Trusting Dust

Chapter 1

            He sat, waiting. For it had been hours since they had seen a change in scenery. Something outside the rough, ripped interior of the anonymous carriage. He sat bound and gagged, trying as hard as he could to sneak peaks under his blindfold to see and possibly recognize their captors. Of course, countless groups would try and take credit for the attack and the kidnapping. He had already realized this. Their captors had kidnapped a princess, and him too, but with the princess missing he doubted they would even realize he was gone. So many would want to try and get a ransom in exchange for the return of the princess, but he was a nobody.
           His name was Connor. He lived in the Hazrad kingdom, though he certainly wasn't a noble. He was a market boy, or that is what he called himself. He practically lived in the market place. Some called him a survivor, others just a street rat. He had no family. They had died in the massacre of 1876. So he makes his living in the markets. Not in the most honorable way, but a way that keeps him fed and alive. He was a thief, and quite a good one at that. So good in fact that he managed to rob the royal family. That is how he got caught up in this mess.
                                       ***
       He hadn't been intending to rob them, they just happened to be passing through their village. He was on his way to the market for lunch when the royal carriage came by for the annual inspection of the villages. You honestly would have thought that they would have seen the dirt covered boy in the middle of the road, but that was not the case. If he hadn't looked up he probably would have ended up as a dead man, or boy for that matter. He dove to the side of the road seconds before the carriage would have hit him. A lady's voice beckoned the driver to halt. Before he could run and try to disappear the queen herself was heading in his direction. He, still lying on the dusty ground, had to shield his eyes to see the queen's kind face in front of the noontime sun. After his eyes had adjusted they fixated on a diamond bracelet on her right wrist. He had one rule, never try to steal from the royal family. Maybe if he would have followed that rule he wouldn't have been in this situation.
                                    ***
One bracelet, he thought. He had to keep in a chuckle. Not that he could have laughed due to the gag. He kept his movements to a minimum attempting to keep the captors unaware that he was awake. Even without his sight he was certain that the princess was right next to him. In his opinion it was his fault that they were in this position.
                                 ***
         The queen had offered to help him up from the dusty ground. He had accepted her right arm and got up. He doubted that she had even noticed the absence of her diamond bracelet afterwards. He also believed that he could have gotten away had the queen not insisted on him joining them in the carriage to the palace. Something about him had intrigued the queen, and he still didn't know what.
                                   ***
           He heard a quiet groan from the right. No doubt it came from the young princess. She was only sixteen years old, very close to the age of Connor himself. The captors began whispering in some unknown tongue. Connor strained to hear the words of the captors even though he knew there was no way of understanding them. He gave up after a while and instead focused his energy on assessing the situation. There had to be a way out, there always was.