„What...?" my voice was barely a whisper. Her words seemed so impossible and yet... I felt like I knew it. "My real name...? What do you mean by "when I was brought here"? Does that mean that I'm not the king's son? And the reason for my memory loss was not the drop from the horse?"
She cast her eyes down and nodded faintly.
I fell back onto my pillows, my head starting to spin again. For the first time I dared to think about this possibility seriously. Some memories started to pass through the fog in my mind again, but this time there were clearer, more intense. When I closed my eyes in fear, I thought I saw a forest, a small village and silhouettes of people between them...
This flood of images was suddenly disrupted by a tiny sound coming from the balcony. I opened my eyes and looked in that direction, Kiya did the same.
Between the light curtains stood the girl from the grove. Normally, I would have immediately jumped off the bed and called the guards, but now...
The "stranger" took a few steps inside and looked at me with what seemed to be sadness. "So Tavs was right... You weren't killed, you were kidnapped and lost your memory..."
I couldn't take it anymore. "Who are you...?"
"So you even forgot me...?" I saw tears in her eyes again.
I stood up shakily and approached her slowly, feeling like a moth flying to a flame, not really knowing what I was doing. I looked in those azure orbs, watched closely for a few seconds...
And suddenly everything in my mind became breathtakingly clear, I practically felt my eyes shining in the darkness, as if someone just took off a spell of blindness from them.
"Ethia...?" I whispered.
She raised her head, a smile blooming on her face. "You remember!"
With a delighted laugh she swung her arms around my neck and fell into my arms, accidentally toppling me back on the bed. I had a complete chaos in my head, but didn't care anymore. I finally knew who I was and where I belonged, though all of it came back so suddenly, that I felt the headache returning again.
That wonderful moment was terminated by Kiya. "Be quiet, I beg you, if someone hears us, we will all be in ridiculous trouble."
We fell silent instantly. I sat up, still embracing Ethia. "So you knew about it all this time..."
"Yes... I'm so sorry, but I..."
"I know," I gave her an understanding smile. "But now is not the time for explanations. We have to get away from here. That includes you, because if my father... no wait, if the king learns about this, you will be hanged. Maybe literally..." Her face paled, and I suddenly felt guilty about scaring her. "Once we are out and safe, you can tell us everything you know, alright?"
She smiled weakly and nodded. She seemed kind of stunned by the energy, that suddenly started radiating from me.
I turned to my old friend. "Ethia... thank you. I have no idea what would have happened to me, if it weren't for you..."
She smiled and wiped the rest of the tears away. "I couldn't just leave you like that, after I saw you there. I was so stupid to not believe in Tavs' prophecy from the very start..."
"So that's why you came to the capital..."
"Yes. Nobody wanted to believe him, we all lost our hope long ago. But then I decided, that no harm can come from checking, so... I will have to apologize to him later. We all will have to."
"Alright, you can tell me the details later. For now we have to figure out how to get out of here. The biggest problem are the guards..." I suddenly realized something. "Hang on, there are guards outside. How in the world did you even get here?"
"You've been living here for two years and you don't know? Your night guard here is rubbish, every drunk could get inside and pay you a visit."
I laughed silently. She was always like that, every common sense lost, doing things no one else dared. "Jokes aside, we can probably leave through the balcony, but it would be a problem if you didn't return to the maid's rooms Kiya..."
"I will go to the kitchen and make sure someone sees me on the way to my room. I'll wait a bit and sneak out into the gardens."
I grinned. She would have been an incredible companion on our childhood escapades. "Alright, we will wait for you, let's say... under my willow."
"Got it," she smiled, visibly more calm now, which surprised me. She was about to leave behind everything she knew.
I waited until she left, and looked at Ethia once more. "Thank you..." I whispered. "I mean it, thank you so much..."
She patted me gently on the back. "Let's cuddle later, we don't want to make Kiya wait."
We went out to the balcony and I leaned over the balustrade, it's supports shaped like blooming flowers. Sure enough there were plenty of vines and sculptured decorations on the castle's walls, to get a good grip and safely go up and down. But still...
"I'll go first. That way I can catch you if something goes wrong."
"No way, I'm going first," she opposed before I even finished the sentence. I raised my eyebrows, noticing a hint of red on her cheeks. My gaze slipped down a little. She was wearing a dress, simple and long...
"Right... you go first."
I turned my gaze away as she lifted the blue hem and skillfully climbed down. I soon followed her and we plunged into a nearby bush. I moved the twigs a little and looked for the guards.
Two of them were warming themselves by a metal basket with gleaming charcoals, that dimly lit the courtyard by the gate. Another two were watching the path, that circled the castle around the east side.
"Say, Ethia..." I whispered. "Could you tell me how exactly you got here? It couldn't have been through the gate."
"Not the gate, the fence."
"Are you kidding me, the fence is two meters tall."
"I'll show you, follow me."
We silently slipped out of our hiding and, hugging the wall, headed towards the back of the gardens. It was rather unlikely, that any of the guards could stop us at the moment, but who knew what drunks were capable of...
"Your guards somehow hardly ever make it to this point," said Ethia, when we arrived at the willow.
"And you just jumped over the fence like that?"
"To be precise, I 'jumped' through here," she carefully moved back some juniper branches. She revealed a hole in the fence, big enough for an adult to fit through.
I frowned, looking at the metal bars, jutting out in a kind of funny way in all directions. "But you didn't do that, right?"
"Of course not, it was already here, when I looked for a possibility to get in."
"That can't be, I visited this place almost every day, it should be perfectly visible from above."
"Maybe it was, but you mixed something up because of the memory loss?"
"Maybe..."
I stepped closer to the fence and examined the bars closely, trying to remember if I maybe did see the hole earlier after all... I involuntarily reached out and touched one of the bars at the bending spot.
It was warm.
I turned around to inform Ethia about this, when I heard her saying: "Look, I think she's coming."
I followed her gaze. In the western part of the gardens, drowned in the massive shadow of the castle, I spotted a tall figure, clad in a long, black robe. The shoulders were broad, the face covered by a hood, and the movements not at all ladylike. A chill run down my spine. That definitely wasn't Kiya.
I glanced back at the opening in the fence, and feeling an unpleasant foreboding, I grasped Ethia's sleeve. When she looked at me, confused by the sudden shift in behavior, I put a finger to my lips and pointed up, to the tree crown. She nodded and we climbed the branches, trying to cause as little rustle of the dry leaves as possible.
The stranger crossed the gardens soundlessly and came to a stop right under the willow. The figure looked around, as if it could sense, but was unable to locate us. I still didn't see the face, but the silhouette was definitely masculine. At last, the stranger slipped through the hole in the fence and disappeared in the bushes.
We shared a look. Without a word we agreed, we would stay where we were until Kiya arrived.
Finally she appeared at the far corner of the castle. This time I was sure it was her, I knew her too well, to confuse her with somebody else. When she was merely a few meters away from the willow, we jumped down.
She almost jumped too, but up. "Really?" she whispered, trying to hide the panic in her voice. "I was worried if maybe someone caught you, and you are playing pranks..."
I didn't want to waste time on explanations. "Let's go, quickly. If someone notices, that I'm not there, we won't be able to get away..." That wasn't the only reason I wanted to leave as fast as possible though. The appearing of that stranger left me with an unpleasant discomfort.
We slipped through the opening one by one, me showing Kiya forward, preventing her from asking questions about the state of the fence. Already outside of the castles grounds, I once again touched one of the bars, but it was cold... I shook my head and quickly followed my companions.
When the silent, ghastly looking branches shielded the lights of the castle completely, we deemed we were far enough, to be safe, and slowed down a little.
"The forest is dangerous at night..." I muttered. "I wouldn't want to encounter a wolf, less alone a pack. It would be equally bad if one of us slipped and twisted an ankle on some stone or root in the dark, so I think we should wait here until morning..."
We soon discovered a little depression in the ground, surrounded by low shrubs. We gathered lots of fallen leaves, spread them into a makeshift bedding and lay down.
"I wish we could make a little campfire, but even if we had the means, it would be too risky..." I said, more to myself.
"It's better to not have a fire now, than have a stake later," commented Kiya. I smiled bitterly.
We stayed silent for some time, trying to rest a bit. When the only sound around us were the faint whispers of the trees, I didn't manage to hold back anymore.
"Ethia..."
She gave me a questioning hum.
"What happened back then, when they kidnapped me?"
"I'm still not sure..." she rolled to her side to face me better. "The last I remember was how they took you away. You looked like you were dead..." her voice trembled a little. "I don't remember much after that, I think they did something to me too, because I was found by one of the lumberjacks sons, and they said that I was pretty much talking nonsense for a few hours after awakening..."
"And my parents... how are they?" I reached behind my back and pulled out a twig, that irritatingly poked me between the ribs.
"They needed quite long before they recovered. They will be so happy to see you, you have no idea..." she paused briefly, and suddenly smiled. "Your sister will be too."
The bushes echoed with the sound of the twig in my fingers snapping in two.
"Come again? I'm an only child."
"You're not since four months ago."
"You're kidding... A lot must have changed, since I disappeared."
"Not as much as you may think. My uncle is still hunting for everyone with your dad, Zafel still smokes his pipe at his porch every morning, and Ivee still has a hard time keeping the boys away..."
"She still didn't make up her mind? What is she waiting for?"
"Maybe you?"
"Yeah, right," a small laugh escaped my lips. "I would rather let myself get kidnapped again."
She joined me in laughing, but soon yawned shortly. I smiled. "Let's try to get some rest, we've got a hard day behind us... and another before us."
She nodded slightly and closed her eyes. I watched her for a while, delighting in having her at my side again.
I turned away and closed my eyes. It was pretty cold in my thin, royal outfit, and the chaos in my head was settling still a bit too slowly, but that didn't bother me anymore. All that counted was the fact, that I finally knew my place in this world, and tomorrow, I would be home again among my real family...