I stared at her, not quite understanding.‘What do you mean I have a horse?’
Moira shook her head, then ate a slice of my peach.‘Youreallyneed to go outside.’
I knew Raleigh’s castle had a small stable in addition to the main one down the hill – I’d seen it from afar on the few occasions Moira managed to force me into the gardens – but I’d always assumed it was unused.Now I wished I’d looked inside.
The stable was mostly empty, but one dark mare remained in the far corner.When Moira pushed the gate open, the horse trotted up expectantly, and to my shock I realised I knew her well.
‘Sovereign!’I cried.
Sovereign snorted and bumped my shoulder with her nose.I never thought I’d see her again.I’d guessed that Raleigh had left her roaming the woods when he captured me and hoped she’dfound her way home before the wolves, or something equally hungry, found her.It never occurred to me that Raleigh would bother to find and drag a half-starved horse back to the castle when there was no possible benefit to him.
Sovereign was no longer half starved.Her coat was glossy, her mane recently brushed.I stroked her nose, feeling guilty that she had been here all this time when I’d never thought to look for her.I wondered if she understood anything that had happened.Maybe she was simply happy to find herself in a nicer stable with much, much better food.
‘I thought you were gone,’ I said to her, though I didn’t expect her to understand me.
‘Raleigh brought her back the day after he found you,’ Moira said, breaking the spell.‘He’s been taking care of her ever since.’
‘Raleigh has?’I asked, surprised.
‘He’s much better with animals than I am.They never seem to trust me.He didn’t want to put her with the other horses while she was regaining her strength, so he’s been looking after her since you’ve been here.’
I ran my hand over her coat, picturing Raleigh taking the time to comb the brambles from her mane, to stroke her nose, to change her hay.It didn’t match my image of him at all.‘Why didn’t he tell me?’
‘Who knows how that man’s mind works?’
I couldn’t tell what she meant by that.‘Incredible that he found her.’
‘He’s an excellent tracker,’ Moira said, ‘which is exactly why you need to be back on time.If you try to run, he’s going to find you again.’
‘I know, I know.’I hoisted Sovereign’s old saddle off the stable wall and began securing it around her middle.‘He knows where my house is.If I’m not back in time, tell him he can collect me from there.’
‘Just come back.’
‘I will.’I knew that was a promise easier given than kept.Once I was in Orlfen it would take all my will to drag myself back up the mountain, away from all I loved.For all the excitement I felt at returning home, I was already mourning the fact I’d have to leave again.‘I’ll be back before sundown,’ I conceded.‘I promise.’
Eight
THE ROAD DOWN THEmountain was a treacherous one.How anyone dared make the journey with a carriage in tow was beyond me.My fingers ached from strangling the reins whenever Sovereign veered too close to the cliff.She seemed to enjoy walking on the edge, but one misstep would send us tumbling into the valley below.
Relief coursed through me once the path wound back into the woods.I urged Sovereign into a trot as we found ourselves on more familiar ground, but I was taken aback by how alien it suddenly felt.A stranger’s eye could never have caught the microscopic stirrings of life, but I’d been so used to the crisp brown of dead and dying foliage that the change was striking.The woods were no longer shrouded in sepulchral silence.Life isn’t quiet; even the smallest lives rustle and chirp and breathe.The beech trees had shaken off their perpetual autumn hues and now shone in full green.Blooming spears of foxglove erupted from the ground.Life had returned to the valley.
And soon I found the cause.The riverbed that had scarred the landscape for so many years was a river once more.Not apowerful river – no one would be writing poetry about the sweeping torrents – but the stream was enough to coax life back where it had been unable to flourish.Raleigh had kept his word.The dam was gone.
Before I would have cut across the riverbed to make a beeline home, but I’d never been happier to take the long way over the bridge.I was halfway across when I spotted the familiar faces of Lina and Katya on the other side.The two girls were my age, but we had never been close.Katya and I had had a falling-out many years ago over a certain baker’s son, and we’d both been too stubborn to ever close the rift.But the sight of two familiar faces filled me with an emotion I hadn’t expected.I called out to them, expecting an echo of my joy, but they only recoiled, horror etched across their features.I pulled back on Sovereign’s reins, a nasty pit forming in the depths of my stomach.
I wasn’t a fool: I knew I wasn’t particularly liked by my peers, but usually they had the decency to smile and play nice until they thought my back was turned.Now, though, I recognised the look they gave me.I’d seen it on my father’s face, on Johanna’s and, fourteen years ago, on the faces of every man and woman in Orlfen.It was an expression of terror we always reserved for Raleigh.
I ducked my head and guided Sovereign into town.The main road would take me home eventually, but not before passing the bakery.I slowed as I approached the old shopfront where Yann and I had eaten krapfen together all those years ago.Was he inside?I wanted desperately to know if he was okay.But the thought that he might not be made me want to turn straight back to Castle Rostenburg.Was I ready to learn what had happened to the love of my life?The man I’d left for dead?
Father would tell me the truth either way, but I needed to see it for myself.
I found a place to safely tie Sovereign close to the bakery.Feeling sick, I pushed inside, almost toppled by the nostalgic scent of fresh bread.
There, behind the counter, was a familiar mop of blond hair, and all my anxieties were forgotten.‘You’re alive!’
Yann looked up, his face filling with light as recognition dawned.In a flash he was out from behind the counter.His right arm was bound across his chest, but I didn’t have the chance to comment before he threw himself at me, wrapping me into a one-armed embrace.Suddenly it felt as though the last weeks had never happened.For a brief moment I was home.
We hugged for an eternity, yet he pulled away all too soon.He held me at arm’s length, eyes running up and down, appraising me.‘Goodness, you look …well.’
