Kingdom Chronicles: Awakening

Chapter 2.2 - Armed

Mara crawled out from under the thicket of bushes and briars that had been her hiding place for the last four hours. The sun had finally disappeared behind the horizon, and dusk fell across the forest. Mara stood and shook out her arms and legs to work out the kinks that had developed in her muscles while she had was crouched in her hiding place.

She blinked repeatedly to clear away the water forming in her eyes and blurring her vision. It took her an hour before she could see shapes amidst the white light that filled her vision, forcing her to rely on her memory, hearing, and touch to get away from the forgotten prison. She was thankful then for all the years she'd spent sneaking out of the castle to survey the surrounding forests that kept her home secluded from her people. It was an old skill now, corroded by her years of imprisonment, but the core of it had not wasted away yet.

After another three hours in hiding and with the unforgiving light of the sun gone, Mara could finally see the trees around her within a twenty-foot radius. It wasn't ideal for what she needed to do, but it was an improvement she could work with.

Mara turned toward the west where the sun had just set and started off at a slow jog. Though it was more a walk than a jog. Her calves and quads ached with every step she took, and after just half a mile, her legs were so wobbly that she feared they wouldn't support her much longer.

She had tried to keep her legs loose and strong while in her cell, but her exercising options had been nonexistent. She couldn't count the three steps to one side of her cell that her chain allowed her to make. She had to stop twice to stretch and rest her tight muscles before she made it the five miles to the castle.

Mara lay down on her stomach under the last line of brush in the forest. She peered through the branches and past the small clearing ahead of her. The castle of Kingdom D loomed ahead of her, it's spires reaching up toward the stars. She searched the sky for the moon and found it already high in the sky, though it had not yet reached its peak. Mara begrudged her weak body and the time lost because of it, but she pressed on with her plan despite the late hour.

She would not have been able to make out the guards pacing up above her on the ramparts if it weren't for their silhouettes passing in front of the firelight that dotted the shoulder-high wall. She watched them for a few minutes, and she guessed—but mostly remembered—that there should be a dozen guards in pairs rotating so that there was only about fifteen seconds between guards.

To her left, four additional guards were stationed at the base of the iron lattice gate leading to the castle courtyard, which had been shut hours ago.

In front of her, the open plain that separated the forests from the castle was patrolled by only one guard at a time. There were a few minutes between guards, but the centuries above meant that Mara would only have a few seconds between all their rotations to cross the plain unseen.

To her right, the castle wall trailed back and disappeared into the darkness, but Mara could clearly see in her mind where that wall stopped and turned into another that protected the back side of the castle.

Mara had stood up bravely and declared to her father that she would keep them all safe. "I'm not scared of them," she had told her father as an eight-year-old girl.

But her sister was scared. Mara still remembered Amelia asking about the wooden door that led out the back of the castle. She was afraid that the murderous thieves would be able to easily enter the simple wooden door.

"The criminals aren't smart enough to try the back door," their father had told them. "But I am having the door reinforced, and I'm putting my best guards in front of it. I won't let the bad guys hurt you."