The faint sound of birds twittering was the first thing Kathryn heard. She lay shivering, not wanting to open her eyes and acknowledge that she was in the middle of the forest on the run from soldiers and the royal family of Navinor. 

But inevitably, she had to. The first thing she realized was she was alone, and a momentary terror washed over her. But she pushed it away. Giving in to fear wasn’t going to help. 

Kathryn was lying on a pile of leaves in a small clearing, wearing only her nightdress and Ren’s coat. But the young guard was nowhere to be seen. She noticed that her horse was tied to a tree nearby, but his horse was gone. 

Kathryn stood, staggering a little as the stress and fear from the last night hit her body harder than she expected. She waited a moment to steady herself before tottering over to the horse. A note was pinned to its saddle. 

“Kat, I’m going into town to get you some clothes and food. I’ll be right back. If you leave without me, I’ll be really mad, so stay put.” He’d drawn a crude grumpy face at the end to indicate the seriousness of the threat. Normally, Kathryn would have laughed, but she was too numb to even smile. 

She sat down to wait for him, pulling the coat around her and flinching at every snapping twig. She tried to push away the growing image in her mind of a summary execution in which Prince Gregory stood by watching with a smirk as she was deprived of her head. 

She heard hoofbeats approaching, but she only pulled the coat a little tighter and braced herself for whatever was coming. Thankfully, it was Ren who trotted into the clearing. 

“Kat!” he said cheerfully. “You’re awake!” 

He looked terrible, and Kathryn realized for the first time that he had a rough, bloody bandage around his shoulder, and his clothes were soaked with blood. The sight of the blood made her nauseated, and she looked away. “You’re wounded,” she said dully. 

“Eh. It’ll heal. Bled out great, which helps prevent infection.” Ren dismounted and handed her a pile of warm, durable clothing. “Here. Courtesy of a Navinorian shopowner, who I’m sure would have been happy to help had he known your predicament.” 

“So they can charge us with stealing too now,” Kathryn muttered. 

Ren cocked his head. “Gosh, I’m so worried about that when we’re on the run for our lives,” he said sarcastically. 

Kathryn chose not to respond. She took the clothes and went behind a particularly large tree to change. Ren hummed cheerfully as he started to make cold jerky sandwiches for them both. 

Kathryn emerged, now properly clothed and feeling somewhat better for the fact. She said, “Did you bring a comb?” 

Ren grinned at her. “Sure did.” He tossed it to her and finished making the sandwiches. Kathryn fixed her wild hair as well as she could, and Ren gave her the ribbon from his own hair to tie it up. She stood staring at the ribbon blankly for a long moment. 

At last she said, “You should have let me go back.” 

“You would have died,” Ren told her. 

“I know. It would be better that way.” Kathryn tied up her hair as she said in a voice that was chillingly calm, “My usefulness to Iridalys ended the moment the Navinorian prince dropped dead. Of course, it was planned. Prince Gregory planned it all…he made sure Lorrin would take responsibility for the fire opal so it would appear I had a reason to poison him. And Lorrin would antagonize you for the same purpose. Of course, Lorrin wasn’t aware of the real reason for all of that. And now that Lorrin is dead, Gregory planned that I would be the scapegoat. You would try to defend me, undoubtedly killing many of their people in the process, and solidifying the charges. And then they would have me executed before my father had any chance to take action.” 

“Huh. I didn’t think of the fire opal being part of it,” Ren remarked. He was glad to see at least she was thinking more clearly than the previous night. “But where does Illian fit into all of it? Didn’t Gregory think Illian might try to stop him from killing you?” 

“Either he has some intelligence that Illian and I are not exactly allies, or he has a direct agreement with Illian, or he felt that he could use it as an excuse to kill Illian. On the other hand, he might have just figured the best Illian could do would be to protest, since he wouldn’t have enough troops to resist effectively.” 

“Got it. So, what’s next for us?” 

Kathryn stood still, staring at nothing in particular. Ren put a hand on her arm. “Princess. What do you want me to do?” 

She looked at him, seeing in his eyes that he had absolute faith in her. He seemed to feel she was definitely going to figure out an answer for everything. 

The trouble was, she didn’t have an answer. If she returned to Iridalys, Navinor could start a war yet again. If she returned to Gregory, it would be over long before Iridalys had a chance to protest. “What’s next,” she murmured. 

“Princess…I made sure not to kill any of those guys. The only thing they can say is that we left without killing anyone except the prince, which would look a bit weird for them. If we go back to Iridalys, they can protect you while everyone tries to figure out what’s going on, right?” Ren prodded. 

“Oh…you didn’t kill any of them?” Kathryn asked blankly. 

“‘Course not. I thought it might make things worse for you,” he replied with a shrug. 

Kathryn was stunned. He was wounded and had been fighting off four soldiers at a time, and somehow he had restrained himself for her sake. She probably would have cried, only she was too dehydrated to manage a single tear. She only said, “Thank you.” 

“It’s my job. Now, tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it, princess. Now that you’ve got your head on right, that is.” 

Kathryn tried to slow down her whirling thoughts. “Um…I…I…” Her breath came faster as she tried to consider her options. 

Ren saw her trembling and quickly sat her down. “Let’s eat first. We’ll talk after,” he said. 

She ate mechanically, not even tasting the food. Ren watched her as he downed his own. At one point, she nearly choked and started coughing, and he hastily gave her a cup of water. “Sorry…almost forgot. Drink some water too; you’ll need it.” 

She did as she was told. Ren hated seeing her like that, but something else worried him even more. He knew that Navinor would be coming after them soon. He kept seeing the face of General Xian in his mind. “I’m not sure if I can beat him,” he thought. “And if I can’t beat him, how am I supposed to protect her?” He shook his head to clear it. There was no time for doubts. He had to keep her alive, and if that meant he had to beat Xian, he’d just figure out a way to do it.