Love and Tenacity

Chapter 3

Jack plunged through the night like the ground behind him was aflame. Desiree’s fiery hair flew in her face while Annabelle’s dark locks flew out behind her, reaching back toward the smoldering remains of her home of eighteen years. They galloped farther and farther away, not stopping even as the air turned freezing and they could barely see a yard in front of them. Neither had had the time to grab a cloak, though they didn’t regret their haste. Annabelle’s heart was beating in her throat as she felt Jack’s powerful body moving beneath her and heard his hooves beat the ground. She felt like crying, but the tears would not come. Her face was a steely mask.

Desiree steered Jack from the coast, heading south and east toward Levamen. She didn’t know the forests well, but she would never forget Ember or the village she inhabited. The cold of the night, or rather early morning, did not reach her in the deep recesses of her mind. She thought of nothing but the destruction of Mulciber, the second home that had been ripped from her. She had nothing. Her clothes were gone, her meager possessions were gone, her only sister was gone, and she was running toward a strange hope in the form of an unfamiliar, illustrious person who may not even remember her. She felt Annabelle cling to her back and felt a small bit of relief that she at least still had her dearest friend. She was still necessary, she still meant something. As long as Annabelle lived, there was always hope that things would change.

They came to a halt near a small pond as the sun rose. The water looked relatively clear and clean, though Desiree didn’t see any fish swimming in it or animals drinking from it. The huge oak and maple trees surrounding the water blocked out most of the wind that had been following them from the north.

Desiree slid off Jack first and then helped Annabelle from the saddle, both of them moving stiffly after a full night of galloping. Jack’s sides were still heaving, so Desiree took his bridle off and let him roam around and cool down. Being a former battle horse, he was trained not to wander too far from his rider. For a moment, she and Annabelle stood in silence, both still feeling raw and exposed.

“Quinn,” said Annabelle silently, breaking the silence.

“What?” asked Desiree blankly.

“You should call me Quinn now. There will be people looking for me, and a tall, dark-haired blind girl called Annabelle hanging around so soon after the raid is too obvious. I will be Annabelle Quinlan Lee again when the crown rests on my head. For now, I am Quinn.”

Desiree nodded thoughtfully. “Makes sense. Ember will probably recognize you, but it will at least be a bit harder for others. Maybe we should cut your hair as well?”

Quinn grimaced. “Let’s hold off on that a bit, shall we?”

Desiree chuckled numbly.

They made their way over to the pond and splashed water on their faces. The sun was beginning to warm them up, so they felt comfortable enough to dunk their heads and hair into the water and wash off the memory of fire and noise. Desiree’s hair hung in thick curls around her elfin face, while Quinn’s heavy, dark brown locks trailed down her back, pushed away from her long features. They lay back in the sunlight, soaking in the warm beams while Jack munched on some grass nearby. Both were still reeling from the surreal events of the night before, and they took the time to put together the jumbled pieces of scared memories.

“Do you think Scott will be alright?” Quinn asked, once again breaking the silence.

Desiree rolled toward her and grimaced, though she knew it was lost on the young woman. “I honestly don’t know, Quinn. He’s a good fighter, that much we know for sure.” Quinn quirked her lips, remembering Scott’s insistence that she knew how to handle a sword decently even if she couldn’t see the target. She recalled long nights of fun, if mostly fruitless practice, followed by stories of Scott’s adventures in faraway lands, plentiful despite his young age. “I think he’ll be alright,” she said softly. Desiree heard the fond tone and smiled slightly to herself. Scott had always been a favorite of Quinn’s, though she claimed there was never anything romantic to it (even though Desiree always thought that he’d make a fantastic King). They were like brother and sister for years, almost longer than Desiree had known the runaway princess. She hoped for her friend’s sake that he was still alive.

Once again, Quinn broke the silence. “This rather throws a wrench in the plan, I fear. If my father has indeed been killed, which I suspect, then any action of Scott’s will be too late. Oliver is King, and I am as good as dead if his men find me. Based on what just happened, I do not believe he will even allow me to live, even if I support his rule and remain in the shadows. I am a threat, and he may be weak and easily influenced, but he would never allow anyone to challenge his position on the throne – he is too vain for that. His head is nearly too large for the crown.”

“The people would not allow you to remain passive anyway,” interjected Desiree forcefully. “You’re the only member of the royal family who has shown a peasant respect in the last hundred years. There is no way the People’s Princess would allow her kingdom to suffer, and he knows that. You’re too strong for your own good, Quinn. Don’t think that he doesn’t recognize that.” Quinn sat up and rubbed her hand over her eyes, her face never breaking its stony expression. There was silence for a moment, and then she frowned. “Desiree, do you hear anything?”

Desiree looked around cautiously and raised an eyebrow. “No. Why, do you think there’s someone nearby?” she whispered. She knew Quinn’s blindness afforded her impeccable hearing and smell, as evidenced more than once in the more mischievous moments of their childhood. Quinn shook her head. “No. I think that there is no person or animal other than Jack in at least one hundred feet. I have not heard a rustle or a bird call since we stopped. Do you see anything?”

Desiree scanned the area more closely and realized Quinn was right. She hadn’t stopped to think about it, but the more she looked, the more unnerved she felt. Nothing was moving, not even the wind. Jack’s munching was the only noise. “There’s absolutely nothing here, Quinn. No squirrels, no deer, not even waving branches.”

Quinn nodded slowly and carefully got to her feet, turning in Desiree’s direction. “I think we should leave. There is something not right about this place.”

“Right there with you,” Desiree muttered, and she quickly rounded up Jack, helped Quinn on, and took off out of the clearing at a brisk trot. Even Jack, who was still exhausted from his night-long sprint, seemed eager to leave.

“The whole forest is like that,” said Desiree as she looked more closely at her surroundings. “I don’t see anything except us in any direction. Even the trees have less life than usual.” It was true. The normally tall, vibrant trees were rotting and their leaves were spotted with disease. Few ferns grew, and the soil beneath Jack was dry and unhealthy despite recent spring rain. It was like the roots were closed off from nourishment and the leaves were not receiving the sun’s warm light. “We’ll ask Ember about it when we find her.”

“Do you think she will be able to help us?” Quinn asked. “You told me about her before, many times, but we have no guarantee that she will be interested in harboring fugitives. From what I hear, she is already unpopular with the Crown.”

“Well, she should be. She’s been quietly criticizing your father for years; I think she has a pretty good grasp on just how little he is doing to prevent raids, and she herself is probably the only one keeping Levamen safe. Without her, it would have been pillaged by Sinder years ago, but she’s just powerful and well-known enough for them to know that invading her forest would probably prove to be unwise.”

“Why have I not heard more about this before? From the way the nobles speak of her, one would think she was nothing more than a mildly rebellious country healer, not a line of defense! How do you know all of this?”

Desiree snorted. “Quinn, even you must know how friendly some of the maids get – well, got – with the nobles, my sister included.” Her tone became uncharacteristically sour as she thought of her Abby again. “They’ve been worried about Ember causing trouble for years, but the King didn’t want you to know, and I knew that if I told you then you’d storm into his chambers and demand that he treat her with more regard. Mind you, he really should’ve. Hell, she’s the only reason you’re alive, even if you did lose your sight! But I think he was worried that she would rile up the peasants and you’d help, which you would’ve, and that’s the last thing he wanted. Wouldn’t have done any good anyway, the bounty hunters would have just slaughtered all the rebels, and he would’ve known that I had told you and I would have been taken away. I wanted to tell you, but you’re too determined and stubborn to just sit there with that information and not act on it.” The redheads words grew heavy as her southern accent leaked into her voice, as it often did in times of stress. Heavy, formal words had never felt natural to her.

Quinn thought for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders. As much as she hated being kept in the dark, she trusted Desiree. The maid had basically raised her, even if there wasn’t much of an age difference between them, and she owed Desiree her life. The information gave her more confidence in Ember being someone they could trust. Like Desiree had said, Quinn was widely known as the People’s Princess, and surely Ember wouldn’t turn her away. If she did, they would have nowhere to go.

“If we ride quickly and don’t stop, we can make it to Levamen by nightfall and we won’t have to spend another night out in these godforsaken woods,” Desiree muttered. Quinn nodded and gripped Desiree’s waist tighter as they rode on through the silence. The odd aura of the forest was niggling in the back of her mind. She decided that she’d ask Ember about if the witch proved to be friendly. For the moment, she closed her eyes and let Desiree steer them toward temporary solace.

They left the tainted forest behind them and rode briskly to the healthier land in the south. By the time they reached Levamen, the strange quiet in the clearing had nearly been forgotten.