"Crowns topple easily. Thrones crumble like dust. Hearts cease to beat. Thorns draw blood."
In a country torn into two, there should have been no room for mistakes. Especially not at the very core of the royal family. That was what she was. Yes, a...
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The sun was high in the sky, beating down on their skin and leaving them completely exposed to anyone with eyes.
Irina could feel the sweat beading on her forehead and the heat building upon her head from the sun. She looked over at Aleksander who had Vasilka right in front of him. Clearly, they were both feeling exhausted.
Aleksander looked angry beyond anything else. His eyebrows were scrunched together as if he were thinking awfully hard about something and couldn't come to a conclusion, rendering him confused and frustrated.
As much as she wanted to stop, she knew that they couldn't. There were soldiers chasing after them and if they stop for even a single second, they risk getting captured and brought back to the place they escaped from in the first place.
Irina turned behind her, seeing the hoofprints being tracked on the mud they passed. It would make them easier targets to spot. It would lead the soldiers right to them.
"Aleks!" Irina called out, looking over at the other man.
Aleksander turned over to look at her, his eyes softening at the sight of her hair whipping about her as they went against the wind, the previous words of the guard now forgotten. "What is it?"
She gestured to the path that they had gone through, the visible marks they left by the second. "We're leaving behind tracks!"
They avoided the main road which was why they had no choice but to go through the muddy areas. The only problem was that it was messier than taking on the main road.
The main road's risks included being spotted by locals and having someone on guard capture them. They would be caught even before they left Balakirev.
On the other hand, using the muddy way left more tracks than the main road which meant that the soldiers will find them either way. The only difference was which way would hide them for a longer time.
Aleksander pulled the reins of his horse, prompting the animal to stop. Irina went on to do the same as him, pulling on her own horse's reins. Their horses shifted in the mud turning their coats brown.
"We have to lose the horses." Aleksander finally said, dismounting from his horse and placing Vasilka down, her fur now clumped with blood and mud, her white fur nowhere in sight.
Irina replied, her tone in disbelief. "What? But how will we get to Poliznaya? We're at least a day's ride away."
"We need to find another way to get there. We'll only be leading them to us if we continue on like this." He said, squinting at the horizon as if he could perceive the soldiers closing in on them.
He grabbed his satchel and swung it over his arm, the maps and necessary things being jostled inside. His footsteps led him to her, his hands wrapping around her waist to help her dismount. His fingers tightened their hold on her waist as he aided her in getting down, their chests pressing together for a mere moment.
