When she was finished, Rune gave her his water canteen so that she could rinse her mouth. She drank, swigged, spat, and offered it back, but he shook his head. “Please keep it.”
Lady Nadine climbed to her feet and pinned a curl back into place, as though buckling armor. “We must go immediately. I can show you where we saw the creature, and I can point out the direction Hanne started running.”
Rune bit the inside of his cheek. Bringing this traumatized girl along was a terrible idea, but she might be helpful, now that she could speak. And presuming they found Princess Johanne in one piece, she would be furious to learn he’d ordered her dearest lady-in-waiting about as if she were his to command—he’d learned that much about his betrothed’s temperament.
Finally, he drew his sword and nodded. “Show us the way. But if something happens, hide, or run back to the carriages. I won’t have your princess thinking I put you in undue peril. Captain Oliver, you will mind her?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll be fine,” Lady Nadine said. “It’s Hanne we need to worry about.
Now please, hurry.” With surprising strength for someone who’d just lost every bit of her extravagant lunch, she turned and started marching back the way she’d come. Rune hastened after her, with the guards close behind.
Burn it all, he thought as they followed a deer trail through the woods. He’d been so careful to choose the safest route, to send scouts ahead to secure the road, and to bring more soldiers than anyone thought was necessary. And now everything was at risk—this entire alliance—because he hadn’t insisted on sending a whole company of guards with the princess on a simple walk.
“It’s probably nothing,” Lieutenant Swifthand grumbled under his breath.
“Well, we did hear screaming.”
“But you know Embrians,” Swifthand muttered. “It’s a trap, most like. The princess is spinning a scheme of some kind, and the prince is falling for it.”
Rune clenched his jaw. After Opi had died, the royal guards all looked at Rune differently. And since the engagement, this sort of talk had only gotten worse. Many of these men had reached their positions by fighting in the war against Embria, and they felt this marriage was a betrayal. They didn’t understand the depth of the threat to the Winterfast Accords. All they saw was Rune saying yes to a beautiful princess from an enemy kingdom—a kingdom they had devoted their lives to hating.
A few had asked to be reassigned, but even those who’d stayed on had strong opinions—opinions they usually remembered to keep to themselves.
Rune scanned the forest for any signs of the princess—a flash of blond hair, a scrap of sapphire fabric from her dress—but he found only the same eerie silence, as though a huge predator had come this way.
He picked up his pace, keeping his expression hard. Later, he decided, he would have words with his guards, and remind them that they could do their jobs with the level of professionalism their positions demanded—or they could be dismissed without honor.
For now, he clenched his jaw, keeping pace with Lady Nadine as she led the group into a small clearing, where the foul odor slammed into them, half knocking them back. A few guards coughed and cursed, turning away to try to catch their breaths.
Rune pressed his arm over his lower face, but there was no blocking out the overwhelming stench of rot. He blinked away tears as he took in the sight before him: a brown-black circle—not perfectly round, but reaching out and growing before their eyes—surrounded something dark and moldering in the center. A mass of buzzing flies haloed above the dark shape.
“What is that?” one of the guards gasped.
“It’s a body,” said another. “I can see clothes.”
But whose body? Rune couldn’t force himself to ask. Not yet. This alliance relied on his marriage to Princess Johanne, and if that was her…There was no hope for Salvation.
“It’s changed,” Lady Nadine whispered. The clearing was absolutely silent, save the drone of flies. “This is where we saw the monster. Hanne was over there”—she pointed at the thing in the center—”and I was standing here. The monster came for me, but Hanne threw a rock at it and led it away. She saved me. She saved my life.”
Then the body in the center of the clearing wasn’t Princess Johanne’s. Thank Nanror, Rune thought. But Nanror was the Numen of Mercy, and clearly there was no mercy here—not for the corpse in the clearing and not for Princess Johanne, who was still missing. With a monster. He stepped closer to Lady Nadine as a tremor racked through her, but she didn’t fall. “Which way?”
She pointed west. “I think. I’m not sure. Everything happened so fast.”
“What kind of creature was it?” asked John Taylor. He was Rune’s primary guard, and living proof that some people from Caberwill had straightforward names. “A wolf? A bear?”
“No.” Lady Nadine wrapped her arms around herself. “No, it was a monster. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Suspicion worked through Rune, but he wouldn’t name it. Not without evidence.
“All right, spread out. Search for anything unusual. More unusual, that is. And one of you”—Rune nodded toward Swifthand—”take a look at that mess. See if you can identify the body.”
The man cringed, but he stepped onto the brown expanse. The grass crunched under his boots like broken glass.
Rune turned to Lady Nadine. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to go back to your carriage?”
Lady Nadine shook her head so hard that some of the pins slid farther down her curls. “I won’t abandon Hanne again.”
“You didn’t abandon her. You ran for help. You did exactly as she ordered.” Rune walked around the edge of the withering grass, moving in the direction Lady Nadine had indicated earlier. “But I meant what I said: If something happens, you must hide or run to the caravan. Your captain Oliver will ensure it.”
“I will not hesitate,” confirmed the captain.
She gave a tight-jawed nod, showing more bravery than half Rune’s men. Yet they mocked her, even though she was the only one who knew what everyone was up against. She was the only one who had faced the monster.
He stuffed down that uncomfortable feeling of respect for an Embrian. It wasn’t bad, he supposed, to not hate one of his new allies, but he was already in a tenuous position with his own people. No need to make it worse.
Ahead of them, a folded paper rested against the base of a maple tree, its corner rasping against the bark. Rune started for it, but Lady Nadine darted forward and snapped it up.
“This is mine.” She quickly stuffed it into her pouch. “I must have dropped it when I ran.”