Hereafter by Jody Hedlund

Author:Jody Hedlund [Hedlund, Jody]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, young adult
Publisher: Northern Lights Press
Published: 2019-10-28T18:00:00+00:00

The following dawn, my servants awoke me at Rex’s command and passed along his message that I was to be ready to ride to Adelaide’s camp at full light. He’d clearly gotten all the information he’d needed regarding the location of the third key. I could only pray the poor person he’d seized and tortured hadn’t suffered for long.

After a restless night of thinking about Rex, about his sweet gifts, about the tender moments we’d shared, the pain had swelled and at times had been difficult to bear. So had the pain over my parents. I alternated between panic regarding their fate and fury that they’d been captured in the first place. In addition, I couldn’t stop thinking about meeting my sisters for the first time and the fact that I would have to betray them.

When I’d finally fallen asleep, my nightmares of being chased and captured by men in black chain mail came back in vivid detail so that upon waking, I was listless and tired, my anger mingling with sorrow.

My maidservants did their best to transform me into a regal woman worthy of being the next queen. But now that I knew how Rex really viewed me—as a sheltered and naïve girl—all their fussing only made me feel more inadequate.

When Rex’s guards came for me, I offered no resistance. They led me to the inner bailey where the prince had assembled a group of armed soldiers attired in their finest armor and wearing the standard of Bryttania. Thankfully, I had a horse of my own, for I wasn’t sure I could have borne sitting with Rex on his steed, so close and yet so far apart.

As one of his men aided my mount, I glimpsed Rex watching me, but like his men, he’d donned his great helm, shielding his face. Though his eyes were visible behind narrow slits, I turned away from him so I wouldn’t be tempted to look into them and search for any hint of the warmth and affection he’d shown me previously.

I needed to focus on the mission at hand, retrieve the key, and then get my mother out of the dungeons. While I loathed the prospect of leaving Father there, he was stronger and would be able to endure the torture for longer, until I could figure out a way to free him. Once I came up with a plan, hopefully, he wouldn’t be too weak and injured to make the escape with me.

As we rode into the outer bailey and through the gatehouse, I studied every wall, tower, window, and crenellation with renewed awareness. The fortifications were strong and crawled with soldiers. How would Father and I sneak past all of them? I’d just have to pray Father remembered every nuance and crack in the castle from his days as an elite guard, and that he’d have a plan for making our escape.

A long wooden bridge spanned the moat—a moat that had once been full of poisonous snakes and maybe still was.

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