The next two days passed painfully slowly for Aliana. She had no strength, no energy. Most of the time, she laid in bed and read her books for her classes. She found irony in how she always told her tutors she despised reading, yet now it seemed to be the one thing that could comfort her.
Her meals came and went, and still she did not eat. Though her head was slowly beginning to clear, her stomach appeared to still be in shock. Anything more than slow sips of water made her feel nauseous. Even if she was hungry, the food that was served to her would not have sufficed. It was clear she was being served the same food as the average jailed criminal.
Since fall was swiftly arriving, night seemed to be happening sooner. Only small amounts of light came through her window during the day, and once the light started to fade, it was almost impossible to read. Both nights she wanted to light a candle, but both nights she reminded herself how dangerous that would be with the window shut.
On the night of her first full day in her room, sleep was a struggle. On the second night, it was impossible. Though she tried, it simply refused to come to her. Her bed, that usually felt like a cloud, now seemed stone hard. Tears no longer threatened her eyes, but that seemed to be more from dehydration than strong self control. For the past twenty-four hours, her throat hurt terribly and seemed to have no reprieve. During the day she had struggled to stay awake, and now she struggled to sleep.
As she was finally drifting off into a restless doze, she heard a swift knock at her door. Confused, she propped herself up and called out, "Who is there?" The only time someone came to her door was to deliver a meal and it was clearly not breakfast time.
There was no reply, save for the sound of a key being placed in the lock and turned. Aliana, suddenly alert, sat up in her bed, looking around for anything she could use as a weapon. She watched the door open slowly. Framed by the soft light from the hallway, stood a tall, imposing figure. The stranger wore a cloak, with the hood pulled over their face.
Aliana reeled back. "Who are you?" she said. It is the true assassin, come to kill me, she thought, panicked.
The stranger removed the hood and Aliana quickly recognized the grinning figure before her.
"Iora!" she gasped. "What are doing here?"
"We have no time for questions!" Iora - who had ditched her normal suit of armor in favor of loose trousers and a simple shirt - threw something at Aliana. "It is too dark in here! Do you have a candle?"
Aliana, stunned, pointed at her dresser. "The bottom drawer." She picked up what Iora had thrown at her and found it to be clothing: servant's by the looks of it.
Iora rushed over to the drawer and wrenched it open, quickly grabbing the candle. Using flint and her knife, she quickly lit the candle. Holding it up, she rushed to Aliana's bedside. "Your highness, it is time to go." She gestured frantically for her to hurry. "Get dressed, now!"
"What is happening?" Aliana asked again.
Iora didn't reply. She was too busy rifling through Aliana's drawers.
Aliana, stressed and confused, stomped her foot. "Iora, I command you tell me what is happening right this instant!"
"Hush!" Iora hissed. "Do not raise your voice or it will alert the guards."
The princess suddenly remembered the guards that had been stationed outside of her room. She ran to her door and looked out. On the ground, slumped over, were two unconscious guards.
Aliana gasped. "What did you do to them?"
She knelt down put her fingers to the throat of one of them, trying to feel for a pulse.
"Relax," Iora hissed. "They are not dead, merely unconscious. But they will awake soon, and we will be in trouble if they catch us!" She went back to rifling through the dresser. When she did not find what she was looking for, she let out a frustrated grunt. "Woman! Do you not have any money?"
Aliana went to her went to her side. "What do you mean?"
Iora gestured angrily towards the wardrobe full of beautiful, elaborate gowns. "You are the Queen of an entire kingdom and you have no spare change lying around! This whole plan relies on money!"
"Money for what?"
"I will tell you once you have gotten dressed! You must hurry or we will never out of here!"
"Out of where? I am so confused." Aliana was doing her best to understand what was happening, but her brain felt like it was coated in a thick layer of fog.
"Your highness, I have known you for only a few days, but I can say, without a doubt, that I know you did not murder your father; in fact, I would bet my life on it. And because of this conviction, I am betting my life on it. I will not stand to see you lose your life because you were framed. In the two days I have been away from you, I have made plans to get you out of here and to safety."
Aliana could only blink. "You are helping me escape?"
"Yes, yes!" Iora nodded vigorously. "But if you want to escape, you must put on those clothes I gave you and tell me where you have money."
"B-but you-" she stuttered, "if you get caught- you are putting everything on the line."
Iora gave her a level, stubborn gaze. "When I became your guardian, I took an oath. I was made to promise to guard you with my life, do whatever it took to ensure your safety. You were my charge until you were safe. In my eyes, you are now even more unsafe than before. If convicted of the crime you did not commit, you will be executed. And I cannot let that happen. The way I see it, helping you escape is doing my job, and my job has always been to put my life on the line whenever necessary." She pointed to the clothes on the bed. "Now please change so we can get out of here."
Aliana felt her mouth fall open. "I have treated you so badly..." she whispered, as she began to change into the servant's clothing. "But you still help me. I regret every harsh word I have ever told you."
"I would bet money that within the next hour you yell at me at least twice. Now, tell me, do you have any money?"
"I am a princess. Of course I have money! I have a whole treasure room filled with money."
Iora gritted her teeth in frustration. "You had coins two days ago in this room. Where in this room do you have money?"
"Top shelf of the wardrobe," Aliana sighed. "Sometimes I tip the servants a little extra."
"You are too kind." The tall Iora had no difficulty reaching the shelf and snatching the leather pouch full of coins. By the weight of it, there might just be enough to get them where they needed to go with some to spare. Hopefully it would be enough. She next moved swiftly over to the bedchamber door, locking it to slow the guards when they would inevitably enter.
When Aliana was dressed in the servant clothes, Iora removed a sack from her back tossing the bag of coins inside before replacing it. She then had Aliana remove the sheets from her bed as she removed the cords from the drapery. Tying it all together, she and Aliana found the hardest objects they could. Iora then quickly unlocked the window and on the count of three, the two ladies each opened a side and dropped their objects onto the unsuspecting guards below. Her room was three stories above the ground, so the objects had time to gain enough momentum to knock the guards out cold.
They could hear the guards outside the room beginning to stir, and prayed they had enough time to complete their escape. Iora hurriedly tied the makeshift rope to the balcony and lowered it out the window.
"I will go first, your highness." Iora swung one leg over the windowsill and gripped the makeshift rope tightly. "If the coast is clear, I will signal for you to come down." With those words, she began her descent. The rope pulled against the balcony, the knot threatening to untie.
Alina had been holding her breath, waiting impatiently for her turn. She could hear through the heavy door what sounded like the guards beginning to stand up. They were questioning what had happened, fumbling for keys they could not find, that Iora had stolen. Hurry! she thought.
From below, there came a sharp whistle. Aliana sighed in relief and swung her leg over the balcony. She tried not to look down, but her eyes betrayed her and she glimpsed. Her heart instantly began to beat loudly in her chest. Her room had never seemed this high off of the ground before. As she began the descent, she could hear the guards calling an alert and beginning to break down her bedroom door. "Coming!" she quickly yelled to the guards, hoping her voice didn't sound too far away. "Stop banging, I'm coming!" She then skirted down the rope as swiftly as she could knowing fully well that the guards would not wait long, even if her voice had not given her away.
She jumped the last six feet, where the cords and sheets had ended, and as she did so heard a loud thwack, then glanced up to both see and hear a guard curse. "I'll follow down this way, go warn the others. They are escaping! Hurry!"
Iora gestured frantically.. "No time to stare, they are on our tails! Come!" Come Aliana did, running so swiftly that her lungs burned. It was much too late for servants to be about, and now that they had been spotted, their disguises would serve them no good until they were far from the palace walls and into a town, if they were lucky to make it that far.
Lights were going on all over the palace, shouting was coming from every direction, chaos was ensuing. It reminded Aliana of when her father had been found poisoned, nearly dead. Not now! She told herself. If I don't focus and leave, I will be dead as well.
Her guard had enough wisdom to head for the gardens. While she would not enter any of them, the hedges and windings would make them harder to track. No time to go for the stables, as guards were already there mounting their horses for pursuit.
"Follow me!" Iora called. She seemed to have given up on trying to be quiet.
"I am trying!" Aliana gasped. "I have short legs!"
The end of the courtyard soon came into sight. Once through they archway, they would not be out in the open anymore and could easily disappear into bushes and trees.
Escape was just within reach when everything went wrong. Aliana heard a whoosh, immediately followed by Iora crying out in pain and staggering forward.
Aliana rushed to her side. "What happened?" Her voice was panicked as she searched Iora for injuries.
"My left arm," the injured guard gasped.
Aliana looked and, even in the dark night, could see the crimson blood staining her clothes. "What happened?"
Iora gripped her shoulder in pain. "It felt like a blade," she gasped through clenched teeth. "A dagger, or something like that."
Aliana could hear the guards getting closer. "Can you run? We are almost there."
She nodded, obviously in immense pain. " I can run. We must hurry."
"We are almost there," the princess repeated. She turned to continue running, but found herself face to face with a very pointy blade.
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Yay! Things are finally getting very interesting for Aliana. I can guarantee that the next few chapters are going to be action packed and intriguing. I know that I will certainly enjoy writing them. I would like to give a quick little shout out to my wonderful co-writer, @wingedoak, who makes this story the wonderful story that it is!
Ta-ta for now and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!