The Princess Broken Wolf

5

The water was surprisingly warm. Even though it was currently winter in the Marigold Kingdom, the sea was warm. Rosamund could feel herself waking up, her senses becoming clearer with each passing minute. She felt for her limbs. Thankfully, she was intact. It was a bit surprising for her that she survived the fall from the highest cliffside in the Kingdom. The waves were taking her somewhere, away from the shore. That alerted her and, with all the willpower she had left in what seemed to be an extremely tired body, she opened her eyes and stopped the involuntary need to open her mouth and gasped for the air. With all her might, she pushed towards the surface. Breaking through the water, she took a lungful of air while trying not to get drowned again. Blinking as rapidly as she could, she came face to face with a person in a cloak on a small wooden boat. Startled, she jerked back, only to have a puff of chemical sprayed on her face. It was an awful smelling chemical, almost like a fart, reminding her of the knight’s changing room. As much as she tried, her body sagged and paralyzed before she could defend herself. Her mind was active, but every muscle in her body felt lifeless. And a moment passed and she drifted into the darkness again.

Her face was covered by a black cloth that was doing an excellent job at obstructing her senses. A smaller cloth was tightly wound around her eyes. These captors of hers were careful. They had taken a good means of limiting her every sensation, she noted, as she woke up from her slumber. Her ears had some kind of muffs made of soft sheep's wool and her sense of smell was being obstructed by the cloth itself. It must be a Veilron, a kind of cloth that can only be found in Loswar. Her hands were bound tightly with wire ropes, atleast thrice bounded. Her legs were also bounded by wire ropes. On trying to move, she could feel her feet were attached to some kind of heavy brick. She wasn’t wet, even though, as far as her memory goes, she remembered being pushed down by Edward and someone else from the cliff on the sea. Thinking about them made her burn with fury. She was gonna beat the s**t out of those two. Redirecting her mind, she tried to find out where they were going. Frustratingly, they have placed her on some kind of makeshift bed that would move only the slightest. These captures sure took extra care in not letting her know where they were taking her. Moving as little as possible to not alert her capture, she felt for her sword which wasn’t there. A frustrated sigh passed through her mouth. Her muscles were still useless, slacking under her bones. From the feel of her fabric, she knew they had changed her out of her clothes. At this point, Rosamund promised herself to kill whoever planned this infuriating plan. While she was conjuring ways of torturing Edward, she felt the cart come to a stop. Staying as still as she could, although that was an easy feat given she was still paralyzed by that stupid spray. She tried to strain her neck and focus on listening to the sounds. It was useless, so she gave up. Simply waiting for whatever to come.

Such a f*****g drag, she sighed.

“We are so gonna die.” Demir said, while opening the back of the cart.

“Yep totally.” Lizbeth agreed while working on the hinges. They both worked as fast as they could on relocating the long black coffin that had Rosamund in it. It was Edwards' grand idea of all the measures they took. Edward knew Rosamund best, no one could deny that, but Demir couldn’t help but feel he and Lizbeth were gonna take all the beating that was to come if they weren’t careful enough.

As best and as quietly as they could, both of them made their way towards the small house located on the border of Marigold and Sahar Bagh. It was a small town with hardly any people. Only travelers would visit for a passing moment, here, as it was said to be, the Land of the Fallen, a mystical creature that was so blindingly beautiful that it took its prey into a dreamland of their wishes and hopes. No one had seen what this creature looked like or what it did to its prey and not many people wanted to know, so this town was left deserted. Lizbeth had been the one to acquire this land as a gift from her Step-Father for her first kill at the hunting games when she was only 6 years old. It was Demir’s grand idea to use it as a place to keep their First Commander till the day passed for her to travel to Karkonz. They didn’t come up with what to do after that day had passed. A big mistake on their part.

“Lets just take her to the underground room. It’s the best for us and her,” Lizbeth said, soundly unsure as Demir felt. They were so f****d, he couldn’t stress it enough.

“f**k. Lets just do it. Edward must be on his way too. We gotta move before night falls.” Lizbeth nodded in agreement. They made haste, lifting the black coffin as lightly as they could and made their way towards the house, down the long staircase. Upon reaching the underground room, which was large enough to be called a hall room, they placed the coffin on the floor. Hands shaking, sweat collecting on their brows, both of them worked on the lock of the coffin. Demir barked a sarcastic laugh, startling Lizbeth.

“We are gonna be in a coffin the minute Rosamund is freed.” He was laughing and weeping at the same time.

“f**k. Well, we might as well pray that she isn’t that mad.” She didn’t sound as hopeful as she felt.

The locks were opened, the coffin head lifted. Both of them peered at the very still body of their first Commander. Both of them shared a momentary look, hesitating embarrassedly and took Rosamund out of the coffin, placing her on the massive bed. They breathed a sigh of relief when Rosamund didn’t trash.

With skeptical looks towards one another, Demir carefully took off the cloth from Rosamund's head. The moment he did, he felt dread pass in his very bones. He was so f*****g dead. He opened the band of cloth tied around her eyes.

Her eyes were open. Without any emotion, Rosamund refocused her eyes towards the other person, who was standing behind Demir. Lizbeth, Rosamund tsked silently. She should have known only these dimwits were able to plan such a detailed kidnapping. So she now had to kill all of her fellow Commanders. What a shame, she thought.

“Fuck.” Lizbeth whispered, her body shaking either from cold or from the deadly calm stare of Rosamund. Demir couldn’t tell.

“Indeed, fuck.” Demir nodded his head while taking the ear muffs away. He left all the bindings the way they were, fearing for his and his friends life.

“Open the bounds, Commander.” Rosamund's voice was low and raspy.

“Ummm.” Demir dumbly replied, not knowing what to do. Lizbeth was not much of a help either, as she was currently muttering a lullaby the mums in the Kingdom would sing to their infants when there was a thunderstorm, frightening the babes.

“Free me, NOW.” Rosamund commanded, her muscles working again although with bothersome fatigue.

“W..e…we..can’t” Lizbeth softly said.

“Ye..yeah. We can’t” Demir confirmed.

Rosamund heaved a frustrated sigh. She was gonna have to coax them as best as she could and once she was freed……

“Please. Its hurting.” she acted as wounded as she could.

“Nope.” Demir shook his head. He feared for his life more than anything at the moment. Lizbet only nodded while still mumbling the lullaby. Rosamund was getting impatient and angry now.

“Free me. I wont do anything to the person who lets me go. I vow,” she promised. Well, the bigger prediction was to get back to the castle as of now. Killing them could wait.

“We can’t. The ropes are bound with magic. Only Edward knows the releasing spell.” Lizbeth told Rosamund.

“That f*****g idiot.” She cursed, which scared Demir and Lizbet even more. It was a well-known fact among the knights that the High Commander would only curse any when she was at the end of her wits.

With a long sigh, Rosamund eyed her surroundings. The room was massive, with black-colored ionic pillars, three on each side. A fur rug was laid in different places, three more beds were placed at each corner of the room. There was no other furniture other than the beds and a couple of side tables with wisteria and spider lilies in white vases on them and three wooden chairs. There were two fireplaces, on two sides of the room and two doors. She assumed one lead to the outside while the other was probably to the washroom.

“Where are we?” she asked. Both of them were seated on the chair placed not far from her bed but not close either.

“We are at the edge of Loswar.” Lizbet said, her eyes diverting from Rosamund's gaze. Rosamund narrowed her eyes, knowing very well that Lizbeth was lying. There was no window for her to gaze upon or see the direction of the stars and the moon. She was taught early on the directions of the stars and the moon, which she could use to find out where she was. Even the air seemed to be lacking any sense. They must have used magic again so that Rosamund wouldn’t find out where they were. With her hands bound, and legs tied to what she saw was indeed a brick, probably magical too. Lizbeth and Demir seemed to be less tensed than they were before. Both of them were talking into their ear rings, a device used for communication for long distances.

“What is the time?” she asked suddenly. Demir and Lizbet jerked their heads towards her, trying to find why she was asking about time.

“Umm…” casting each other hesitating looks, Lizbeth replied, “ Its currently past midnight.” the answer was vague but it was enough for Rosamund to track her time of disappearance. There were only fourteen hours left for her to present herself to the departing carriage and make her way towards Karkonz. They must have travelled somewhere far away, on some border. Either it was the Land of the Fallen or Waghdar, the border of Draunkoom. Her instincts told her it was the first one.

“Both of you are committing treason.” Rosamund casually said, stilling both of her captors. There was only silence as a reply.

“Both of you and your family will be hanged in front of everyone for committing treason,” Rosamund continued.

“We know.” Demir replied, his voice calm and steady.

“We are willing to take any punishment. You don’t deserve this, Commander.” Lizbeth said, her eyes sorrowful and ashamed.

“Let me go and I will never speak of this.” she promised, trying to get it past their heads that it was a futile attempt, trying to save her, that is.

“We won’t.” The atmosphere turned tense. Whatever she said wasn’t getting past their heads. She knew her commanders were as stubborn as she was. One does not command unless one cannot be commanded. It was a quality every commander before her had. A pain in the ass, it was.

“You have to let me go. I have to go, or else a war will break out. We can’t let that happen.” She tried to reason.

Both of them stood silent. Lizbeth, as well as Demir knew, the War could be stopped only if Karkonz were on their side. Without Karkonz, the Kingdom was in great danger.

“We will fight together till the last of our breaths. Together. It is not on your shoulders to sacrifice yourself for us all. We do not wish for your sacrifice. It is greedy of our Elders and Advisors to place such a burden on you, Commander, and it is shameful of the King and the Queen to make a sacrificial lamb out of you, Princess.” Demir said, his tone underlined with anger and rage.

“It is. I can’t let this happen. Not under my watch.” A new voice resonated in the room.

Edward, Rosamund thought, her irritation coming back tenfold.

The main character has entered, the person responsible for all this mess.