Broken Kingdom

21

I had checked everything with the carriage that morning. Had checked the Guards too, to their obvious dismay. Somehow, I couldn't shake a restless feeling. On the road now, my eyes darted everywhere, my ears listening closely, yet nothing was off. The sun shone through the trees onto the road ahead, the wind weaving through the barren branches of the wooden giants. There was some soft talking of the Guards flanking the carriage Haelyn and Thomas traveled in. I rode a bit behind General Holden, who looked calm. Yet that feeling remained, had only been growing since the moment we'd taken off form Corbean's mansion. Only two hours in, close to the place where we'd rest, and I felt my breathing getting shallow. My shadows surrounded us, there was no way anyone could travel through them unnoticed. Amaris seemed calm too. And yet... 

"We're almost back. Why are you so on edge?" Holden asks me. He'd slowed his horse a bit to walk next to me and Amaris. I shift my weight a bit, looking at the General with an absent look. 
"Something is off. I don't know what but something is," I say a bit sharper than needed. 
"Did you... feel something with your shadows?"
"No, that's the thing. Call it a gut feeling but I don't trust this peace." Holden sighs.
"You're just used to conflict." I throw him a warning look before I answer.
"I can assure you, I'm not. I like riding peacefully through a forest. I do it often enough. This isn't that. Something is wrong." 
"You'll see that we'll reach the palace just fine, and all this worrying will be seen as a waste of time and energy."
"I hope so."

Holden threw me a look I couldn't quite place and left me alone to wallow in that gut feeling. Everything in me was screaming to look further, deeper, to do anything. So I listened. Every snap of a branch, every crunch of leaves, ever drop of water that fell. It all still sounded natural. I closed my eyes, and listened closer. Then a snap, not natural. A rustle, not made by an animal. Just the one. My shadows remained calm. It couldn't be natural. It had sounded like a step, a wrong move. Someone was nearing. The convoy halted and I opened my eyes. A tree laid on the road. I made a quick pace to the front. Cut down. The stump had clear markings of an ax. I had my shadows lift the tree, and hurried the convoy along. Then, a second snap. My head went towards the direction. It had to be a mile away, as far as I had cast the shadows. My heart fluttered a bit, responding to the stress that crept through me. 

"We can't stop," I say to Holden. "Someone is coming close. I can't place it. I don't know why but they're coming with us. We can't stop." I wasn't going to beg him to listen to me. But pressing him couldn't hurt. 
"You're being paranoid," the General grunted annoyed.
"I'm not. Holden, I am asking you to listen. Carefully listen. Something is off." He rolls his eyes and listens for a few seconds.
"Sorry, Protector, I can't hear, see or feel anything amiss. Maybe you're tired."
"I'm not- You know what? This is useless. Just make some speed, please."
"No, we rest soon. We need to eat ourselves, and need to give the horses some rest."
"I don't trust it."
"Then that's your problem. Nothing is wrong, Eira. Now stop it."

I held in my anger with the man and threw out a wave of my shadows. Even if it was just to prove to myself that I was indeed maybe just tired.  The was was so tall, it reached the tops of the trees, maybe even higher. That's when I could place the sounds. The color drained from my face. Not moving through the ground. There had been assailants moving through the trees. And they were close, waiting ahead and behind us, some trailing our sides. Skillful climbers, faces masked, and armed to the teeth. Shit. 

"Holden, I count thirty-three attackers," I whisper.
"Where?" Holden says, reaching for his sword.
"The trees. It's an ambush. At my sign, run."
"I'm not going to run like a coward. Eira-"
"General Holden there's thirty-three of them against seven of us. You will run when I tell you to, or so help me, I'll gut you," I cut the General off with a sneer. I gave him a hard stare. He should've listened to me. Holden saw it and caved.
"Fine. What will you do?"
"I'll get some answers. Ready your men."