Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) (16 page)

“It’s okay,” Natalya put a hand on Sir
Ruawn’s arm and he stepped aside. “Do you know where my sister,
Alina, is?” she asked, not really believing that he would answer
her question, but not willing to not try.

He just cackled, his haughty attitude back in
full force. Before she realized the significance of this, shouts
rang out around her. The Knights were abruptly engaged in combat
from all sides. Additional mercenaries must have been hiding in the
woods around them, for they were suddenly greatly outnumbered.

Sir Ruawn shoved her out of harm’s way
roughly, but was immediately caught up in a fight, his sword
clashing against his attackers. Scraping metal and metallic thunks
rang out around her. She drew her dirks, ready to defend herself,
when someone grabbed her from behind and held a strange-smelling
cloth over her mouth.

She struggled against her assailant, but her
attempts grew more and more feeble as a weakness descended over
her. Her vision became blurry, the cacophony of the fighting
suddenly muffled, and sleep washed over her.

Natalya woke as her head bumped painfully
against the wooden carriage seat. Her eyes flew open in alarm.
Across from her, Lord Morven sat watching her with a sadistic grin.
She sat up slowly, her hand searching the folds of her dress for
the knife she had concealed there, knowing her dirks must already
have been taken.

“Looking for this?” Morven asked, holding up
the blade.

She settled back into the seat, never taking
her eyes off him. “What do you want?”

“Tsk tsk, that’s no way to speak to your
lord.” He sat forward and smacked her hard across the face.
Natalya’s head snapped sideways and tears welled up in her eyes.
“You will address me only as ‘my lord’ or ‘Lord Morven’ and only
speak when you are spoken to.” He sniffed disdainfully down his
nose at her. “I swear, your parents really didn’t bring either of
you up very well. I blame it on your father.” His eyes lighted on
the bench she was sitting on. “You may want to let your sister out
of there; it’s probably getting rather cramped.”

Natalya glanced down at the bench, confused.
Noticing two hinges, however, she realized that it must have a
hidden compartment underneath. She stood - though carefully, not
wanting to make Morven do anything rash - and opened the lid.

Alina was curled up inside. As Natalya raised
the top, her sister’s doe-like eyes met hers. “Alina,” she
breathed, so overcome with relief that her sister was alright she
almost forgot that the two of them were being held captive.

“Natalya?” her sister whispered, as though
unable to fathom that this could be real.

“Yes,” she answered, taking her hand and
gently helping her out of the box and replacing the lid so that
they could sit. “It’s me, it’s alright.”

She noticed the large welted scars running
the length of Alina’s arms, as though she had been burned over and
over again and she felt her insides tugging at her in guilt. If
only she had hurried to find her, maybe she could have prevented
her suffering. She had known in the beginning that it wasn’t
right!

“Isn’t this touching,” Morven sneered at them
and Alina’s eyes uncharacteristically filled with fear. “Our whole
family together.”

“What are you talking about?” Natalya asked,
and cringed as Morven’s hand snapped back to give her another blow.
He stopped half-way towards her, however, and leaned back with a
contented smile.

“That was just a warning, my dear, to
remember your manners. But I’ll give you a break this time. You
weren’t raised the way you should have been.”

Natalya glared at him. “Our parents were
wonderful.”

His dark eyes seemed to turn completely
black. “Your
mother
was wonderful,” he corrected her, “she
just chose the wrong man.”

So that’s what the bad blood between her
father and the lord was. Natalya had long wondered why he seemed to
have it out for their family, never failing to cause them trouble
when he came into town. Luckily, most of the time he had refrained
from leaving his castle anyway, but on those unfortunate days he
felt like going out among the commoners, her parents had often
chosen to do something out of town.

He rambled on, “Your father somehow twisted
her mind, turning her against me. We were in love.”

Natalya and Alina exchanged a look. The lord
of the land was even more delusional than she had thought. Alina’s
expression indicated that she had heard this nonsense before and
Natalya wondered what Lord Morven had done with such notions.

He leaned forward and Natalya caught Alina
twitch almost imperceptibly away from him. She purposefully put
herself between her sister and the vile man. He didn’t seem to
notice, he was so caught up in his own reverie. Her stomach twisted
into another painful knot. Her sister had been so persistently
happy before, so full of life. What if this episode had completely
tarnished her forever? Natalya had to get them out of here before
Morven could cause any more damage. No doubt the Knights would be
looking for them, but once they passed the fork in the road where
they could potentially be going any number of directions, they
would have a much harder time finding them.

Natalya looked frantically around. The
carriage was garishly decorated with gold embroidery and silken
curtains. The windows were partially covered by the flowing fabric
draped over them, but she could see that the sun hadn’t moved
completely out of sight yet, so she must not have been unconscious
for too long. There was still hope yet that they were on the road
before the fork.

Her eyes lighted on the bracelet that Jeremy
had given her. It was a string of beads wrapped several times
around her wrist. He had called them worry beads, that when you
were worried about something you could roll each one around in your
fingers and the worry would be taken up by the bead so you didn’t
have to worry about it anymore. She twirled one around between two
fingers. Morven didn’t seem to notice or care.

Alina was watching her, however, her innocent
eyes wide and her forehead creased in concern. Natalya waited until
Morven was looking out the opposite window before tugging on the
bracelet with a quick jerk. The string snapped and Natalya coughed
to cover the sound.

Morven glanced back at her and narrowed his
eyes suspiciously. She did not move her hands, afraid that the
now-loose beads would fall to the ground and give her away. He
stared at her for a few moments before making a low grunting noise
and ignoring her again.

She carefully cupped her hand underneath the
bracelet on her other arm and gathered the beads that were already
off the string. She hastily stuffed these in her pocket. Then, ever
so slowly, she worked the rest of them off, stowing these away as
well. When she had gotten almost all of them off, she edged her way
towards the window.

They hit a particularly hard bump in the road
and Alina practically flew off the seat, crumpling into a limp heap
on the floor of the carriage. Natalya turned to her immediately to
help, but Alina caught her eye and flashed her an urgent look, her
eyes darting to the window purposefully.

Natalya got the hint and waited until
Morven’s disgusted attention was on Alina. He was moving his feet
away from her and was wrinkling his nose in distaste, as though
afraid she might be sick and soil his fine shoes. Natalya quickly
tossed the string with the last few beads still attached out the
window and then knelt beside Alina, helping her back up onto the
seat.

“What’s wrong with her?” Morven asked,
obviously more worried for what it meant for him and his clothing
than out of any concern for the girl herself.

“Just weak and got jostled off, I think,”
Natalya answered, checking Alina for signs of something more.
Though she knew it had been just a ruse, she used the opportunity
to try and determine what else had been done to her sister. But
other than the obvious burns on her arms, any other abuse must not
have left any physical scars.

Natalya weighed their options. Every now and
again she would surreptitiously toss another bead in hopes that the
Knights would spot them and realize the significance. But she
wasn’t about to leave it up to them. Already her mind was whirling
how else they could escape.

Morven had her knife and Alina was weakened.
Even together it was unlikely that the two of them could take on a
full-grown man, even one as pathetic as Lord Morven.

They could wait until he was asleep and jump
out the carriage windows, but the space was so small it would take
some working at in order to get through and it was likely to wake
him. Even if they did get out, the alarm would be raised almost
instantaneously and it was unlikely they could outrun guards on
horseback. Natalya also had no idea if it was only the initial ten
or so guards that he had originally had, or if the hordes of them
that had appeared in the woods were also now in attendance.

Natalya had the thought that perhaps the men
hadn’t been Morven’s at all, but rather a band of bandits. But why
would they attack while a group of the Queen’s guards were there?
No, they had to have been protecting Morven. Then it hit her; it
must have been his father’s intervention. Morven was always hiding
behind his father, and his father was always protecting him, no
matter what stupid thing he had done this time.

Alina’s head slumped down onto her lap and
Natalya realized that she had fallen asleep. Exhaustion was
overtaking Natalya as well, but she didn’t want to stop leaving the
trail of beads, and she wanted to wait until Morven slept to see if
she couldn’t steal her knife back from him and give them a bit of
an edge.

He did not seem to tire, however, as the
minutes wore on and Natalya soon ran out of beads to leave.
Finally, she could resist it no longer, and she closed her eyes,
leaving their fates in the hands of the Knights.

*

Layna entered the nursery and immediately
looked for Amelia. When she didn’t see her, she motioned to the
other nurse who was currently playing with Phoenix on the
floor.

“Where is Amelia today?”

“She’s out sick again, Your Majesty,” the
girl answered, one who Layna didn’t recognize. It made her nervous
to have someone she wasn’t familiar with taking care of her
daughter.

“What about Erryn?”

“She wasn’t feeling well either, Your
Majesty,” the girl was beginning to look worried, as though she
might be punished for their absences.

Layna picked up Phoenix, trying not to seem
as though she was taking her out of the girl’s hands and walked
over to where the mages stood in a tight group, speaking in low
tones.

“Where is everybody?” she asked, noticing
that here too there was a distinct lack of people she
recognized.

“A large number of people seem to have fallen
ill, Your Majesty. We are working hard to ensure that the Princess
has proper supervision at all times.”

Everyone was falling ill? Was it a regular
sickness, or some plot to remove those who could best protect her
child? She hugged the baby tightly to her.

Layna swept out of the room and towards
Amelia’s private suite. It was near the nursery so that she would
always be close to the baby, so Layna didn’t have to go far. She
stood outside the door and shifted Phoenix to free a hand. She
knocked on the door.

“Come in,” called Amelia in a weak voice.

Layna entered cautiously, putting up a
protective barrier around Phoenix to block out any germs from
transmitting to her.

“How are you feeling?” she asked the older
woman softly, who was cuddled up into bed. Her face looked flushed
and feverish. Layna sat gingerly beside her, laying a hand on the
woman’s forehead. She was burning up.

“I’ve live,” the woman coughed, forcing a
smile, “But you shouldn’t have the young one in here, I don’t want
to get her sick.”

“Not to worry,” Layna waved off her concern,
“I have her shielded. I’m more worried about you right now. How
long have you been ill?”

“I don’t know, a while.” The woman coughed.
“I think I may have given it to a few other people as well,” she
said sheepishly.

“I noticed there’re quite a few people
missing from the nursery. I didn’t know half of them when I went
in.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty, everyone who sets
foot in that room has been personally screened by me. I promise,
even in my absence she is getting the best care.”

“Thank you, Amelia,” Layna said, touched by
the woman’s concern for her daughter even during her own
discomfort. “Have the healers seen you?”

“Yes, they say it is not something that they
have seen before. It must be some new strain of something. I have
some fight left in these old bones yet, though. I won’t succumb so
easily.”

“You’d better not,” Layna told her
affectionately. Since becoming the Queen, Amelia had become a close
friend. In the beginning she had been rather demanding and
unrelenting, but Layna now understood that it was only because of
the harsh world of politics. There had been no few people in the
royal court who would have pounced upon any lapse of propriety she
had made. It was only through Amelia’s persistent tutelage that she
had been transformed from farm girl and maid, to Queen. She excused
herself from Amelia’s presence, sensing that the woman was tired
and needed rest, and sent in a servant with a bowl of hot
broth.

She was in the throne room with Gryffon when
Sir Ruawn strode purposefully in and bowed deeply to them. Layna
indicated he should stand and speak. He wasted no time.

“We lost Lord Morven and he kidnapped
Natalya,” he stated.

Layna was shocked. Almost fifty Knights had
been overtaken and Natalya was gone? She waited for him to explain
before remarking.