The Exiled King's Guard

Chapter 6: Harmedon

I gulped, preparing for the worst. After a few seconds, he said, in a controlled voice, “Are you done?”

I looked towards him, unable to meet his eyes, and nodded my head.

“Good. You want to know why I have been talking about these random things all this time? To distract myself. If I start thinking about all of these what ifs, I am going to break down. When I left my father, he was alive. And I have to place my trust in him and the General to know the right thing to do in their situation. Just like they are trusting us. And”, he sighed. “ I also wanted to avoid this.”

“What?” I looked at him confused.

“Well, everyone knows you for keeping a cool head. Only a few know the aftermath. I have seen you enough times post mission to know that you have to vent at some point. You usually spar and train, but we didn’t have that option this time. I was going to suggest a training session this evening once we were in Harmedon and got some food and sleep. But for all my planning…” he trailed off

As I sat there contemplating his words, I felt all of the anger and frustration just melting away. He was right of course. He has seen the aftermath before. And he paid attention, maybe he has been trying to take care of me. Wait, why is that relevant. Shut up brain, this isn’t happening. As I thought this, an image flashed across my eyes.

“Do I have your word, Ashley? This could be the difference between life and death, my girl.” He added Kindly.

“Yes, Your Majesty. I swear on my life that you never have to worry about it” I replied bowing my head.

“Come on, lets take a break. The horse needs water” stopping Thunder, he jumped off.

“Its Thunder” I replied almost instinctively, coming back to the present.

Our eyes met, and a smile broke out on his face as he shook his head. Mirroring his face, I jumped off as well. It was time to stretch our legs.

* * *

We were nearing the Zetva festival, you could see the occasional passersby, heading into the village. I noticed the weird glances they were giving us. With me in my army uniform and both of us covered in dirt and dried blood, we were obviously looking suspicious.

“ We need to get off the main path” Zach whispered in my ear. Giving a slight nod, I waited till there was no one in sight and then we slipped into the trees. Soon the forest started thinning out too and we were forced to stop and decide our next plan of action.

“ Soo, I think we should stay in the village tonight.” Zach started

“ If they have space you mean. And what are we going to pay with?”

“ We can figure out the money, but first we need a change of clothes.”

“Let me go figure that out” I agreed with him, starting to walk towards where I saw some people camping.

“And what are you going to pay with, lady?” he quirked an eyebrow.

I just smirked at him in response, continuing to walk towards my destination. I knew very well how I was going to pay. I was not.

A few feet away from some of the camps I contemplated climbing on a tree for better vantage. But I knew even if I managed, I might be attracting unwanted attention floundering about on three limbs. Choosing to hide in a bush instead, I quietly observed my victims.

There seemed to be three men camping there, one of whom had apparently gone into the village. The other two were lounging about, talking about meeting their future wives this year at the festival. I couldn’t help but wonder at the contrast between this festival and Cairintar. It was life as usual here. No death and destruction of war. These men were quite lucky. Focusing back on the task at hand I identified where most of their belongings were grouped together. That would be a good place to look. Distracting two people would be a more difficult task though.

It seemed like luck was on my side as one of them fell asleep after some time. So I decided to get into action. Animal sounds were my go to, so I used that to distract the awake man, and when he went to investigate, I silently crept to where their stuff was and found a set of clothes for Zach. Part one of the mission completed, I started moving closer and closer to the village, looking for some clothes for me.

I managed to find some right at the edge of the village in one of the houses. It seemed empty, to my surprise. I never knew women to abandon their houses like this. But that meant that the festival was busy, which was a good thing for me. Deciding to take advantage of this, I cleaned myself up. Washing my face and scrubbing my arms before changing into the shabby but clean dress I had found. Ahh corsets, the bane of my existence. Why women were not allowed comfortable clothes was beyond my understanding. The dress was dull green with a white undershirt with full sleeves. It was a very typically boring dress, it looked worn enough that I hope the woman who it belonged to would be glad to be rid of it. Deciding it had to be enough for now I bundled up the other clothes and started walking towards the exit.

Light flashed in my eyes as I passed by a mirror, instinctively I looked at myself and was horrified. My eyes looked extremely tired and sallow, the state of my hair matching my eyes, leaves and twigs poking out from the now disheveled bun I always pulled my hair into. The dress looked very out of place with the rest of my condition, with its clean and neat appearance. I immediately took my hair down and started running my fingers through it, hoping to somewhat comb it and tame it down. I thought for a second what I should do with it, braiding seemed more in style with Credora’s local fashion. I knew it thanks to my mother, who had briefed me on their customs and styles before we left for that fateful meeting with The Charlatan. Once my mother had realized I wasn’t going to be wavered from serving in the army, she had made it a point to keep me updated on these things so that I could retain some shred of womanliness. She and my sister liked to be very fashion forward, since they moved about in noble circles. Thanking my mom silently for it, I quickly braided my hair and proceeded to creep out of the house and started walking back as inconspicuously as possible.

Since I had changed and didn’t expect people to recognize me, I took the main route back to the hiding spot. Walking with a broken leg was proving to be more difficult in a dress than my uniform pants. I was stumbling a little, having lost my walking ‘stick’ at some point. There were many people going to and from the center of the village where the festival was and I was catching snippets of conversations here and there.

“.. do you think they would have the dancing contest this year…”

“.. I cant wait to try the beers from last year..” “.. and the ritual for making new ones from the first harvest! I always like that…”

“… I heard that coward prince ran away as soon as the capital was attacked…” My eyes widened in shock and I stumbled, falling forward, clutching everything in my arms for dear life. I flinched, bracing myself for impact with the ground.