The Lost Prince (The Shadowdancer Chronicles, Book One)

Chapter Thirty Five

An endless rain soaked through Selene’s soiled garments and matted her hair down to her face. It seemed never ending; a torrent of water so thick she felt submerged in it, drowned by it. They must have removed her hood leagues ago, at least she figured as much, because she did not remember them taking it off. She woke up with a throbbing headache in its place. Kareth was nowhere to be seen and she had no idea where they were or how long they had been riding.

She heard the men talking about a castle, and something told her that their arrival was imminent, though she could not be sure. The only good thing about her predicament that she was sure of was that there was no way that they had ridden all the way to Harrendom in one night. Then again, she was not quite sure how long they had been riding. Even with the pace they were moving, Harrendom was easily a three day ride from Adremia and they had been captured just south of the great City of Mirrors. But that did not mean they were necessarily heading to Bondary. They could have been heading anywhere. Selene was anything but geographically savvy.

There were only three of them, her guards. The rest must have left with Kareth. He was undoubtedly the more dangerous of the two. She was but a small, harmless orphan girl with no way to escape and even less to offer. Even under the down pour of rain she could hear the men next to her speak.

“I don’t care how close we are. We’re stopping. I want to get out of this damn rain.” It wasn’t a request. The other two men seemed to understand and nodded in compliance.

They pulled her reigns off of the road and into the tree line. The rain was different under the cover of trees. It was collected into large drops and dispersed less frequently, but it was still unmistakably present. One of them set to hobbling the horses while the other sat her down against a large tree.

“Don’t even think about moving,” the shorter one said. His name was Henry. She had not seen the three in the inn before they were captured. They must have surrounded the small town and waited for Kareth to resurface.

“There will be no dry wood,” said the darker one. He was taller than both the other two, but just barely. She hadn’t caught the others names yet, but their accents were not from the east, which was odd considering the fact that they were wearing the colors of House Bondary. However, she knew that Lord Borlay was one of the richest lords in the realm, so they could have been hired hands.

The leader of the three pulled down a pack from one of the horses. “Try to start one anyways, Henry, and stay with the girl.” He threw the saddle bag over his shoulder and headed off into the woods. “And do not even think about speaking to her,” he said over his shoulder.

Selene smiled innocently at Henry after the other two were away. He sat down across from her and pulled out his dagger as his eyes landed anywhere but hers. He is uncomfortable with women, she thought to herself.

“Where are we headed?” she asked the man at arms. He busied himself by cleaning out his fingernails with the knife. “Harrendom is too far north. Bondary would make more sense, but if that were the case the prince would be here as well.”

He paused and looked up at her curiously.

“You want me to believe that Lord Borlay would capture the man who killed his only son and then send him off to the king before he could exact his revenge?”

Henry sighed. “Shut up girl.”

Selene shrugged. “You do realize that he will kill you all,” she was almost alarmed at her new found boldness.

“I said shut the hell up!” Henry put the knife away and stood up from the tree. “Your companion is no prince. He is a traitor, and he will die a traitor’s death.”