The Disgraced Queen

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The sound of an approaching horse abruptly woke Aliana, who had been dozing fitfully while sitting upright in bed. Her eyes flew open and she bolted upright. Next to her on the bed was the dagger. Ever since she had seen the hoofprints in the snow hours ago, she had refused to let it out of her sight.

The frightened princess got slowly to her feet. Creeping over to the doorway, she hoped that, when she looked outside, she wouldn't see an unwelcome face staring back at her. She slowly pulled aside the blanket and sighed in relief when she saw that it was Iora atop the approaching horse.

She rushed outside, for once not being bothered by the cold. "Iora!" she cried with glee.

"Why are you so happy to see me?" the guard asked, genuinely puzzled. Despite being confused, she looked happy to see Aliana so overjoyed at her return. "I was only gone for a few hours."

"We have trouble," was all Aliana could say. She was overwhelmed with various emotions.

Iora was instantly serious, her playful smile quickly vanishing. She slid off the horse and instantly grabbed Aliana. "Are you hurt? What happened? Are you in danger?"

She pointed into the woods, over the small hill. "I was gathering berries and I saw horse tracks. I'm scared."

"Are you serious?" Iora glanced at the hill, worry written in her brow. Under her breath, she mumbled, "There shouldn't be anyone else out here." She looked back at Aliana. "Show me them."

The princess nodded, at a loss for words. After Iora had hurriedly tied the horse's reins to the shack and unloaded the supplies she had bought while in town, she allowed Aliana to lead her over the hill.

"I came out here just after you left," she explained. "I took the horse with me so he could get some fresh air and help carry wood. When I was done picking berries, I was going to gather nuts and then head back to the cabin. But I saw these." She pointed at the tracks. Since it had thankfully not snowed at all that day, the tracks still appeared fresh. They stood out glaringly among the pristine white snow around them that had not been disturbed.

"I don't want to overreact," Iora mused, "but this seems very worrisome to me. There shouldn't be anyone else out here and I didn't pass anyone while I was in the woods."

Aliana, suddenly distracted, looked at Iora. "How did it go?"

She shrugged. "Setting traps went well enough. I made a few. Some are placed within walking distance of the cabin, but others are far away. I tried to find the best spots where there would be lots of hares. Finding water was the hard part. Most of the streams in the mountain are shallow, which means they freeze easily. I had to find one that was deeper and wider and still had running water. After a lot of wandering, I finally found one a couple miles from here. Our canteens are now filled."

"That's good!" Aliana exclaimed, cheerfully jumping. "It's so awesome that you know how to survive out here. Without you, I'd be dead."

Iora just shook her head. She was tempted to point out the fact that, without her, the princess would have never even been able to escape the castle, but she decided to let it go. Instead, she turned her attention back to the tracks.

"Should I start worrying about the tracks?" Aliana asked. She was wringing her hands and had a slight frown on her face.

"Start worrying? Haven't you been worried this whole time?" Iora teased. "Yes, we need to worry about them. There are dangerous people out here and we don't want to meet them. Now that traps are set and we know where water is, our next priority is making a sturdy door, I'll work on that tomorrow, but it'll most likely take a day or two to make one that I'm satisfied with under these circumstances. Also, I'm not leaving you alone any longer. Where I go, you'll have to go. We can't risk you being alone when our visitor returns. We're very lucky whoever it is didn't check out the cabin or happen to see you, these tracks are barely out of the cabin's sight."