I exhaled. An enormous weight lifted from my shoulders. Urek was dead.
Marc stood silently over his body while Henrik fought the two remaining guards. He reared his sword back and forth, but the men no longer looked confident. They were backing away from Henrik. Marc snapped out of his daze and helped his brother fight off the last of the men.
More hooves stomped in the distance.
A group of soldiers—at least eight of them—rode toward us on horseback.
“Shit,” Henrik said. “They’re never going to stop coming.”
“They’re not.” Marc grabbed the reins of one of the guard’s horses. “Here, take Mila and go.”
“Marc, there’s a small army coming,” Henrik said. “We have to get out of here. All of us.”
“I’ll distract them so you can take Mila and go,” Marc said.
“No!” I screamed. “You can’t fight all those men! Not by yourself! We can help you. Please, let us help you.”
Marc shook his head. “You are too important, Mila.” He kissed me quickly. “I love you. Now go.” He turned to Henrik and hugged him. “Keep her safe. Do you hear me? Remember what I said.”
“Marc—” Henrik started.
“Remember what I said! It’s our only chance! Go!” Marc grabbed his sword and ran at the oncoming men.
Henrik lifted me onto the horse and jumped on behind me.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. “We have to help him. We can’t leave!”
“We have to go.” Henrik dug his heels into the horse’s sides. “Marc’s right; you’re too important. You’re the heir, Mila. We have to keep you safe.”
Henrik and I ran away from the central square. Away from the battle. Away from the eight men converging around Marc.
Henrik veered the horse down a narrow alley and took another sharp turn. I recognized the street, and soon the familiar green sign came into view. Henrik stopped the horse in front of the blacksmith shop. He hopped off and quickly pulled me down.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Why are we at your old house?”
“Hurry; get inside before anyone sees us.” Henrik led the horse and me into the shop. He walked the mare through the room to the open area outside, where Henrik and his family forged metal for the weapons they made. Henrik tied the horse to a post.
The blacksmith’s shop had been destroyed. The Crown had performed a thorough search of the Sýkora home. Shelves had been knocked down. Chairs overturned. Dishes shattered. The giant wooden table that sat in the middle of the room had been split in half by an axe—the sharp, gleaming tool still protruded through the wood.
Henrik pushed a corner shelf aside and kicked away an old rug on the floor. His bandaged fingers dug at the boards until one came loose. I knelt down beside him as he pulled out the contents of his secret hiding spot beneath the floor.
It was a stash of weapons. Not many, but a handful of knives, daggers, and a small velvet sack containing a few coins. He also pulled up a bundle of material—dark cloaks.
“We need these supplies to get back to Kladno?” I asked.
“Mila, put this cloak on.”
“Why do I need a cloak? Everyone knows who I am.”
Henrik stood and slipped on the heavy fabric. He extended his hand to help me up from my knees. “We’re not going to Kladno.”
“Then where are we going?”
“And we can’t go back to help Marc fight because we have to do something first. You and I.”
“Do what? What’s going on, Henrik?”
Henrik sighed. “We have to break into Prague Castle.”
Chapter Twenty-two
I blinked. “What? The castle? Why?”
“Marc wants us to—”
“Sneak into the Treasury keep,” I said quietly. The moment Henrik mentioned the castle I knew exactly what Marc wanted us to do.
“Marc told me on the bridge if we could get away, we’d have to get to the castle. Everything is changed now. Radek essentially placed a bounty on your head by telling the kingdom you were the heir.”
“We have to safeguard the only proof I have to my claim to the throne,” I said.
“Before someone in the castle destroys it,” Henrik said. “The secret’s out. They will torture Rudolf for information. If Matthias or Václav or anyone else finds out about the letter in the Treasury keep, they will destroy it.”
“And because everyone is fighting right now on the bridge...”
“It’s the perfect time to sneak into the castle unnoticed,” Henrik finished.
My mother’s voice reading her letter filled my ears:
With my last words, let me solidify your claim to the throne. In the Royal Treasury keep, in a small golden treasure box with an emerald rose gilded on the lid, is a royal decree signed by King Rudolf.
The decree attests to your lineage.
No one can deny your right to the throne once this document comes to light. The treasure box is locked for protection. Rudolf wears the key around his neck. When the time comes, and you are ready, use this decree to save the kingdom.
I exhaled. “Let’s go while it’s still dark.”
Henrik pulled up his hood. “We’ll leave the horse here and go back through town on foot. We have to find a way across the Vltava River—”
“And then figure out a way to get over the twelve-foot high gate and sneak into the main castle and into Rudolf’s private wing. We have to locate King Rudolf and somehow get the key hanging around his neck so we can unlock the treasure box. Then we have to break into the heavily guarded Treasury keep where Bohemia has kept its hidden treasures safe for hundreds of years. But you and I are supposed to be able to slip in and out tonight.”
“You forgot to mention we have to do all that undetected.”
“And if we’re caught, we are dead,” I added.
“That’s a safe assumption.”
My hands were shaking. I squeezed them together to stop the trembling. It seemed impossible. Break into the Treasury keep? How could we do it? I glanced up at Henrik. “Do you think Marc will be all right?”
“I do. Marc is smart. He’ll find a way to stay alive.”
This was my opportunity to make a difference in the revolution. I couldn’t wield a sword like Marc and the other rebels, but I could help in other ways. I had to protect my legacy. It was exactly the sort of plan my mother would have been a part of. I was heir to the throne. I had to protect my kingdom, and proclaiming myself as a princess was the only way to do it.
“Let’s go.” Henrik grabbed the remainder of the weapons and I followed him out of the blacksmith’s shop. I pulled the cloak over my head. Henrik grabbed my hand and we slipped into the shadows, heading back toward the castle.
The fear I’d felt earlier turned to anticipation. I was eager to find the letter, but I was also committed to finding Václav once we were inside the castle. Visions of Branka’s head on a spike exploded before my eyes.
I shook my head. Václav would pay for what he did to her.
We raced through the empty streets, ducking in and out of alleyways to avoid being seen. The clash of metal filled the air; the fighting had spilled over from the bridge into the city.
Henrik stopped near a two-story wooden building. “There.”
I poked my head around the corner.
We were on the edge of the city. The banks of the Vltava River were only a few feet away. To the right was the giant stone bridge where hundreds of men were fighting. There were so many of them it was hard to determine who were the rebels and who were the members of the Royal Army.
Dense smoke hovered above the red-tiled roofs and the steeples of the town. Prague was burning. Exactly as it had in my dream.
My eyes wandered over the bridge and up to Prague Castle, standing like a fortress high upon Hradany Hill. Somewhere deep inside was the king’s proclamation attesting to my lineage and solidifying my claim to the throne.
“Are you ready?” Henrik asked.
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“I’m ready.”
Chelsea Luna received a Juris Doctor from New York Law School and a BA in sociology, with a concentration in criminal justice, from the University of Tennessee. Chelsea is also the author of the Amazon bestselling New England Witch Chronicles, a young adult paranormal romance series comprising four novels. Chelsea is an attorney and lives in Tennessee with her son. For more information, please visit: www.chelsealunaauthor.com.
Chelsea Luna, A Forest of Wolves
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