Escaping

Once he sensed that something was wrong with the Princess, Laif then rushed to follow the direction where the power came from.

A deep frown appeared on his face as he arrived at the eastern part of the palace. He stood still for a while, wondering if he had arrived at the wrong place, however, once he felt the power was getting stronger, Laif knew that he should not dawdle.

He rushed forward and found the Princess in the stable. Because of her flaring magic, the horses were agitated. At the side, the Princess was arguing with the stable master.

The old man knelt at the Princess's side as he tried to coax the Princess to stay calm, while was trying to pull at the brown horse's reins. However, because of the Princess's uncontrollable power, the horse had refused to cooperate.

Horses are the most sensitive towards magic, and naturally, they were agitated when they sensed the flaring power that would soon explode if the Princess did not calm down.

Laif turned to one of the stable boys and asked, "What is going on?"

The boy looked at Laif with a worried look on his face. "Her Highness wanted to escape the palace to look for her brother. The stable master tried to stop her. As for the horses, I don't know what happened to them. They were never this anxious."

Laif glanced towards the princess and watched her attempted to mount the horse. The stable master was by her side as he continued to convince the Princess to stop before something might happen and she could injure herself.

The horses continued to make more noises as they stared at the Princess. The brown horse beside the Princess tried to escape her clutches.

Just before the brown horse went rampage, Laif stepped beside the Princess and muttered a chant to help her calm down. His finger moved as he drew something on her back to stop her magic from flaring.

Soon, her magic stopped flaring and the horses in the stable calmed down. However, this was the only thing that Laif can do to control her flaring magic. Until the Princess learned about her power and how to control it, a situation like this would happen again.

"Your Highness," he held her hand which was holding the reins tightly. "What are you doing?"

Amelia turned abruptly at him. Her eyes widened when she saw Laif at her side. "I'm trying to get on the horse." Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"Why?" His eyes grew dark once he noticed her reddened face and eyes. Laif knew that the Princess was trying her best to suppress her tears from falling.

However, she failed to do so. A tear streamed down her cheek and Amelia quickly wiped her watery eyes with her sleeve. She refused to let anyone see her tears.

"To look after my stupid brother. Why else?" She replied angrily.

His gaze softened as he watched her with another attempt to mount the horse. He shifted his body slightly to block the princess from the other's view, knowing that the Princess wouldn't want the others to see her in her weakest moment.

"But, Your Highness," Laif paused. "His Majesty... he had—"

"I know that," Amelia snapped at him. "I was there when they tell me that my brother is gone." She gritted her teeth tightly to control her emotion until she could taste her blood. This time, she failed as tears started to stream down on her cheek. Amelia looked down to avoid his gaze.

"But that person not my brother. I know it's not. I don't know who Daren had brought back with him, but that person is not my brother. So please," she grabbed the bridle tightly and stared at her Knight with desperation. "Please. Please Laif. Let me go. Let me go and look for him. I need to get out from here. If I have to stay a while longer in the palace, I will suffocate. I can't," she wheezed. "Breathe."

Laif nodded. "Alright. I will go with you." He mounted the horse and turned to the stable master. "I'm going to borrow this horse from you."

The stable master's face went white. "Wait. Please don't. I will get into so much tro—"

"I will take the responsibility for this," he said to the stable master. Then Laif offered his hand to the Princess. "Come on."

"What are you doing?" Amelia whispered.

"Do you still want to look for your brother? Do you still want to go out from here?"

She nodded furiously. "Yes."

He sighed inaudibly. "Do you even know how to ride a horse?"

Amelia sniffled. "No. But—"

"Then come on. I will take you out of here. I will take you to anywhere you wanted to go"

Amelia stared at his hand for a long time and closed her eyes when he pulled her onto the horse. When she opened her eyes again, she was on higher ground. Her view became much clearer.

Laif made a sound as he commanded the horse to move.

It was then that Amelia realized that her back was sticking closely on his chest. He was holding the bridle with one hand and the other was holding her around her waist, preventing her to fall.

Laif turned around and saw that the Princess's maidservant, Rae was at the scene. He looked at her and spoke, "Please take care of things while we're away." He watched her nodded and continued. "And tell Kain. He will know what to do next."

...

Kain rubbed at his head once he heard the words from Rae.

He had not thought that the Prince would be so daring to kidnap the Princess and took her out of the palace without any following the protocols.

He knew right away that Laif will be in deep trouble with Commander Irvine later on. It was like he never learned from his mistake. Has he forgotten how he was punished by the commander when he took the princess out of the palace months ago?

"I'm sure that he was just trying to help the Princess," Rae tried to calm his anger. "The Princess was upset to learn the news of the King's passing."

"There is always another way to help. Why did he have to take the princess out of the palace?" Kain grunted.

It felt as if they have never left Hase Palace at all. Laif would create trouble and he was the one who will have to clean up the mess.

"It will be fine," Rae reassured him. "I have talked to others. The maidservants won't breathe a word about what happened. That way, Laif won't get into trouble with the commander."

Kain smiled faintly.

He wished that it was that easy. But living in the palace for years had thought him that even the palace's walls have eyes and ears. There were too many eyewitnesses when the two left the palace. It would not be easy to keep that incident a secret.