Meanwhile, Silverbell was waiting for Hollyberry's arrival from her balcony. It had been hours, and since Hollyberry wasn't the type to break a promise she was growing very worried. Of course his delayed arrival was because of his decision to walk back to the palace, or so the carriage driver said, but it shouldn't have taken him this long to arrive. After all the wedding was supposed to be in another hour and she knew how much he had been looking forward to it. Almost as much as her, if not as much, in fact.
"Four hours and nothing..." She said to herself; she then made a decision: "Guards, form a search party we have to find Hollyberry!" She said to the two guards below.
The guards collected other guards, and worked out which areas to search. One group was going to search the roads while the other, bigger, group was going to search the woods. Silverbell then got an idea that might shorten the search length. She headed to the orchard...
Clara was getting spruced up. Obviously she didn't know about Hollyberry's trip let alone his delayed arrival.
"Clara!" Silverbell ran up to her.
"Well hi there princess!" Clara smiled; she then noticed Silverbell's nervous look. "Wedding jitters?"
"No, more like 'the groom hasn't arrived yet' jitters." Silverbell corrected.
"What?" Clara was surprised.
Silverbell quickly explained.
"I need you to fly ahead, see if you can spot him from the air." Silverbell added. "Please."
"Don't have to ask twice love, Hollyberry's as much my friend as he is yours." Clara said determinedly.
Clara flew off, Silverbell trying to catch up but failing. She did manage to arrive before the guards started to leave though. Which was good, she had decided to stay in the front/middle of both search parties, watching Clara's flight pattern the entire way.
Both search parties searched for a few minutes, when Silverbell noticed Clara suddenly veering towards the woods. She grew even more worried upon seeing how fast Clara was flying.
"Guards! This way!" She called out, running towards where Clara had veered.
That's when she saw a horrible sight.
"No!" She gasped.
Hollyberry was laying on his stomach in a small pool of blood! He was unconscious, not moving at all, and had one arm around a medium-sized package. Clara was trying to wake Hollyberry up.
"He's still alive love, but barely." Clara said, tears in her eyes.
"Who could do such a terrible thing?" Silverbell formed her own tears as she knelt near Hollyberry.
"Beats me." Clara sighed.
The guards arrived and were shocked upon seeing Hollyberry mortally wounded. There was no need for orders, the guards instantly and gently picked up Hollyberry and started to carry him back to the palace. Well not all the guards, a few noticed a thin trail of blood that led to where Hollyberry had lain and decided to follow it to where he had been apparently been stabbed. They hoped to find some sort of clue that would lead them to the culprit.
At the palace, the royal doctor Medico stitched Hollyberry up, but that was all he could do.
"I'm afraid there's nothing more any of us can do at the moment." Medico shook his head sadly. "What he needs now is to rest. Tomorrow you can try feeding him some soup, to keep his strength up. But I'm afraid he might not make it through the night."
"Don't say that!" Silverbell snapped, startling Medico. "I'm sorry, it's just..." She started sobbing. "He can't...he's my..." She suddenly calmed down. "No, he'll be fine, to me it's still Christmas and Christmas always brings miracles."
"And Hollyberry will need one tonight." Medico hung his head.
Silverbell had Hollyberry brought into her room so that he could lay down on their new bed. It had arrived just yesterday, though Hollyberry didn't know about it yet. It was supposed to be a surprise.
After Hollyberry was gently tucked in Silverbell pulled a chair to the bed so that she could remain near him. She held his hand and watched him sleep until she fell asleep as well.
The next morning, to her relief, she woke up to find Hollyberry still breathing. But that was it. No movements.