Hands groped at Nerys from all directions. Soft, moist fingers wrapped themselves around her arms and ankles, clamped tightly over her mouth, and closed around her throat. They stroked her hair and caressed her face while she lay immobilized, completely at their mercy.
"Poor princess," tiny voices hissed. "Give your suffering heart to us, dear one and you will not weep for long. We are waiting for you."
Nerys bolted up from her nightmare shaking violently and covered in the evening dew or terrified sweat, she wasn't sure which. The undiluted darkness indicated that dawn was still hours away. Dadien mumbled in his sleep on the opposite side of the tree and the two brutes, Micah and Enoch, snored loudly on the far edge of their camp. She looked about for Aimery and found his eyes reflecting the soft flicker of the dying flames opposite her.
"Bad dream, princess?" he asked.
He looked just as he had at the masquerade. The dark bruising framed his eyes like a mask, and his tousled locks fell over his forehead glowing white curls. Even if she had remembered him at the time, there was no way she could have recognized him as the same young man from the Esidiem.
"Why did you come tto us at the Festival feast?"
"I had wanted to warn you to be more careful for a while. I don't think Trygve was the only one with eyes on you. But, you were always with Kalea and Aali and you three were so close, I had no idea how to approach you until you gave me a good reason during the Festival."
Aimery added the last scraps of wood to the fire and watched the flames to make their creeping acceptance of the fresh offering before speaking again.
"Killing Kalea must have been the worst moment of Aali's life, but it was the kindest way to end her suffering— and yours."
Nerys had never before thought of Aali's actions as mercy. She did not want to recall the look on his face as Kalea fell, but his sorrow at that moment had been so clear that it was seared into her every memory of him.
"The sad part is that I would have gladly taken his place, even then, just to have meant something to you." Aimery sighed. "It's pathetic, isn't it?"
Nerys shook her head. Images flashed through her mind of the years spent with Aali and Kalea- laughing, fighting, making plans for a future they would never see.
They became muddled and reimagined with Aimery watching from the shadows— alone and trying to atone for the sin of being born to the wrong father— just beyond her notice.
"Aimery, I can't go to Tiarmn," Nerys said.
"But your father is waiting there."
"He is not. My aunt and her guard raised me as their own because the princess of Tiarmn could not return to her kingdom and husband with the king of Cerebes's child."
"What?" Aimery glanced at the two mercenaries who were still asleep, then crept closer to Nerys.
"I want to believe that he has escaped, but I know without a doubt that man I knew as my father would die before he'd abandon Lirienne."
"If this is another trick..."
"It's not. The only person with reason to bring me to Tiarmn is my half-brother, Prince Ardin. He is afraid that I will come after his throne, and I think he has used you to come for me first."
Aimery looked doubtful.
"I am trying to prevent a war," Nerys said, suddenly inspired.
"There is no reason for war. That's the whole purpose of the Esidiem."
"My marriage is meant to unite Cerebes and Ithaam. It's one thing if I choose one brother over another- both kingdoms will still get something that they want out of it- but if the crowned prince of Tiarmn murders me, no game in the arena will settle the debt."
She grew more certain as she spoke that her spur-of-the moment conjecture held more than a little truth.
"The last time I trusted you, I ended up with a broken nose," he said.
"I know. And I probably deserve whatever Ardin has planned for me, but there are innocent people throughout three kingdoms who do not deserve what would come of it. Please, think about what is right."
Aimery unconsciously ran his fingers over the cloth on his wrist.
"The Kept live and fight and die without questioning if what we do is right. That is where we came from and what we were trained to be."
Aimery suddenly grabbed Nerys, squeezing her in a strong hug that left her breathless.
"But it was never who you were."
He pressed something small and sharp into her hands. Then set her down, crossed the camp, and lay by the fire with his back turned to her.
Nerys carefully felt along the object's edges. It was a shaving blade. She carefully sliced through her bindings and crept to Dadien's side of the tree.
His eyes were wide open when she reached him, and she could tell from his expression that he had heard everything. There was no time to worry about his reaction. She placed a finger to her lips and they gathered their bags, which had been neatly repacked with not only their thing, but their captors' supplies as well.
She suspected that there would be a merry chaos when they woke, with blame and insults falling on the poor, stupid men who were supposed to have secured the hostages. She sent grateful glance toward Aimery's back, and set off into the forest.
When they were well away from the camp, Dadien grabbed Nerys by the wrist and stared at her for a long while.
"What?" she said finally.
"Was everything you told him true?"
"Yes."
Dadien's face was carefully composed to conceal the anger that twitched just below his left eye.
"So, you could claim both Tiarmn and Cerebes by birth? No wonder your brother is nervous. With you marrying into the Ithaan throne, you are well on your way to sitting at the helm of an empire."
He clenched his jaw and the grip on Nerys's wrist was no longer friendly.
"Do you have any relatives in Haolaetia that I should know about, or do you just plan to absorb it once you have the other three kingdoms under your rule?"
"Yes, because I planned out this whole thing, right down to my own conception!" Nerys snapped back. "I didn't even know I had any other family until yours took me hostage and betrothed me to Gereon. Trygve told me everything else after you dragged me Havenwood. I didn't want to marry either of you. I just wanted to find my parents- the ones who raised me.
I never understood how they could disappear without even saying goodbye. Now I know it was because they buried their only child and lost everything because of me. So tell me how betrayed you feel! Tell me how hurt and angry you are that everything in my life has been nothing but lies!"
She twisted her wrist free and shoved Dadien away from her in one smooth motion before taking off at a brisk clip.
"Nerys!" he called after her.
She responded with an insulting hand gesture.
"Nerys, wait! You don't even know where you're going!"
She stopped and looked around. She was heading back the way they had come.
"That's been the problem the whole time, hasn't it? I have no idea where I'm going."
"Well, it's a good thing that I do. Just trust me," said Dadien, offering his hand.
"I don't really have anyone else to turn to."
Nerys looked at his still waiting hand, but did not move to take it.
"Neither do I," Dadien said.
Nerys sighed and closed the distance between them.
"What a fine couple we make," she said, crossing her arms in a final refusal. Dadien dropped his proffered hand. "One violent, sorry excuse for a princess, and a spoiled, arrogant, self-centered ass of a—"
"Your friend was onto something with that whole gag thing. You don't happen to still have it, do you?" Dadien said with a small smile. "You're not exactly my first choice of life partners, either, you know. And you're not even a little pretty!"
"Yeah? Well, you're not even a little... You..." Nerys gave up trying to invent an insult as true or painful as his. "You're not pretty!"
"Now, I know that's a lie. See? This is why we have trust issues!" Dadien's lips quirked up roguishly. "You say I'm not pretty, but I have plenty of evidence to the contrary."
Nerys snorted. "I'm sure you do."
"I lied, too. You are kind of pretty. If I squint and cross my eyes, like this."
Dadien screwed his face up, shattering Nerys's last indignant shard of anger. She pinched her lips together to hold back the involuntary grin pulling them upward.
"Just start walking before I make that look permanent, pretty boy," she said.