THE NORTHERN KING

The sun, how much she hated the sun, but she appreciated being able to return to the capital.

Her father—sire John Willowbrook, the lord of the silverstrand, one of the richest empires on the continent. Had asked her to hurry up the marriage and provide him a grandchild soon enough. She couldn't wait to get back to Ebonspire—the capital of the empire.

She didn't want to miss the king games, edric had promised her that he was going to officially ask his father to dissolve his marriage to his brother and make her his as his wish when he won.

But being on horse back for three nights in the company of her male guards and a single handmaiden, she had begun to question her sanity.

She wanted to be touched by her lover again, but that had to wait as the shouts and screams of her guards drew her attention.

Catelyn turned in horror as she saw an arrow sticking out of the man's head. She screamed and fell off her horse, before her hand maiden could come to her side, another arrow flew by, taking another guard.

The horses surged out of control, throwing some guards off them and galloping away, one of the unlucky guards was caught in the stampede as his head was crushed under the foot of one of the horses, splashing blood and brain tissue all over catylen's face.

She had frozen in horror as the captain of the guards force employed by her father to protect her pulled her by the arm, lifting her off her feet.

“My lady, you have to come with me” he pleaded “and I apologize in advance” he added as he grabbed her by the waist, throwing her over his shoulder and made for the wood with the other guards and her hand maiden behind them.

More arrows flew past them as the voice of their pursuer grew louder, the captain, who wore a helmet on his head hiding his face, continued his run without showing any sign of weariness.

Few at times, some of the arrows find their mark, claiming the life of another guard as the body clade in armor drops to the ground. Catylen couldn't control her breath, she was grateful that the captain chose to carry her because she was very sure she won't have been able to walk or run-on her own

The tree grew sparse, from the way the captain clicked his tongue, catylen knew it wasn't a good thing. She wasn't an expert marksman, but she knew that the trees blocking them was the only reason she had not been hit by an arrow

The captain made a couple of turns trying to throw their pursuers off their back. But all efforts were proven futile, when catylen thought it wasn't going to get any worse, they came at the swallowing river.

The large, fast flowing river known for its difficulty to cross even by experts. It was truly impossible to cross, so here she was between a swallowing river or a killing arrow.

Soon her pursuers came into sight, they wore red amours with a dragon breathing fire sigil. Catylen was proud of her knowledge of mastering all the sigils of every notable house and who their alliance was with, but she had never come across one with a dragon sigil before.

Finally, one of the men spoke as he lowered his cross bow.

“Damn it” the captain swore, as he had already figured out what catylen was going to figure out in a few seconds after, the reason their pursuers never drew too close and shot from a distance was because they were leading them towards the river.

It was a game to them from the very beginning, she felt her feet touch the ground as the captain dropped her to her feet and stood in front of her, drawing his sword.

One of the red clade knight simply walked out of the crowd, dropping his cross bow, “young knight” he called out,“ we have no interest in you, we only want her” he said as he pointed to catylen behind him.

“Think about it, the odds are not in your favour” he added in hopes to convince the knight to back down.

The young captain swallowed hard and tightened his grip around his blade, “we are a company escorting a guest of the king we ask that you return, and we will forget this whole situation.”

“Who told you're in any position to give out demands?” The red man asked

“Who cares about a king two days away from here? Before he would find out you are already a corpse” he said as he eyed catylen “a beautiful corpse I must add.”

“My—my father will pay you, whatever your price is? Please, I swear on all the gods to—” before catylen could finish her statement, the red men groaned and shrieked like they were possessed.

“Now you have done it,” the man said as he lifted his bow and released the arrow heading for catylen.

“My lady” her handmaiden cried as she stood in front of her, catylen closed her eyes but felt no pain, she slowly opened her eyes to see her handmaiden in front of her.

Her eyes had rolled back, and she now rested on catylen's body with an arrow in her back, blood stained catylen's silver dress as she fell with the maiden screaming.

“Oh come on princess it is but a little blood” the red man laughed but stopped immediately, “kill them all! If she doesn't make it, we will have to do with her dead body” he called out as they released a rain of arrows at the remaining guard.