After a brief struggle with selfish desires, Leal thought, "If this is Hilde"s destined path, it seems she would be in good company."With practiced mental agility, he avoided delving into the question of whether the same could be said where he was concerned.
Instead, he next thought about the Lord General"s daughter. It wasn"t that the possibility he might also be drawn to her hadn"t crossed his mind. It was only that there was similar, and then there was SIMILAR.
The woman who was nearly of an age with him appeared to have a natural tendency to rub people the wrong way, yet she was not – strictly speaking – repellent. It was difficult to pin down what was making her tick, and Leal had a strong suspicion he wouldn"t be able to puzzle her out without first stepping outside of himself.
He didn"t have the inclination nor the leisure at present to do that. Ahead of their party, the forest would soon thin out to nothing, and they"ll have no choice but to re-enter the city or continue skirting its perimeter without the useful cover of trees. Once in the city, they"d need to set an even faster pace.
Unfortunately, it would be a speed that not all of them could handle. The elderly Viscount was exhausted, and even Baron Harmin, who led a fairly active lifestyle despite his scholarly pursuits, was nearly at his limits.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
"Highness?" said the Baron, feeling guilty but not to the point of self-condemnation. They had paused within sight of a dark and small side gate that appeared deserted. With many eyes on him, he continued, "Might I suggest you go on ahead?"
"Yes, my Prince," the Viscount immediately seconded. "Please."
Presented with the first true test to his resolve to survive before anything else, Leal fell even more silent. His lords were automatically placing his safety ahead of their own because he was the heir to their kingdom. That was all the reason they seemed to need, and it should have been sufficient to him as well.
Somehow, dissatisfaction bloomed in the pit of his stomach. He found himself questioning, WHY should that be enough? What made the blood in his veins so precious that these men – important in their own rights – would be so motivated to keep it from spilling?
Alas, once again, this was not the time nor place to be posing existential questions whose answers he might not even welcome. Pursuing the present decision that needed to be made, Leal concluded it would cause the lords more problems if something were to happen to him.
He didn"t like it, but he understood the necessity. After curtly nodding to them once, he addressed the leader of their escorts.
"Captain, is it advisable for our party to split up?"
As if being asked for advice by a man of higher rank was not new to her, the captain considered for a long moment and replied, "It would depend on how each party plans to proceed, but I am for it. Is there something in particular you have in mind, Prince?"
Looking far off with a humorless smile on his lips, Leal recalled his own words that had been thrown casually earlier but had now become prophetic.
"Something in particular, yes," he said drily. "One I might never be able to live down, if there is a tomorrow after this day."
***
The procession was now in clear view of the large hill where the Royal Palace sat. Without the biers and the surging wave of humanity, the journey back had taken them less than an hour.
Yet though they were only a stone"s throw away from relative safety – and even after a company of palace soldiers had been successfully called forth by the Lord General to reinforce their protection – nearly everyone seemed to be waiting still for something to blow up.
There"d been a few scares here and there. When they pa.s.sed through the city square, where the lights from the grand surrounding buildings were spilling towards the center, a dozen or so pockets of individuals who had been determined to pinpoint the placement of the Lyseans in the column began to suspect that they were not there at all.
Once becoming a little more certain of it, a number of these small groups had angrily broken away, intending to return to the royal tomb"s hill and see if the foreigners had been left behind. Meeting others who"d also been to the hill only to find it dark and deserted – the door of the white building sealed shut with nothing but silence coming from inside – they had then dispersed.
They were aimless, at first, then they began to purposefully scour the backstreets and narrow, less-frequented roads, all in a quest to find their most honored neighbors, who were obviously being smuggled back to the loving protection of their n.o.bles and royals. They would address that betrayal later. Tonight, all these individuals wanted to do was to vent their hatred born of unbearable shame.
Hilde and the others had not known of any of these movements as they were happening. Preoccupied as they were with holding their breaths in disbelief and amazement as they reached the foot of the hill and began ascending, she could not even have imagined that a manhunt was now playing out in the sprawling streets of Oste.
"Inge," called Hilde quietly into the continuing hush. "Tell me when the end of the column has pa.s.sed the barrier of soldiers."
Able to see well downhill due to their elevation, the man did as asked, nodding at her after witnessing a double line of palace soldiers form when the tail of the procession entered the hill road to the fortified castle. It winded soon after that, and the trees hid them all from view. It was then and only then that Hilde released most of the tension she"d held in – she was now free to stop pretending.
Just before reaching the open gates of the outermost wall, Hilde next called Captain Judda to say, "We make way."
At this, after the slightest hesitation, he bit off an order to the others and they smoothly turned directions as they walked, no longer heading for the gate but to one side of it. Still at their center, Hilde had moved with them. Together, they stopped and watched as the column that had been behind them preceded them inside line by line.
Though some had noted what she was doing, many just desperately wanted for everything to end and didn"t pay mind to anything except reaching the finish line.
As she was pa.s.sing, Gisela worriedly called to her, "Why aren"t you coming in?" Her mother tugged at her arm, urging her to walk on, while Hilde smiled tightly, hoping to convey rea.s.surance.
Though she"d have wanted to wait there until all who were seeking their way back had also pa.s.sed through, she knew she couldn"t. They wouldn"t be coming from such an obvious direction, in any case.
As she was thinking this, resigned to following in after the very last of the soldiers who served as escorts had also entered the gate, a nearby torch happened to s.h.i.+ne fully on a pair of eyes, but Hilde would not have noticed this at all had those eyes not been trained straight at her.
She blinked. Straining past the shadows and at the thick, dark curtain of hair that framed a suspiciously familiar pretty face, she managed to distinguish the color of those irises.
"What?"