A Princess Named Harry: Book 2

Chapter 42

The war wouldn't last long anyway. That was what everyone kept saying and thinking, but now eight months had passed, and the war was still going on.

Word spread about Cardiaire's army's terrible loss against Varian's army. Nobody knew where they were. The king had sent a few people to look for his children and the remaining soldiers, but they returned empty-handed.

The king was left with no other choice but to extend the search further. He sent out as many people as he could to the front lines to face Varian and his army. His little army had grown substantially over the eight months. The king used nearly all of his resources to fund the war and organize a search party for the missing soldiers. He went to seek permission to use the crown prince's funds, which were now in the hands of Kaitlyn.

She had been busy taking on all of Kahil's duties as the heir's spare. She now had little time for herself, which of course, she didn't like. So, when her father came to request more money for the war, she declined graciously.

"What? More money? Dad, I think you've spent enough. I'm not giving you any more to waste."

"Kaitlyn!" shouted her father. "This is your brother and sister we're talking about! Don't you care that they're missing?"

"Yes, it pains my heart," Kaitlyn said in a way that proved otherwise. "But you're not getting a cent from me."

The king later received a generous donation from Henry, who also provided him with five hundred Taram knights. The king immediately sent them out to battle.

On one particularly dark and dreary night, the king stood in his office looking outside his window. For some reason, he couldn't get his mind off Kahil and Harry that day, and now the weather was terrible.

"Harry. Kahil," he called quietly. "Please be safe wherever you are."

•••

Harry woke up on the hard dirt ground. She and the rest of the surviving army had stayed hidden away in a cave for months. Their injuries had been more severe than they previously thought, and it had taken some time for everyone to heal.

Harry sat up; she missed her warm soft bed. Her uniform was mangled and dirty, and she was dirty. Her hair, face, hands, and nails were caked with dirt, what she would've done for a hot bath, instead of the usual cold one from the waterfall deep in the cave. It didn't matter how often she took a bath there. After only a couple of hours, she went right back to her dirty state. She was better off than the others, though.

"Princess," called Marcus. He bent down to look at her. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," she replied. "How are you?"

Marcus smiled. "I'm also okay! I just wanted to let you know we have a meeting soon."

"Okay, thanks."

"No problem," he replied.

Harry watched him walk away; she felt bad for him. Marcus now had a long deep scar starting a few inches from his eye, across it, and going diagonally up across his right eyebrow, to the start of his forehead. Kahil got lucky in the prospect that his cut had healed without leaving any trace of a scar, but unfortunately, his recovery took some time.

It wasn't that he had only been knocked out, but it seemed that one of Varian's soldiers had poisoned him while he was down. Instead of Kahil passing his authority to Terrance as he should've, he passed it to Harry instead.

Harry got up and prepared to lead their meeting. She knew what she would say. The majority of them were perfectly fine now and could fight. Harry wanted to reestablish a camp outside their cave and make the preparations to face Varian's army once more. They didn't have a lot of supplies, the mountain provided them the bare minimum, and while a few of the things survived the fire, it wasn't enough to make a full-on extravagant camp like before. The most they could do was set up a couple of tents. Harry ran her plan thoroughly by Kahil first before she spoke up at the meeting.