Provoking a Graceful Bloom Novel

---- Chapter 159 Night had fallen. Around them lay a silence so deep it seemed the world itself had ceased to breathe. The men, scattered through the stone forest, sank wearily upon the rocks wherever they could find space. Hunger and exhaustion gnawed at them, and despair lingered like a shroud. Her stomach growling with hunger, Freya had already approached Frederick twice, hoping for a morsel to eat. Under William's furious gaze, the prince handed her the last piece of bread he had. "That was kept for you, Your Highness!" William burst out, anger flashing in his eyes.

He himself had not touched so much as a crumb. "|... Lonly mean to eat a little. | shall leave some for Fred," Freya whispered, but her hands trembled. She was ravenous. These past days without sustenance had left her desperate, and only someone who had truly endured such hunger could understand its ache. If this continued, she would eat even grass without hesitation! She devoured more than half the bread in moments, leaving only ---- a small portion. Breaking it in two, she pressed one piece to Frederick's lips. "Fred, you must eat something.

If you don't, you won't endure." How could he find the strength to eat at a time like this? His whole body ached, alternating between fever and chills, and his mind was growing hazy. He couldn't swallow the bread she held to his mouth. Freya gazed at his bloodless face, her heart aching. "Fred, please, take a bite. If you don't eat, you'll fade away." William watched from beside them, his chest tight with frustration and worry. "Ms. Talmar, keep the bread for His Highness. When he feels stronger, he will eat it." Around them, the soldiers starved in silence.

There was nothing to be had among the barren stones, not even a tuft of grass. If they went on much longer without food, there would be nothing left, not even the chance to gnaw on roots. Frederick had spoken with confidence that reinforcements would come. But when? And could they be trusted to reach them safely? If even Aurensia's Warbringer lay trapped here, what man alive could break through the ambush and reach them? The men sat with their heads bowed, spirits as heavy as the sky above them. The light continued to dim with each passing hour.

---- After midnight, the air in the stone forest grew sharper, the cold biting through cloak and bone. William wiped the sweat from his brow, panic rising in his voice as he called out, "His Highness is burning up. Is there anyone here who knows the healing arts?" He asked again and again, but no one dared answer. They were soldiers, not physicians. And besides, Frederick was a prince! If someone unskilled attempted treatment and he suffered a misfortune, it would be a crime punishable by the extermination of one's entire family.

William crouched at Frederick's side and watched his lucidity fade. He drifted in and out of delirium, his breathing growing shallow and irregular. William's hand shook as he looked at the two arrows protruding from the prince's flesh. If those shafts were not removed, he would surely die, but to remove them unskillfully might kill him as well. The tremor in William's fingers increased. Freya gripped Frederick's hand, which felt alternately cold and fever-hot beneath her own. She looked at William with desperate eyes. "Think of something. If you don't save Fred, he'll die.

Do you want that on your conscience?" ---- William paid her no heed. His gaze remained fixed upon the two arrows lodged in Frederick's body, rising and falling with each shallow breath of his chest. To draw them out might very well cost the prince his life. But if they remained, William feared Frederick wouldn't survive long enough to await reinforcements. William's hand trembled as it fell upon the prince's abdomen. The arrow lay less than a finger's breadth away, and still he could not bring himself to act. Understanding what he was about to do, Freya couldn't help but urge him, "Hurry!

Be quick about it. If anything happens to Fred, | won't forgive you!"