"Are we there yet?" Sabina whined.

"For the thousandth time, no," Demitra said. "I'm going to shove a gag in her throat."

"My bum hurts. The horse smells. It's cold. We've been riding for hours without a break. I'm hungry. Why can't we—"

"If you don't shut your mouth and quit your bitching, forget the gag. I'm going to cut out your tongue!" Demitra shouted. "How can you be so calm with her whining?"

Ry didn't respond. He continued to stare at the cloud covered skies. A chill rattled his bones watching the clouds darken from a bright gray to an imposing near black the farther west they traveled. Snow would fall soon and it both worried him and exhilarated him. He loved the snow. Back in the Glades they never saw it much, but some of his trips with his father took them far enough north he'd seen it. As a boy he enjoyed building men from the snow or having fights with his father. Icicles were fun to lick as they melted. He'd learned to rub berries against the slick surface to make a tasty snack. But the thought of riding in it for an extended period had his nerves on edge. Snow had a way of making travelers lose their way.

Something hit his head. He stopped staring at the sky to watch an apple drop against the dirt road. His head tilted up to find the source of the attack. Demitra was digging in her satchel, Ry assumed to pull out more ammo. Her eyes narrowed and her braids of her hair shifted with the shake of her head, making her beads click together.

"How can you tolerate her whimpering?"

Ry shrugged and dug berries out of each ear. His lips hardened in an arch. "I have three younger sisters. You learn ways to dull their babble. Berries don't block everything, and they make a mess if they're too ripe, but they block enough that she doesn't sound like a complete prat."

"I'm not a prat! I'm still your Princess."

"Princess look alike." Ry grinned. "How much farther do we need to go? Snow will fall soon."

"If we stay on the road, we should reach the coast within a few hours. We'll make camp outside the village there. After that we'll cut north to the border of Altian. We'll cross the border to resupply, less chance of running into Morag guards. Relations between Altian and Morag are precarious at best so they only cross over when it's high trade season."

"Precarious?" Sabina snorted. "Altian is full of trolls and peasants. They don't even have a king or queen! Their Wilders run amok and corrupt the land. Father worried their filth would spread to our kingdom. If it weren't for the fact we're the southernmost kingdom of Aseya, he would've blocked the borders from all trade."

"Your father was an idiot and do try to remember, when you talk about the Wilders, you're talking about your kind. Like it or not, you're part of that filth."

Ry threw berries at Sabina when she opened her mouth to respond. She shrieked when one went inside. He smiled as he nudged his horse to trot faster. Demitra shook her head when he joined alongside her.

"That girl . . . If she wasn't a Guardian I'd leave her here to rot."

"She does have a point." Ry looked back at Sabina.

She slumped in her saddle, resting against the horse's neck. Strands of dark hair hung from the wrap Demitra had tied to Sabina's head to hide her hair. Dirt caked her face making her skin appear a dark brown, another method to conceal her identity. Demitra had used magic to change Sabina's eyes color from the gentle cobalt to a dark brown which swallowed her pupils as if they were one color. Ry had to admit, if he didn't stare closely at her, the disguise worked. He would've figured her for a farmer or simple peasant at first glance. Take a longer look and she was still an almost identical match to the Princess.

Ry lowered his voice to keep Sabina from hearing and unleashing another whining triad, "You and I, we can handle this pace. I'm the son of a farmer, trained in the duel blades and when my father died, I became the man of the house as the eldest of six children. I'm used to being at work for over half the day. Guardian or not, she was raised to be pampered. An honest day's work for her is lifting a tea cup or waving to a crowd in a parade. If we keep pushing her like this, her whining will only stop when she falls dead in the saddle."

"We have to get to New Calandria. It's the one place Rodyn can't get to, the one place we'll be safe."

Ry grunted. "Nobody wants to get to New Calandria more than I do. Hopefully, Kira is safely there already, waiting for me. But I can read people as surely as I can read parchment, especially women." He jerked his head toward Sabina. "And that woman is going to drop in her saddle at any moment."

Demitra pulled on her reins to slow the horse. It cantered for a moment before settling into place. Ry stopped alongside her and swung the horse around to face Sabina as she continued to lean in her saddle. One arm hung limply over the horse's neck, her eyes closed. Wind flapped the tattered remains of her dress. Ry grabbed the reins to keep her horse from continuing on. Sabina stirred and sat up, her body swayed in the saddle. Drooping eyelids hid her irises from view.

Demitra sighed. "What do you suggest?"

"I understand why we can't go into villages. By now, my face is on every poster in every square. And the Princess look alike here is probably being claimed as kidnapped. The vagrants she's so fond of hating would turn her in for a copper if they could. So if you're going to change her appearance, change mine as well. Use magic, use roots to dye my hair, whatever you need. Make it so we can go into villages for a good night's rest at an inn once in a while."

"She'll be hard enough to conceal and you wish me to do it with you?"

"Then I'll keep my hood up or I'll stay outside of the village while you two sleep at an inn. Look at her, Demitra. She's sleeping in the saddle! From the way you talk, we're still weeks away from New Calandria even riding non-stop. Her whining is as much her being a prat as it is her being exhausted."

"You both will be the death of me." Demitra turned her horse and galloped off. Ry smiled as he tied Sabina's reins to his saddle. She mumbled but didn't stir when he pulled her onto his horse. His strong arms curled around her wide waist as he situated her against his chest.

"You, dear Princess look alike, need a bath," he said. "And you owe me for the comfy bed you'll hopefully sleep in tonight."

His lips curled. The horse moved to a gallop when he snapped the reins. Sabina's horse followed in pursuit. Snow fell as they traveled. Hills coated with white rolled past them one by one until the land turned flat. Grass and rocks fell victim to snow banks piling higher. Their horses slowed in the rising powder as they struggled to cut through the white walls of snow. Ry unbound the front of his cloak and carefully held the reins while refastening it around both him and Sabina. She shivered under his touch. With one hand he pulled the hood over his head to fend off the onslaught of frigid white.

"Demitra!" His voice wouldn't carry far through the snow. It swallowed sound as surly as it swallowed the land, including Demitra. "Dammit."

Ry stopped his horse and twisted in his saddle. He'd never been this far west before and he didn't know where the village was. With snow covering the road couldn't find it either. It might've curved or fork at any moment and he wouldn't know how or in which direction to go. He longed for the signage which told the direction to the larger cities in Morag. On the way to the Glades there was a sign every hundred feet or so, but he hadn't seen one in miles since following Demitra.

"All right," Ry said to himself. "We'll keep going west like we planned and we'll reach the coast even if we travel off the path. The village is close to the ocean so I'll come to it eventually. By the God's it's cold." He shuddered and snapped the reins.

Sabina stirred in his arms.

"What," she said.

"Hang on, Princess Look alike. We're riding hard and riding fast. Hold me like you love me."