A few days into the journey, an unexpected event occurs...

The carriage, accompanied by a significant escort of mounted royal guards, was already approaching Glen Yara Castle.

The route had long since passed through lands belonging to Henry the Duke of Glen Yara (King Eadric's cousin).

Isolde looked sadly out the carriage window; the landscapes of cultivated wheat fields and grazing sheep flocks among the hills did not occupy the queen's thoughts at all.

"It looks like the king really did send me and my son to exile, using the **** attempt as a pretext... Or is the situation even worse? Is this not just exile, but a prison? Is King Eadric simply biding his time to discreetly get rid of both me and my son?" - Isolde felt growing anxiety, clutching the babbling baby to her chest.

The baby Kael did not understand the tragedy of what was happening...

But his mother realized that the future held many dangers for him...

"This is a night ****... Who was the organizer? A group of disgruntled nobles? Or could it be the king himself?!" - the queen's thoughts became more and more frightening.

Suddenly, a loud neighing of horses was heard from somewhere in front of the carriage.

The carriage stopped so abruptly that Isolde almost hit the opposite wooden bench.

The screams of people.

In the sounds of their voices, bewilderment quickly gives way to fear.

But there is something else...

What is that sound?

The whistle of arrows...

Yes... It is the whistle of many arrows.

The screams of people become louder.

Cautiously looking out of the carriage window, Isolde sees several mounted warriors from the royal guard fall dead to the ground.

Arrows are stuck in their bloody necks.

Feeling terrified, the queen hugs her infant son and hides inside the carriage.

"In the name of all the gods... What kind of nightmare is happening here?!" - Isolde frantically tries to come up with a plan for her next steps.

But, she doesn't have time to do anything.

Five minutes later, the screams die down...

Someone strong starts hitting the carriage, the carriage door simply falls to the ground due to powerful blows from some sharp weapon.

"Get out! Now!" - this rough voice is clearly non-human...

Isolde, hugging her crying infant son, slowly gets out of the carriage. She barely holds back her trembling.

There are many corpses on the ground around the carriage.

Dead warriors of the royal guard, their bodies pierced by many arrows or cut into pieces.

Corpses of horses.

And around the carriage there are about three dozen steppe orc riders.

Their mounts are steppe wargs, disgusting and dangerous monsters.

Some of these wolf-like monsters are now tearing the flesh of a dead horse with their teeth...

The wolf-like creatures are almost three times larger than the largest wolf. They are about one and a half meters in height and about two meters in length. Their tails have about a dozen small bone spike-like growths. Looking at these monsters, Isolde thought that their bared mouths with many sharp and long teeth and their mad eyes seemed to exude an uncontrollable rage and thirst for blood.

The steppe orcs are talking about something in their own language and pointing their fingers at the queen.

Isolde doesn't understand the meaning of their words very well...

But at the end of the phrase she heard something familiar...

"Chieftain Gruk" - the orcs mentioned the name of the one who... is Kael's true father!

"You! You go with us! Chieftain Gruk ordered! You and the child go with us to the steppe!" - one of the orcs tries to speak the Eborvairian language.

The situation is such that Queen Isolde is **** to submit to the orcs' demands.

Instead of a horse, one steppe warg is harnessed to the carriage.

Soon the carriage and a group of steppe orc riders leave this place of a bloody attack.

It seems that Chieftain Gruk was smarter than the court dignitaries of the Kingdom of Eborvair thought.

This chieftain of the Moundroamers tribe has clearly decided to "play his own game"...