Page 42 of Prince of the Northwest Forest
The guards accompanying the sorcerer raise their swords.
Why is everything happening as if in slow motion?
Shit. I need to do something. But I have no weapons. Not that I’d know how to use them anyway.
People seem frozen in place.
The sorcerer waves his hands and rushes forward. Kalle doubles over and stumbles back. What happened to him?
The sorcerer reaches the princess, who falls, dropping her bouquet, and one of the sorcerer’s guards picks her up.
“Wait! Stop!” someone yells.
“You can’t stop us,” a voice snarls—I think it’s the sorcerer. His voice isn’t as deep as I’d have expected.
“Why are you taking her?” Kalle asks, groaning and holding his neck. He seems to have been hit in the throat.
“So you cannot have her.”
“Is that up to you to decide?”
Everyone seems to have woken up from their initial shock, and there’s no way to describe what is happening besides utter chaos. Some people are shrieking. Kalle is still on his knees. I don’t know what to do. Do I help Kalle? Chase after this wizard?
The princess’s parents are on their feet, looking stricken. But before they can move, the wizard grabs the princess and throws her over his shoulder. With the guards brandishing swords, everyone steps back as they race down the aisle.
The guards help the sorcerer get the princess onto a horse while using their swords to hold off anyone who tries to interfere. Dignitaries are being sequestered by their own security.
“Get her!” a voice thunders. I think it’s Kalle’s father.
Guards chase after the wizard on foot, but it’s no use. The wizard and his guards have horses and a head start. And suddenly I don’t hear the horses anymore. Did they disappear?
I attempt to make my way to Kalle. People and pandemonium work together to push me back, and I get disoriented.
My heart is palpitating, and my chest tingles. I feel like I’m choking, but Kalle’s the one still holding his neck.
Chapter Eleven
KALLE
Despite the searing pain in my throat, I have one dominant thought: I must find Princess Eleanor. I cannot let that sorcerer take her.
I don’t know her well. We’ve barely conversed before. But that doesn’t mean I won’t avenge her kidnapping. Her safety is paramount, but this is also a slight upon the Northwest Forest—and a slight uponme. They tookmybride. I may not want a bride, but I will do my duty.
“Where do you think they went?” I ask Risteárd, who is the staff member I see first.
He blinks at me.
“You don’t feel like answering me?”
He makes a noise, but I can’t tell what he’s saying.
What in the Underworld?
My mother comes up to me. “Kalle, are you okay? It looked like …” Her eyes are full of unshed tears. “It looked like you were cursed.”
“I … I’m not sure,” I say. “Something is very wrong. I don’t understand Ris.”
She turns to him and says something I can’t make out. He responds.
