Isiah sighed, so tired that he no longer felt it. He couldn’t have gotten more than three hours of sleep before the attack the night before. A grand total of four hours of sleep since they’d left Ishmar. It wasn’t enough, but he no longer felt like he was going to pass out with every step he took.

If they were attacked again, he would be useless in a fight. He’d probably be killed in an instant. In his tired state, he couldn’t bring himself to care about his death. He was exhausted, physically and mentally. He moved like a slug, completely drained and unable to focus on what they were doing and where they were going. He knew they were moving west, following the sun as it sank towards the horizon. That was all he needed to know.

He knew nothing of the mountains. How could he? He’d never been beyond the Sanctum before. Part of him itched to go back, but the Mother’s warnings echoed in his ears. It wasn’t safe there, according to her. To him, there wasn’t a safer place, but the Mother didn’t seem to believe so. Maybe it was because it was too close to Ishmar.

Something Isiah had never questioned was how the Mother knew something was amiss with the treaty. She was a wise woman, but even someone as wise as she was shouldn’t have known. Or maybe they could. What did Isiah know of her talents? It could have been intuition.

“Sons tend to take after their fathers,” she had told him. Isiah did not know much of their last king, but he had been the one to start everything with Minisia. King Harudan certainly seemed to be from a similar vein.

But what did that mean of Nerin? The boy was kind, innocent, intelligent. But he was too smart for his age. He had a habit of sneaking around. Would he be like his father? Would he try to kill a Princess for no reason? From the reaction Nerin had had during the attack in Ishmar, Isiah already knew the answer, but he still had every right to be nervous.

The Princess was obviously nervous as well. Isiah knew that she had been trying to run away the night before, but he hadn’t said anything to her about it yet. There wasn’t much point, it would only start an argument all three of them were too tired to deal with.

He was surprised that she was still with them. She could have run off at any time and he wouldn’t have tried to stop her. She was much stronger than him and he was so tired. If she wanted to leave, he would just let her, even though he knew it was a bad idea. Letting her leave meant condemning her to death.

If Isiah had been asked, he would have said that he wanted her around. The road west was dangerous and she could fight. If they went without her, who knew what Isiah would do if they got in trouble again. Granted, their trouble in the village was caused by Sharina, but she had saved them.

He’d thought the blood had been bad back in Ishmar, but there’d been so much of it in the room at the inn. Somehow, in the light of a single candle, it had been so much worse. It looked like black sludge until it caught the light and twinkled like the gleam in an angry dog’s eye.

At least that time, frozen against the thin wall, the memory of the man’s hand on his neck, he hadn’t wanted to help. All he’d wanted to do was to hide away from the violence. There was too much of it in the real world. If someone had told him that he would have seen seven people die in the space of a few days, he never would have left the Sanctum.

If he had never left the Sanctum, Princess Sharina would be dead. There would still be war, but the Princess would be dead and Nerin would be stuck in Ishmar with his brutal brother. Isiah couldn’t tell which was better for him, but he had no choice but to stick with the path he had been thrust upon. Lingering on possibilities would be fruitless.

He pushed the thoughts away, instead choosing to focus on the melting snow crunching under his feet. The sun always came out and melted the first snow. It was the second snow that stayed. It wouldn’t be long before they hit and Isiah prayed to each of his Gods that they would reach the place the Mother told him of before they fell.

The trees had been stripped of their leaves weeks ago, looking like skeletons as they blew in the harsh wind. Some of the thicker branches still held snow and it reminded Isiah of the winter days when he was a child. He would run about with the other children and throw snowballs around until not even the strongest powers could keep them warm.

He tried not to think about how much simpler things had been then. He kicked at a tuft of grass poking out of the snow and sighed. Sharina caught his eye when she looked over her shoulder at him, a concerned smile pulling at her lips. He looked away. He didn’t feel like smiling.

Nerin looked as tired as the rest of them. He trudged along, eyes drifting from tree to tree as if each one was something he had never seen before. The gleam in them almost hid the dark bruises underneath. He was young, he needed more rest than Isiah or Sharina. But all three of them were too scared to stop.

There was a big chance that the men from the village had followed them. Princess Sharina had killed four people. That was a crime that deserved punishment. If those men believed that hard enough, they would come looking for them. They would have gotten far enough away by the time the village gathered a large enough force, but that didn’t mean the trio could stop.

As the sun sank towards the horizon, Isiah started up his mantra. He hadn’t prayed properly since they left Ishmar, too scared that stopping to do so would bring danger. But after what he saw, he needed to. It brought him comfort.

He said the words quietly, but in the silence of the woods through which they walked, it would loud. “To Ishin, grant us warmth. To Askarune, grant us safety,” he whispered and his companions looked at him with matching frowns. He was unable to stop and pray as he usually would, but he could repeat the mantra as he walked. “To Nyat, grant us strength. To Belganine, grant us health. To Teremtys, grant us wisdom. And to the Beast, may you rid the world of evil.”

Over and over again, he repeated the words. He had no idea if the Gods would listen to him. He was a murderer now, he went against everything the Gods taught. But he was devout, he still believed, and he needed help. Surely the Gods would have mercy on him and grant him his prayers.

It was not Ishin who granted him warmth as he repeated his mantra for the fourth time, but Nerin. Nerin with his chunk of fyrite tight in hand. With his empty hand, he grabbed Isiah’s wrist and took a deep breath. Warmth flooded his veins, stronger than anything Isiah had ever been able to do.

He snapped his hand away, his mantra cutting off halfway through. “Don’t,” he said as gently as possible. “Save your energy. It will be a while before we can rest again.” One look at Sharina and he regretted his words. She was shivering, her coat nowhere near thick enough to keep her warm in the buffeting wind. But Nerin needed to conserve his energy to walk, even if he had the fyrite.

The Prince didn’t listen to him and grabbed his wrist again. He dragged him forward until they were walking to Sharina and he grabbed her hand with his full one. She left out a sigh as they both slowly warmed up.

“How much further?” she asked with a yawn.

Isiah shrugged. “I don’t know,” he answered. He didn’t even know how far they were from Ishmar, let alone how close they were to the mountains.

“You can see the mountain range ahead of us if you look close enough,” Nerin said, gesturing forward with his head. Isiah had to squint to see them properly, but sure enough, there was a faint outline of the mountains ahead of them. A few more days, at most, he hoped.

“And which two are the tallest?” Sharina asked. Isiah frowned but didn’t say anything. He didn’t know. The monks had taught them geography back at the Sanctum, but like a lot of his classes, Isiah had found it boring and hadn’t paid any attention. That was probably why he’d been the one to teach the children to use their powers.

Nerin made a thoughtful noise. “Kylen and Vurtan, named for the founders of Ishmar,” he answered as if he were reciting a book. “I’ve been told it’s quite easy to pick which ones they are.” That was good, it meant it would be easy to find the valley between them.

The three of them were silent as they walked. The ground began to incline and they huffed with the effort of climbing it. It wasn’t steep, but they were exhausted. With every step, Isiah was sure he would collapse and sleep forever, despite how warm he now was. If anything, it made him more tired.

“Are you actually coming with us now, Princess?” Nerin asked when they reached the crest of the small hill.

Sharina froze and pulled them all to a stop with her. “What?” she said, her voice a quiet hiss. “Of course.”

Nerin raised an eyebrow at her and Isiah looked away. He didn’t want to get involved in whatever argument Nerin wanted to start. “You tried to run away last night,” the boy said. At least Isiah wasn’t the only one who had noticed it. Sharina hadn’t been in the room with them when they’d been attacked. She’d come in behind the group of men. She’d been outside when it happened.

The Princess took a moment to respond and Isiah spent the long seconds surveying the land beyond the hill. The setting sun was almost blinding, but still, he looked. “I just want to go home,” Sharina whispered next to him. “I was going to leave last night, but I saw them sneaking into the inn. I couldn’t just leave you to be hurt or killed. You’ve been nothing but helpful to me.”

“I’d say that was an understatement, Princess.” Nerin spat the word like it was poison. His tone only made Isiah’s thoughts drift back to the ones about Harudan. There was always a chance they could end up the same. “We saved your life, we helped you escape Ishmar. I’m committing treason against my own brother for you, and you decide to run away.”

“But I didn’t, did I?” she snapped. Isiah finally turned away from the landscape to look at his companions. “I came back and I saved you.”

“And you could run away at any moment,” Isiah said. His voice was quiet, monotone and his face emotionless. “I wouldn’t even stop you at this point.” It was the truth. He couldn’t stop her even if he wanted to.

Sharina stared at him with wide eyes. “I- I’m not going to run away,” she whispered.

“What?” Nerin asked, surprise lacing his tone. Even Isiah was surprised, but couldn’t find the energy to express it.

“There is no point in running away. I knew you were right when you said it would be safer west. I just- I just want to go home. I miss my family.” Her voice broke on the final word and she took a moment before she continued. “Just promise me, when they’re no longer focusing on us. You’ll take me to the border. It would be easier if I had Ishini with me.”

Isiah didn’t respond immediately. He needed to think. All he’d been focused on was going west. He didn’t even know what waited for them there, but he’d been so focused on it. When the time came, could he turn around and head east? What would it mean for his country if he did?

He resisted the urge to bow. “Of course, Princess Sharina,” he said. It was the least he could do. After everything that had happened to them, he owed it to her to take her back where she would be happy and safe.

“I will go as far as Ishmar,” Nerin replied. “I will have to face my brother eventually, even though I don’t want to.”

“Are you sure?” Sharina asked.

Nerin shook his head with an incredulous laugh. “No, but I suppose I will have plenty of time to figure it out.”

The sky was slowly turning a dark shade of orange. They’d need to find somewhere to sleep soon if they didn’t want to sleep out in the freezing cold. Isiah was the first to start moving again, pulling the other two down the hill with him. Deep in the trees was what looked like a cabin, but he wouldn’t be sure until they reached it.

The Princess made a noise behind him. “I suppose it would be better if you two called me Rina now. No more of this ‘Princess’ stuff,” she said in her lilting voice. “I prefer Rina.” Isiah nodded, vaguely hearing Nerin say something in response. Rina. It was a pretty name.