I stared at him, blinking rapidly. I felt like I was about to topple out of my chair.

"Well, I'm glad I came here just in time," Avaloryn muttered as she placed herself behind Nylas. "Do continue, Lord Prodos. But I'm going to sleep, and don't bother to wake me up." She left as quickly as she came in.

"No. My father did nothing wrong to you. He trusts you!" I held a fist up, but Henneh had her hand around my wrist. She bared her teeth. Her sharp canines, and I soon noticed her pointed ears. "My father will hear about this, Prodos. Mark those words in your head," I muttered as I looked away from Henneh.

Nylas walked over to the chess pieces on the ground and kicked a piece across the room. "Calm yourself," he whispered quietly. "Unfortunately, this night has been long for all of us." Without another glance or word, he exited the room.

His father—Father's most trusted lord—still stood there. A fool. Both my father for trusting him, and he for believing I wouldn't tell a soul. "Tell me, do you enjoy watching Father struggle to deal with rebel lords? Or is that a mere diversion?"

"Let's call it the latter," Ashe said. "Besides, Lorcan is a traitor to his own people—his own kingdom—"

"It's quite ironic that you're saying that, isn't it?" I spoke over him.

"Settle," Lord Prodos said. His quiet voice broke through that loudness. "Ashe, this set-up was uncalled for. I did not ask you to bring her."

Ashe crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at me. "Ridiculous. She knows about the shortage. She knows what her father is doing."

"My father is an excellent king," I snapped back. "Why do any of you care? My father has made sure that your city thrived."

"And should Prodos have to thank your father? Your father has been a monster, Princess. How have you been this blind?" Henneh hissed from next to my ear. I refused to look at her—at whatever look that she was giving me.

I put my foot down on the dirt ground and said, "King Lorcan has done so much for Thaeleck—"

"Bullshit!" Henneh retorted. She got out of her chair, but Rysdan did too and held onto her shoulder. "What has your father done for us? We are starving. The wall between Kandose and Thaeleck is about to fall. Another war is brewing, and King Lorcan and sitting on his golden throne—on his ass, might I add."

Lies. They're spewing lies. Liars. "I don't care about these lies that you tell me—"

"You don't care about much," Ashe said. "Did you know that Thaeleck's food comes from Garbade? Did you know that your 'father' takes all that food—which isn't very much—and feeds it to himself and his family?"

"Enough," Prodos interrupted. Henneh and Ashe both left the room, and I saw how they were gritting their teeth. Henneh stomped out, dirt clouds spitting around her boots. Ashe walked out, and like hell I cared if he was mad or not.

"Rysdan, show her the tent," Prodos ordered.

Rysdan grunted and sauntered over to me. "Come," he whispered quietly. I narrowed my eyes at his outstretched arm. "I don't bite, dear."

I ignored his hand and got out of the chair. I saw him smirk slightly, but he made no effort to change his expression as we walked out into the humid breeze outside of the wooded building. The trees the surrounded the camp looked denser—impossible to escape, even more impossible to navigate.

"You don't like speaking?" Rysdan chimed, fastening his hand onto his belt that hung many swords and daggers. Even if I tried to get one out, he'd kill me. "Do you know how to use them?"

I snapped my attention back to him, but let his words slip past. He took us down a long trail filled with twigs and rocks. As we walked down the trail, I saw many smaller paths that led into the forest.

"I wouldn't go there," he merely said. "Unless you want to fall to your death."

"What?"

"There's a ravine there. One step on near the edge, and you'll fall." He stopped and pointed with his dagger at one particular tree. "If you climb that tree and leap across, you can get over the ravine."

Foolish idiot— "Why would you tell me—?"

"Because no one has ever made it across without dying," he spoke, an undying grin spreading. "Well, Ashe, Henneh, and Nylas made it across. Barely. They helped each other across, and Ashe nearly fell."

"So what happens if you do make it across?"

"You get nothing. It's training for the skilled." He put his dagger back onto his belt and walked down the trail. I followed after, my gown a disaster of ribbons and torn silk.

We walked for a few minutes. He didn't talk about anything else, so I took a lead. "If I... escaped—"

"Well, you can't," he quipped. "Do you like your head, Princess?"

The meaning behind that was clear: they wouldn't hesitate to kill me. Ashe said so himself—he only took me for information. I wouldn't stay forever, but there was a high chance I was a waste of time.

Rysdan paused in front of a tent. The trees billowed their branches above, like it might snap if one wrong move was made. "A humble tent with multiple people surrounding just in case."

I had a feeling that he wasn't the only one watching my moves.

He opened the entrance and allowed me inside. It was small—obviously. They wouldn't waste any materials on me. "What are you doing?" Rysdan asked. "That's not your tent, dear. That's mine."

"Then where's—?"

"Yours is across mine," a female's voice said. I quickly got out of the tent and looked to the side, finding a woman with long, ebony hair. "And Rysdan, please don't snore. At least when I'm in here."

Rysdan winked and slid into his tent.

The woman stuck her finger out and pointed to the large tent across hers. "Hurry up," she slurred. She wasn't drunk, but she looked like a mess with tangled hair and a button missing on her tunic.

As I went into my tent, I glanced up toward the woman and saw Avaloryn pull her back inside.

*~⚜️~*

The night grew longer.

There was a nightgown already laid out for me. I was glad someone had noticed how I was uncomfortable in the gown. Half a loaf of bread was next to it, but I didn't bother eating it.

I tried to sleep on the ground—which would've been easy. I had slept on the ground before with Kace. When we had shared a bed many moons ago. Those memories were poison to me, and like poison, a remedy was needed. I couldn't sleep on the ground as I remembered the events.

I knew I needed to find a way out. Ashe Knightley and his own issues were all lies.

Pulling myself off the ground, I put on the shoes I had been wearing with the gown and left the tent. Howls echoed, and that only reassured me to not go into the forest.

"Already trying to escape?" I spun around, quickly taking my shoe off as defense. "A pretty nightgown, isn't it?"

He was going to kill me. Ashe was leaned back against a tree, his eyes fixed on me. "Can't you sleep?"

"You wouldn't care," I muttered back.

He chuckled. From his smirk alone, I knew he wasn't amused. "So you're sneaking out, and you think that I won't care?"

"I'm not sneaking out—"

"As much as I would love to believe that, I can tell a lie." Ashe shrugged and bounced off the tree. He stepped broadly toward me. A challenge. "I have a dagger."

He was going to kill me. Just like he did with Manea. "Killing me will do you no good."

"I told you: I didn't kill her." He threw the silver dagger into the tent, almost lazily. "And I'm not going to kill you."

Like an uncalled storm, I hurled my arm forward, letting the shoe fly through the air and hit his chest.

There was silence for a second. My death wish was sealed—there was no way he wouldn't kill me for doing that.

"Well, I guess I deserved that." He picked the shoe off the ground. "You broke the heel. Strong thing, aren't you?"

I shut my lips, combating against the retort I was brewing. I would throw the dagger at him, but he was closer to the tent.

"Why don't you care? The Wall of Cadice is breaking every day. Don't you ever wonder why Diana is never at the palace? Don't you see the guards always around every city in Thaeleck?"

I couldn't, I wanted to say. I can't. I can't, but I wish. "And you have?"

"Every day." He slid the shoe into his pocket. "I can't let you leave."

"You'll kill me if I tried," I answered for him.

He looked confused for a second. He shook his head and smirked. This time, he was amused. "No, not me. If a Thaeleckian guard found you here, everyone would be executed. Not just myself, but hundreds of innocent people that just want food."

"You have food—"

"I'm not going to try to change your stubbornness, Valarya. You'll see—one day, you'll see how much Lorcan cares about his people."

I tightened my grip around my shoe, still debating whether I needed shoes or not. "So you won't kill me?"

Ashe flinched slightly. He cocked his head to the side and saw me more. There had been a tree blocking a lot of the view, but as he stepped into my sight, I saw how different he looked. A loose chemise and deep brown trousers replaced the black I had seen him in before. "I may not, but Prodos could order me to. I'd stay on his good side, if I were you."

"Is that advice?"

He kicked a twig to the side, hitting the tent. He stared back at me and crossed his arms. "A precaution. Let's call it that," he muttered.

So yes, advice. "And if I should endanger anyone in this camp?" I asked.

Like he was struck with lightning, he answered. "You'd endanger the people? Your own people?"

"I was asking—"

"Don't. Because I can promise you that there would be, at least, ten people that would want your head." Ashe looked at the empty sky; no stars were out tonight. "Good night."

He crawled into my tent, took the dagger he had thrown in, and left. There was something satisfied about the way he grinned at me when he jogged away—like he had managed to complete a year's work.

*~⚜️~*

I still couldn't sleep.

Was Diana in war with Kandose? No—no, she would've said something to Father. Father would've told us. Told me. He had to.

And the food. The food was being taken away from subjects of the Crown. I knew they were lying about that. My father would never do that.

I shuffled the itching blanket onto me, wanting Ilias here to hold me like he used to. The subtle touches he gave me throughout my day made me want to cry out. Cry and scream at him for not giving us that chance.

I'd escape. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or next week. I'd escape one day, and I'd find Ilias. I'd find my sisters, and I'd kill Ashe for everything he had done to my family—everything he had done to me, to Manea, to Kace. To Nicholyn. Ashe Knightley wore no shield, I had a sword, and this world—however destroyed it was—was my battlefield.

He'd die here, or he'd die nowhere else.