How lovely...
Side straddling Arkin's horse, Adela enjoyed the many shades of green that made up most of the forest's scenery.
Unlike the Archduke's daughter, the knight who walked beside her guardedly had his right hand on his sword while his left hand held the reins of his horse as if he was holding on for dear life.
She straightened her back when they reached the curve where catnips grow in abundance, her eyes brushed over the white paint on the familiar bloodcurdling wooden sign that served as a road marker. Having it there was so helpful that Adela could only hope she would get used to what it said one day.
She drew a breath to rehearse it the way she always did, "We wandering spirits are here, waiting for yours to join us,"
"Oh, for heaven's sake! Why would you read the curse out loud?"
Adela's lips twitched down when Arkin hissed at her. But he was too focused on scanning their surroundings to notice.
"Correct me if I am wrong, but you knights were the ones who put those signs up, were you not now?"
He nodded cynically, "That's right, it serves as a warning to those stupid enough to make it this far,"
She ignored his insult and tried once more to find justification for an act she could never truly comprehend, "At times, I fail to understand the logic behind the Archduke's edicts… You are becoming a part of the problem our people have with this part of our lands,"
According to locals, the Archduchy's forest in the southwestern part of Lanark was damned by God since the beginning of time.
Trees that race in height and roads that only animals can tread, these were the descriptions knights and elderly mainly used to talk about the deep section of the forest where not even sun rays reached. A place where virgin land hid behind a natural barrier as if to insist on remaining inhabitable to darkness only.
Those who visit the haunted place do it at their own risk. And if word of their ventures gets out somehow, they are shunned by the people who fear that the curse of the forest — which is bound to be carried by those who disturbed its peace — might be contagious. If anybody saw Adelaide de Lanark so much as staring too long at the cursed place let alone learned that she frequented it, the following gossip would be nothing short of disastrous to the Archduke's reputation.
"Damn it,"
Adela looked down at Arkin's troubled face with pity in her eyes. She believed that the knight was truly frightened to let his tongue loose around her like that.
Other worries were on the man's mind.
Arkin's frustration with Adela's recklessness was building up with each sure step that the horse took in the direction Lady de Lanark pointed at with the utmost confidence. Her relaxed features were annoying as is, but the fact that she knew the place like the back of her hand threatened to push him off the edge.
He looked up at Adel with a start.
"Did you hear that?"
The only thing she heard was the undeniable panic in his voice. She regarded the knight with a renewed sense of guilt. Her desire to reassure and distract him at the same time surpassed her desire to gather the herbs she needed.
"…I can only hear your light footsteps and the noise your horse is making, the forest is as safe and as quiet as usual…It is lovely this time of year, don't you think?"
He was about to beg her never to repeat those insane remarks in front of anybody else when he heard the sound of a twig breaking once more. His head snapped abruptly to their right side feeling the blood rush behind his ears with his speeding pulse, his neck tingled uncomfortably feeling eyes on his back, but he decided to try and keep the conversation alive until he figured out exactly what was stalking them, "...I have heard things in this forest with my own ears,"
She frowned, "Things like what?"
Arkin slowly began unsheathing his sword, "Giggling sounds followed by horrid cries, could we at least agree that there is no smoke without fire?"
Wailing of ghosts, that was what he thought back then. The knight found himself wishing ghosts were what followed them now.
Adela knew the source of the fire Arkin talked about, her father's unfortunate neglect.
"We most certainly can agree about that... With the edict to revoke the knights' patrols in the forest, criminals must have taken over the wilderness and turned it into their haven, and they are surely the source of all the eerie noises you and others must have heard,"
As if waiting for her to talk about sounds that brought chills to one's bones, many ominous whistles cut through the air simultaneously.
Arkin drew his sword as he spun back to face their stalkers and snarled when he was met by what he feared, "Dirty rebels," he muttered through gritted teeth.
Horror-struck, Adela watched with frightened eyes as a group of men emerged from the adjacent shadows, she counted seven of them. Like a pack of wolves, they took slow deliberate steps toward their target forming a loose arch as they closed in. The ones in front kept throwing glances behind their backs at the man orienting himself in the middle of the arch in a manner that exhibited him as the group's leader.
Their calculated advance allowed Arkin to strategize an escape plan for Adela, rescuing her was the last deed he planned on carrying through before leaving this world. He allowed himself to glance up at her one last time and was satisfied to see how the evident fear in her beautiful face did not impact her posture, he thanked the heavens that her horseback riding skills were on par with those of a knight.
"Don't be afraid,"
Arkin realized that he was talking to both, Adela and himself at the same time. He was about to ask her to ride like the wind, and once she had enough of a starting distance, he planned on charging at the bandits. His mission was to take enough men down before they fatally wound him ensuring that not many chased her after that. But the trembling hand she placed on his armor stopped him.
"We are only passing,"
Her voice was small but clear as she addressed the bald man in the middle of the group trusting her instincts that he was the leader. She flinched when the closest man to their left snorted — a cue for the rest of the group to laugh at full volume — then repressed the urge to close her ears as the silent air carried the echos of sardonic laughter in a ruckus around them before abruptly dying out.
"Don't you mean trespassing?"
Affirming her initial assumption about the decision maker, the response indeed came to her from the bald man in the middle of the arch. She decided to try and talk her way out of the situation, her eyes flicking over the closest man's sword as she formed a backup plan for the worst-case scenario.
"We mean you no harm,"
"No harm she says! Surely even a commoner such as yourself must realize that your lover over there is a dog that belongs to our mortal enemy, the thief of Lanark!"
Arkin was about to take a step forward when Adela's hand clutched his shoulder and squeezed.
"I am sure we can reach an understanding; I can give you some medicine in exchange for our freedom,"
Another snort was followed by another ruckus of laughter and echo as the men joked amongst themselves.
The red-headed sturdy man on Adela's left licked his lips, "She is ugly but funny as hell, we should keep her,"
"You blind old fart," replied the man next to him, "She is not ugly, it's just all the nasty mud on her…I'll give her a bath in the river myself, bet she'd clean up nicely after that…Won't you sweetheart?"
No one dared directly tell an unmarried woman of Adela's noble lineage about what happened between a man and a woman in their bedchamber. However, more than once in her twenty-three years of age did the wind carry a few murmurs from maids opening up to each other about their experience with their spouses or lovers, enough to frighten her at times and pique her interest at others.
She looked down at Arkin who was looking at her with wide eyes and a pale face.
"I'd rather die,"
The hair on his arms stood up beneath his armor as he anticipated what Lady de Lanark was about to demand of him.