My Kingdom

2.

I fell hard into the bushes below my chambers, I could feel blood trickling down my cheek from where the branches sliced through my skin in the mist of my escape. Lilly a second later was at my side pulling me out. Before I knew it, we were off down the path towards the servant's entrance. I could hear Sam screaming through the open window five stories up. We dared not to look back and kept our destination in our heads. All we had to do was get to our horses and we would be home free. 

Adrenaline coursed through me urging me to move faster, we ducked through the trees of the garden attempting to remain out of sight of any guards that were stationed along the top of the first wall of the castle. Since it wasn't dark out and mid-morning, hiding places were limited and became even more difficult when the warning bells started ringing. 

Lilly turned her head towards me, her look full of worry. When we finally reached our destination, we slid behind a tree near the outer wall. Peering out we observed two guards blocking the servant entrance.

"Now if Harper was telling the truth, there should be a hidden crawl space between the shrubs and daisies, covered by vines." Lilly whispered in my ear.

We both started to run our hands along the bottom of the wall. Voices started to echo in the garden with shouts for reinforcements and to my relief my hand fell into a hallow spot.

"Lilly, here."

I grabbed her hand pushing her in first and then diving after her. We both stilled in the small hole when we heard footsteps right next to where we were just squatting. 

"Find her! No one stops until she is found." 

Sam's voice sounded outside the space, sending more nauseous feeling through me. My heart pounded as the anxiety of being heard filled me. We remained completely still until we knew that they had passed on. Once their voices started to fade farther down in the garden, I reached around Lilly, pulling the vines out of the view of the other side. My guess was that Sam expected us to attempt to pass though the servant's entrance since that was the most obvious means of escape, but he had underestimated my tools. They would continue keeping guards posted at every exit thinking I was never able to get passed, not knowing I never planned to exit that way. 

"The cost is clear, but we need to move swiftly, once they realize I am not in the garden they'll extend the search to outside the walls." I whispered. "Once we are out, make it to the bridge. Our horses should be waiting just beyond there. If I wasn't betrayed."

"I still cannot believe you trusted Sir Noah to help you escape." Lilly responded shaking her head, but still started to crawl out the entrance.

I recalled the look on his face when I slid him a note this morning on my way to breakfast. Sure, I was taking a large risk, but since Sir Noah was a good friend of my brother, I thought of him as the closest thing to an alley I could get while I was here. I just hoped I had read him correctly and that his relationship with Dain still meant something to him.

We jogged towards the bridge keeping an eye out for any signs of Sam's men. Once we reached the bridge I slowed my pace to a stop, with Lilly next to me, both of us out of breath. I scanned the environment for any hints that there would be an ambush. As we slowly crossed, I saw on the other side two brown horses tied to a tree, both of them had bundles of what looked to be clothing and food. 

"Thank you, handsome Sir Noah." Lilly giggled.

I breathed out a quick breath with a smile, "yes,"

...

We bounded through the woods and by some hidden miracle we were not spotted by any of the scouts along the outer ring of the boarder. An hour passed and our horses started to slow to a trot, the trees of the forest looked to thankfully be blocking out most of the sun.