Chapter 169: Midnight run

Chapter 169: Midnight run
Ruelle’s POV

“The horses couldn’t get past the bridge my lady. We have to cross it on foot to go meet them.” Morra whispers to me, her face hidden by the hood of the shawl she had draped over herself to conceal her identity as we embarked on this risky journey. 

I pull my own hood further down my face, nodding in response to her words and following her trail as she slowly and quietly steps over shrubs and stumps. 

We needed to do this without the knowledge of the guards and although it was seemingly impossible at first, we managed to pull it off. 
After a series of tedious attempts that only resulted in us nearly getting caught, an idea popped into my head on a way we could get the attention of all the guards to be directed somewhere else and on something else. Just so we have enough time to sneak away. 

Several attempts that I had made to get the guards to go hunting for me resulted in failure, because the moment one leaves my side, another takes his place almost immediately. 
Until the idea came. But for it to have been successful, we needed one more person to be in on it. A maiden. 

“All we need you to do is to go into the woods and scream as loud as you can.” Morra told her, not getting into all the details. The maiden looked between the both of us with wide and confused eyes, but later nodded her head once she saw the seriousness in my eyes. 

She was supposed to scream for a total of thirty seconds, which would provide us enough time to run out through the back of the house and be a little bit deep in the woods by the time the guards noticed we were gone. Everything had gone according to the way it was supposed to go, and so, as soon as we heard the scream, I specifically urged all the guards to go check what the problem was, threatening them not to return without my maiden safe and sound. 

The guards all sprinted into the woods in the opposite direction, while we moved through the back. It has been about thirty minutes since we left and I am almost certain that the guards are gaining ground, searching for us and sending word back to the Reach. But the fact remains that we haven’t been caught yet. And it is not in our plans to be. 

“And how far is the bridge?” I ask Morra from behind, resting with my palm against the bark of a tree, breathless. My other hand was on my waist, kneading it as I tried to shove back the tears filling my eyes at the pain spreading through me. 

“It should take another ten to twenty minutes to get there. So we need to hurry”. Morra tells me while looking forward, but as soon as her eyes land on me and she sees my state, she rushes to me and places her palm on my shoulder. “My lady are you okay? If you cannot carry on then—”

I hold my hand up, shaking my head. “I’m okay.” I sniff, breathing through my mouth. “Ten to twenty minutes you said?”

Morra nods, her eyes worried as they sweep over my weak frame. I should have thought about this better before embarking on this journey. But I know for a fact that it would be completely stupid for us to stop here. If we are caught and word gets to Thorne, he would triple the security and make it even harder for us to get to the North. 

“Then we need to hurry before we are caught.” I am already walking ahead and Morra trails behind me, trying to match my pace. 

The moon is high up in the sky now and that fills me with a dread that I wish I had thought about before coming out. 

It is a full moon night. And what that means is that at this time, wolves would prefer to shift and roam around the woods. Although it isn’t midnight yet, the time when they would all be outside, but the moon is high in the sky and some may still want to be out at a time like this. 

Morra must have considered this too because she constantly look behind her, then reaches for my hand and pulls me forward, helping to increase my pace. “We need to be out of these woods in the next ten minutes before the wolves decide to hunt”. She says.

“We are in the middle of the woods”. I voice out, looking around me. “I don’t recall any pack living around here. What kind of wolves would hunt at midnight then?”

“Wolves who do not live in packs.”

Rogues. 

My eyes widen immediately, and my stomach falls to my throat. Morra’s words click immediately and while I am still reeling from both the shock and fear, she remains pulling me forward with her feet moving in quick steps. 

“Don’t be afraid, my lady. They do not come out till far into the night. Farther than midnight so we still have some time. But in woods as thick as these, rogues are not the only things we need to be worried about.”

I decide against outrightly asking her what else lives in these thick woods and conclude that I am better off in the dark about it. 
The guards would be much much closer now because while we were able to sneak out quickly without their notice, they could easily trace us with our scents and get us back in the cabin. And in that case it would be an automatic house arrest.

Asides from these woods, we still have the journey of days ahead of us as we head for the North. I try not to let myself be too worried about what may or may not happen. 

“Almost there, my lady”. Morra tells me and I sigh. But she really meant it because minutes later, we are walking out of the woods and stumbling into a path that seems to be leading North. “There they are”. Morra points to where two horses are standing alone, tied to trees at the end of the path. 

I sigh, my shoulders deflating in relief that we are finally out of the woods. 

“Have you figured out what you want to tell him?” Morra asks me and I already know she is making reference to my father. 

I shake my head, parting my lips to speak but the words die in my throat the moment I feel the hairs at the back of my neck rising. I snap my head behind me, looking for the source of this feeling. As though we are being watched. 

Something is wrong. 

Morra notices and looks around as well, coming to stand beside me. Her gasp startles me, causing me to jump. But when I look to see what made her gasp, my heart threatens to pound out of my chest. 
Because a large wolf, larger than I’ve ever seen, is stalking towards us from within the trees.