Chapter 141: A Plan
A soft groan escaped into the morning air, followed by the gentle rustling of fabric as someone stirred uncomfortably. The sound carried a note of confusion, as if its owner was caught between sleep and waking, struggling against something that shouldn’t be there. Another murmur, this one more insistent, accompanied by the subtle clink of metal against metal.
"Mmm... what on earth?" The voice belonged to a young woman, melodious despite its current state of bewilderment. Helen’s eyes fluttered open, revealing the warm amber glow of morning light filtering through canvas walls. She blinked several times, trying to dispel the lingering fog of sleep, but something felt decidedly wrong.
Her wrists... they wouldn’t move properly. A frown creased her delicate features as she tested her limbs, only to discover that rope bound her arms to the wooden chair she occupied. The realization struck her like ice water.
"Ednar?" she called out, her voice carrying across the tent with practiced authority. "Ednar, where are you?" The silence that answered her was far more unsettling than any response could have been. She pulled against her restraints, feeling the rough hemp bite into her skin, but whoever had tied these knots clearly knew their craft.
The tent around her was achingly familiar – the same canvas walls that had sheltered her the night before, the same traveling furniture arranged with military precision. Sunlight streamed through the entrance flap, suggesting the morning was already well advanced. Her head felt peculiarly light, as if cotton had been stuffed between her ears, and the last clear memory she could grasp was Riley’s face in the lamplight before drowsiness had claimed her.
Riley.
Surely he wouldn’t have... no, that was impossible. He had no reason to resort to such measures when she was already, quite literally, under his command. The logic was sound, even if the situation was not.
Which left the rather pressing question of who had done this to her.
Perhaps they’d been discovered during the night? It seemed the most reasonable explanation, though it raised troubling questions about how deeply she’d slept through what must have been a considerable disturbance. And if enemies had indeed found them, why leave her here in the tent rather than spiriting her away entirely?