Kathryn finished her food, but it didn’t sit well in her stomach. Nonetheless, she tried to stir herself out of her lethargy. She said, “Ren, let me look at your shoulder.” 

“Ah…I don’t think that’s a good idea right after eating, princess,” he told her. “It’s pretty deep, and doesn’t look all that great.” 

Without replying, she started unbandaging his shoulder. He caught her hand. “Really, Kat; I’m fine,” he began. 

“Let me do it. I have to do something useful.” 

Ren didn’t know what to make of the pleading look in her eyes. He looked away. 

Kathryn finished unbandaging the wound. It hadn’t been cleaned properly, so it looked horrible. The wound itself was caked over with blood, and his arm was nearly covered in it. She felt her stomach revolt at the sight, but she picked up a canteen and started washing away the blood. 

Ren didn’t know what to do except let her continue. He sat still, wincing every so often. 

When the wound was clean, Kathryn was surprised to see that it didn’t look that bad. It only looked like a somewhat large cut. But he’d been stabbed straight through his shoulder. “Can you fight like this?” she asked. 

“‘Course I can. I fought with it already. It’s a little stiff this morning though,” Ren admitted. He tried moving it, and blood instantly welled up. 

“Hold still until I’ve bandaged it properly,” she ordered. 

A couple minutes later, the arm was carefully bound with the linen bandages Ren had also brought from town. As she finished tying them, Kathryn asked, “This is the first time you’ve really been wounded, right?” 

“I mean, I’ve had plenty of bumps and bruises. But yeah, it’s the first time I’ve had a deep one like this,” he admitted. 

“Can you beat General Xian?” 

Ren winced at her question, but he dismissed it with a laugh. “Sure I can! He’s just some old fart. Speaking of old farts, I wonder how Brenin is doing. He’ll have heard what happened; I’m surprised he didn’t come right after us.” 

Kathryn noticed he was changing the subject, but she decided not to pursue the topic. “I’m sure he’s fine, Ren.” 

“Sure he is! I’m not worried about him,” Ren protested hastily. “I just…thought maybe he’d be around to help.” Ren was feeling the weight of his responsibility. He’d never once doubted he’d be able to protect Kathryn until the moment he fought with General Xian. It would have been nice to have another ally. 

“I’m glad Carina wasn’t there,” Kathryn said in a low voice. 

Ren glanced at her. She was just standing still with the bandages in her hand, staring at nothing in particular. He tapped her on the forehead. “Hey, Kat. Wake up. We’d better get moving so we can keep ahead of those guys. Uh…just one thing, though. Where do you want to get moving to, Kat? I wish I could give you more time, but we’ve really gotta make a plan here.” 

Kathryn flinched and pushed his hand away. “Do you think I’m not trying? I need more time to think!” 

“Sorry, I just…You’re right. Let’s just go that way for now.” He pointed south. “Towards home. Wherever you decide to go, that’s the safest direction at the moment. Okay?” 

Kathryn nodded, and he helped her mount her horse. She noticed that his arm hung stiffly at his side and he had some trouble mounting. The fear welling up inside her grew even stronger. Since childhood, she’d always thought of Ren as being invincible. Now, she was realizing that he was very human after all. And somehow, that was terrifying. 

They rode for hours. Thankfully, Navinor had many small brooks and lakes, and Ren led the horses through all of them to mask their scent in case they were pursued by dogs. They rode for an hour and then walked for 10 minutes to rest the horses. Kathryn grew more and more exhausted as the strain began to show, but Ren seemed to be fine. 

Eventually, Kathryn got down to walk, and her legs collapsed under her. Ren caught her. “You’d better keep riding, princess,” he said worriedly. 

“No,” she panted. “It’ll hurt Ivory.” 

“It’s okay; use my horse. He’s used to carrying me, so you’ll be nothing in comparison. You can switch in between the horses and I’ll walk,” Ren told her. 

Cursing her own weakness, Kathryn complied, and they kept going until the sun was down. 

Ren remarked, “I’m kinda shocked we haven’t seen any Vipers. I didn’t think we’d get this much of a lead on them.” 

The words thudded into Kathryn’s brain like arrows as she instantly realized their significance. “I think that’s on purpose,” she said slowly. 

Ren frowned. “What do you mean?” 

“They have probably guessed that the most likely course of action for us would be to go home. So while we’re taking detours to go through brooks and hide our scent, they’ll go as fast as they can to put a wall between us and Iridalys. So you won’t see any of them until probably tomorrow, at which point we’ll start running into patrols of four or five. If I were them, I would have four to keep you busy while the other one runs to tell the rest where we are, and then they will tighten the net.” Kathryn looked up at the stars as she spoke. An idea was welling up. Maybe it was crazy, but it was the only option left to her. 

Ren thought about her words. “Right. So what do we do?” he asked again. 

And this time, finally, Kathryn had an answer. She looked up at him with a faint, grim smile. “We break through the net."

Prince Gregory was angry. Everything had been going so well until that bodyguard decided to throw himself and his princess out of a third story window. While Gregory didn't particularly feel that his plans were being threatened, he did feel inconvenienced. 

Worse still, General Xian had failed to stop the bodyguard from escaping. Wounding him was not enough. He should have been carved into a dozen pieces, Gregory thought bitterly. 

But at least Gregory had the full support of the Navinorian King. His father was heartbroken upon hearing of the death of his youngest son and immediately dispatched Gregory, Xian, and a large number of Protectors to hunt down the offenders. 

Now, Gregory was sitting in a tent, looking at a map and contemplating his strategy. General Xian said, "My lord. I can overtake them myself and kill him." 

Gregory glared at him. "You failed once already. This time, I'm leaving no such chances." 

Xian lowered his head. "Your highness, my failure was that I did not know he had no honor. If he had remained to finish the duel, I would have killed him." 

Gregory laughed bitterly. "Of course he has no honor. He may be a nobleman, but he thinks and behaves like a peasant. I would almost rather not kill him. I'd prefer to torture him. It would be a simple way to get a confession out of her royal highness, and it would give me some satisfaction for the trouble he's caused. But he might be too dangerous for that." 

"The only thing that is odd to me is that they haven't run into any of our scouting parties yet," the captain of the Protectors observed. 

"It is peculiar," Gregory agreed. "They should have started seeing them this morning, even at the slow pace they seemed to be going. Though perhaps it’s not so peculiar and the cause is simply the overwhelming incompetence of your men." 

"Maybe they stopped to rest," General Xian suggested. 

Gregory glared at him. "Don't be ridiculous. They know there's no time for rest with the Protectors on their trail." 

"Unless…princess Kathryn is said to have a strategic mind that rivals that of her brother," The captain said thoughtfully. "Is it at least possible she chose to do something unexpected? For example, she might go to Tephraya." 

Gregory shook his head. "Into exile? Her pride won't let her do that. And she'd have nowhere to go there anyway. No, she will try to go home. And we will intercept her at the border as planned."