Astra Forthin's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

By dawn they reached a low cave mouth. A shallow stream ran across its front. Luna crouched and drank from the water. Astra sank against the cold stone. Her legs ached from the night's walk. She still wore the stablehand's brown wool. The diadem pressed hard in her sleeve. "Rest here," Luna said. "The pack won't track us to water this fast." But Luna's ears turned. She went still. Then Astra heard it too. Voices, down the slope. Hooves on wet ground. A patrol. Luna pulled her deeper into the cave. They pressed flat against the stone. Through the low opening Astra watched two riders stop at the stream. Border men. One held a rolled paper. He read it aloud to the other. "Astra Forthin. Traitor to the crown. Long brown hair. Blue eyes. A silver crown. Take her alive." Astra's breath caught. Her father's words had reached even here. If they found her, they would drag her back in chains. Everything she had built would end before it began. The first rider swung down. He walked toward the cave. His boots splashed in the stream. Luna's hand closed on Astra's wrist. "Stay," she breathed. "I'll lead them off." "No." Astra held her fast. A plan formed cold and quick. "Give me your cloak." Luna wore a rugged brown hide cloak over her tunic. She unclasped it without asking why. Astra pulled it around her shoulders. She raised the hood. Her brown hair vanished. She tugged the diadem from her sleeve and buried it deep in the mud at her feet. The rider reached the cave mouth. He peered into the dark. Astra stepped forward before he could look close. She hunched her shoulders and roughened her voice. "Trapper's shelter, sir. My man and me. We seen no woman." The hood hid her eyes. The cloak hid her robes. She looked like nothing worth the crown's gold. The rider frowned. "You seen anyone pass? A woman, fine-dressed?" "No one, sir. Only wolves in the night." Behind her, Luna let a low growl rise from her throat. It rolled through the cave like a real beast. The rider stepped back. His hand went to his horse. "Wolf country," he muttered. He mounted and turned. "Nothing here." The two riders rode up the slope. The hoofbeats faded. The stream ran quiet again. Astra let out her breath. Her hands shook. She pulled the hood back and dug the diadem from the mud. It was scratched now, dull with dirt. "They'll ride the whole border," Luna said. "Every post has your face." "Then I stop looking like my face." Astra clutched the muddy crown. She could not wear it. Not while she lived as a traitor with a price on her head. Luna took the diadem from her hand and slid it into her pack. "Keep it hidden. You'll wear it when it means something." Astra nodded. She was hunted now, and no longer a princess anyone would know. To take the throne, she would first have to disappear.