Silver King

Chapter 23 - Mare

On that Friday, the elections take place, but they have to be without Cal. We can't cancel the elections for that, and it's technically a good idea to have a new leader soon, as the actual leader doesn't even remember he's king. I had to make a small speech to the whole of Norta. It was short and simple, I informed everyone of Cal's state and urged them to come forward if they had any information about Abigail Clencher. No luck yet, but we keep hoping.

On Thursday afternoon, as I'm simply walking swiftly down the corridors, I hear an unusually loud noise coming from Elane's room. I don't think twice, and I immediately dart to the nearest door, sprinting back to Elane's window. She packing. Why? And why is she so hasty? I hide in the shadows as she finishes to pack everything she brought: it all fits in a backpack. When she's done, she climbs out of the window, and I retreat in the shadows of the nearby trees. She starts running, so I follow her silently but quickly. She soon reaches a road, and waits for a car to pass. After a few minutes, one does and she jumps swiftly - more swiftly than I thought she'd be able to do - to its back, grabbing on. I can't believe the driver doesn't notice.

I sprint behind her, because I can't grab on or she'll see me, and after a few kilometers - I'm hardly breathing anymore - she lets go and jumps to the side of the road, rolling over in the grass. I wonder where and when she's learned how to do that, because I don't remember Queenstrial training ever resembling this.

But no matter how she does it, she's back to running now, and she seems to know exactly where she's going through the airy forest. I follow her, trying to silence my breath as much as possible. She turns right, then left, then left again and a straight line for quite some time.

After about half an hour - I can't feel my lungs anymore - I can finally see where we are going : from afar, I see the Samos palace. She's going back to her real employer. My heart tightens in my chest. We trusted her when we shouldn't have.

I keep still more distance between the two of us, because it's becoming more dangerous to be here than to be on the road.

She looks around and I duck behind a bush, then she goes back to running towards the castle before stopping in front of an open window and toppling inside. I could swear I saw a wisp of long silver hair waiting on the other side.

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I camp out. I settle myself just outside Evangeline's window for the night, waiting for them to do something, waiting to overhear what Elane is doing here. For now, it really mostly seems like neither of them really cares about what's going on, they're just happy to be reunited. At least they remember they're in love.

I wake up before either of them does, and I watch all through their morning preparations. Only when they walk out of the room do I carefully climb inside through the window, tiptoe through the room and open the door of Evangeline Samos' bedroom. I see them vanishing at the end of the corridor and it suddenly occurs to me that it would be extremely difficult to conceal myself if I go out there, to a place I've never been and that I don't know. But I really need to know what's going on, so I continue to follow the two girls. Oddly, the castle is empty. Well at least, it seems like it, since I don't see anyone, hear any footsteps or muffled conversations. It worries me more than it reassures me, because it feels like a trap. Could Elane know that I've followed her all the way here? I don't think so, but it's always possible.

I finally reach the room the girls have entered, and finally hear conversations. I delicately push my ear against the metallic door, hoping to hear something more clearly. Then I notice that the door isn't completely closed, there's still a minuscule space between the door and the wall. I press my ear against it, and I can finally hear what's going on. Elane is explaining what has happened in Norta, everything that I already know.