As Asmond’s eyes scanned the letter, a look crossed his face that showed he knew what Ivan was telling him to be true. Meanwhile, the queen, now uncovered as a traitor, rushed up the stairs. Before anyone could react, the king was hot on her heels. Ivan and Anders followed. Much slower to reach the master bedroom than the elves, they arrived just in time to witness the queen slinking through the curtained window.
“Stop her!” Ivan shouted to Asmond, who stood with his back to them, watching his wife escape. “Asmond, don’t let her get away!”
The elf king slumped to his knees, falling back against the floor, a dagger protruding from his chest. Natalia and the guards pushed past them to the king’s side.
“Where’d she go?” Natalia asked, seeing the king’s body on the floor.
Ivan pointed to the window and Natalia leapt out in pursuit. Ivan and Anders knelt at Asmond’s side as he took his last breath. Pure disbelief crossed his face as he met his end. The elf king was dead, and the queen had vanished.
Chapter 34
Captive at Highborn Bay
The early afternoon sun slid slightly from its highest point in the sky, heating the air and causing beads of sweat to run down Kirsten and Thomas’ faces as they jogged into their childhood home. They quickly searched the house for signs of Britt, Max, or Bo, but didn’t find anything suggesting they’d returned from their search. Grabbing several strips of jerky and a half loaf of bread, Thomas stuffed the food into a pack before following his sister back out the front door. He found Kirsten searching the ground for signs of the direction in which Max, Bo and Britt had set out earlier that morning.
Thomas called to her, remembering that Britt had said she was going to continue working her way around the eastern border of the barrier. Turning east, Thomas led his sister beyond the edge of their property and into the Grandwood forest. They’d been hiking uphill for nearly a half-hour when they slammed into the invisible barrier, wincing as they bounced off the solid wall.
“Ouch,” Thomas said rubbing his nose to see if it was bleeding.
Kirsten massaged a reddening spot on her forehead. “Ahh,” she grunted in frustration. “I knew that was going to happen. Come on, let’s head farther east,” she said as Thomas continued to check his nose, sure that blood was going to start dripping out of his nostrils from the blow.
He wiped his nose one more time, at last satisfied with the clean result, and began searching the forest floor for signs of their companions. “Here,” he said after a few minutes, pointing to a patch of newly trampled grass. “It looks like they’ve been here recently.”
Kirsten flattened her hand on the smooth surface of the barrier and began to walk, not trusting that she wouldn’t smash into it again unless she knew where it was the whole time. As they moved through the forest, she noticed tree branches cut cleanly, scattered along the edge of the barrier. Each downed log they’d seen along the strange barrier was cleaved neatly as though it had been sliced with a sharp blade.
“It’s like someone placed a dome over our city,” Kirsten said looking at another cleanly cut tree branch.
“Yeah. You wouldn’t want to have been standing here when that happened,” he joked.
Suddenly Kirsten thought she heard a noise. Stopping abruptly, she motioned for Thomas to do the same. “Did you hear that?”
Thomas shook his head, “No, hear what?”
“It was like a,” she began to say, then the hissing noise sounded again, louder than before, ‘Pssst.’
Thomas looked to Kirsten quizzically, “Oh, you mean that noise. It sounded like someone saying, ‘pssst’.”
Kirsten scanned the group of trees where she believed the strange noise originated. She nearly shouted when she saw Britt’s dark arms sticking out from behind the trees, waving them down. Kirsten struck Thomas on the shoulder and said, “Look over there!” She pointed to Britt waving.
“Why doesn’t she just come to us?” Thomas asked as he waved back.
He opened his mouth and inhaled preparing to shout at her. Acting quickly, Kirsten tackled him onto the forest floor, placing her hand tightly over his mouth. As he started to wriggle to get free, she brought her finger to her lips and bulged her eyes at him, indicating for him to keep silent. She released her grip when she could tell he was taking her seriously.
Thomas rolled onto his stomach and looked around the edge of the bush in front of his face. Two large kurr, clad in plated battle armor walked in from beyond the barrier and made their way downhill toward Grandwood. The two beastly creatures hammered the ground with their large feet as they jogged by. Luckily they had failed to notice the humans hiding in the bushes.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Thomas whispered to Kirsten, “That’s why she wasn’t shouting at us.”
Kirsten slapped him on the shoulder, shaking her head at the poorly timed joke. “You’re starting to sound like Max,” she said as she shuffled on her hands and knees over to Britt’s hiding place. Thomas was quick to follow. Max and Bo huddled together, tucked out of sight in the bushes next to Britt.
“I thought you two were going to be seen for sure,” Britt said softly.
“Yeah, that was close. Good thing we didn’t call you guys out,” Kirsten said pointing her thumb over her shoulder.
“I was not expecting that,” Thomas shrugged.
Britt lifted her finger to her lips, shushing them both, “Keep your voices down,” she whispered.
“What are those things doing here anyway?” Kirsten asked in a hushed tone.
Britt shrugged, “There’ve been close to a dozen that have walked in just before you showed up. The two you saw were stragglers; I’m guessing.”
“They must’ve been sent to Westland by Merglan to support Rankstine in Grandwood,” Thomas suggested.
“What are you guys doing out here?” Max asked. “I thought you were going to spy on Rankstine.”
Kirsten bobbed her head, “Oh, we did.”
“But we might have been seen,” Thomas cringed.
“When we got to town some guards came and escorted Billson away,” Kirsten began to explain.
“The guy who talked with us the other day,” Thomas added.
“Right, anyway they said the governor wanted to see him, so we followed them to the church. They took him inside through a side door. It was locked so we had to sneak in.”
“Through the bell tower,” Thomas interrupted again, nodding excitedly.
Britt raised her eyebrows, “Impressive.”
