There was still candlelight flickering in Yann’s window when I pulled the horses up outside the bakery.I hopped off Sovereign and hammered on the door until Yann threw it open, looking annoyed.
‘Change of plans,’ I said.‘We’re eloping.’
He stared at me, searching for the joke.‘Let’s calm down,’ he said, as though I were a child.‘What happened?’
I tried to explain, but doing so made it feel more real than I was prepared for.Tears welled up, unbidden, until I felt like I was rambling hysterically.
Yann pulled me into his arms.‘It’s okay,’ he said.‘I’m coming with you.I will always follow you.You know that.’
I waited inside while he explained the situation to his grandfather.Then he emerged with a pack over his shoulders, and I was met by the terrifying clarity that this was really happening.
‘Did you bring a map?’Yann asked as he hoisted himself onto Father’s horse.
In my haste to leave, it hadn’t occurred to me.My mouth tasted sweet, and for a moment I felt like I was underwater.Then, the prospect felt ludicrous.We wouldn’t need a map.I’d spent enough time as a child memorising maps of the surrounding farms to make our way to the Austrian border unaided.After leaving Orlfen, the road north would take us most of the way out of the valley.We’d reach the next bridge just before dawn, which joined a road that would take us directly across the border.I explained all this to Yann as we walked the horses out of Orlfen, but after only an hour, when another bridge came into view, Yann urged his horse to cross.
I steered Sovereign in front of him, blocking his way.‘Where are you going?’
‘You said we had to cross the next bridge.’
‘A half-day away.This one must not be marked on the map.’
Yann looked at me, then at the bridge.‘If only we had one we could check,’ he muttered.
I glared at him.‘We don’t need to check.’
‘Of course not,’ he said.‘That would mean admitting you could possibly be wrong about something.’
‘I can admit to being wrong,’ I snapped.‘I was wrong when I said Father would never give his blessing, wasn’t I?’
‘Were you?’
My stomach gave an oily twist.‘What do you mean?’
Yann looked away.‘Well, it’s interesting timing, isn’t it?He’s always wanted you to marry into nobility.’He nudged his horse forward.‘Strange for it to happen today.’
‘Father didn’t arrange this.’My words felt hollow.
‘I have to assume you’re right about that,’ Yann said.He pushed forward onto the bridge, and I had no choice but to chase after him.No good could come of getting separated in the dark.
In the silence of night, miles from anyone, I couldn’t shake the feeling we weren’t alone.The path on the far side of the bridge snaked into woods, but no matter how many times I racked my brain to remember the map, I couldn’t recall ever seeing woodland marked so far down the valley.On this side of Orlfen, there was only supposed to be fields.
I jolted and turned Sovereign around.The riverbed had already been swallowed by the trees.I scanned the dark road we’d taken, searching my scattered thoughts for what had made me turn in the first place, but they kept slipping away before I could hold on to them.The river was gone.That felt right.We should leave the river.But I hadn’t thought that before, had I?
No.The map.
I clung to the memory before it could abandon me again.Why didn’t I bring one?The thought slipped from my mind before I could remember the answer.‘We should go back to the river,’ I said.‘It leads out of the valley.’
‘Clara, please just trust me.I’m to be your husband.’
I couldn’t shake the implication left hanging in his words.As my fiancé, Yann was asking me to trust him.If he were my husband I wouldn’t have a choice.That strange, cloudy feeling returned.
We pushed forward.Something in me knew this would take us where we were supposed to go.I couldn’t remember why I thought we needed to follow the river.That would only take us out of the valley.We weren’t supposed to leave the valley.A thought tried to surface and then was lost.
The path grew narrow.It wasn’t long before we had to guide the horses on foot.My skirt caught on every low-lying thistle and thornframing our track, and every branch above me sought to rip out my braids.I found myself flinching at every noise, convinced it was the prince, ready to drag me home to atone for my treachery.But each time I whirled around, I found nothing but darkness.It was all I could do to force myself to keep going, when in my heart I knew at any moment I would feel his claws at my throat.
Sovereign was starting to drag her feet, grumbling under each tug of the reins.Yann’s mare wasn’t faring much better.We couldn’t keep pushing them through the dark.
‘Yann, stop.We’re lost.If we push on any longer in this darkness, one of us is going to wander off a cliff.We should make camp and work out where we are in the morning.’
