Anya

Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Demyan began walking up the corridor, he was meeting with his younger brother to go over some notes about the Pepino faction. Ivan was the ambassador for the faction with their sister Feodora. 

   Feodora has been at every other meeting in the past but she has been bed-ridden since the previous week so Demyan told her to just stay at home. 

   Since Anya had been gone, Demyan had postponed every meeting so he could not tell her off for missing one meeting but he could not carry this on. The Kingdom still carried on and so should he. Anya would be home soon, his wife was sure of it and so was he.  

   His father has been giving him more responsibilities the past few years and one of them as to hold the fortnightly meetings on the Factions and this past week just happened to be the week when they were all originally scheduled. His father as furious enough, but to miss the meetings he re-scheduled would only make his father angrier and Demyan had been avoiding him as much as possible recently so another run in with him would only make Demyan say something he will regret in the future. He did not have his daughter's impulsive nature but he did have her anger. They both knew how to place that anger into other projects but when it was ignited, well nobody had better get in their way because they would get the full force of it.

   He pressed his hand against the door to go through when he heard running coming down the corridor behind him. "Prince Demyan! Prince Demyan!"

   Demyan turned around on his heel and faced the guard. He waited while he ran down the long corridor that ran the length of the east side of the palace. The huge windows caught every sunrise that came with every morning. "And what warrants you running through the corridors like that?" Demyan asked, clearly not amused.

   “I am sorry Sir, but this is important.” He panted. Demyan waited for him to carry on. “I have just seen Princess Anya with a male and the male was carrying what appeared to be a body.”

   Demyan did not know what to think. What did he mean that he had seen Anya? He was under strict rules by his wife not to approach them. “Where are they?” His curiosity was still peaked and it was his first born.

   All thoughts of a meeting with Ivan had flown out of the window. All he cared about was getting as much information out of this guard as he possibly could.

   He staggered to underneath the window and sat down. His knees were jittering in nervousness. He had not seen his daughter in over a week and despite being reassured over her safety from his wife, they never knew for sure. Apart from that little tiff she had with the guards there had been no sight of her and the relief that left his lungs was an immense feeling that had left him unable to sit still.

   “I saw them at the bottom of the hill on the South side. They appeared to be heading this way.”

      Demyan concealed the smile he wanted to show. “They appeared?” He pushed.

      “I did not approach them. I am under strict command from Princess Katerina not to go near her so I believed the best thing I could do was come to you so that you were not as surprised when she did turn up.”

   Demyan nodded his head, telling the guard that he had done the right thing in coming to him first.

   Demyan mused on the guards words. He understood straight away and was proud that the guard had not approached them. He also knew that the guard knew better than to approach the man who is following his daughter.

   “And do you know anything about this man who was with my daughter?” Demyan asked.

      The guard shook his head. “I do not. He was tall and was carrying the body, which could possibly be dead, but apart from that nothing. He was wearing a scruffy cloak that was torn at the bottom though.”