trotted my horse out of the stable to find Keelan and Atikus mounting their own horses, a bay and a mottled gray respectively.
The strangeness of another escape through the back door of a stable sent a shiver down my spine. I thought I trusted a good man then, too.
He betrayed me.
But this seemed to be my only choice if I wanted to live.
It didn’t take long for us to wind our way past the northern border of town. Getting through the endless sea of soldiers camped in the fields outside without being recognized was more challenging.
By the time we made it into open fields, I was struggling to stay upright.
Events of the past few days were finally taking their toll.
If Dittler had been any other mount, I would’ve ended up in the dirt.
The Cretian stallion had grown up with me on his back and felt my exhaustion through our bond.
I knew he’d sooner die than let me fall.
Four hours into our journey, Keelan called a halt. Atikus looked little better than me, and his own horse needed a break. The mounts had been worked into a lather.
“Thank the Spirits,” Atikus groaned as he struggled to dismount.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Keelan said. “We had a head start, but Isabel will throw everything she’s got at us once she takes control of the town. We’re sitting ducks out here.”
I watched as Keelan surveyed the landscape.
There wasn’t a tree or hill in sight, just an ocean of grass clinging to its last vestige of life before winter arrived in earnest.
Things had been so harried lately I hadn’t noticed how morning started a few moments later each day.
The sun’s drowsy arrival that morning reminded me that winter pursued us as much as my mother and her troops.
I hopped off Dittler and caught Keelan staring. He offered a smile, but I ignored him, spread my cloak on the ground, and curled into a ball, pretending to rest. A dozen moments later, the pair began to speak in hushed tones.
“Any idea where we are, or where we are headed?” Atikus asked. I heard the sloshing of his waterskin as he drank.
“We went north out of town. That’s about all I know. I studied some maps before we left but remember little north of the King’s Road. Our plan didn’t exactly call for a royal escape through the countryside.”
Atikus chuckled. “I’d almost think that was humor in your voice if I didn’t know you so well.”
I began to drift—or maybe I actually drifted. A pained groan escaped my lips as the warmth of a hand shaking my shoulder roused me.
“Your Majesty,” Keelan half whispered. “It’s just a dream.”
It took a moment for my eyes to flutter and lock onto his.
I jerked back. “What are you doing? Don’t touch me.”