He and the king and the rest of his men readied their swords. Artur could kill the beasts that were plaguing them on this journey just as easily with his crossbow and bolts, having been trained by the masters of the bow also. But for now, he watched, listened, breathed deeply of the air, anticipating another onslaught of the knights that had fought them along this trail twice already. Artur suspected it all had to do with Leogane’s meeting with the princess.

  Princess Mirabella stopped pacing and glanced at the window, not sure what had made her look. Nothing ever happened at the window, yet she had a strong feeling that she needed to turn and check it out. Startling her, she saw a female elf dressed as a warrior in black leather, spiky metal points on her bracers to fight against an enemy in hand-to-hand-combat, peering in at her. Mirabella gasped. She wasn’t afraid of her, just shocked to see the girl peering through the tower window that was forty feet above the ground.

  The black-haired girl smiled at her, her unique blue and green eyes and warm smile captivating Mirabella in an instant. She recognized her aura that identified her as a shadow elf.

  There were no bars to keep Mirabella from escaping. The drop would kill her, so how did the girl get there? Mirabella should have cried out, should have screamed with fright. She did neither and studied the pretty girl, her long silky, black hair such a contrast to Mirabella's light blond hair.

  "Who are you?" Mirabella whispered to the girl who couldn’t have been much older than her. Mirabella needn't have kept her voice hushed since no one could hear her through the tower walls. The blocks of rock mortared together were eight feet thick.

  "I am Rina, a shadow elf warrior, your rescuer, should you need rescuing."

  Mirabella's mouth gaped. Her prayers had been answered! She'd prayed she could find someone to rescue her from the tower but now only one single female warrior elf was here to save her? Or maybe more were in the woods waiting and this one was sent to tell her they were here to aid her. Mirabella knew they couldn't fight the guards inside the tower and the ones outside to make her escape without a lot of help.

  "Do you need rescuing?" Rina asked. Her manner was calm, collected, when Mirabella felt anything but.

  Mirabella frowned at her. What if they should find the warrior elf trying to save her? They would kill Rina! "Aye, I do need rescuing. I've been imprisoned here by my uncle."

  "Because?"

  Mirabella hated telling the story to anyone, making her relive the horror, but also because no one believed her. "I witnessed him murdering my father, the true king, on a hunt. No one who was involved in the hunting 'accident' that day knew I had seen what had happened. My nanny wouldn’t let me join my father on the hunt. I snuck out anyway.” She tilted her chin up, not about to shed any more tears over it. “I want to avenge my father's death, and take over the rule of my people, but he intends to marry me off to make an alliance and my husband will not believe me either. What if he were to lock me away in a tower next? I have to do what is right by my father and I will do anything to make that happen."

  Rina smiled, and Mirabella thought she didn't believe her. Nobody did, so there was nothing surprising in that. Still, if the warrior elf was here to rescue her, then Mirabella would do everything in her power to convince her that she needed rescuing.

  “May I know your name?”

  Rina didn’t know who Mirabella was? She wasn’t sure she should even trust the warrior now. "I’m Princess Mirabella, a Black Hills elf. I will reward you in any way I can, once I'm freed from the tower and can regain what is by rights mine," Mirabella quickly said.

  "Saving you is enough of a reward," Rina said.

  Mirabella couldn't believe it. But she would reward the woman anyway, if she was able to oust her uncle from his rule over her people. "What must I do?" Mirabella couldn't believe she would have the chance to leave the tower like this, but how was Rina supposed to accomplish this? She truly must have a group of warriors with her beyond the castle walls and they were only awaiting word from her to rescue Mirabella.

  Then they heard the sound of footfalls approaching her tower chamber and Mirabella quickly looked at the door. "Can you hold on?" she whispered to Rina.

  Rina nodded.

  Mirabella would have to leave with Rina after the woman who was watching over her left her alone again. Mirabella hoped Rina could hold onto the tower wall long enough without falling. She glanced back at the window, but Rina had already disappeared.

  Mirabella heard the key in the lock in the door, but she couldn't help herself. She rushed to the window and looked out, fearing Rina had fallen but there was no sign of her. Mirabella frowned. She couldn’t imagine what had become of Rina. Had she flown away? She didn’t have wings, or at least that Mirabella had seen. Was she a magic user with some kind of an ability Mirabella hadn’t heard of? She hadn’t a clue. She hoped it would mean that Rina could secret her away in the same manner in which she’d secreted herself away.

  She leaned out the window of the fourth floor of the circular tower at Mayden Castle, wishing she could fly away like the eagles and hawks that soared high above Larimar Forest, not something that a Black Hill’s elf was capable of. She wished she could steal a horse and ride unnoticed through the Grandmere Pass to the shadow elf kingdom. That she could slip away into the dense forests, beyond the Black Hills, and disappear forever from the home that was no longer hers until she could oust the usurper who was her uncle. What lay beyond the Five Sisters of Kintail, the mountains that dominated the northern sky? What lay west beyond Larimar Forest? And east? She’d heard savages lived there by the sea, bloodthirsty pirates who raped and pillaged, took everything they could carry away, then burned villagers’ homes to the ground. If her uncle was supposed to be so powerful, why did he not lock these brigands in the dungeon or eliminate them with his powerful army? Her army, if she could regain control.

  Instead, she was the one held hostage, as if she could be any real threat to anyone. Yet, she could. If she reclaimed the throne. She looked south, and though she could not see the castle there, she knew it was where her mother had taken her last breath, giving birth to Mirabella. It was where Uncle Inari had turned on her father and murdered him in cold blood to gain his throne. Moreover, it was there that King Inari ruled with an iron fist, commanding all to bow to his whim.

  But her. He could never rule her.

  As the gods were her witnesses, she again vowed she would free her people from her uncle’s tyrannical rule.

  Mighty plans, she chastised herself when she still hadn’t managed to free herself from the tower and castle grounds, though the gods knew she’d tried. She’d never been allowed to leave the perfectly smooth, conical stone structure once she’d grown old enough to successfully attempt escape. No one had taught her how to cook, or sew, or heal the sick. She knew nothing about the outside world because of her sheltered life. With the wild animals roaming freely about the forests, and not even a way to start a fire, nor any knowledge of which plants were edible…

  Shaking her head, she knew she’d be dead within a week, if not sooner.

  She clenched her fists, stifling the despair that wrenched at her courage, threatening to destroy her resolve at making another escape attempt. A time of celebration—her twentieth birthday only three days away, meant only that her prison sentence here would end, and begin anew with her marriage to King Leogane, her uncle’s ally in all battles, big or small, at some other castle, she knew not where.

  None of the guards or servants she managed to speak to knew anything about Leogane except that he was a warrior who excelled at battle, and that his name meant lion, which didn’t bode well. If any knew anything more than that, they would not say.

  Artur sheathed his sword, checking on all their men, making sure no one was injured and reported back to the king. “We are all in good stead. I believe whoever has sent these knights to attack us is only doing so to prevent you from reaching the princess.” Though Artur still had reservations about her, he didn’t like it when someone tried to keep him from his mission. He knew the king felt likewise.

  “I believe the same as you,” the king said, his advisor nodding. “Which makes me all the more determined to see her.”

  “Unless they have disguised themselves as Vladek’s men, I believe he is trying to thwart you.”

  “Aye. He will not do so. Let’s continue on our trek. The sooner we arrive, the sooner we can finish this,” the king said, and they continued on their way.

  Artur just hoped they could successfully reach the keep, learn that Leogane wasn’t interested in the princess, and when they left, they would no longer be plagued with attacks.

  At least for now, they had been successful at repelling the attacks, but what if the enemy’s numbers increased even more?

  3

  Rina knew stealing the princess away from the tower would be a job and a half, but she was always up for the most challenging of assignments. The good thing was that this was a mission worthy of taking on and she hadn't climbed the tower for naught. A princess in distress, her father murdered, her usurper of an uncle seated on the throne? A perfect mission. It didn't matter that Rina wouldn’t earn anything for the job. The princess had nothing to give her. All Rina could hope for was to free her from this place and take her somewhere to keep her safe.

  She needed to ask the princess more questions though. About the timing of the guards’ rotations. At what times did her staff go to see her? Did Mirabella have traveling clothes that could aid her escape? Rina had extra clothes for the princess in her saddlebags just in case, but she thought it would be easier to climb the tower and see to the situation first. Then she heard someone walking to the princess's chamber door, and she needed to hide against the outer wall, away from the window, so whoever it was wouldn’t sound the alarm that she was here, clinging to the wall. She could just imagine a shower of arrows headed her way.

  She moved away from the window, clung to the wall, and listened to a key trying to be jammed into a lock, but the key didn't fit. Somehow, she had to come up with a foolproof plan to free the princess.

  Mirabella heard the key in the lock in the door, but she leaned further out the window, searching to see if Rina had climbed higher instead of down to the ground, but she saw no sign of her up above either.

  Another key was inserted in the lock to her door, and she wondered why the woman just didn't keep the key to the room separate from all the rest so she wouldn't have to try all the keys out every time. Several keys had grated in the lock of her door, and finally one made the clicking sound that meant the key holder had finally found the right one. Mirabella jumped off the seat and wheeled around, her heart thundering. She knew no one would suspect she’d make another escape attempt, not now that two stout male guards accompanied the servants when they brought her food or bathwater. Not after the last time that she managed to overpower the woman who was in charge of her, the scrawny-faced Phiri, once a lady-in-waiting to her mother, but now, just her captor. Her heart sped up with concern just the same.

  The heavy oak door swung open, and Phiri walked in, a tray in her hands. Her icy blue eyes took in Mirabella's appearance as they always did, ensuring that Mirabella was still alive and well.

  Mirabella straightened her gown and she put on her usual annoyed expression because the woman always looked so annoyed at her, as if she couldn't stand working for her.

  “Your face is flushed. You’re not feverish, are you?” Phiri dropped the tray on the table where two chairs sat, one for Mirabella and one for her, but she didn't wait for a response, as if she really didn't care. “Eat up and be quick about it. Your betrothed comes to…inspect you.”

  “Leogane,” Mirabella squeaked out, her skin instantly chilled. She hadn’t meant to sound like a mouse, and she quickly recovered, stiffening her back and hardening her eyes. “Why would he need to inspect me?” She walked over to the table for two and lifted a piece of bread from the tray. She still had high hopes that Rina and her party of warriors would rescue her before that happened.

  She’d even stopped eating for a time, but that hadn’t worked. Her uncle had merely beaten a serving girl in front of her, and she quickly learned starving herself wasn’t the solution.

  Phiri’s thin lips curved upward, but no warmth reached her eyes. “He doesn’t want you; seems there’s someone else he prefers to wed. Imagine that? Not want the daughter of the former king of Black Hills and now the niece of his brother, the king?” The woman swiped a blueberry tart from the tray and lifted it to her lips with her little finger elevated as if she were seated at a royal dinner.

  There was no need for pretense here.

  Mirabella dropped onto a wooden chair and poked a spoon into a boar-and-brasey broth. “What does my uncle say about this?”

  “Since Leogane doesn’t want you, King Inari has asked him to see you here in case you can change his mind. That’s what. But I doubt you will be suitable to him.” Phiri motioned to a girl about Mirabella’s age, standing near the doorway. “Justina, bring Princess Mirabella’s new gown, and be quick about it.”

  Mirabella didn’t recognize the girl, but then that wasn’t so unusual. Her uncle often switched out the staff to ensure that none of them grew fond of her. Phiri was the exception. She hated Mirabella for killing her mother in childbirth. The woman had told her that often enough. It meant she had lost her position as the queen’s maid and confidant and living in the beautiful castle where Mirabella had been born, though she didn't remember what it looked like all that well any longer. Just the gardens that her mother had adored, according to Phiri, and Mirabella wanted to see them.

  At first, Mirabella had cried about her lot in life, but the tears had dried up long ago. She'd hardened herself, the only way she could deal with this. No one had cared about what happened to her, and she had to take control of her life. Apparently, Leogane disapproved of her as well. He didn't even know her!

  The guards and servants were careful not to get close to her, fearing reprisals from the king. They had reason to fear him. Mirabella had accomplished thirty-three escapes over the years, though she hadn’t managed to get very far. Many of the staff, if not all, were wary of her.

  Then hope flickered. Mirabella almost allowed herself a smile but quashed the notion when she saw Phiri watching her. Surely, Leogane would give her some freedom if Rina was unable to get her out of here beforehand. If so, she would escape him on the trail. It could make it much easier for Rina to help her then. Mirabella would not be the wife to any who pledged his allegiance to Inari. Destroying Inari was the only notion that had kept her sane for the last eleven years.

  “What are you thinking, princess?” Phiri asked, her eyes narrowed. “You have a way of looking past a body when you are planning something. Your jaw tightens and…” She glanced down at Mirabella’s hands. “You clench your fists.”

  Mirabella unclenched her hands, made an effort to relax her expression, and grabbed her spoon again. The boar, onions, and potatoes that swam in the thick creamy broth tasted especially good this afternoon. She wondered if Phiri sampled a good enough quantity before every meal, though as thin as she was, she looked like she ate nothing more than a pigeon's egg daily. “I was thinking how much I would not like to see this man, who does not wish me for a bride.”

  “Tsk, tsk, my lady. ‘Tis not your choice, but his. Moreover, if you have any idea of making him dislike you anymore than he already does, think again. King Inari has another nobleman in mind for you, and I am certain he would be even more to your dislike. Though rumors abound he wishes your hand and is angered the king has chosen Leogane over him. Nevertheless, Leogane has been loyal to Inari for some years, whereas, Count Vladek has only just begun to take an interest in the Black Hills. He lives beyond the Five Sisters of Kintail and nothing is known about his people, but it is rumored your mother came from there.”

  “My mother?” Mirabella asked, her voice shaky. She nearly dropped her spoon in the bowl. Why hadn’t she ever considered her mother might not have been from this kingdom? Did her mother have sisters or brothers? A father or mother still alive? Surely, one of them would take her in. Maybe they could help her to take back her kingdom, with power and positions and wealth to pay for their aid.

  Phiri acted as though Mirabella had said nothing. She rattled on. “Still, if Leogane doesn’t wish you, the king intends to offer you to Vladek. He has already said he wants you, sight unseen.” She raised a dark brow. “Though I think the king is a bit suspicious of why this Vladek suddenly is interested in King Inari’s niece. But the notion of tying another region under his jurisdiction that he has no control over now appeals.” Phiri snatched the last of the blueberry tarts. “Quit dawdling with your food.”

  The girl with Mirabella’s new gown cleared her throat as she reentered the chamber.

  Phiri motioned for the maid to bring her the dark green velvet gown. “If you are eating no more than that, it is time to dress, princess.”

  She was the only one Mirabella knew who could make the title of princess sound like a disease. Mirabella stared at the fabric with annoyance. “You know I only wear black.”

  “You have been in mourning for your father for eleven years. ‘Tis long enough. And the black does nothing for your pale complexion.”

  A bell clanged in the inner courtyard and Mirabella’s heart jumped. It only sounded when the king arrived, though there had been no mention he was coming, so she assumed it was for Leogane.

  “God’s teeth,” Phiri said, her face red. “What is he doing here so soon? Stand outside the door,” she ordered the guards. “Time to change your gown, princess.”

  Mirabella stood, hating that her legs felt like soggy bread. She’d never feared anyone, save her uncle, a brutal man, who was used to getting his way.