“It’s injected,” I say helpfully. “My kit is in my bag. The medicine keeps me alive.”

“There are two left,” he says. “That should last you a time, yes?”

Two left? That’s it? There were five yesterday. They must have destroyed more than they’re letting on, and one of the men looks so guilty I wonder if that’s the case. “I see.”

“If you’re the princess, you should go with us to the capital,” one says suddenly. “We’ll be rewarded for bringing you home safely.”

The other two perk up. “Rewarded?”

“She’s a princess, isn’t she? Rewarded,” he claims, nodding to himself.

Now they all watch me with speculative looks, no doubt seeing gold coins and feasts dancing in front of their eyes. Part of me wants to cry out that I can’t leave without Nemeth, but the survival instinct in me is strong…and I need more potion. “Yes. I need to return to the castle. Please take me.”

“It’s settled, then. We leave in the morning.” The braided-beard smiles. “To think we’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon a princess.”

“It’s your lucky day,” I agree. And my unlucky one.

Chapter

Sixty-Four

I’m allowed a few moments alone to quickly dress, and then one of the men sits with me at all times. They go through our bags, rifling through the small amount of possessions we took with us from the tower. The magical globe in its case is tossed aside, the case emptied and one of the men throws his filthy satchel inside it. My knife is snatched and claimed by Braid-Beard, tucked into his pocket. I don’t say anything, because if I tell them that they’re magical instruments, I’ll be looked at with suspicion. They tear through everything we have left, looking for food or things to barter, and when the bag doesn’t provide much, they hunt through the house and then the rest of the village again.

There’s no sign of Nemeth at all, and my heart grows heavier by the hour.

I learn a bit about the men—the two brothers are Jarvo and Corlath. Braid-Beard is their unofficial leader, and his name is Saemon. Even though they’re wearing filthy guard uniforms, they’re not from the army. They claim to have found the uniforms “nearby” and borrowed them, as their clothes were rotting. Outside, they have two skinny ponies that eat weeds and moss and whatever they can find. It seems we’ll be riding back to Castle Lios.

Lucky me.

Saemon watches me closely as I give myself my potion. Out of the three, he unnerves me the most. He’s constantly calculating, gazing at me as if trying to assess how he can profit from my presence. I wish I’d dyed my hair before abandoning the tower. The dark locks give me away every time, because they’re proof of my Vestalin heritage…and the Fellian blood, it seems.

I contemplate giving myself a half-dose of potion to make the two vials last longer, but in the end, I go with the full dose. I’ll need my strength if we’re going to be traveling via horseback, and if we’re truly heading for Castle Lios, then I can get more of my potion there. So I give myself the full amount and fold my arm as I’ve been taught, so the potion will flood through my veins faster. My head swims with the onset of it, and I feel dizzy without anything in my stomach.

“Is it true that you’re cursed?”

I glance over at Saemon. “If you mean do I have the Vestalin blood sickness, yes. But it’s not catching.”

“Heard you’re barren.”

My ears prickle at that, and I glance at him from under my lashes. I don’t answer, wondering where this is going.

“Heard that you won’t get pregnant no matter how many men you take between your thighs,” he continues slowly. “That true?”

Ah, so that’s where this is going. I’m a woman alone, so I must need some fool with a dick and balls to take care of me, and naturally that means I’m ripe for the raping. “My, you sure seem to have a lot of information for someone who claims to have never been to the palace. Are you sure you’re not a deserter?” I smile sweetly at him. “I’ve heard there are ever so many of them roaming the countryside.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “You’re lucky you’re a princess. Lots of men have been looking for a woman to comfort them for a while.”

“Comfort” them? What about the woman’s comfort? It takes everything I have not to make a face. “I suppose I am,” I continue blithely. “It should be very upsetting to my sister the queen should anything happen to me.” I can play the game of veiled threats, too.

He picks at his nails with my magical knife, and I have to resist the urge to snatch it out of his hands. “How did you say you ended up out here alone?” Saemon asks again.

“I didn’t. How did you say you ended up out here?”

“I didn’t.”

Exactly. We stare at each other in a silent battle of wills, unwilling to bend.

“Get some sleep, princess,” Saemon finally says in a low, deadly voice. “You’ll need your strength for riding tomorrow.”

I wrap a blanket around my wrinkled dress like a queen and lift my chin. “I’m taking the bed. Wake me up when we leave in the morning. And if you find food, I expect it to be shared four ways, since you’ve eaten the last of mine.”

“Of course,” Saemon says. “But there’s no food anywhere. That’s why we’re going to the capital.” He pauses and slyly adds, “That’s why you’re valuable to us.”

I’m sure I am. If there truly is a food shortage, no one’s going to give their food to a few miscreants. They need me far more than I need them…and then I think about the last vial of my potion and how dangerous a position that puts me in. All right, if they’ve got horses and they know the way to the capital, I need them, too.

But what of Nemeth? Where has my Fellian mate gone? Why has he abandoned me?

Or has something happened to him?

I barely sleep that night. I’m too alert, watching the men as they take turns with the watch. I keep expecting one of them to attack me, or for them to murder me in my sleep because I’m the piece of dragon shite that left the tower and they’ve finally put it all together. I want to run away, to go find Nemeth, but they never give me a moment alone. There’s no opportunity to slip away. Dawn approaches, and when everyone rouses, they check through my bags one last time looking for missed food. When they find nothing, they decide to keep my dresses and belongings. “Just in case,” Jarvo says. “Might need to trade it at the next village.”

“It belongs to me,” I point out, irritated. “Why are you stealing from a princess?”

“Because we need it far more than you do,” Saemon replies. “And when you’re home, if you still want your sad, wrinkled dresses back, I’ll give them to you.” He smiles tightly. “Until then, they go into the pool of trade items if we run into someone that has food.”

“Great,” I say flatly. I’m as hungry as the next person. Hungrier, since they ate what I had and didn’t share it. I want to tell them to piss off and be on their way, but with one dose of potion left and no Nemeth, I don’t have a choice. I have to go with them. The unease I’ve been trying to tamp down flares, and I dig my nails into my palms. There’s no sign of Nemeth. He’d come after me if he could. Has he been hurt? Wounded? Did these jerks stake him outside of town like the Fellian at the other village?

For a moment, my chest fills with so much pain that I can’t breathe. I have to find him. I have to.

It starts to rain again, and my thoughts fill with panic. Nemeth can’t slide into shadows if there’s rain, can he? He can’t “slide” if there’s anything that could interrupt. What if he’s bleeding out somewhere? What if these men killed him and I’m going along with them blindly? We head outside, the rain drenching my hair in a heartbeat, and I look around for gray wings and sleek horns, but he’s nowhere.