Bibliophile Princess, page 14
“Don’t tell me...” I muttered.
They’d set multiple traps prior to leaving Earl Ralshen’s estate, but they hadn’t even notified their comrade, the duchess. They’d made both groups, the guards and the earl’s supply wagon, think they were transporting Elianna Bernstein. And now, the Bibliophile Princess was...
I groaned despite myself, prompting a satisfied smile from Alexei Strasser that seemed to say, “I tricked you, you fool.”
“Lady Eli has already arrived at the Urma Mines with the cure. Her name will be known all throughout the world, held in such esteem that your master will be powerless to stop it.”
Once someone’s name rose to that kind of notoriety, word of her would spread no matter what we tried to do to stop it, just as the Lady Saint’s reputation had spread through the capital.
Our anger over falling for this trap caused the fighting to resume, but the road was far too narrow, and we were woefully outnumbered and surrounded. No matter how I thought about it, we were the ones who’d walked right into such an unwinnable position. But...I wouldn’t let it end like this.
A strong emotion, like a deep-seated hatred, consumed me, stirring me to action.
Chapter 6: A Messenger at Sunset
“Please!” I begged again, not sure how many times I had offered that desperate prayer.
The mining town of Modzth was in the northern part of Ralshen, at the foot of Mt. Urma. There was a building on the edge of town, which was used as both a shrine and a meeting hall, and the residents, including many who were ill, had barricaded themselves inside. If the main road leading to Modzth was blocked, there would be no other way to get there.
I, Countess Rachel Ralshen, Earl Ralshen’s wife, had been standing in front of a defensive wall composed of all sorts of objects close to all day now, trying to get through.
“Please take down the wall and let the government officials through! I promise to guarantee the safety of your sick. Please! I’m begging you!”
As expected, I heard an angry voice on the other side once again commanding me to leave.
“I don’t know a thing about a countess, but just one of you isn’t gonna save any of our sick! We’ll take food, but we don’t want no empty promises! And until we get guaranteed proof that something will save our sick, the government officials are going down with us!”
I heard gasping and suppressed screams from around me. I somehow managed to stave off my tears and was about to plead once more when the guard behind me stopped me. “Lady Rachel, please. You’ve been at this ever since this morning with no rest. Please take a break.”
I looked around and realized that the sun was already setting—not surprising for this northern territory. I’d left the estate early the previous morning. The snow had stopped, so we’d taken advantage of that to depart under the guise of negotiating with a neighboring territory. We’d had to take the long way here, but my small number of guards and I had met with our supply troops on a separate city road, then rushed here as fast as we could. We didn’t travel around Hersche, but we took the road directly toward the Urma Mines.
Due to the weather, it was nightfall by the time we arrived, so there had been nothing we could do but wait for the morning. I’d been pleading with the people on the other side of the wall ever since the sun had even risen.
My attendant from the estate chimed in from beside me. “Lady Rachel, your voice has been hoarse for some time now. Please, please let’s just wait until the earl arrives.”
She had been my attendant ever since I was a young girl, and I was sure she’d wondered numerous times just what kind of situation I’d married into. She never said it out loud, of course, but ever since I married the earl, I could tell she thought so by the way she acted. Now, however, she wasn’t suppressing it as she had before; it was apparent on her face. She was thinking I’d gotten to this point all because of Earl Ralshen and the problems this land carried with it.
I shook my head at her and my guards. I knew all of them thought I was some helpless person who needed protection, but back then, I’d seen the kind of person I wanted to be.
“I’m not a Havely anymore. I belong to the Ralshen family. I am Carl’s wife, and I’m here because of Ralshen—for the people who live here.”
The Sauslind royal family wouldn’t abandon the people of Ralshen. Elianna had declared it, and I needed to be more like her. She took her duty as the crown prince’s betrothed very seriously.
I might have a long way to go, but I needed to persist to get as close as I could to the convictions I admired. “I am the countess of Ralshen, and I am going to fulfill my responsibilities as such.” That was the promise I had made.
My attendant and my guards didn’t know of the plan that the crown prince’s right-hand man had meticulously devised after careful scrutiny of much information. Only a handful of people at the earl’s estate were made aware of the plan, but if it worked, Carl might not be able to make it here. Before I left the estate, we’d made a promise to each other. “Rachel,” he’d said. “Take care of the people.” His eyes had been full of resolve, knowing he was about to go into danger, so I’d made that promise to him.
I balled my hands into fists with renewed resolve. I would convince them, no matter what it took. Even if they wouldn’t let everyone inside go, I’d at least get them to take down the wall.
I started yelling again, and then suddenly, the man who led the rebellion, who we’d confronted when we arrived last night, appeared. Raqqa Arkto was the representative of the Urma Mines, and he spoke for all the different groups of miners, no matter how great or small. He had power and influence over the town, and very few dared to go against his decisions. In other words, he was the ringleader.
My breath caught in my throat because I had a hunch I wouldn’t be able to convince him. In that case, we would have to force our way through.
As expected, he refused to comply. He didn’t raise his voice, but it dripped with anger. “Countess Rachel Ralshen, is it? Nobles who sit on their high horses like you don’t care about the little people like us. We’re nothing but weeds to you. But I won’t forget. I won’t forget the battlefield forty years ago, and I won’t forget the stench of death that spread throughout our town sixteen years ago.”
His words stabbed through me. His eyes, which didn’t know me, had seen death twice—first in the great war, and then in that city of death.
“It was the same thing forty years ago. I was a young boy, barely ten years of age, but I remember it clear as day. The royal family sent messengers and soldiers who deceived us. They left our town vulnerable to invaders and pillagers all in the name of defending the kingdom. Well, the kingdom abandoned us! I’ve never forgotten the voices of my brothers and sisters as they died. I’ll never forget the ruins of that city.”
I could tell by the subdued tone of his voice that he was filled with hatred and sadness. I had only recently married into this position, so my knowledge of this land’s history was something I had learned but not experienced. Still, these people’s lives depended on me. I told myself I couldn’t falter when I heard him say my name once again, in a tone that suggested he understood my position even better than those around me.
“Countess Ralshen, we need more than just lip service. What we want is the pomelo fruit, something only distributed to the capital. And we want the Lady Saint, because it’s said as long as she exists, we can’t get sick! Bring us the Lady Saint! If the royal family lets us have her, we’ll take down the wall. And then we’ll trust that you actually mean what you say and that they’re not just empty promises!”
As Raqqa Arkto stood on top of the wall, he not only rejected us, the ones who had come to quell the rebellion, but he tried to pin us down from another direction as well. Rumors of this saint had flown around the capital. She was supposedly the daughter of a duke who had ties to the royal family. Even though I was a countess who presided over our own domain, this saint was a person far higher than me.
“But how?” I blurted out.
Raqqa Arkto mercilessly declared, “If you don’t meet our demands, then I’ll toss the government officials in there with the sick, Countess. If you’re the one responsible for this place, then lemme hear another one of your empty promises. Tell me you’ll bring me the Lady Saint!”
I was speechless. He knew that I couldn’t bring the Saint here, and it wasn’t just a problem of transporting her. For example, even if we could bring the esteemed duke’s daughter from the royal capital to this northern mountain town—even if it were possible—was the Saint’s power even real?
The Saint would not leave the royal capital, Saoura, where the nobles and the fortunate people lived. She belonged to the royal family, and she gave her blessings only to the royal capital. Could you even call someone who only helped if it was convenient for her a saint? It was said as long as they had the Lady Saint, they wouldn’t get sick, but what about the people who were ill now, the ones on the verge of death? Who would save them?
The man before me voiced all the doubts in my head. He had discerning eyes, the kind that saw the truth and could not be deceived. “The royal family—and everyone in the upper crust—always deceives us regular folks and manipulates us. They probably think it’s no big deal to abandon disobedient people; there’ll always be more born to replace us, after all. Are our lives really worth that little? Are we really that lowly, that insignificant to you nobles?”
I wanted to tell him no, but the words wouldn’t come out. It seemed even their thoughts had been taken captive by the hopeless plague that was the Ashen Nightmare. Or, perhaps, they had always felt this way. It had never come to the surface, but the people of Ralshen had always distrusted the royal family and the kingdom, and right now, they were just confronting it.
“We won’t compromise. Unless we see something that will absolutely cure our sick, everyone else is coming down with us!”
I caught a glimpse of the desperate resolve people had only when they were backed into a corner.
“Anyway,” Raqqa continued with sarcasm, “you nobles would prefer if us rebels and our sick just died all at once! It’d be more convenient for you!”
“That’s not true...” I protested, but honestly, I wasn’t sure what to do. Raqqa and those who had experienced the great war and the sickness had already made up their minds. I frantically tried to think of something else I could do, but then I heard angry voices among my guards.
“Lady Rachel. Nothing else you say will get through to them. Some of the government officials they are holding captive were dispatched by the kingdom. If we can’t free them from the rebels and guarantee their safety, Ralshen will be seen as rebelling against the kingdom.”
The rebels would no longer be regarded as an isolated group; the whole of Ralshen would be viewed as revolting against the kingdom.
“Wait... Everyone please calm down!” I tried to hold back the soldiers, but most of them had their hands on their swords and were ready to fight. They were staring down the residents of Modzth, who were armed with hammers and pickaxes.
As I watched this scene unfold, I desperately tried to figure out what I should do, but I was wholly unprepared for such a thing and on the verge of tears. Nonetheless, Carl had entrusted this duty to me. I had to do something on my own. I’d promised him and come all this way!
“Please, everyone calm down!”
If the soldiers drew their weapons against our citizens, it would all be over. My husband had fought hard to avoid this very thing from happening, and I frantically tried to hold my soldiers back, but then I saw the glint of swords being drawn. I despaired as I stood in their way, a mass of emotions swirling inside of me.
For some reason, I felt my attention being drawn to the sky, tinged with the colors of sunset and clouded with snow. It was the strangest mixture of colors. Then all of a sudden, I realized why my eye had been drawn to it. I saw a flare spreading across the sky and then heard a loud noise. It was an emergency signal in towns across the realm and was loud enough that the sound could travel over several neighboring towns. The explosion was so powerful that the color of it could be seen from far away. It was a color I hadn’t seen in some time—a clear blue.
“Huh...?” I murmured, and I could tell everyone around me was staring at it too.
“An emergency flare...? Who could have set it off?”
When there was an emergency, the color was red, but this one was blue, the color signaling to neighboring towns far and wide that there was a larger crisis at hand. Who would have sent that?
Confusion spread throughout the area. Just then, I heard the sound of hoofbeats and the high-pitched whinnies of horses. Several people on horseback were coming straight this way. The moment I spotted them, they galloped right to us in a flash. I flinched, squeezing my eyes shut. I could feel the heat and the presence of the horses, even the sound of their ragged breaths—that’s how close they were.
A clear voice rang out from above. “People of Modzth and the Urma Mines, I urge you to please calm down.”
I could tell by the way she panted that she had raced here in a hurry, yet her voice was quiet and calm. I looked up and saw two small figures on horseback, surrounded by a glow from the light in the sky behind them. Although the owner of the voice was small, she had a commanding presence.
“Who are you?” Raqqa Arkto asked in a suspicious tone, but she spoke so clearly, so strongly, that not even he could make her falter.
The ones most surprised by what she said next were us—the people who’d come from the earl’s estate.
“I am Elianna Bernstein.”
Confused murmurs rose from the crowd. Some citizens asked, “Who?” but then realized this was the crown prince’s fiancée. The guards and I could do nothing but look up in shock, of course. Her name had been whispered so quietly because supposedly she was on her way to deliver the treatment for the Ashen Nightmare to His Majesty at the capital. Or at least, that was what I had heard. So why would she be here in this cloistered mountain town, full of rebels and the sick?
“Don’t lie!” Raqqa Arkto spat in a deep voice, his words rife with emotion. Since he was standing on top of the wall, he was at eye level with those on horseback. “That’s impossible! As if anyone would believe you! I heard the crown prince’s fiancée, Elianna Bernstein, had run away! She ran because she was afraid of the Ashen Nightmare. She’s no different than all the other people who have abandoned Ralshen and the sick! No one’s gonna believe you!” His body shook with anger.
The miners around us raised their voices in assent. “We won’t believe you! Show us some proof!” they yelled.
I was thinking the same thing myself, to be honest. After all, my beloved Carl and Lord Alexei had acted as a diversion so she could escape to the capital. That was why I had come here to quell the rebels.
As I stared up at her, she reached for the cloth tied around her head and released it.
Sunset only lasted for a short time up here in the northern territory, but by some miracle, the snow had stopped just long enough for the rays of the setting sun to show through the clouds. The girl released her braided hair, its locks flowing in the wind. The platinum blonde color was practically translucent, picking up all the color of the sunset as it billowed in waves. It almost looked like a heartbeat, the symbol of life itself.
Her voice echoed with such intensity it seemed it could stir the frozen people of this town—the ones who had closed themselves tightly away in this chilly landscape—and awaken the ones who lay sleeping. It was a voice so firm and certain it could shake the air itself.
“I am Elianna Bernstein, fiancée of the crown prince of the kingdom of Sauslind. I have come here to Modzth in the name of the Sauslind royal family to save those of you who are sick. Rebels, I order you to immediately lay down your weapons and let us through!”
Her voice cut through the winter sunset, signaling the beginning of something very important.
~.~.~.~
Silence lasted for a few moments, then the people began to stir, beginning with the citizens of Modzth, whom I, Elianna Bernstein, had faced off against. I could hear the people’s confusion coming from the gaps in the wall. Several of them were expressing doubts, in voices so small it was hard to believe they were coming from muscular miners hefting large pickaxes.
“If you’re the crown prince’s fiancée...are you gonna save my family? How?” a weak voice asked, clinging onto hope from within the depths of despair. I’d heard that same plea before, from people in Hersche whose families were stricken with the plague.
“Is it true?” another asked, lowering their pickax and taking a step forward. “Will you really save us?”
“Please save my family,” another murmured, and gradually I heard echoes all around me asking the same thing.
All of a sudden, I heard a noise, like something heavy striking another object. It was loud and fearsome. The man, whom I assumed was the leader of the rebels, had struck his stone hammer against the wall by his feet.
“You’re the crown prince’s fiancée? Ha! You look like some sheltered little rich girl. Here you are, just bursting in and making big claims about saving us, but this is a nest full of people sick with the plague! Do you have any idea what that means?”
“Yes, I do,” I replied immediately, and the man scowled at me. However, it didn’t seem to be out of malice, but more that he was trying to suppress his emotions.
“You might catch it. You still know what that means?” he asked.
Ever since it was confirmed that the Ashen Nightmare had returned, I’d often thought about the incident sixteen years ago. Many people had been infected with the illness and died from it—children and adults, soldiers and nobles...and my own mother. Many people had lost their loved ones, and they had probably been consumed by fear, wondering if they had been the cause of their loved one’s death. “Maybe I caught the illness somewhere and infected them? What if I’m sick too? What if—?”
