Astra Forthin's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Astra waited until the palace slept. The guards at her door changed at the second bell, and the new pair drank the wine she had left them. She stepped past their slumped shoulders and moved through the servants' passage. Her red robes were folded in a satchel. She wore a stablehand's brown wool instead. The diadem stayed hidden in her sleeve. She had one night to reach Luna before her father named her a traitor by morning. The black stone guard station stood at the outer wall. Torches burned in its narrow windows. She could not pass it dressed as herself, and she could not pass it dressed as a servant without a token. She crouched behind the woodpile and watched the sentries change. Two men. One yawning. The other counting coins from his palm to his pocket. She had mapped this post for two years. She knew the counting one. He owed a wine merchant more than he earned in a season. She stepped into the torchlight and showed him a gold coin between two fingers. His hand closed on it before his mouth opened. "Kitchen errand," she said. "South gate. I come back before dawn." He looked at her face. He knew it. His jaw tightened. "Princess." "A second coin if you forget the first." He took the second coin. He opened the small door beside the gate and turned his back. She ran. The eastern ridge lay an hour on foot. She kept to the tree line. Luna had told her once where the pack's scouts watched the border. Astra reached the flat stone by the second stream and waited. Her breath fogged. Her hands would not stop shaking. A branch snapped behind her. She turned. Luna stepped out of the dark. Grey ears flat. Yellow eyes bright. She wore her deer hide tunic and her boots were wet to the ankle. She had been running too. "You're bleeding," Luna said. Astra looked at her palm. She had cut it on the wall and not noticed. "It's nothing." "You came alone." Luna's voice did not rise. "That means it's bad." "Damion gave me to my father. My father searched my rooms. He'll come back." Astra swallowed. "I need somewhere the guard cannot reach. I need you." Luna closed the distance and took her wrist. Her grip was warm. "Then you have me," Luna said. "My father won't like it. I don't care." "Your pack—" "Will follow the alpha or follow me. We'll see which." Luna pulled her toward the trees. "Move. The scouts change at third bell." Astra went. Behind her, the palace lights were small and yellow through the branches. Ahead was a wolf's daughter and a fight she had not planned for. The guard at the gate had her name and two gold coins. By sunrise he would sell both. She had bought hours, not days. But she had Luna. That was more than she had walked out with.