The general interrupted her silence, “Princess Hannah, how certain are you of this map?”
“It looks old. Unless this man was enchanted in some fashion, it is completely true. I used a spell I brought with me to make sure he didn’t lie, but there is a faint possibility he is under a different spell and does not know he is lying.”
One of the officers spoke up, “Sir, I’ve studied geology and cartography. A person without my knowledge would draw a map with water misrepresented in numerous ways. Water either flows downhill or is contained, a simple concept but one hard to fake on a map. Every river and stream on this map is accurately depicted, if that helps.”
“Princess, it’s your decision—and ours to obey,” the general said.
“We depart at dawn. Have your men rest and eat well from the supplies in the monastery. Take additional supplies, the north trail will be longer and more rugged.”
The word was passed. Brice soon returned, his eyes quick to look to the sky. He said, “I heard the plans. We follow the main trail for half a day before we find the other. I don’t like that.”
She pointed to the west where a pair of white peaks speared the sky. On either side, more peaks rose as high, or higher. “We can’t go over those.”
“That is another natural place for a trap or ambush.”
“I think they will know the men will be fresh and on guard when we reach there. Plus, they’ll know we’ll be extra vigilant in such a confined space. If it was me, I’d let us tire and get overconfident and sloppy, so I’d set my first ambush farther along.”
“You’re beginning to talk like the general.”
She shrugged. “The good news is that right after we go between those two mountains, we veer off the main trail, and we should be safer. With luck, Elenore won’t know I’m in Wren until I’m there.”
“Have you ever met her? You’ve never said.”
“I believe she came to Sir James’s rooms when I first entered the palace and insulted me. I got angry and made her curtsy to me in front of her friend.”
“Is that what this is all about?”
She considered, then relented. “No. It just adds another layer to her hatred of me.”
“All because she wants to be Queen.”
Hannah again shook her head. “No, that’s not it. She was born with the anticipation of being crowned. She knew the King’s son would abdicate because he was weak. My father was a great mage, and he would refuse to take the crown to order to pursue his work. My uncles were too old, and she was next in line. Her entire childhood was centered on training to wear the crown. Every person in the King’s Palace treated her as a queen-in-waiting.”
“And then you came along.”
“Before Sir James died, he told me about her. He said there was a flaw in her character, and that flaw was that she believed she was as wonderful and great as everyone told her. He said she could never rule with compassion.”
Brice said, “You have compassion, she has the training. Together, you could rule the world.”
“Apart, I don’t know if either of us can rule a small kingdom.” Hannah turned her head away to hide the tears.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
They woke before dawn to find cooks tending large cooking fires already warming mush and the dried fruits they’d discovered. They distributed small bundles of traveling food containing dried fruit, nuts, and grain along with a bowl of gruel. As the sky grew lighter, two hundred anxious soldiers prepared to leave.
Two guards flanked the man Hannah thought of as “Prospector.” Later in the day, he would take his place at the front of the procession, as the general had promised. Hannah was certain Prospector didn’t know of any dangers along the trail. That didn’t mean they were not there, it simply meant he didn’t know of them.
She also believed Elenore didn’t know about the third trail. They should be safe traveling that way, but privately she also knew Elenore would have ambushes and traps waiting on the other two trails. When Hannah didn’t spring them, Elenore would want to know why. She would send her best scouts up the trails to determine what was happening.
It wouldn’t take her best scouts to find where more than two hundred pairs of feet traveled down the usual trail to Wren—and then deviated. The scouts would ride hard enough to kill their horses to report their findings to Princess Elenore.
Hannah tried to think as she followed a hundred men ahead, and led the hundred behind. Each man walked a few steps behind the next, so the line looked endless in the few places where she could see any distance. Brice insisted she stay in the middle, the place he considered the safest. The subject of her thinking was Elenore. When her spies and scouts took her the news Hannah had left the trail, she would wonder for a while, then come to the conclusion Hannah had somehow found another route into Wren—and she’d be right. However, the question that stumped Hannah was, what would Elenore do then?
Hannah accepted the idea that Elenore would figure out the initial change when Hannah and her army didn’t fall into her traps. Was Elenore clever enough to anticipate Hannah would bypass them? Or, had she also prepared other ambushes and traps in Wren?
Hannah decided she had. Or she would. Elenore was not the sort to sit on the sidelines.
“You’re sure quiet,” Brice said from four steps behind her.
“We’ve come so far with no problems, but the trail narrows when we pass between those two mountains. I’m still worried.”
His voice sounded raspy in the thin air. Others also breathed hard, puffs of white floating from at their mouths with each exhaled breath. He said, “I think you were right.”
Hannah said, “Perhaps about no trap, but she will have spies watching us. They will report to her, probably by fast horses, and then we will turn off. I think a few will follow us.”
Brice didn’t stifle his snort of laughter. “Have you been talking to the general this morning? I know you haven’t because you’ve been with me, but he has the same idea. I heard him ordering a platoon to fall back and hide when we turn on to the new trail.”
“They’ll attack and stop them from following?”
“No. The general said to allow them to follow us for a full day. But none will return on the trail to report to their superiors on that trail. The platoon lagging behind will see to that.”
She snapped her fingers as if surprised. “That’s why he is a general, and I’m only a princess.”
They were quiet again as they concentrated on slippery footing, shortness of breath, and private thoughts on what lay ahead. The troops became more wary as they approached the narrow slot between the two mountains. The forward scouts killed two spies, failing to capture either of them alive. They found no sign of a third spy, but that didn’t mean much.
Still, Hannah relaxed after they passed the bottleneck shortly before mid-day. The march came to a halt as they ate a meal, then resumed. Shortly after, they turned from the main trail and entered a narrow canyon where they crossed and re-crossed the same stream five times as it wound down the center.
The stream grew larger as other creeks and streams added their water, and by mid-afternoon, it was a small river. Fortunately, they were on the north bank when they left it and followed a series of narrow valleys until they reached a ridge of sharply peaked mountains to climb. The trail became an insignificant path that made a series of switchbacks to reach the top.