Chapter 4

The Escape

A few days of deliberation passed before the princess decided to leave the castle for good. Her months of careful planning were to be put to the test. She would leave the ruin of a castle and look elsewhere for adventure.

That night Relena ate her final meal with her parents and on wishing them goodnight found herself making it heartfelt because it was. The monarchs had never really been cruel, Relena decided. Simply old fashioned. Relena hated the old ways and wanted something to change in what her parents had called "an ever changing world." Relena couldn't understand why her parents were so against change when they clearly recognized their world as changing. The only cultures that survive are the ones that change, Relena thought. With that, the princess Relena looked at her parents a final time and strode out the doorway.

Relena waited in her darkened room until she was sure that the castle was sleeping. She quietly gathered her things from under her bed and changed into her outdoor wear. She crept to the door and pushed it open. It was no longer locked because she had proven herself worthy of her parent's trust. Relena snickered at that idea. She was glad however that she didn't have to use her gift in order to escape. She didn't have the time to deal with the side effects.

The hooded girl carefully made it down to the main floor of the castle and then silently headed towards Jymon's quarters. Since the day she had found it she had retraced her steps so that she could have done it blindfolded. At that moment that was what it felt like. There were no lanterns lighting that part of the hallway and no windows to let moonlight in. Relena ran her hand along the wall to overcome the vertigo caused by the absolute darkness.

Relena rounded the final curve and breathed a sigh of relief as her hands passed over the old tapestry. She set her traveling things down and flipped the switch behind the wall hanging. The door leading to Jymon's quarters creaked open. Beyond it lay darkness. Relena took a deep breath and entered the passageway.

Emerging from the darkened passage, the princess was almost blinded by the bright lanterns. Relena let her eyes adjust to the sudden glare and then took stock of her situation. Relena was mildly surprised with the room she found herself in. She had always expected Jymon's dwelling to be covered with cobwebs and shelves filled with strange body parts and spell books littering the table tops. Instead she looked on at a plain room with a small desk and chair and a shelf filled with only slightly dusty books. On closer inspection Relena found the books to be simple science and mathematical transcripts. On the desk were ink, a quill, and parchment. Relena simply shrugged and took to looking for her necklace.

After searching through every book and drawer Relena admitted to herself that the necklace was not in the small study. The only other place it could be was in Jymon's bedroom. Relena swallowed back the rising fear and then took a purposeful step toward the door that led to Jymon's sleeping chamber.

Luckily the door was unlocked. There was only a slight click as Relena wrestled with the opening mechanism. Then she was in. Relena again let her eyes adjust, this time to the lack a light. Soft snoring sounds came from the corner of the room where she assumed his bed was. Her feet made no sound as they padded across the chamber, but Relena was afraid that the loud beating of her heart would give her away.

The she saw it. The necklace was hanging off the bedpost. Relena smiled with relief at finding it so easily. She slunk forward and gently removed the necklace from its place. She secured the chain around her neck and backed out of the room. The door closed quietly behind her and then she was off. Relena ran to the opening and dashed out into the hall. She scooped up her gear and then raced to the entryway of the castle.

Exiting the castle was easy because Relena had memorized long ago the movements of the guards. She could have predicted where each guard was every second of the night shift.

Relena had cleverly rigged a wooden plank between the edges of the moat one night so that when she escaped she would not have to swim the moat and risk being too cold to run any further. When Relena reached her plank however she was disappointed to find that one of the edges had slipped down off her side of the bank and was now under water. The board came out of the water three feet from Relena's side, but was still supported on the other side. Relena carefully weighed her options and then jumped. One foot landed neatly on the inclined board, but the other slipped on the edge and went under water. Relena quickly pulled her foot out of the water, but her leg was soaked from the knee down.

When Relena reached the other side of the moat, after walking up the treacherously unstable board, she sat down. Her wet leg was covered in mud and slime from the water. She sighed impatiently at the discomfort and then got to her feet again. She looked back at the castle one last time and then ran for the opening in the valley wall.

Relena ran for what seemed like ages. She had long since passed the open plains of the valley and was now in the dense forest. To anyone else the dark forest would have been a nightmare place. Strange cries rent the night and unearthly shadows filled every corner. To Relena it was perfect. It was just the place to hide if by some chance someone at the castle had noticed her disappearance. They will never be able to find me now, she thought.

It was another two hours before the exhausted Relena reached the boulders blocking her escape route. She tied her gear to her back with some cord she had brought in order to free her hands as she climbed. As Relena approached the rocks she found them to be more massive than she had thought. She put aside her fears though at went to climbing with a will.

Relena could almost taste her freedom as she scrambled up the rocks and urged her hands and feet to move faster. This however was difficult because her weary body was having trouble as it was trying to scale the boulders. Her hands slipped on the smooth rock surface and her legs couldn't give her the leverage she needed. After climbing a few more inches she put her cheek against the rock and rested. She glanced up and found herself a long way from the top of the two boulders that were stacked on top of each other. Relena's will to continue pushed her to greater limits though and she continued to climb several inches at a time.

By the time she had reached the top of one boulder and had found a narrow ledge to perch on Relena's arms and legs were quivering with the exertion. She didn't know how she would ever be able to climb up the next massive rock, so she decided to take a brief rest to relax her tired muscles.

Relena awoke to the sound of her name being called. At first she thought she was at home being woken by one of the servants. Then she looked down and almost fell off the ledge. She had fallen asleep sitting on the ledge and morning had snuck up on her. A wild panic gripped her and she struggled around and began to climb the second boulder. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt her fingernails ripping as she struggled up the rock. One of her feet slipped and she felt a searing pain and knew her shin was skinned badly. She continued upward though and through her panic and the rush of adrenaline she made it to the top and saw a vertical drop below her. She stood atop the boulder and braced her torn hands against the sides of the opening and looked down again. It was a long way down. She looked at the sides and was faced with rock walls no person could scale. It was much too high to jump without seriously hurting herself. Relena knew that she couldn't stay up so high. Anyone looking for her would see her in an instant. Then Relena felt the warmth of the stone pressing against her chest. She took a deep breath and let go.

Relena was falling. The wind whipped by her face and the rock strewn ground loomed closer. Relena seemed to see her fall in slow motion. Then speed returned to normal and she was faced with life or death. She just hoped that she had the strength to save herself. Her gift kicked in at the last moment and held her, suspended an inch above the dagger like rocks. Then Relena collapsed and fell to the ground. Her left side felt like it was on fire as she tried to pick herself up from the debris she had landed in. She cried out as she tried to put weight on the scraped leg. She looked down at it and found it to be much worse than she thought. Her whole leg was covered in warm sticky blood.

Relena's thoughts turned abruptly towards her escape when she looked up and saw the river beyond the walls. She half hopped, half dragged herself the last hundred feet through the narrow canyon. She could hardly believe it when she looked out and saw that she had made it. She had actually made it!

The swim across the river was anything but pleasant but Relena was too hurt, too tired, and too ecstatic to care. She was free! She giggled with delight as her feet touched the opposite bank of the river. She had luckily come to a part of the river that was smooth and tranquil. Relena felt completely refreshed by the cold water and yet completely exhausted. She sighed as she pulled herself up on the grass and stretched out. Relena knew she couldn't stay there because eventually some bright person would think to check for her outside the valley.

Relena struggled to her feet and smiled with sheer delight. She turned to continue her escape through the forest that had still survived outside the valley. What she saw standing by the first thick group of trees turned her blood to ice. She whimpered quietly and then ran like she had never run before. Sunken black eyes followed her movement. Within a second Jymon was chasing after the fleeing princess.