Ailani of Ostham

Chapter nineteen

Griffin's P.O.V.

Queen Astrid gave us supplies for the journey back to our borders. We were given three messenger hawks, a fraction of the Queen's royal guardsmen, food, horses, and other things to make our trip as quick and smooth as possible. I have been away from Ailani for almost a month, the little nights I've slept have been spent dreaming of her. I was sure she was safe, but a feeling has been looming over me that I need to check on her.

More importantly be assured Harry hasn't done anything rash...for all the years we grew up together, he is still capable of shocking me with his cruel and unusual actions.

" General."

The wind whipped and whooped as a voice called.

I turned around on my horse to see who called, a guides man of Vera's met his eyes with mine.

" General, there is a blizzard coming east straight for us. We will need to make camp soon," the guide said. He was a bearded northerner, he had a grey cloak on, with the hood shading his eyes. He made his horse go into a trot, to get closer to me.

"A blizzard? Damn. We are already in a rush, we must not be delayed...is there any way we can beat out the storm?" I asked reluctantly. The hooded man found humor in what I asked.

" Beat a northern blizzard? Ser, with respect may I ask, have you ever experienced a blizzard other then the ones down south?"

" Can't say that I have..." I grumbled.

" Then I think you know the answer to that question." he sighed. More pressure added to the already enormous weight on my shoulders. I called for my party to make camp and setup tents. The cold bit at me cheeks and nose as I looked around the snowy forrest at the men tying horses up.

I called for Agnus, I needed to talk to her for our battle plans. She is a brilliant strategist, and very rational. She can help me find solutions I never thought possible.

Once my tent was pitched, Agnus followed me in. We laid out a map of the realm, on the tent floor. I explained our deadline to her, we have less then two weeks before Bedlok crosses our borders, it will take two weeks at least to travel from our current spot to the planned invasion. With this storm coming it will only delay us further. Agnus thought intensely, lines on her forehead creased as she considered the details. She let out a deep sigh.

" So let's assume the worst; us not making it in time for the invasion. How can we lead half of our army at the borders- with the other half protecting the capital- if we are not there?" she asked.

" You tell me..." I groaned.

" Well, how long does it take for a messenger hawk to reach the castle?"

" Um- two days or so.."

" Okay, so lets devise a simple battle plan for our army tonight." she realized how far fetched it would be to make a suitable battle plan in a day. I rubbed my face, thinking as hard as I could.

" We will need to evacuate our villages near the borders, I will not let their lives at the mercy of our last minute plan..Queen Astrid said she would gladly take them in." I said. Agnus nodded.

" How many hawks do we have?" she asked.

" Three."

" Okay, so one hawk to request Queen Astrid of the hide out for our people, " she started.

" And another hawk to send the battle plans to King Harold..." I continued. It was slowly coming together, Addams, Bruce and Hannibal joined us for more ideas. We produced a letter informing Queen Astrid of our needed evacuation into her land, and sent that hawk on its way to her.

We were up all night, hashing out strategies, drawing formations, calculating the weaponry needed, and numbers of horsemen. The tent's walls were being forcefully beaten by the wind as the blizzard arrived. The loud sounds of the storm kept us awake, that, and the sheer panic we felt as we knew how far fetched our plan was.

We would be outnumbered, we would have to scrape together materials last minute, and face the cunning army of King Tybalt in Bedlok. We had almost no chance, but I prayed that this would work.

It was almost sunrise when we decided to finally settle with a final strategy. Bruce and Hannibal have fallen asleep in my tent, Agnus slept curled up in a ball with the map still in her hand, Addams slumped against a saddle. I could not sleep, I thought of Ailani too much. I decided with my last hawk to send her a letter. I wrote it in the tent that was shielding me from the blizzard, my teeth chattering as I scribbled all the warnings I could fit onto the page:

Dear Ailani,

I know you must be worried sick about me, I am fine. I'm afraid I am more worried about you. There is indeed a war between us and Bedlok, and I fear, for once I am not confident in our current position in this battle. I need to warn you that the next few months, maybe even years, will be terribly difficult.

I'm going to do my best to protect you and everyone else. Be wary of Harry, do what he says, no matter how vile it is. If you think Harry is bad now, you can't imagine how he'll be once the stress of war gets to him. But I know you are more of a force to be reckoned with then him, he may have the royal title, but he is truly just a craven with a crown. You must stay strong, and remain hopeful. Don't worry about me.

Try and lay low with Roma and Amelia, tell them to be careful also. I've gained assistance from Vera, so we are not alone. I will try to keep sending you letters, I shall update you when ever I can. You must be ready for anything to happen. I need you to be ready.

I dream of you every night, I miss you terribly, and I cannot wait for this to be over so I can be with you again.

With all my love,

Griffin

I read over what I wrote, I considered not sending the letter, in case it fell into the wrong hands. But alas, my need to contact her drove me to seal the note. I finally laid down with my letter in hand, sleep came slowly, as my vision blurred into the darkness I could see the faintest outline of her image in my mind.