Once over the crest, more switchbacks took them into a wide valley filled with small pines so thick in places they turned sideways to slip through. However, the elevation fell with each step, slowly, but when they stopped for the night, their breathing was close to normal.
Small, crisp snowflakes began drifting from the gathering clouds about the time they stopped for the evening. In the morning, a skiff of white covered the ground. It wasn’t deep enough to impede walking, but it made the ground dangerously slippery. The morale was low and men tired. The morning march was slow and the ground rough. A man ahead of Hannah slipped and hurt his ankle. He limped along with the help of another soldier.
The day dragged on and on. Hannah began thinking about it as the day that never ended. She counted steps and lost track. The terrain was not so difficult, but if she hadn’t known they were following the path marked on the map, she would have believed them lost in a pine forest covering half the world.
That night was worse. Hannah slept little, and she was restless even when asleep. The following day seemed longer than the almost endless yesterday.
A member of the platoon that had been lagging behind caught up after they made camp the third night on the path. He planned to lag behind again but reported they had prevented four scouts from returning to Princess Elenore to report the change in direction. All were in captivity, and they didn’t believe there were more scouts. Not yet. But there would be.
Hannah hadn’t seen the general since the previous day, Brice’s mood was out of sorts and didn’t want to talk, and the men were in a worse state of mind. The following morning word came down the line that the worst was over. One additional small ridge of razorback mountains to cross today, and then tomorrow they’d descend into a forest of hardwoods, rolling hills, and the farmlands of Wren.
Hannah didn’t know how all that could be determined from a map, but then she realized the general had probably sent his fastest scouts along the trail the day they made the decision to take this trail. Three or four fast men who had already reached the edge of Wren—and returned. She knew it because it’s what she would have done, and that brought a smile.
The smile widened when she thought of Elenore and the confusion she must face. All her plans defeated, and she didn’t know where Hannah was. She must be going crazy.
Hannah lifted her head and marched with pride. She would defeat her cousin, one way or another.
Brice moved closer. “You look happy.”
She smiled. “Know something? I’m really happy to know this is coming to an end.”
“Why?”
She kept walking and considered the question. “If you take away the time I lived with my mother, I’ve spent half my life running. Scared. Fearing the next mage would strike me with lightning bolts or worse. I’ve looked behind me, mistrusted people for imagined slights, and on the voyage, I killed. On this trail, I killed again. All because of one woman’s ambitions.”
She heard the anger and hate in her tone. She spat the words near the end, then said, “She had no right.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“The stupid woman could have talked to me, and I’d have agreed she would make a better queen because she had trained for that position. Instead, she sent assassins.”
“You’d have given up the crown?”
She turned her head so he could see her face. “I never wanted it, never asked for it, and would gladly have given it to her—until she killed everyone I loved and left me with nobody. I had exactly one friend in the world, a stable boy named Cleanup.”
“You’ve told us about him. Prin, I mean, Hannah, how do you see this ending?”
“With the death of a princess. That’s the only way. Don’t ask me which one.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
They came out of the rolling hills and forest on a clear, warm afternoon near a village called Chambers Crossing. The village sat on the north side of a wooden structure little more than a footbridge that crossed a wide, but shallow stream. It consisted of four farmhouses, three on one side of the road, and one on the other. Each had a barn and outhouses, fields with sheep grazing, and dogs watching out for them.
People gathered in small groups of three or four, leaning on pitchforks or holding knitting as they mutely watched the soldiers in the unfamiliar uniforms exit the forest in a line that stretched from the tree-line across the bridge and beyond, and still more came into view.
Hannah grimaced as she remembered an old saying. Rumors fly faster than soldiers march. Somehow, the immobile farmers watching them would manage to get word to the next village down the road, and then the next. There was probably a long-legged boy of ten or twelve running across the far ridge to tell the news to his uncle or cousin, already. She couldn’t prevent it, so why try to stop it?
The general waited for her as he stood erect, shoulders back, and eyed his troops proudly. While their blue and white-trimmed uniforms were dirty, each man stood straighter and fell into step as they approached their general.
Hannah and Brice fell out of the line and approached him.
He said, “Ahead is a field where we’ll make camp tonight. There’s water and animals are being slaughtered and cooked, along with vegetables for a stew.”
“It’ll feel good to sleep in my kingdom with a full belly.”
He chuckled then said, “We have things to discuss.”
“Anything we can settle now?”
He rolled his eyes and said, “You do realize that the Royal Army of Peermont has just invaded Wren? And you want to know if there are things we need to settle?”
“Invade? Oh, I see what you mean. I guess we did.”
“Your King may have something to say about it. He may even say it with an army of his own.”
“What? You’re my escort, and Wren owes you thanks for a job well done.”
“Perhaps not if Princess Elenore reaches his ear first. Or if she uses her gold to hire an army of her own, or pays nobles to support her instead of you. I am not critical, just pointing out things to think about.”
Hannah said, “Those things and a hundred more have entered my mind. I almost have a plan.”
“Almost?”
“There are a few holes in it, but I like it. We can speak tonight if you will.”
Even while speaking to her, his eyes fell on each of his men. The action spoke louder than any words as he gave a slight nod to one, a smile to another. Hannah realized the men would follow him for another hundred days if he asked them, and then they’d be ready to follow for another hundred. All for the sake of respect and a small nod or smile. It was another lesson for her to learn.
She fell back into line after asking a trooper if it was okay for her to step in front of him. He swept off his hat and made a low bow, to the amusement of those behind. The gloom and doom of a couple of days ago were gone, replaced by the cheerful camaraderie of men who have struggled to complete a difficult task together and succeeded.
Brice fell into step with her but recognized her mood and the concentration of deep thought. He said nothing.
When they reached the field where the camp was set up, she saw it was a farm. The owner had drawn a wagon up and helped the cooks with the meat. She realized he must have been paid well—in hard coin. Where would he get it?
From the general, she realized. Perhaps it was not coins, but he controlled other things. An unobstructed army wearing the colors of another kingdom would be hard to refuse cooperating. He might even feel threatened.