The Sand Bride - Chapter 86

If she touched that back even very lightly, it seemed like it would scatter and fall silently onto the sand like the armor they had just removed.

“I am… this is the last time…….”

Esther spoke without looking back. Bianca, understanding the meaning in those words, kept her mouth shut and followed her. But even while following, though she thought they would never find a path, Esther and Bianca did not lose their way. Before long, the path found them.

“Esther!”

That voice was loud enough to resonate thunderously through the empty sand desert. Esther froze stiff like a mouse that had met a snake’s eyes.

When she turned her neck, which didn’t want to turn, she could see a single dot rapidly approaching from the distance. The moment the dot finally took shape, Esther stopped breathing.

It was Karzhen.

* * *

Not long after Greta’s forces stopped moving due to Sayar’s command, Karzhen appeared from the opposite direction with his subordinates. Instead of immediately dismounting from his horse, he slowly examined everyone.

Since they had all removed their helmets to show proper respect, recognizing faces was very easy. However, nowhere among them was the face Karzhen was looking for.

“Where is Verach, who was leading this camp?”

At Karzhen’s question, the person next in rank after Verach darkened his face.

“That is… while we were in confusion, he left the camp.”

Karzhen looked at the one who answered with an incredulous expression.

“You just watched that happen?”

“Well, we never dared imagine that Lord Verach would do such a thing…….”

A hollow laugh escaped from Karzhen at that deflated answer.

Verach was among Greta’s closest associates, a man whose family lineage was tremendously historic. Compared to him, this person who was next in rank after Verach was quite lacking, still little more than a greenhorn. Only now, looking closely at the camp’s composition, most of them were still immature young men.

There would have been no one capable of stopping the renowned Verach when he left the camp saying he would report this fact to the king. Karzhen ground his teeth.

His subordinates, including Nair, asked him as he remounted his horse.

“What shall we do?”

“Scatter and search. Capture them all alive.”

“Without injuries?”

That question was asking permission whether it was acceptable to cut off limbs or inflict comparable wounds. Karzhen snickered as if they were asking something obvious and turned his horse’s head.

“Except for my woman, naturally you should drag them back with limbs severed.”

Having finished speaking, Karzhen drove his horse into the right passage of the stone road. His subordinates followed behind him. Soon the sound of hooves stepping on sand—softer and faster rhythm than on the stone road—echoed. A dust cloud rose and then subsided as people scattered.

Bianca. While searching for Esther in the desert, Karzhen let out a hollow laugh. To think of running away with his woman, of all people.

‘So royal blood doesn’t just sit there for nothing.’

His keen intuition had informed Karzhen of the similarities between Greta and Bianca from the moment he saw them in the council chamber.

Those bright blue eyes. One of Greta’s only Southeast features was precisely those bright eyes like flower petals. Unlike Hemor’s dark blue eyes, they were colors vivid as a cat’s even in darkness.

That subtle intuition became more precise when he turned to look at Bianca’s back as she withdrew from the council chamber. Bianca’s body shape was clearly different from Esther, who was also a Southeast woman. Though not completely Kemut, her tall height and fluid muscle movements were things Esther didn’t have. Since it was a body he caressed with worn hands every night in bed, Karzhen knew those differences better than anyone.

“Examine that wench called Bianca and her room. Every day, without fail.”

On the day he first had Esther meet Bianca, Karzhen called an Aldana priest and commanded him. The priest faithfully carried out that order and also noticed the glass bottle that Bianca occasionally took out.

When Bianca, having received Greta’s orders, busily left her room, the priest who examined Bianca’s room every day without fail eventually discovered the glass bottle letter.

For Bianca, she had hidden it deep in her room for fear of losing it during frequent outings, but for someone who had already searched the room dozens of times and knew what he was looking for, it was too shallow a protection.

The priest read the contents of the glass bottle letter and reported it to Karzhen, then returned the letter to its original place.

From that content, Karzhen could easily guess that Greta and Bianca were sisters, but even after knowing, he didn’t bother to reveal it. However, he remembered the letter’s contents without forgetting, so when Bianca and Esther fled together, he guessed that it was Greta who had helped them.

Therefore, he first sent messengers from behind to have Greta’s direct forces detained, and deliberately visited Hakan’s palace first to prevent Greta from noticing and taking quick countermeasures.

According to law, Karzhen’s direct forces, which had departed first among the advance units, deviated from the stone road when the distance between roads was still short, took a detour, and blocked the front. Karzhen followed closely behind with only a small number of subordinates. He continued the forced march, forgetting sleep and food, thinking only of Esther.

However, Esther and Bianca were not in Greta’s forces when he reached them. Karzhen was one step too late. He didn’t give up and scattered with his subordinates to search the desert.

Karzhen and his subordinates rode horses of a breed that, while not as good as camels for long journeys, could run swiftly through the desert, thoroughly combing the vast desert.

But as time passed and not even a piece of clothing was visible, let alone a person, Karzhen gradually grew short of breath with anxiety. All the sand in the vast desert looked like Esther’s hair. It seemed as if he could put his hand in and pull her out.

The deeper his longing grew, the sharper his vision became like a starving hawk, and within it, Karzhen finally saw something. At first it was so small he thought it was cloth blown by the wind, but the two things were wriggling and moving, and as he drew closer, they grew into human shapes.

“Esther!”