Hunted Queen

Chapter Thirty Two • Not Safe

*VERY LONG CHAPTER*

-Jade-

Hours later, just before the break of dawn, Loren steered their small party off the road and into the woods. No path laid before them, yet he guided them as easily as if there had been one. Jade leaned her upper body out to the right. Leaning, and partly hanging, out from her seat behind Stroem to get a glimpse of her guard. Loren appeared almost untouched. In the bleak moonlight she could not detect any wounds on his body or any other signs that he was hurt. Not counting the cut on his cheek which she knew was there. What she could see, however, was stiffness in his posture and how his eyes kept watch over their surroundings.

He doesn't think we're safe yet. She thought.

Jade threw a nervous glance over her shoulder to see if anyone was following them. Someone who might have seen them get off the main road. Beside from bushels moving with a low rustle, leaves whispering softly in the night breeze and the soft thuds of their mounts' steps, there were no sounds. No one was there but the three of them.

Soon enough, a sea of tree trunks hid them from potential snooping eyes from the main road. Still, Jade kept looking back just to be sure. She could not shake the feeling of eyes burning in the back of her neck. Every time she looked over her shoulder, the main road was harder to spot than the last time she had looked.

Despite nothing happening, she unknowingly held her breath and expected Ulf and his men to come running out of the folige around them. Roaring with their blades raised high in the air. A dark feeling brewed in her gut, hissing in her mind that their pursuers had already caught up with them, waiting in the darkness. Jade imagined them lukring in the shadows, laughing quietly and mocking her for thinking that she could get away. Ridiculing her for feeling even remotely safer than in Rowan's camp.

I can't get away... can I? She wondered to herself and quickly brushed away a tear from her cheek. Stop crying. She scolded herself and forced the thoughts of Ulf and his men away. It was bad enough that glimpses of her captivity in Rowan's camp were flashing before her eyes when she blinked, or whenever her mind went empty for the fraction of a second. Images of Gorm crawling closer caused her hands to clench hard around Stroem's waist, and her breath got caught in her throat.

The guard turned his head to the right, and gave her a reassuring look over her shoulder. "Do not fear, your grace. We-"

"We need to split up." Loren suddenly declared while reining his horse in. Jade swallowed and directed her gaze towards Loren. His gaze was still searching their surroundings as if he had not spoken at all. The sound of his steady voice numbed the dark feeling in her gut, and she could take a deep breath again.

Stroem quickly led his horse up alongside Loren's. "Split up?" He protested quietly, leaning towards his superior so he didn't have to raise his voice. Loren's horse took a couple of steps forward, and turned, so he was facing them instead.

"You will head back to camp." Loren commanded and twitched his head to the left and while looking at Jade. Signaling for her to get off Stroem's horse and up onto his. "I do not believe we will ever be safe in these lands. If we split up, then Rowan's men will have to do the same if they are on our trail. I think it will buy us time." He continued.

"Head back? Without you? Without the queen? Where are you going?" The questions poured out of Stroem. Meanwhile, Jade slid down from Stroem's horse onto the ground on wobbly legs that felt numb. She then hurried over to Loren. He removed his boot from his stirrup so she could use it to get up. They clasped arms and he pulled her up in a seamless motion. She was sitting behind him before Stroem had finished talking.