The Hijacked Bride

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

"WHAT? HOW COULD this have happened?" Alastar bolted to a standing position from where he had been seated in his father's study.

King Odran's brow furrowed. "I had two of my best men posted outside her door..." He looked up, suspiciousness in his eyes, at one of the men who had been part of the duo and stood in the room now. "Are you entirely certain you saw nothing out of the ordinary?" he asked him.

"Yes, your majesty. Everything seemed normal at the time."

Al felt ready to throttle anyone that might be considered the culprit, but he knew he had to think rationally. He had to figure this out and only act once he was sure of what had happened. Monika could have felt overwhelmed before the day of the wedding, unsure even, and slipped out to have some space to herself for a while. But it wasn't like her to change her mind. And wouldn't she have left a message for him?

It didn't make sense, and now it was nearly noon. All the wedding preparations had been put on hold because the bride had disappeared. Al felt as if he were suffocating, his heart cracking in half down the middle. Had she decided she did not love him after all?

"Send out an issue," Odran ordered the guard. "Command everyone in the kingdom to come to me at once if there is a sighting of a girl that matches Monika's appearance. And search the castle grounds again."

Al paced after the guard had left, running his hands through his hair. Suddenly, something came to him. He paused midstride. "The neighbouring kingdoms," he said.

"What?" The king's head jerked up. He had been poring over a scroll.

"I have to search the other kingdoms as well. What if she's residing in Troid, or Dorchadas, or even Angeal?"

"And what purpose would she serve by being in any one of those realms?" Odran demanded.

Al realized that his father was right, in part. But he wouldn't give up on Monika, and he was prepared to search much farther than even the kingdoms that bordered Ceol if it meant finding her. Although it took a few days for one to enter the other territories on horseback, she could already be well on her way. Al swallowed. If she had left willingly, he would ask her why. If she hadn't...

"I have to find out for myself how far she has travelled and for what reason she is gone. You can't deny me this, surely, father. Give me a few days," he requested. "She is the woman I love."

King Odran lifted his eyes to meet his son's. "No, I cannot deny you this. Be sure to go swiftly and come home safely, and bring her back with you."

Al was taken aback by his father's gentle and understanding tone. It was one he'd only heard once before, when he was a young boy and the first horse that he had ever owned had died, due to an infected leg.

"I'm sorry, my boy," his father had said to five-year-old Al in his deep, gravelly and strangely calming voice.

Al blinked the memory away. Forcing himself back to the present, he bowed his head to the king as a sign of respect and gratefulness. "I will go at once."

*

DARKNESS. FEAR. PANIC.

It's all Monika could feel; all Monika could think. There was something rough covering her face so that she could not see, but she could tell that she was sitting upright and that she was on a horse. Her wrists chafed against the rope that held them together around the torso of her capturer, who bounced in the saddle in front of her, whoever he was, as they moved forward. She knew it was a he because of the width and hard, solidness of his body and the low growl he'd let out when she asked what was happening.