Hunted Queen

Chapter Forty Nine • Queen's Orders

Hello friends! I am traveling for work this week as well so this is Wednesday's chapter! Also, I will be home again on Thursday evening which means that next week's update will come at the very earliest on Friday! I hope you had a nice weekend!

Let me know if something in the chapter is wrong! Spelling, grammar etc.

VERY LONG CHAPTER

Happy reading! 

-Jade- 

"There is something up ahead." Ove called over his shoulder to Jade and Brother Richard.

Jade sat up immediately, her heart skipping a beat. Completely forgetting the repercussions that would ensue for disturbing her exhausted body. Without letting the aches stop her, she speedily made her way to the front of the cart and gripped on to the wooden railing that separated the driver's seat from where the cargo was kept. 

Her eyes scanned the road ahead all the way down a small valley to what appeared to be a small settling. The little skip her heart had just made turned into excited thumping at the bare thought of getting to sleep somewhere else than their cart. Her eyes found three buildings on the right side of the road and what she assumed was a barn on the opposite side of them. 

Then she saw the pillars of black smoke. How she had missed them from the beginning she could not understand, but now they were all she saw. The pillars billowed slowly upwards until the wind caught them, tearing them apart until they were transparent and with the wind. 

The dream of sleeping on soft hay rotted away right in front of Jade. Her jaws clenching in frustration at the though of spending yet another night sleeping on the floor of the cart. 

"Looks like a farm." Brother Richard said, having joined Jade to see what the fuss was about. 

"Used to be, from the looks of it." Jade said, letting out a saddened sigh. "I hope whoever lived there made it out alive..." She mumbled as she studied the charred buildings. Not all of it was destroyed, the walls still stood and from where she was, it seemed like the majority of the roofs were also intact. However, the insides could be altogether incinerated and burnt to a crisp. 

"They have not burnt down all together..." The monk stated, clearly trying to figure out why the buildings were not piles of soot and rubble. "I wonder if they managed to put it out?" 

"We will have to see for ourselves." Ove sighed. "Poor souls." 

"Who could have done it?" Jade wondered and placed her chin on top of her hands. Her eyes never leaving the settling. In her mind she knew just who to pin this horrible sight on... Rowan's men, but what would be the point for them to do this to their own people? For fun? Or had the people of lived  there tried to stand up against he unreasonable demands Rowan put up for his people? 

"Raiders... or perhaps their king's men." Brother Richard suggested with darkness in his voice. 

Jade gave him a confused look. The monk usually did not jump at the chance to find a scapegoat. However, he had seen what Rowan's men were capable of and almost died in the process of helping Jade back home. 

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The monk wondered when he noticed Jade's eyes on him. Jade pressed her lips together and let her eyes do the talking for her. "It is not impossible that it was them." He defended himself and brought his shoulders up a bit and exposed his palms. 

"I know." Jade said quietly. "It just sounded like something I would have said, not you." She replied and shot him a faint smile. 

"Maybe being around a queen is leaving its marks." He answered and let out a gentle chuckle. Then he cleared his throat when he realized that they were exchanging soft banter in front of a tragedy. He whispered for forgiveness and signed the cross of his god in front of him.