Page 2 of If The Crown Fits
The guards were still behind me. I could hear their boots a few roofs back, but this only motivated me to go faster. It would, after all, be no fun if there weren’t some sort of chase involved. That was until I saw the rooftops ending and no possible direction to go in... except maybe down. I stopped at the edge, peering over. It was too high. A jump like that would kill me.
“Nowhere to go.” It was the guard with the brown eyes. “Just hand yourself over now while you still have the chance.” His hands were in the air in a slightly defensive position, as if the fact that they weren’t on the hilt of his sword was a promise that no harm would befall me. Not that I would ever believe that. I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust anyone.
I looked around, weighing my options. I had an idea, but I didn’t like it very much.
“Just hand over what we want and come with me.” He spoke again, but I was barely listening.
“Come with you?” I asked, still looking around. “And get beheaded by the King? Not today, thank you. Perhaps another time.” I smiled slightly.
“You don’t have a choice. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way.” He slowly took a step closer.
“I hate to ruin your day.” The wind was coming up faster, blowing my hair to the side. “But I never do it the easy way.” With that I turned, pulled my scarf loose and jumped from the roof. I only had one chance to do this right.
I flailed for a second before grabbing the banner, wrapping my scarf around it and sliding down towards the street. When I was close to the ground, I let go and shuddered before catching my breath. I looked up towards the guard. He was at the edge of the roof, his fellow guards behind him. I gave him my best smirk before strutting away.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far before walking into a stone-hard body, which grabbed me by my upper arms to prevent me falling to the ground. He was enormous and picked me up with no effort. I struggled to get free.
But the large guard had me in his grasp. A scar travelled from the space between his eyebrows to his cheek. He grinned down at me.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Chapter 2
The Border of Everness and Norrandale
Cai
The sun was high above the clouds as we reached the bridge between Norrandale and Everness. I glanced out of my carriage window at the rush of water below the bridge. Norrandale and Everness were situated on a small mass of land isolated from the continents. High mountains and deep gorges created a border between the two kingdoms. Norrandale, in the south, had lush land for prosperous farming, whereas Everness was covered by dark and ancient forests.
An angry river gushed in the ravine as the Evernean guards approached us.
The bridge was wide, with Evernean guards on the left where people entered, and Norrandish guards on the right, on the other side of the bridge. It was a fairly quiet day, with few faces to look up at us as we passed.
“I present the royal prince and heir to the throne of Norrandale,” Jack, my front rider, stated.
Our identities were made obvious not only by our uniform colours, but also the luxury in our travel accommodation. That and the ring on my finger, which bore the crest of the royal family.
“Your Highness.” The Evernean soldier bowed at us in greeting. I lowered my head to return the gesture. “We have been expecting your arrival. Welcome to Everness. We shall let the King know you’re on your way.”
Jack nodded and led our party onwards. I leaned back in my seat then, closing my eyes, and listened to the world outside. The sound of water quickly faded as we entered the Evernean Forestthat covered most of the kingdom. It was replaced by birdsong and the breeze making its way through the leaves.
Once we were out of sight of the border, we swerved left off the forest road and into the thicker brush. Keeping an eye out for anyone passing by, we quickly got rid of our uniforms. We abandoned the carriage and mounted the horses, heading back to the main road.
“I still don’t see why we had to do that,” Conner said. He was the youngest of our party of five, barely fifteen. I was concerned about bringing him along, but Jack, who was in charge of his training, assured me the boy would be fine. And Jack wouldn’t be my second-in-charge if I didn’t trust him and his opinions with my life.
“Haven’t you heard stories about the Evernean Forest, boy?” he asked Conner.
“You mean those fairy tales about it being a magic forest or something?”
“Those are no fairy tales.” Jack’s tone was teasing. “They say these woods are filled with creatures who have been cursed to roam the darkness of the forest for all time.”
“And you know what they say about the trees.” I couldn’t help cutting in and Conner gave me a glance of uncertainty. “Didn’t you know that the trees here have eyes? They are believed to be the guardians of the forest, protecting it from those with ill intent.” We’d all grown up with stories of the Evernean Forest and how one should never be alone in it at night. But the myths were centuries old, almost as old as the kingdom itself.
Conner looked towards Jack. “I don’t believe you and I know you’re just trying to scare me.”
I glanced at the branches of green surrounding us. If anything, the forest appeared to be sleeping. Calm and serene. Besides, as far as my knowledge went, there were much morerealistic things to be frightened of than the possibility of mythical trees.
“Even so,” I spoke up, “These woods are filled with bandits. We cannot risk making ourselves a target of any kind.”
