The Ivory Knight

Chapter 18

They had been walking for two days.

Two days ago, Adeleina and Damien had woken to the sounds of the horse screaming. When they'd reached the tree where the horse had been tied to for the night, they found the carcass surrounded by a pack of scrawny wolves, their fangs dripping with fresh blood.

Now, with almost a hundred miles left until they'd reach the border of Dale, they had no choice but to trudge through streams to throw any hounds off their scent. They'd learned which trees bore edible, if not delectable, fruit, and which ones bore fruits that would give you a stomachache for hours.

Truth be told, Adeleina missed her easy life behind the castle walls.

She had not bathed in days. She stank like the moat on a hot day, when the dam walls were down and the water was stagnant. She had sampled raw fish, eaten without heat for fear that the smoke would draw any huntsmen Alecsander had sent. She had worn her wedding attire for nearly a week now, and had grown so weary of the fabric tearing and snagging on bushes and getting drenched in stream water that she'd ripped off the bottom and outer layers with her hands and had buried her corset (and had properly hidden the hole, of course). This lead to a few gapes from Damien, who always tried to hide his glances at her bare legs and unbound chest. Adeleina found that she did not care very much.

"I feel like a savage," she whined one day, shivering as she sloshed through the frigid water. Winter was coming, and she could only hope that they'd reach Dale before the snow came.

"At least the water keeps you clean," Damien joked, his teeth chattering just as much as Adeleina's.

"You obviously need the bath."

Adeleina snorted and kicked water at him. The drops landed on his once-prim suit, which now lay in shreds. It was soiled beyond belief.

"Look at us," Adeleina said. "The high and mighty princess of Corandell and the esteemed prince of Dale, freezing their feet off while dressed in silks and velvet of sweat and dirt."

"Hilarious," Damien replied dryly.

They walked in silence, Adeleina occasionally yelping as her bare foot caught on a particularily jagged stone. She'd given up on shoes ages ago, waterlogged and useless as they were. Bare feet weren't much better.

"It's getting dark," Damien eventually said. Adeleina realized that he was right; the blue haze of dusk was fast approaching, and there was a certain bite in the air that spoke of night.

"Maybe we should walk at night instead of day," Adeleina said, clambering out of the stream and onto a muddy slope that was more dirt than grass. "That'd be the opposite of what hunters and normal people would do, see?"

"No. Trackers work at night, so they catch you by surprise. Besides, it'd be much too cold to walk at night. It's cold enough by day, already."

"Oh."

They found shelter under a prickly bush. It was a far cry from her four-post bed with a roaring fire in the hearth, but Adeleina didn't complain. She huddled closer to the warmth radiating from Damien, and he shifted so that her head rested on his shoulder.

"We're like penguins," Damien said laughing softly.

"What on earth are penguins?"

Damien didn't respond, and his slow, even breathing told Adeleina that he was falling asleep. So she, too, closed her eyes, and let the warmth of sleep smother the oncoming winter chill.

♕♕♕

When her eyes flew open, her wrists rubbed against coarse rope, and someone was prodding her jaw. Adeleina could see nothing but black, thought the nipping cold told her it was still night. Had she been blindfolded? Tied up? Caught? Adeleina remained where she was, still as stone, though her heart was thumping faster than a hare's feet in flight.