Chapter 41
FASTER. Even Faster. If only this world had a bullet train. If only they had a plane. With those wishes deep in her heart, Yuki gripped her horse’s reins as his hooves raced across dirt, gravel, and grass on the way to the capital. The horse breathed heavily through his nose, overexertion catching up to him from holding a fast pace.
I’m sorry, but we have to hurry.
She flattened her legs against his torso and squeezed. Keeping the same riding position for hours meant the moment she relaxed she would find herself tossed off his back.
“I heard from the officer here that Fourth Prince Lucat has been unconscious for months,” Vigo had said when he visited Yuki in her room.
“He’s been unconscious? Why? How?!”
“Beats me. The royal doctors have given up on him. Rumors say he’s under some Witch’s curse. Either way, being unconscious for so long will have weakened him. It’s a surprise he’s still alive.”
“…!”
“You can’t live long without eating or drinking. The fact he’s still alive is a miracle…or a curse.”
“Vigo…”
“You have ten days.”
“What?”
“I’ll bring Luca back with me before the ten days are up,” she swore to herself.
The last time she came to Fol from Adolunde Castle it took a little less than a week. But she had traveled by horse carriage at the time. If memory served her, some of the soldiers accompanying them had been on foot.
Traveling alone by horse should get me there in half the time.
Round trip should take about six days traveling by horse. The remaining four days would be used to find Luca and get him out of whatever hell he was in.
I have to plan for the possibility of the return taking longer than three days because of his weakened state. I might not even have four days to find him. I have to hurry!
The horse’s hooves clopped loudly as it kicked up a dust storm.
✦ ✦ ✦
YUKI didn’t stop to sleep. She only took a half-hour break here and there throughout the day to water and feed her horse before remounting and racing onward. Anemia hit her in waves during the ride. Her consciousness came and went, but she managed to cling to the horse without falling off. The night of the second day she arrived in Adolunde.
The late hour made it impossible to find an open inn. Extreme exhaustion had her decide to camp outside once she arrived on the outskirts of the capital. She stopped when she found woods along her path and tied her horse to a tree. Once she laid out food and water for him, she found a pile of leaves a little ways away and slept. When she woke the next morning, the horse was gone.
“…Is this some kind of joke?” She struggled to her feet, her muscles aching in protest with every wobbly step to where she had tied her loyal steed. She stared at the place he had been with despair.
How the heck am I supposed to get back? She cursed herself for her stupid decision to camp outside alone—for not sleeping next to her horse. I should have pushed through the exhaustion and pounded on doors until an inn took me in. How much does a horse cost? Would the money I have on me be enough? She snorted. As if. It doesn’t even come close. What if I hire a carriage? How long would that take?
The more she weighed her options the more difficult it became to find the right choice.
“…Oh well. What’s done is done.” Matters wouldn’t be resolved by that remark, but she determined she wouldn’t get anywhere berating herself for what had passed. “Now that it’s come to this, I’ll just have to make Luca give me a horse or two for the journey back! Luca is a prince. That should be worth something!” she shouted, trying to rouse herself out of depression and into action. “Why, I should be thankful they didn’t take my stuff too! Okay! What the heck do I do now?!”
Yuki had used her jute bag and quiver as a pillow, saving them from the wretched thieves who took her horse. Why didn’t they attack her? Maybe they wanted an easy steal without the hassle of killing someone. Or it was possible they hadn’t seen her under the pile of leaves she used as a blanket.
Pulling her quiver and bag onto her shoulders, she jumped to her feet and deliberately stood in a thinking pose with her finger tapping against her lips.
“…First things first, since Rhad knew where Luca is, he must be at the castle! Staying asleep for months in some room in a castle sounds like Sleeping Beauty,” she laughed loudly. The misty woodlands fell terrifyingly silent once her laughter stopped. Without her horse, loneliness tugged at her. “Seriously, what are you sleeping for?”
Aren’t thing usually done in the reverse? The prince should come to rescue the princess. The straggler the prince picked up shouldn’t have to come rescue him. She vented internally to scare off the melancholy threatening to shatter her resolve to trudge on. She took several deep, steadying breaths.
“To the castle we go!” She gripped her right hand and glared at the tall castle spires jutting out in the distance.
✦ ✦ ✦
TWO days had passed since Yuki arrived in Adolunde’s capital city. Five days had passed since she left Fol.
“I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but still…” she lamented. She slumped down on the edge of a preposterously large water fountain and hung her head in utter defeat. “And I thought I was going to get turned away at the gates, but instead I’m being completely shunned…”
The spread of the Ten Day Fever and the stagnant war had brought a world of difference to the vibrant royal capital she saw nearly a year ago. A heavy cloud of gloominess hung over the people now. The people walking by glimpsed Yuki’s appearance and ran away in haste. If they weren’t hastening away, they gave her pitying stares and shook their heads. The royal capital didn’t welcome vagrants—and with only her jute bag, quiver, and dirty clothes, Yuki fit the bill.
I wonder if the gate guards thought I came to beg for scraps…
Yuki was smart enough to know not to bring up Luca’s name and ask for an audience with him. But how could she get inside the castle without saying anything?
“Bleaagh,”she sighed loudly. Keeping the pressure built up inside her would only crush her. She needed to vent. “Aaah! What the heck is so great about a prince?! Is he really all that special?! His wicked, demented older brother is keeping him protected inside those great big walls too!” She glared at the castle. “Seriously, what the heck…”
A vise squeezed around her heart. Invisible scars burned and tingled like a fresh wound. She could almost smell the seared flesh again as the memories flooded her. She clawed at her chest and bit the inside of her cheek to divert the waves of merciless pain.
What the heck?!
Breathing became difficult and painful. She inhaled shallow, shuddery breaths. She tried several times to breathe slowly, but it came for her anyway.
It’s back.
The chills crawled up her spine and through her neck to her brain, icing everything in its path—the first symptom of her fainting spells she had grown grossly accustomed to these past few months. Blood drained from her face and with it her brain stopped functioning correctly. The organs in her body seemed to stop working. The bustling noises of the city increased in volume, but it sounded like someone had stuck the speaker underwater. White flecked her vision.
I can’t collapse now. Frantically, she fought with herself to keep it together. Putting her head in her hands, she shut her eyes. The world spun relentlessly. Was she the one spinning or was it everything else? Where was she sitting? What was she doing? Everything became fuzzy to her.
What the heck?
No longer could she deny there was nothing wrong with her body as her condition gradually deteriorated over the weeks. The fainting spells had grown more frequent and more deadly ever since she first blacked out at the orphanage near Rifaenotis’ cabin. She fainted inside Fol Castle on more than several occasions—it was impossible for Vigo and Selena to have not known about her poor health.
Yuki was traveling with a doctor, she could have asked him about her health and what she could do to help her condition, but she didn’t out of fear they would prevent her from traveling.
…I’m scared and all alone…
The fear of an invisible silk thread wrapped around her throat suffocating her and slowly killing her continued to endlessly torment her. Despite her desperate attempts to fight back, her consciousness rapidly faded into the heartless embrace of darkness.