Andreya understood now why she'd been one of the only women wearing a dress. Her muscles burned and her breaths came heavy and to top it off, wherever Reide slipped through a thicket ahead of her, her skirts caught on every branch and thorn.
Eventually, she had discarded every moral value she had once held and tossed her skirt and corset and shawl under a bush. She felt every part naked, even with her remaining pantaloons and long-sleeved blouse, but now her physical fitness—or lack thereof—was the only issue remaining, along with the biting cold breeze.
Reide stopped abruptly in front of her and she skidded, knocking into the quiver on his back so hard they both almost toppled over. Instead of being mad, though, he was holding in laughter and asking briefly if she was alright as he dropped to a crouch behind a bush and pulled her down with him. After she nodded, he peered just over the leaves and pointed. "I bet the blue team's scouts are going to take this route back to base with their Mandy. Any minute now, they'll try to slip through here, so I propose we lay a trap for them."
This was where the satchel he'd taken from the house this morning came in handy. He pulled out a full skein of twine and a knife and his bow from out of its holder, tied one end of the twine to an arrow, and told her to hold the other end. Then, in one swift movement, he leapt up and shot the arrow straight into the tree across the path, just low enough to be hidden by the underbrush. Andreya stared in awe, the other end of the twine still in hand. Reide ducked back beside her and replaced his weapons.
"Now we wait. When they get here—and they will, this is Seres and Kella, after all—you pull the string taut, they'll trip, I'll steal the Mandy. Good?"
"I—isn't this unfair play?" Andreya sounded much more childish than she would have liked.
Reide only tsked and wagged a finger. "The only rule in the Mandy Reel is no injuries, and I make sure everyone's safe when I run the game."
"Are you running the game now?" she whispered.
A distant rustle in the woods interrupted Reide's reply and they both dropped to silence. The crunch of leaves continued, whatever it was obviously going at a decent pace and not caring too much about noise.
"Ready?" Reide said, shifting to the balls of his feet, ready to sprint at a moment's notice. Andreya nodded.
"Now, Kella!" a young boy's voice rang out at the same instant Reide signaled for her to pull the twine.
Everything after that came in somewhat of a blur. The string went taut, Andreya toppled forward when a girl raced past and tripped on it, and Reide darted in the other direction after the boy, whom she assumed had this Mandy everyone wanted.
"Keep running, Seres!" the girl, Kella, shouted from the ground, and just as quick was untangling herself from the twine. She was halfway to her feet to escape when Andreya scrambled forward and pinned her down, every bit acting on panic and not at all sure what to do with Reide gone.
The girl grunted and swore. Andreya struggled to keep her grip, her knees on the girl's back and her hands holding tight to the girl's wrists. When she resisted, Andreya pressed harder.
"Ow!" The girl said it like another curse. "Geez, you can let me go now."
Andreya waited another moment, unsure whether or not to trust her, but conceded when the girl let out an aggravated sigh. She rolled her wrists as Andreya stepped back, wary.
The two examined each other, sixteen-year-old to twenty-two-year-old, Isantadi to Nasavtean, native to foreigner. The girls exchanged hesitant introductions just as a sudden wind whipped through the canopy and drew their eyes upward.
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The Duchess Cannot Sleep || ONC 2021
פנטזיהDuchess Andreya Marivatan was murdered at the age of twenty-two. It was during the hours the pool of night was deepest, Andreya soundlessly asleep in silk sheets behind the curtains of her elegant canopy bed. By the time she awoke to a noise, the de...
