The Lost Heir I: The Queen

Introduction

The woman held the baby to her chest, and ran as fast as her feet let her. The palace sentinel’s screams were getting closer and closer, no matter how hard she tried to get as far from them as possible. Her lungs were burning from the lack of air, her naked feet were bleeding and swollen, her legs full of scratches. The cold was passing through the thin material of her nightgown, transforming her frantic breathing into mist.

The night was darker than ever, and the trees seemed to multiply with every step she gave. She knew she could not take it any longer. She was tired and wounded. They were going to get her and kill the baby.
She stopped behind a massive tree and looked around, and could only see the shades of the branches close to her head, but beyond that there was only black, the deepest night she had ever seen, the dark claws of the shadows devouring slowly everything as the forest got denser.

They were going to get caught. There was no more time, no place to hide, no way of escaping from the baby’s executioners. The maid stared down at the newborn resting peacefully on her arms, sleeping oblivious of the imminent danger, of the Death closing in on them, eager to strike its fury upon them. Her eyes filled with tears when she thought about her own children, waiting for their mother, lonely and hungry, crying for her. The woman looked up to the sky, and asked for forgiveness.

She had really tried, she had. She did everything on her power, but she was just a maid.

She cried for mercy for what she was about to do. She begged for the Gods’ clemency, while –shaking- started to put the baby down. As carefully as she could she let the child over the trees’ roots, and then prayed some more. With quivering legs, she started to walk away from the tree, from the infant wrapped on that paper-thin sheet. Her heart tightened, but she continued to back away out of the sentinels range, and that was away from wherever that baby was. That’s who they wanted, not her.

Out of nowhere the face of her Mistress came to her mind. What would she think of her in that moment, that she was letting her child to die? She started to shook in fear just thinking about it, even knowing that Mistress was dead. She had failed her and her purpose to serve and protect the Royal Family. She had failed her Queen and the Gods, and sooner or later she would pay for her sin. She was escaping from one death and running to another one, but just the thought of being at the sentinel’s mercy was enough to scare her away. She’d rather face the Gods’ wrath.

So the maid left, and the baby, the princess and first heir to the throne of the Four Kingdoms kept sleeping, even at the cold feeling of a sharp edge on her tiny neck. Her eyes were still close, even at the storm forming on the highest domains of the sky and her father’s rage struck upon Earth in vengeance. The war had just begin.

To be continued…