Fated Desire

Eight - Runaway Princess

Sastra rose, dressed in a bright red riding coat and set out on what had become her customary morning ride, upon a bright white gelding. With a pair of guards in tow, she trotted her horse out of the Palace and into the Royal Forests that boarded the city down to the fields that fed the city. It was a routine that she had followed for over a season, and so the guards followed, almost bored as she rode ahead and encouraged her horse to jump over a fallen tree. The lingered, allowing her freedom and confident that they could see her red coat through the lush greenery or the summer forest. Birds sung overhead and the morning mist lifted quickly form the forest floor, vanishing in the promised heat of the day.

There was an old hunting lodge, a little over an hour’s ride in the forest. Her great-grandfather had used it as an escape from the Palace, mindful of the need to return to Court quickly. But it had quickly fallen into disrepair after his death, and King William had no love of hunting, after his wife’s death. As a landmark, it served her purpose perfectly. As Jason had instructed, Sastra made sure that she cantered her horse up the ridge towards the lodge alone. Looking back, she couldn’t see the pair of guards who were supposed to be escorting her and grinned to herself. She’d done this every day for the whole of Spring, and they hung back, expecting to find her waiting patiently beside one of the crumbling stone walls.

As it was, Sastra nudged her horse to slow as the lodge came into sight. Dismounting on a scattered tiled floor she turned to the young woman who stood, holding a dark brown horse and wearing a coat that would meld with the dark greens and browns of the surrounding forest. She and the girl exchanged horses and coats before the girl set off with a grim smile, galloping away from the lodge towards the distant ocean.

Sastra, yet to mount up, made sure that she stood with her horse in the corner of the abandoned lodge, in a junction between two crumbling walls she was sheltered from sight. More than that, Jason had assured her that anyone looking in that particular place, wouldn’t see her even if they looked straight at her.

She heard hoofbeats and buried her face against the neck of the unfamiliar mare. The horse huffed but otherwise stood still, sleepy in the warm morning and content to quietly graze the broken floor for tufts of grass. Guilty, Sastra heard her guards slow down, swearing when they couldn’t spot her.

‘She’s not here Garrett,’ the younger of the two, a man with sandy coloured skin and a close cropped beard. He’d volunteered to guard for most of rides out and Sastra had suspected he felt kindly towards her.

‘I can see that Gale,’ the elder man had grey hair shorn close to his head and a white beard that often looked scruffy. He wheeled his horse sharply.

Garrett nudged his horse forward, into the lodge to scope it out before swearing, ‘not here!’ He shouted, ‘she’s not waiting here like usual.’

‘Damnit,’ Gale turned again, scanning the tree’s for any sign of the missing Duchess, ‘it’ll be our heads if we’ve lost her.’

‘You think she’s been kidnapped?’ Garrett’s voice was tight with worry and Sastra closed her eyes, trying to block out their concern. She didn’t want the guards to get hurt on her behalf, but she couldn’t stay and marry the Rodan either. He was little more than a savage.

‘No,’ Gale spat to the side, ‘there’d be more tracks. She’s gone off alone.’

‘Look!’ It was Garrett who stood up on his stirrups, ‘there! Headed North!’ He sighted the distant flutter of red cloth in the trees and didn’t wait for Gale’s order. The pair of guards thundered into action, galloping away from the lodge and after the girl who was wearing Sastra’s cloak.

Sastra waited for the men to be long gone before she mounted up on the strange horse. The plan now was to ride as hard as she could in the other direction, south. The girl Jason had found had been paid well to lead the guards on a merry chase through the woods for as long as she could. What happened to the girl next, Sastra didn’t know. She tried to keep the thought in her mind, she’d have to ask Jason when she saw him. Another person to worry about, another person wrapped up in this deadly scheme. How many people would die for her freedom?

Mounted up, she knew that she should be riding, but fear held it’s grip around her throat. What if she just went back, what if she apologised to the King…the man who couldn’t look at her anymore. The man who had promised her hand to the Rodan of Staven. Sastra nudged her horse forward, but the animal took a backwards step, sensing her uncertainty.

Jason, Sastra reminded herself of the Knight putting his life on the line for her. She pictured his earnest blue eyes and the strong lines of his face. She remembered the way it had felt, to be kissed by him and held within his arms. She wanted so much more than what she’d had of him so far. She kicked her horse forward once more and the animal obeyed. They raced South, with a lot of ground to make up before nightfall.

Sastra rode for the day, picking her way through the forest without seeing another soul. The sun shone brightly overhead and the birds chattered as her horse ran through the trees. Whatever the girl had done, it must have worked because there was no army of Knights and Soldiers racing through the tree’s to find her. With any luck, with her guards chasing the decoy it could have been a few hours before they were able to raise the true alarm. At which point it would have taken time for the Knights to mobilise and set out after her, and they’d have to close the distance first.

The royal forest was a massive expanse, but it had come to an end before mid-day. Jason had given her a map, and she’d followed a stream from the forest through fields of growing corn and barley. Her horse was not quite tall enough that she could see over the top of the crops, nor be seen. She squirted fields beneath the burning summer sun, feeling the heat bearing down on the back of her neck. She stopped to drink from the river, walking as the horse was able to rest. It was a route that kept her away from the small towns and villages that surrounded Milany, and kept her moving steadily south.

The horse had been packed with food, and she’d eaten lunch on the move. Pleased with herself and determined to keep putting one foot in front of the other. She felt almost like one of the Lady Knights she had always admired so much. If she wasn’t so afraid of being caught, she could admit to enjoying herself and the adventure across the landscape and the gentle rolling hills. After lunch, she was lost within a new woods, one that covered the lowlands away from the farms that fed the capital. Jason had explained that the King would send out messenger birds and raise the alarm of her disappearance, but he hoped, fervently, that they’d not be sent before the first night in an attempt to save face if she’d just gotten lost in the woods. Still, he’d warned her that until they were several days away from the capital, it would be wise not to show her face.

As night fell, Sastra reached the edge of the woodlands. Tired, with limbs that shook from exhaustion she walked her horse once more. Feet crunching over the dry bracken and leaf litter that had fallen the previous autumn. Was it possible to fall asleep whilst you were still standing up? Her chest hurt with the unease she’d carried all day. Her horse huffed, clearly unhappy to keep going as they trudged, side by side at the edge of the tree line. Beyond this woodland, the ground sloped steeply away and down into a valley. Sastra paused, spotting the glow of a distant fire and a farm house. Part of her, had been worried she’d make a mess of Jason’s careful instructions. That she’d get lost, or found before they’d ever really gotten away. But the farmhouse he had described perched down in the valley as promised. Tears of relief pricked the back of her eyes and she picked up the pace, hurrying down the slope. She started carefully, before she couldn’t wait anymore and she ran. The horse grunted and followed with begrudging steps as they hit the valley floor.

What came next? Sastra could smell the cooking fire from the farm house. Could hear laughter from the farmer and his family within. She wasn’t supposed to go in, she knew that much. Left. Jason had said to go left and to wait by a standing stone she found beside the curve in the river. Sastra slowed her steps, turning away the light of the isolated building she tramped back down to river, searching the bank until the huge grey stone loomed overhead. There, she dropped and released the horse to graze. She was sweaty, the back of her neck burnt from the sun. The horse pulled up mouthfuls of grass and roamed around her in circles, but she was free. Wasn’t she?

The sun had set behind them woodland and cast the valley in a gentle glow of gold. Stars glittered overhead and she lent back against the stone. It stood twice the height of the single storey farm house and she wondered if it was part of the bigger, ancient network throughout the kingdom. A network no one understood anymore. She wasn’t sure that her chest would ever stop aching, it felt tight from worry. She stared into the growing darkness as the horse wandered further away. What if Jason couldn’t come? What if he had changed his mind?

She twisted, peering through the night as it thickened before a darker shadow stepped away from the farm house and caught her horse. Sastra stood, using the stone to help herself stand. Even with time to rest beside the stone, her legs still felt like they could give way beneath her. Jason had encouraged her to ride for as long and often as she could without raising suspicion, but clearly it hadn’t been enough. Had she bought a weapon? She wondered too late, before the thought faded. The shadow led the brown horse away and appeared soon after with two more. Silhouette against the moonless sky, she could pick out Jason from the way he stood, still, silent and patiently waiting.

Sastra found strength she hadn’t expected and ran across the distance. She threw herself against the man, grateful as he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, made awkward by his grip on the two fresh mounts.

‘I was worried,’ she admitted and felt his self-assured smile as he pressed a single kiss to her cheek.

‘There’s still a lot of ground to cover,’ he warned, ‘can you mount up?’

She groaned, ‘no,’ Sastra hated to admit it, ‘I don’t think I have the strength.’

‘Here,’ he helped her up, onto the horse before climbing onto his own. Confident that they were both ready, he led the the way down through the valley, following the line of the stream, criss crossing it wherever it was shallow enough not to worry the horses, ‘incase they send dogs,’ he explained.

Sastra was full of questions. What would happen to the horse she’d ridden that day. What of the guards, of the girl who had worn her coat? But with the quiet of night surrounding them, and exhausted to the bone, found that she couldn’t speak. She could only concentrate on staying atop her horse and following the man who rode ahead into the unknown.