The Princess Slave of Anger

Act Two: Princess

"Princess. Princess!"
My eyes flutter as I am pulled from thought. The dreams of the night before shake themselves from my mind. I looked up at Ephista, the maiden who entered my tent.
"Yes Ephista. What is it?"I ask.
"Well princess, your spies have spotted the convicts at their campsite deep in the Tangre forest. And just last night, three newcomers arrived at the campsite. And they were confirmed assassins. It's most likely that they are after you princess."
This was not all new news. Assassins have been after me for a little over a year now. Being the warrior princess of a kingdom should have warded away many threats to my life. But a recent string of threats and attempts have erupted. Thankfully none have succeeded. But that has just led to this. A small sindicat of assassins was rumoured to be conferring with skilled assassins. So I came here in hopes of beating the assassins before they can even make it to the kingdom.
"Very good Ephista. And what of their location?" I ask.
'They have started moving. They are on route to the merchant kingdom of Barlovia." Ephista says.
This news is new. Having learned that the criminals planned to hire assassins, I thought that they would have stayed close to the kingdom. But for some reason, they traveled for weeks across the country to here for a remote meet up, at least a month's journey to our kingdom. "How close are they?" I ask.
"Still a few miles out...." she starts, before she is interrupted by one of my warriors bursting into my tent. "Princess! The assassins are closing in on the ambush site!" She yells through rugged breaths.
"What!?" I scream as I rise. "How?!"
"We don't know ma'am. They moved much faster than we anticipated." She says.
"Then we need to move fast. Gather the troops! We move out immediately." I shout as I move about my tent, placing on my armor and arming myself with my short sword.
In an instant I'm dressed, ready, and walking out of my tent as my soldiers ready themselves. "Move it!" I shout. "We only have one shot at this."