A soldier woke us up in the early morning. “General Morley requests your presence immediately, sir.”

I pinched myself to wake up more. “Right away, sir.”

A groggy Percy followed us to the general’s office. I entered the room, where the prince sat next to the general. Cold cups of coffee sat on top of a newly-made map of the battlefield.

The general dictated the message as usual. He sent me off after telling me which two horses to take from the army’s stables.

I met Percy in the hallway and together we left the building to find the stables. It wasn’t hard, we followed the smell of manure past the courthouse to a part of the town that I hadn’t seen before.

We found the horses, a stable hand helped us saddle up, and off we went to Egron City. I wish I’d seen Shaphan again. I think he'll understand.

We rode for a few hours and then took a nap in a safe place until the sun came up. Then we continued our usual routine of riding and taking breaks every few hours. These horses looked young, and they weren’t used to the long journey. But they were fast. We reached Egron City at nightfall on the day after we left Caldey.

After my report to the king, I left my things in the guest room they provided for me. Its windows faced Egron Square, right in front of the palace. I bathed and ate, then went to sleep right away.

The noise of a large, wailing crowd woke me up in the morning. I looked through the curtains. Everyone wore dark blue, the color of mourning. Who died? Why are they in Egron Square? Did the king die? He seemed healthy last night. So did the rest of the royals.

Then I saw three coffins, carried by soldiers in their dress uniforms. Oh God - the princesses! What happened? I sprinted out of the room and down a side stairwell to the square. Fortunately, the door wasn’t locked from the inside. I joined the crowd, out of place with my greenish uniform.

A messenger pigeon, used for messages within the city, flew above my head. A weighted down paper hung from its body. “Egron mourns the untimely death of our princesses last night. The king and queen vow to find their killer, Callum Bloomfield.”

I jumped when I heard my name. As the bird turned in flight, I saw the paper - it was a picture of my face! My name, written in tall black letters, screamed out at me.

I’m going to die, was my first thought. They will catch me, and when they do, they will publicize my trial and then shoot me. I don’t want to die, was my second thought. I need to get out of here.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

As I turned around, I bumped smack into Percy, and knocked him over. “Help me!” I hissed at the same time that he said, “We have to get out of here.”

I helped him up, and he handed me a dark blue cloak. After I put it on, he grabbed my sleeve and we walked the same direction as the crowd that followed the pallbearers. He walked kind of diagonal to the flow; we soon reached the edge.

He led me through a maze of narrow alleys in the poor sector of Egron City. At one point, a window opened two stories above us and someone dumped a bucket full of dirt and dust right above our heads. We coughed and gagged, and spat black gobs.

Some of the buildings were obviously built by the government: they’re made of the cheapest materials, but at least their corners are square.

Percy leads me through the maze to an alley’s dead end, a brick wall, on the other side of which is a street. A piece of corrugated tin acts as a sort of gate to the dead end, and he opens it for me with minimal noise. It closes off the last ten feet of the alley. A three-cornered canvas tarp creates a makeshift roof on the left. On the right are a couple barrels. I’m not sure what’s in them. The homes on both sides have no windows.

“What is this place?” I asked Percy after I’d looked around.

“This is your hide-out until the king stops looking for you.”

“Why is he looking for me, anyway? I didn’t whack the princesses.”

“He wants everyone to think you’ve whacked the princesses, though.”

“Why would he think that? I stayed in my room all night last night. The last time I saw them was when I reported to the king when we arrived in the city.”

“Apparently, someone told the king that they saw you sneak into their rooms, and someone else said they saw you and an accomplice bring the bodies through the windows.”

“Do you really think that I whacked them? Come on, I could hardly get my knife out for that stupid raccoon! I could never kill three people in one night! And I would never touch the princesses. That’s insane. I slept all night long and didn’t make a peep.”

“I believe you,” he said. “But now is not the time to talk to the king about that. You need to hide for a while, until this blows over.”

“How long is ‘a while’?”

Percy shrugged. “You have your knapsack, right?”

I quickly realized my mistake. “Oh, no! I left it in my room at the palace! I was so surprised when I saw the funeral procession that I left without it.”

“That’s going to make things a little harder on us,” he told me. “This barrel is full of clean rain water, so you’ll have plenty. I’ll need to grab some food for you.”

I scratched the toe of my boot on the paved cobblestones. “I’m sorry, I really am. I hope I’m not being a burden to you. Here,” I said, and dug in my pocket for coins. “You can keep the change. Whatever I can do to help, let me know.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’ll be back tonight with supplies.”

“Sounds good. Thank you.”