After a long span of time, Hale returns. It's impossible to judge how much time is passing. The light never falters, my body is a mess, my eyes strain, and my throat is raw. I feel like I've been up for days straight. If this is a torture technique, it's working.

Hale, on the other hand, looks strong and well rested. He wears the same roughhewn clothes but they are clean. He throws another brown bag at me. I ignore it even though my stomach rumbles loudly.

Somehow through chattering teeth I manage to say, "Kadan will lead with me gone. You are doing this for nothing. You can't take all of us!" I immediately regret saying that. It's like a dare.

"Oh, I don't intend to." Hale makes himself comfortable on the stool. "As for your brother Kadan, he's a gem. He actually studies, leaves the castle grounds, talks to us. He is open minded where you are closed tight, like your legs..."

I gasp.

"Or so I thought." He arches a brow at me. I say nothing. "At least with you out of the picture we have a chance." He scratches between his shoulder blades, making his shirt strain against his muscular biceps. I could never overpower him. I'll have to outthink him. I'm hardly at my best.

He gives me a pitying look. "Play nice and I'll give you a chance to be a real person."

"I am a person!" I say angrily. "If you haven't noticed."

"I haven't." He stands. "I have some things to do. It'll be a long time before someone checks on you. Like I said, be good and I might let you out of here someday."

***

Despite the now four pieces of bread I have been given, I am weak and dizzy with hunger and fatigue whenever I try to stand up. Still, I try to build my strength in case I have a chance to make a break for it. I'm practicing scooting my back up the wall in order to stand when the door opens. I'd guess it has been twelve hours since Hale was here.

But it is not Hale who walks in.

"Neena!" I hiss, and slink back to the ground.

She gives me a cool, disdainful look. I barely recognize the demure young maid I once had. But it's her.

"You lying..." I begin.

She puts up a limp hand. "Oh, Eadlyn, that's a waste of your energy." She drops a large plastic bag on the floor. "Hale has made you his pet." She gives me a sly, narrow-eyed glance. "Be grateful. No one else has any use for you."

I am so filled with fury I cannot see straight. I rub my eyes and the room goes fuzzy. I lean my head back against the moldy wall and try to focus. I hear the door. When I regain clarity she is already gone. Did I hallucinate her?

No, the bag is on the floor. I open it and find men's jeans two sizes too big for me, a thermal undershirt, a long sleeve Henley, and thick wool socks. I pull it all on quickly. It's good to be in fresh clothing. Although it's scratchy and over large, it's clean.

In the bag are two more pieces of bread. I eat them carefully, hoping today I have a chance to see where I am. I believe what Hale said about Kile leaving the castle before I was taken. It makes sense because he was ignoring me and wouldn't want to see my engagement fanfare. It'll take him a long time to realize I am not in the castle mooning over Ean.

Kile is the one who would have a chance at guessing who took me since Hale tried to turn me against Kile after the invasion.

So it will be left to Ean, Kadan, and Dad to figure out who took me. Will they? Heath might have a clue. Eikko might be able to help. Ahren and Mom will come home. But without the populace looking for me, they will have no place to start.

Neena's voice awakens me. It's not the same voice she used to wake me up in the castle.

In a teasing, singsong voice she says, "We don't hate you, Eadlyn."

I sit up, aware of every spot on my body that pressed against the cold, hard floor all night. I scoff. "Thanks for that," I wince as I try to move slowly to a stand.

"We hate what you represent." She eyes me as she sets down a bag and picks up the bucket which I have figured out what is for and used with much disgust.

"Do you know what you are risking? Kidnapping me?" I bite out. "This isn't a caning offense, Neena. This merits an execution."

Neena does not react, just walks slowly to the door.

"Doesn't that scare you?" I ask.

She turns hard eyes to me. "What scares me is no change. Maybe there are no longer numbers on people's backs but they are not free. There are no jobs, no homes, no opportunities. Plenty of people sleep on the floor, Eadlyn. You're lucky to have a roof, food, clothes. It's more than many of your people. We need to open trade, build affordable homes, and employ our own people to do it. The manufacturing shouldn't be farmed out of Illea. Oh, nevermind. You are not in power anymore."

"Didn't you see my last address?"

She shrugs. "One decision that might be good and a million careless ones? Nah, not impressed." She is at the door.

"Stop," I order, desperate. "Neena, you are my maid. You deserted me and told everyone how to kidnap me. Don't talk to me about good decisions. You are a criminal. You are the one in the wrong."

Neena is red now, her mouth shut in a tight line. She turns to me, slowly drawing the bucket up. She's going to throw it at me. I huddle into a ball, trying to steel myself for the horror.

The door flings open.

A man's voice says, "Come on. Listen to Hale. Do it his way." Neena turns without another word. As the door swings shut, I catch one glimpse of the man who spoke. It's enough for me to recognize him. Burke!

I race to the door and press my ear against it. I hear Neena in the hall, "She'll never listen. We should have—"

Burke hushes her and then they are out of my hearing range.

My mind spins. All the people responsible for taking me are people I know. People who had a chance to like me but instead decided to betray me. People tell me I am slow to trust but this is why! I press my fingers to my temples. I don't understand.

Unfortunately, I have hours to ruminate over it. I wish I knew what was going on in my kingdom. A newspaper...

I'm huddled in the corner, cold, starving, and scared when the door opens and my fear ratchets up a hundred fold. Burke.

He glances behind him and shuts the door. He walks toward me on socked feet. The way he is looking at me raises the hairs on my neck. His smile seems feral as he rakes his glazed eyes up and down my body. I cower farther into the corner. I'm hungry and weak and even if I could scream, who would hear me?

I open my mouth, ready to give screaming a try. In less than a blink, he is on me. He clamps his hand roughly over my mouth and yanks my hair so my neck arches back painfully.

He stares at my face and leers, "You're in luck. I like it loud and rough."

I try to bite his hand. My heart feels like flapping wings, trying to break free from my chest. I hear a loud crash. Burke presses into me. The acid burn of vomit rises up my throat.

The door flings open.

Hale storms in and hauls Burke off me with one hand. He slams his fist into Burke's jaw. Blood sprays against the wall and onto my forearm. A scream burns out of my throat and pierces the air.

Hale heaves Burke out of the room. I curl into a tight ball, my throat on fire and my hands like ice.

Hale turns back and squints at me. I cower back and try to be even smaller.

"Did he just get here?" Hale bites out. His anger is palpable.

I manage to dip my chin once, a nod.

His nostrils flare. I am most scared of Hale right now, after seeing how he easily manhandled Burke. I would have guessed they would be evenly matched because they are the same size. Hale is taller and broader but Burke is solid, square, and beefy. Yet Burke did not have a chance.

A chance to—

"Thank you," I squeak out. I hate Hale...but he just helped me.

"Nothing is easy with you, is it?" he asks, almost back to his normal tone. He takes a large inhale and then releases it loudly and stalks out.

I am left trembling in the corner, unable to sleep for what feels like the rest of the night.

I'm awoken by the door opening. I'm in a ball in the corner, drooling and shivering through my sleep. I wipe my mouth on the back of my arm and watch as Hale walks in. He appears calm. He throws a small length of yarn at me.

"Tie your hair back."

I open my mouth to protest.

"Or I can give you a quick haircut," he says.

I manage to secure my hair back with the flimsy yarn.

He motions with a hand, "Come on," he urges. "I have a job for you today."

I struggle to stand. He impatiently grabs my arm and hustles me out of the room. We go up stone steps to a wooden door leading to a desolate yard of patchy grass and dirt. I blink against the cool air and soak in the sun on my cheeks. A massive shiver tears though my body. My socks get wet with each step as Hale hauls me to a rough cart attached to a horse. Did I ride in this before? It's held together by a thin tether and a prayer.

He pushes me into the cart and ties my hands to the rail. He begins to lead the horse down a long dirt road, lined with pines and scraggly bushes and weeds. I yank at my binding but it's on there securely. Hale can tie knots apparently. I'd have to take the whole cart with me. I don't even have shoes.

I look back. It's a church. I'm being held in a stone church. No sign, no address, no plaque or label on the building. It's a small dilapidated structure, obviously not in use, with a half collapsed shed and a faded red oval door. I squint as it fades into the distance. Was that a cellar door? Was I being held in the cellar?

My head keeps knocking against the cart and I have no strength to keep it upright. I rest against the splintery wood, letting my temple bang every third step or so. It kills but I have no energy, no choice. We reach a field filled with broken corn stalks and several hunched over women.

"Help!" I cry out. "I'm Princess Eadlyn! Future queen!" My voice is as thin and weak as thread but I am still surprised no one looks up. I am tied to this cart in broad daylight. Royalty or not, this is obviously wrong.

I call out again and again, until my throat cannot do it.

Hale appears, chewing on a piece of beef jerky, shrugging when he sees my eyes fasten to the meat.

"You're done, right? They don't care, Eadlyn. They're happy I gave them this job. Just like you should be. If you work all day, you can have a jerky, a piece of bread, a place to sleep, and you can keep borrowing those clothes."

I scoff but it hurts my throat and I press my palm to my neck.

"Makes no difference if you speak or not. For once in your life."