Page 96 of Long Live the King

Go go go.

I could get out the window. I could smash the glass.

Go.

I lay there staring at the square of paleness, thinking of nothing but the racing-heart horror of what might be happening to me. Sound was muffled, except I could hear my breaths and racing heart pounding in my ears.

But then I calmed myself.Deep breath, in, then out.

This was fubar, but I could handle it.Go.

I threw back the bed covers and scrambled up from the bed. I was in my boots, wearing my work clothes still, a long cargo skirt and a short sleeve shirt, and immediately started shivering. I rushed to the window, but it looked weird. I pressed my hands against it, and it felt like parchment paper over an open window with no glass.Weird.I pushed on it, and tore it away from the side. No wonder it was cold in the room — it was a cold night, brisk and chilly.

A cloud moved away from the moon and the landscape glowed. I could see a grassy lawn, and ringing that, high timber walls. Beyond, I could see the tops of dark trees,a forest?Did I recognize it?

I held the parchment up and looked to the right and left, seeing a few low buildings. I recognized nothing.

I tried to think of where it could be that there was a timber wall... nowhere?

I had explored a lot of Nassau county but didn’t remember anything like this at all. Also, chillingly, the air felt different, the smells. It smelled disgusting, like I was on a farm, but not in the salt air Florida way. This smelled musty and old and blatantly gross and disgusting.

I would need to run.

I let the parchment flap down and felt toward the posts on the bed corners, some kind of drapery hanging on them. I felt around on the bumpy mattress for anything to wrap around myself for warmth, finding in the heavy pile a wool blanket. I pulled it around my shoulders and felt along the wall opposite me, looking for a door. What felt like branches brushed the top of my hair. I pulled my hair free and my hands hit what felt like wood, rough wood, and I felt for a doorknob of some kind, finding just more wood. I pressed, it didn’t move. I tried to pull, it wouldn’t move. Maybe I was wrong. I felt more, heading to the right — banging my knee on a low wooden piece of furniture.

Ouch!

I rubbed it, trying to listen.Did anyone hear it, was there no one here?

No one came. I must not have had a guard.

This was good.

I would escape, run until I found a house with someone home and bang on the door. I ignored the fact that there were some big forests in Florida. I was capable of a long walk. This would be doable — if I could get out.

I tried for a few more minutes, but couldn’t find a door so I returned to the window. I pulled up the parchment again and looked out, the ground seemed like it was right there, just a few feet down. I hoisted myself up, put one leg out, had to bunch my skirt up to get my legs spread enough to cross the sill, and quickly brought up my other leg to step down. I was out!

The sky above me was lightening by degrees... it made me think that dawn was on its way, maybe, but I couldn’t be sure.

But there weren’t any lights illuminating anything, and I sensed that I was surrounded by walls, buildings, and by the stench, some kind of stables nearby. Or a porta-potty. But also it smelled like fire. There was a fire somewhere near — whichwould mean heat and warmth, but also, guaranteed that was where the men who had…

It was hard to say it — I was kidnapped? What kind of horrible nightmare was this? What evil? How had I let this happen, I had been armed! I should have killed that guy. All those guys.

But I couldn’t dwell on it, I had to get out of here. I walked, as briskly as I could, forward, my hands out, going through darkness toward the wall. Stumbling over a bush, I crouched quietly and listened. Then headed to the left of that until I got to the blackness of the wall. I felt along it and my excitement built. I would get out,just follow this fence.I walked with my shoulder against it until I came to a corner, then I followed it in another direction, another corner.How many?I huffed.Was I going in a circle?

I abruptly came to a stone wall. I crouched and followed it around, but I couldn’t tell where it was going and I was exposed with nothing to hide behind.

I had no idea where I was and was lost in a freaking circle.Think, Ash. What do you do?

I was shivering —You can’t figure out how to get out.

Yes I can. I’m just cold, I will get out.

Crouched, with my back against the wall, I needed to calm myself. I breathed, in and out with my eyes closed, and then opened my eyes. I could see my hand against my knee.Was dawn coming?

If I just waited for a few minutes, it would be easier to see.

It would also be easier tobeseen. I ran to the shadow of the timber wall and waited for the sun.

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