Time for the Truth: a story of a sleeping beauty

part 11 a journey

My horse stamps in the cold. I am still having trouble with my memory, like when I had traveled this far this fast. How was it possible?
I can breathe easily in the cold, I am so used to it from the castle.
Imagining Rior's warm hands only makes me colder. I shiver and urge my horse to trot. alternating between trotting and walking has seemed the best way to cover the 20 miles from the closest cave entrance.
It amazes me still that my people have not investigated these caves, but the Morijdians have stayed hidden for so long from us that there must be some reasons. 

I remember the story I had told the prince about the evil queen going into the enchanted forest and coming back with her serving boy, and I feel strangely empty to think that the story he knew was from the point of the little boy, not from the enchanted queen's son, who had seen it happening, and then the aftermath.

My thoughts feel jumbled, but I know I can make it to the castle by morning if I push hard enough.
How I will explain to my mother that I came alone in a very unladylike manner worries me. 

I hear the frosty branches crackle and glance my head towards the noise. 

Every so often I hear similar noises, and I can only pray that it is not bandits or another thing meaning my harm.
I have to assume they are not, considering they could have attacked at any point, and have yet to even threaten.
Even so, I urge the horse faster, wishing I had learned its name. 

"Perhaps you can be given a temporary name." I smile down at the horse's long, flowing mane. It's hair is shinier than mine!
"What about Retour? Homecoming in my mother's language. It is certainly fitting." I force out a laugh, and shake myself for being bored enough to talk to a horse. Then again, why not?

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"Halt!" I pull my cloak's hood up immediately and slow Retour to a walk. There are riders up ahead.
"Who bars my passage?" I dare not say who I am, but an imperious tone can get you far sometimes.
"The kingsguard. who rides forward?" 

"Show yourself, sir. and your men." the hard tone the man used was unfamiliar to my ears. I had never been an outsider before. A man bearing my fathers mark urged his horse forward out of the next bend in the road, and I let my hood fall, my breath mixing in with the steam coming off golden Retour. 

"I, daughter of the King, come home to prove a promise has been kept." the man looks staggered and holds his men with a hand motion.
"Your highness?" The man bows and urges his horse forward.

"Take me to my father." I feel the desperation now, the knowledge that I will be home so soon jolts warmth back into my fingers.

I haven't felt truly cold in some time though, and it is wonderful and strange at the same time.

I can feel that it is cold, but it prickles on my skin, it doesn't inhabit my bones or make me shudder.

I can hear the men whispering to one another, and I wonder if this is how Morijdians hear all the time, or maybe this is just how you are supposed to hear when you aren't sick. I can't tell.

The guard does not ask about my unaccompanied state, and we trudge on in silence, coming up to first one outpost, then another. The leader has one or two men break off to explain so that we can continue forward.

"What is your name, sir?" I do not even look at him, I cannot stray from the road.

"Lord Ignatius Gilroy, your highness. It is my pleasure to serve you. Your family has missed you."

"Ignatius?" I recognize him now, when I scrutinize him- although he had never had this much facial hair before. "i'm sorry, I did not recognize you! You have grown so much!" He laughs

"As have you, my lady." For some reason he blushes.

"How is my family? How is my brother? Is he back from his tours?"

"They came back when you were on your deathbed- well, what we thought was your deathbed." I recoiled from the term.

"Oh. I did not know." How I knew so little of what was around me astounds me.

"Yes, well the prince took you away to save you, so no one could argue that you must stay. I am sorry to speak of it, does it pain you?" That is a great question. I am no longer as bitter about the situation as I was.

"No, I don't suppose it can. The Morijdian court has healed me, and now their customs state that I should go home for a time, and make sure I do truly want to marry the prince."

Ignatius had reeled back his horse, blinking.

"Well, I suppose that is civilized, but why were you alone on the road? It is treacherous, and no man should want his betrothed in danger." I heard a sharp crack of a broken stick in the forest beside me.

"I am not alone, they follow in the shadows- a group of guards." I say it with a new confidence, because Ignatius was right, Rior could not leave me alone, and he wouldn't trust anyone else with me.

"Should they not come with you, into the castle? They would be welcome." I kept Retour jogging forward quickly, and he coaxed his horse forward more quickly, his men keeping us in a safe surrounded area.

"Their ways are different from ours, but some of their customs, I feel we should adopt here. Women are not so defenseless there, and they are respected, and so much is different."

"So you will go back?" He asks, and this time he refuses to look at me.

I remember the last time I saw him, before my brother and he went off to school, and I remember that I used to believe that we could be married someday, with the easy way he laughed, and how he could act crazy and improper. My brother had loved that about him, but I remembered that he also wasn't always very dependable.

That had always killed me, fun people should also be able to have a responsible side.

It would appear that his father had gotten him into the kingsguard, and I wondered vaguely if it had made him balance out.

The memories with him were the sunny memories of childhood, and I had forgotten about him, about most of the things that had worried me while I had been here.

"I don't know yet, much has happened. I need to assure my family of my safety and health." I said it breathlessly, and Ignatius looked at me oddly.

"What would happen if you stayed?" I shot him a look, and shook my head.

I could recognize the woods now, see where I had grown up and run in the dappled sunlight. I urged Retour faster, until we were galloping along the trail. I could see the castle, and the walls of my winter home grew in my vision.

I leaned forward, and saw men above moving frantically.

"Halt!"

"My Lady!" That was Ignatius, and he waved to the guards, trying to get them to open it so that my horse would not have to slide in the snow.

"Mother! Father! Tarana, Parisa!" I knew they probably could not hear me, but I was so excited that I could not help it, as I slowed my horse impatiently for the portcullis to raise.

Hands came out to take my horse, and I leaped off, my feet stinging from the impact in my little slippers.

Shouts were raised, and as I went to go inside, the doors burst open, my sisters spilling out to take me in their arms.

All was right again.

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