Masters of the Sea

014

"Hoya?"

Sol was in shock at the discovery of who it was lying there in the stream, blood still flowing from his open wounds.

"P-p-princess?" Hoya's eyelids fluttered slightly, barely opening a crack. In his semi-conscious state, he could vaguely make out Sol's face, a face he would never have expected to see again. "Am I dead?" he murmured, convinced that he was probably in heaven—or perhaps hell.

"Hoya, don't go to sleep!" Sol urged, using the water from the stream to wash the dirt off his face and keep her conscious. "I'm going to get you to a physician. You'll be fine, I promise." She slung his right arm loosely over her shoulders and tried to lift him off the ground. "You're going to have to help me a little, or we'll never back it back to the city in time!"

Mustering whatever strength he could find, Hoya said, "I can't go back there... They'll be looking for me..."

Sol had many questions running through her mind but she knew that now wasn't the time for asking. She needed to get Hoya somewhere safe, where she could take a closer look at his injuries and figure out how to keep him alive. Judging from his dire state and the brand on the back of his hand, it was obvious to her that he was a man on the run.

If Hoya says we can't go back to the city, then I'll have to take him somewhere else...

It took Sol some effort and time before she finally chanced upon an abandoned temple lying in a clearing in the woods. Once they were inside, she quickly lit a fire and helped Hoya dry off his clothes. Along the way, she had picked up a couple of basic herbs that she knew would be effective enough for stopping the blood flow—she could only hope that it would keep Hoya alive for long enough so that she could get proper medical help.

Riding swiftly on her steed, Sol took an hour or so to ride to the nearest village to retrieve some proper healing balm from a physician. By the time she returned to the temple, Hoya had already regained his consciousness and was sitting in front of the fire, his face still looking a ghastly shade of pale.

"It's really you, princess. For a moment I thought I was dead..." Hoya mumbled when he saw her enter. His words were brief, but Sol could sense the relief in his voice when he spoke.

"What happened to you? I thought you went back to Baekje!" Sol said, her voice tinged with sympathy as she looked upon his sorry state. She sat down beside him, handing him the medicinal balm she had just brought back.

Hoya shook his head. "We were ambushed in the forest when we were..." his voice trailed off. Sol had not been told anything about the king's plans to capture the Oracle and bring her back to Baekje, and as a White Knight, he knew better than to let some secrets out of the bag. "Sunghyun and I were out riding in the forest when we were ambushed. The king of Goguryeo believes that we mean to bring harm unto his kingdom, and ordered his Black Knights to have us captured. When I awoke, I was already locked in the Goguryeo dungeons."

Sol looked confused by his story. "How could that be? You were sent to Goguryeo as part of my wedding entourage, to protect me on the voyage here! The king has no grounds to suspect you of anything!" she huffed, annoyed that her own men had been subject to such distrust. "If you were captured, how did Sunghyun get away then? Why didn't he say anything about this!"

"He escaped? You've seen him?" Hoya's eyes lit up at the sound of this news.

Sol nodded. "He sailed back with the others to Baekje the day after the wedding ceremony. I sent them off myself. He looked perfectly fine and he didn't mention anything about any ambush..."

Hoya frowned, pondering over the princess's words. I'm pretty certain that Sunghyun took an arrow to the chest that night... Could it be that he managed to escape and flee back to the others? If so, why is it that they haven't come for me? Do they even know that I'm still alive? The only conclusion that could be made was that Sunghyun had somehow managed to escape the attack that had rendered Hoya a prisoner, and he had now returned back to Baekje with the other knights to plan their next move. He probably hadn't told the princess anything because he didn't want her to worry unnecessarily—or worse, confront the king of Goguryeo herself.