The rest of Mirabel’s day and most of the next passed without any remarkable events. She remained in the cart, a bag over her head, and bruises forming, without hope of escape. They hadn’t even stopped to eat, and Mirabel’s stomach had a thing or two to say on that matter. A thing or two generally announced with a painful growl.

Despite her previous resolution to wait it out, her mind had kept itself occupied calculating her chances of escape at any given moment. No opportunity had yet presented itself, to her disappointment, and she felt it was meant to be that way. Her kidnappers seemed to have a deadline with the attitude they were presenting, and she had a feeling that they were trying to keep any chance of escape from appearing. She found it mildly amusing that, if that were in fact the case, they were scared of her escaping them again. Her, a weak and mild-mannered princess. What did they have to fear from her aside her nails and teeth?

Unless it wasn’t her they feared, she mused. She still had no clue of their employer, only that they resided in Omsk. Likely one of the higher class, of course, having hired mercenaries. Mirabel didn’t imagine that mercenaries came cheap.

It was strange how clear her head had become, deducing things and making escape plans. After the initial terror of the re-kidnapping had worn off, she’d seemed to fall into a sort of routine. Her body was accustomed to the jarring that the cart caused, and even though bruises were forming yet again, she found herself secluded in the back of her mind. A place where, apparently, emotions of terror didn’t exist. Or maybe she just wasn’t afraid anymore. Either way, she was enjoying the absence of fear while it lasted. Her captors would doubtless be dropping her off at their destination soon, and then a whole new round of terror would be bound to occur.

The longer the trip lasted, the further her hopes of escape fell. They’d continued on through the night, after all, and she was sure that they must be close to their destination. She hadn’t slept much, tossing and turning. She was sure she must have had more dreams, but she couldn’t rightly recall if she had or not.

At least they seemed to still be traveling through the forest, though she couldn’t be sure. The road was rocky still, and it didn’t seem to be one of the main ones. She doubted her captor’s employer lived in the forest or on a back road like this one. Not if her earlier deduction was correct.

Mirabel hadn’t been able to discover much more about her kidnappings purpose in the past several hours. The men had been silent since the argument between Ivan and Boris. There wasn’t much else to be said, it seemed. Even Boris hadn’t cracked a joke yet, which was odd to her. No one had tried to lighten the mood at all since the argument, and she could still feel the tension hovering in the air between the men. It no longer crackled as it had previously, but it was still there. She could feel it, and no doubt the men could as well. The only difference was the men were ignoring it.

One would think that sort of tension would go away after so many hours. But it had only lessened. Someone was fueling it, Mirabel had decided. Whether it was Boris or Ivan, or even Viktor, someone wasn’t letting it go. And something told her it was Boris; he hadn’t wanted to let it go in the first place, unlike Ivan, who had been trying to let it go from the start. She couldn’t help but wonder if Boris would soon break the silence.

But it wasn’t Boris’s voice that next broke the tense quiet that hovered in the cart; it was the sound of another cart rolling by, hooves causing a pleasanter trotting sound than the gallop of her captors’ horses. There was a rustle from the men as they shifted, and Mirabel heard a few mutters that she couldn’t make out. Some small scraping sounds followed, and a shadow fell over her.

It went quiet in the cart then as the other bounced over the rocks and past, continuing along their way. Mirabel’s heart sunk a bit. She’d been hoping the other cart would notice something was wrong. For example, four men with a girl tied up with a bag over her head. It seemed like the sort of suspicious thing that would draw attention, after all. How many times a day did you see that?

From then on out, though, Mirabel heard many more travelers pass them by. They must have arrived at a main road, she decided. She still wasn’t sure why none of them thought to say anything about her, though. Some of them had called friendly greetings, but nothing more than that. She was perplexed. Were tied up women common in Omsk?

She didn’t know a lot about Omsk. They were normally very quiet when not kidnapping princesses, so most of what she did know had been pushed to the back of her mind until it became relevant. As it now had, but she was having difficulties bringing any of her teachings to mind. If she just concentrated, maybe she could think her way out of this. Was there anything she could exploit? Anything in their history that might be useful?

But the only thing she could recall of their history was a drought, and that was so long ago it no longer had any effect on the land. A small huff of air escaped her. Why couldn’t she remember anything useful?

If only she could see, she mused. The air inside the bag wasn’t pleasant. While the material was breathable, it was tightly woven, causing the air to be mildly stifling. If only she didn’t have the bag on her head. Then maybe she would be able to think. To escape.

But then what, came another thought as she heard a horse trot on by. What would she do if she didn’t have the bag on her head? What could she do?

The answer was obvious: nothing. Her hands and feet were still tied tightly, and bag or no bag, she wouldn’t have a chance of escaping the four burly men in the cart with her. She was stuck.

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A/N Shortest chapter ever, but here you go! It's a bit fillerish, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway :3 I've been a bit stuck on this story lately, trying to decide which direction to take it, so I'm sorry updates are so sporadic. It's not quite writer's block, fortunately; I just need to sort through all my ideas and pick out which ones to use. Hopefully updates will become more regular again soon, but I can't guarantee anything.

Anyway, I really do hope you enjoyed this short little update, and if you did, please let me know in the comments below what you think of this story! Comments (and even votes) are really motivating. See you next update! xx