Dig Two Graves

Prologue

The rain pelted her, the icy water tearing at any exposed skin on her body. However, that pain was insignificant when compared to the throbbing bullet hole in her shoulder- especially when every step her galloping horse took sent a shock wave to it.

She wasn't certain how long she had been running away. It could have been five minutes or five hours; her mind was too muddled to think clearly. All she could think about was how alike each street in the city was and how the sound of her horse's hooves against the cobbled streets could be mistaken for thunder.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw another horse pulling up to hers. Her dutiful retainer rode hard, his long blonde hair whipping in the wind. Words were flying out of his mouth at the speed of sound, but they all were lost in the wind until a particular hard jolt brought her mind to the present.

"--lost them around Harrinan's Bridge, but we should not relax just yet. Until we are in the mountains, at least, safe and sound in the sanctuary. I do not think they will stop their searching outside the city, though--"

"Leot." She interrupted his monologuing.

"Princess?"

"Are they all dead? All of them?"

Her question was followed by silence from her retainer's part. The silence was enough of an answer for the princess, but the affirmation did not bring tears to her eyes. She had ran out tears before she ever left the castle grounds. Instead, she thought of how the same soldiers who murdered her entire family were now searching for her. How those people has murdered her baby sister as she slept in her crib, how they mercilessly slaughtered the Council of Elders, how she would never see her family or peers again.

Still, the tears did not come.

Suddenly, a shot rang out in the otherwise quiet city street. The soldiers had caught up. Leot slumped forward in his saddle, the reigns falling from his limp hands. The princess bit back a scream before pressing her steed to go faster, faster, to carry her away from the place where it was okay to murder innocents and steal countries.

She wanted to look back and see with her own eyes that Leot was dead. She wanted to stop and scream at the soldiers for being sinful beings that did nothing but take away things precious to others. She wanted to badly to cry, as if that would help soothe her aching heart.

Instead she kept her eyes forward. She ignored the hollering of the people behind her, she ignored when Leot's body slipped off his horse and fell to the ground with a splash. She pushed forward until the sounds of soldiers faded away and cobbled city streets turned into deteriorating dirt roads. Only when she saw the jagged mountains, once a lonely landscape from the throne room windows, fast approaching did she slow down.

Somewhere on the mountains was the temple- her only sanctuary, her only safety. The holy people there would hide her away until everything blew over and she was safe.

The princess wanted to cry badly, but found that the rain on her face was a enough of a substitute for tears.