“If there is any justice in this world, Arakhum will strike down this barbarian.”

Caitlin’s flawless deception, all that effort and lying, totally undone. Her mother, the smartest, most perceptive person she knew, didn’t suspect a thing! How could she be so stupid as to be found out by this oaf? Why didn’t he just give up the horse when she told him she was going to give her back? What was his name? James? Richard? Christopher? It didn’t matter. This oaf was easily bested and she’d be rid of him shortly. Creating an opportunity to abandon him was going to be easy.

One point in the fool’s favor: he had a wondrous horse. Malcot was beautiful and strong, more than suitable for the journey and fit for a warrior princess of her caliber. She moved through the forest and towards the Imanese Mountain with a graceful, powerful stride. The only difficulty would be getting the skittish mare to trust her. They weren’t going anywhere until such time.

Malcot was weaving between a pair of trees when Christoph said something she couldn’t quite hear.

“Oh, please. The oaf wants to converse,” Suddenly, spending a day with the Godfreys didn’t seem that agonizing. Caitlin decided she might humor the fool. If only to pass the time. “What was that?”

Christoph cleared his throat and spoke up. “I’ve always admired yo-ah-your father.”

If they weren’t trying to get on her good side, her father was the next target. “Is that so?”

"I think I'd make a horrible king. Becoming a knight was difficult enough, but being responsible for everyone in Amorado takes true courage. I don't know much about politics or debts, but I think he's done a good job so far. All my friends seem to like him, too. He’s better than the last one-ooooh,” he laughed nervously. "I'm sorry, my Lady. I don't know why I said that. I merely thought the current King is a much better fit for the job. I’m sorry for bringing up the subject."

“I concur," Caitlin cut him off, unable to tolerate the second-hand embarrassment. "He is a significant improvement over the last one and you'd make a horrible king."

Thankfully, quiet followed. The sun was dipping into the peak of the mountain as it made its descent for the night. It made her think of when she was younger and afraid of the dark. Caitlin could recall that feeling of primal terror deep in her gut when she was descending the stairs alone into an unlit part of the castle. Now, however, those fears held no sway. Whatever challenge fate presented her, she was ready to stand without fear.

“Did you plan on spending the night somewhere?”

Caitlin couldn’t believe he interrupted the peace to say that. “No. Is there any particular reason you’re asking?”

“I-uh, don’t mean to...impose you around, my Lady. I think it would be good if we stopped travelling until morning. I only want what’s best for your safety.”

The coward was afraid of the dark, wasn’t he? How on earth could a knight be afraid of the dark? “If you say so, Christoph, but I don’t need you to concern yourself with my safety. I’m more than capable of handling myself.”

“Christiansen.”

“What was that?”

“Christiansen. My name is Christiansen. Jamie Christiansen.”

“Right,” Caitlin said. “Well, Christiansen, you are free to spend your nights wherever you wish. Malcot and I will continue on.”

“I’m sorry, my Lady, but I can’t let you or Malcot go alone. She sticks with me no matter what.”

Did Christiansen think he was being subtle? Or did he assume she was some pampered brat who couldn’t see through his facade? “You can trust me to keep her unharmed. I’ll treat her as if she were my own.”

He brought Malcot to a halt and slid off her saddle. “I have no doubt about that, my Lady, but I can’t let either of you go alone. I need to make sure you’re both safe.”

She slid off as well and almost got in his face. “And as I’ve told you several times now, I don’t care about what you want and I don’t need you to be my bodyguard. Why are you so insistent on following me when you know I’m a better warrior than you?”

The question struck a nerve, as Christiansen’s face burned red and he stared at her with wide, green eyes. “Because I,” he paused. “Because I don’t want to get exiled. If the King and Queen heard I didn’t protect you, they’d likely exile me from Amorado. And that would be bad. Because it would be dishonorable. No other reason I can think of, really.”

Christiansen was either a terrible liar or a prideful buffoon, but there was no time to focus on that. Some distance away, smoke billowed into the evening sky. Caitlin darted towards the fire.

“Caitlin-my Lady, wait!” Christiansen said as he followed. “Where are we going?”

Caitlin hustled through the trees with her typical grace and speed, undeterred by whatever protests the oaf mustered. She needed to make sure she wasn’t being followed, by her parents or anyone else. The source of the smoke was two bandits sitting around a campfire.

“So, the old lady just wants us to sit around and wait? That don’t strike you as a bit strange? I ain’t an expert, but most ah’ these royal bastards pay fools to fight their battles. Unless they’re those freaks from Efline. Everybody from there gives me the creeps.” The brawny man said, stuffing a spoonful of beans into his mouth. He wore bulky armor and his heavily scarred face told a tale of fights won through brute strength rather than cunning. Much like Caitlin’s temporary compain, he was an empty-headed buffoon who nonetheless held a significant advantage in a contest of strength.

Embroidered on his shoulders was a symbol; in the light of a flame was a sword surrounded by a large, white hand. His skinny partner wore a similar garment with the same symbol on his shoulders. She’d never seen it, but even someone as dull as Christiansen understood they were a mercenary contingent.

“I ain’t gonna question her. If she’s right, we’re set for a good long while, and if she really is fulla’ it, who cares? We already got paid,” the skinny man said with a chortle.

As she was planning her strategy behind the cover of a tree, Christiansen shambled up behind her. “My Lady, I think we should go now. We should get away now in case they spot us.”

Caitlin shushed him before returning her focus to the bandits.

“Just one thing that don’t sit right with me,” the brawny man continued. “Since when have you ever heard of a princess who goes around fighting on her own? Shouldn’t she have a boyfriend escortin’ her or something?”

“Old lady didn’t mention no boyfriend. I think that’d be an important detail, but we’ll deal with him, too, if he’s around,” his skinny companion responded with a mouthful of food. “Listen to me, Harry, you’re thinkin’ too hard on this one. The old lady wants the princess dead, she’s gonna be all alone, and we’re the best on the market.”

So, they’d been sent here to kill her. Hired by whom? One of her parent’s enemies? But how could they have known she’d be here right now?

“My Lady, I think we need to return to the castle right now.”

“You are free to go. I’m going to find out what these fools know and deal with them.”

“If that is what you wish, fine,” at last, he conceded. The smartest decision of his life. “But I insist that I take them on.”

“Do you still believe I’m some stupid brat who can’t protect herself?”

“No, but you are too important to m...uh-to put in danger.”

If Christiansen kept up with the blabbering, they’d be found out. Best to give in, let him bumble in, then save his life when he inevitably messed everything up. “Fine. I’ll cover you.”

He nodded, taking out a dagger from a sheath at his hip. “Thank you, my Lady. Please keep your distance.”

_____________________________________________________________________________

While most of his training concerned taking an enemy head-on, Jamie was well trained in becoming one with the shadows. It was an uncommon occurrence, but knowing how to sneak up on a criminal could mean the difference between life and death. Assuming everything went his way, Jamie would cut down the big one with a dagger, then unsheathe his sword to strike down the smaller one before he knew what was happening.

Keeping low, Jamie crept silently through the dark of night, careful to avoid any rogue branches that might give away his position.

“I know we didn’t discuss it with the rest ah’ the guys, but a princess is pretty nasty business. We’re probably gonna end up with a bounty on all our heads. A real big bounty.”

“With what she promised, we can disappear where no one will ever find us.”

Whatever he was planning on saying was forever lost as Jamie covered his mouth and ran a dagger across his throat. He then wrenched his sword from its sheath, driving it through the skinny one’s chest as he brought the spoon to his lips.

“Goddamnit, it’s a knight!” A shout from behind the campfire drew Jamie’s attention.

“Oh, you are gonna pay for that ya’ fuckin’ bastard!” A second mercenary carrying firewood let out a pained cry as an arrow embedded itself in his torso. His friend spun around to find Caitlin sprinting at him. He raised his sword and swiped, but Caitlin dodged to the side and smacked him in the head with her bow. He tried crawling to his discarded sword, but the princess kicked it away.

“Wait, I surrender!” he put his hands up and pleaded. “Please!”

“I’ll certainly consider the option if you tell me what I want to know,” Caitlin said. “Like what you and your friends were doing here.”

“We was’ hired to find Princess Caitlin Faraday. Told us she was’ comin’ this way tonight and we had to deal with her. Said we could kill anyone she was with, but we had to bring the princess in alive.”

“Who hired you? How did they know to send you here?”

“She found us a few nights ago. Told us she’d be in this exact spot right about now, a couple more of us are up the road just in case we missed her. Paid a fortune up front and promised a whole lot when the job was done. It sounded batty, but we...we didn’t ask any questions. It was a whole lot ah’ money.”

Caitlin made an exaggerated huff. “Surely you were perceptive enough to register something about her. Her voice, her height, what she was wearing.”

“Rich. Very rich, definitely. Cloak she was wearin’, the money she had on her, she was real rich. Older, too. She sounded real smart, had one of those voices like she knew what you were thinkin’ before you did.”

“How old?”

“I don’t bloody know! Like someone’s grandma’!”

“That’s all we’re getting,” Jamie said. “He doesn’t know anything else.”

“Listen, you gotta’ finish me,” the mercenary pleaded. “Screwin’ up jobs means death, and messin’ up one this big means they’re gonna’ come back here and make me wish I was dead. You got no idea what they do to traitors.”

“Actually,” Caitlin said. “I have a better idea. What’s your name?”

He gave her a puzzled look. “Uh, my friend’s call me Birke.”

“Birke, I don’t want to see you in Amorado ever again. You’ll be going somewhere far away. Somewhere like Erdelans.”

“That’s...real far away.”

“You’ll find a new calling. One that doesn’t involve stealing or killing people for money. If you don’t, I’ll know, and I’ll be greatly displeased you chose to waste my mercy,” she let down her hood to punctuate her ultimatum. “And I won’t need my father or a bodyguard to make you regret it.”

“Yes, yes of course, Princess! I’m gonna’ go to Erdelans straight away and I’ll be the kindest damn soul ya’ve ever seen, I promise!” Birke awkwardly rose to his feet and limped off, soon lost to the darkness.

“I wasn’t planning on torturing him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I would never think that. You did the right thing,” the fight was over and the Princess was unharmed, but Jamie’s heart was still thudding in his chest. “But my Lady, I think it’s very important we head back to the castle right now. We need to tell the King and Queen someone with a lot of money placed a bounty on your life.”

“Did you see that symbol on his shoulders?” she asked. “That means they’re members of the White Hand. They’re a group of bandits, killers and thieves from Calchu.”

“But how did they know you were going to be here?” he shook his head. How did she shift his focus so easily? “My Lady, I know you’re against the idea, but we should return to Skystead as quickly as we can.”

“You are free to do whatever you wish. Malcot and I will continue on without you.”

As stubborn as his grandfather could be at times, the Princess made him seem easy going and genial. Whatever anxiety surrounded conversing with Caitlin, duty and honor came first. She could think he was the biggest moron in the world as long as she was safe. “My Lady, forgive me for not agreeing, but I think that’s a bad idea. Whatever this gang is, it sounds like there’s more of them and they’ve been paid a lot to target you. The best thing we can do is go to the castle so we can inform your father. If you really want to come back, he’ll assign a proper escort.”

“Proper escort,” the Princess echoed his words. “Do you need another demonstration proving I can take care of myself?”

“My Lady, I understand if you don’t want to tell me, but why are you so intent on going into the forest alone?”

To his surprise, the Princess contemplated the question for a few moments instead of firing off another snarky retort. “My grandmother.”

“Do you mean Queen Abigail?”

“Yes,” she placed her fists at her hips. “I’m going to tell you the truth, whether you choose to believe it or not,” her eyes shone like diamond, even in the dead of night. “Last week, Queen Abigail visited me in the castle. I was getting ready to sleep, and she appeared like a mirage. I didn’t hear a door or window open, but there she was. She told me she’d been watching me my whole life, and I’d find what I always wanted if I followed her. To the Imanese Mountain. Light of dusk shows the door, embrace your power forevermore. Those were her last words before she left.”

The words hung in the air as Jamie was almost too shocked to respond. Partially because she revealed that part of herself, partially because of what she revealed.

“I thank you for sharing this with me, my Lady. It’s said that those who’ve passed on watch over their loved ones,” he said. “But Queen Abigail passed away before either of us were born. You’re certain it was her? Could it have been a dream?”

“I saw her, I heard her voice, she was standing there beside me, just as you are now. It was her, Christiansen. People talk to Arahkum all the time and He’s been known to respond in roundabout ways. Is it so unusual He’d send a friendly emissary?”

Arahkum speaking to His subjects people wasn’t unheard of, but why would Queen Abigail want her granddaughter to become a warrior? After seeing what became of her husband? After the King and Queen nearly sacrificed everything to stop him?

But whatever reservations Jamie held, Caitlin wasn’t going to let anyone keep her from undertaking this quest. The Princess was going to the Imanese Mountain, with or without him.

“Abigail,” Jamie said quietly. “That’s your middle name.”

“Yes. How did you know that?”

A wave of heat rose to Jamie’s cheeks. “Uh, I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t know for sure, that was a lucky guess. Mine is named after my grandfather, I thought that’s how it was for everyone. If more of the White Hand are up ahead, we should go somewhere else. Somewhere they won’t find you as easily. I’ll get Malcot. That is, if you’re okay with me joining you?”

Caitlin threw her arms up and let them fall to her side. “I suppose it’s either let you come along or you run to my parents to tell them my whereabouts. Not much of a choice.”

“Are you sure?”

“Do you wish for me to repeat myself yet again, Christiansen?”