She shook me awake when the sun was only just rising above the waves.

"We have to leave now, Ganechka." Evie murmured against my ear.

"Why?" I groaned, sitting up, my chest feeling like it was on fire. "We have time."

"We have people waiting for us." She helped me stand, then bent back down to rummage through the pile of things she'd brought. "Put this on."

It was my Schiavona, my darling Schiavona. I put it on along with the belt and felt a little more at ease with the perfect weight around my hips.

Evie slid a belt on herself, it was loaded with two pistols and an old fashioned sabre. She pulled on a huge military coat, the fashion used in the war between Ilragorn and Zbecogan at the start of my father's reign. I couldn't help but cringe a little at seeing her in one of those coats.

"What?" Evie rolled her eyes and extended her hand.

I shrugged, not really wanting to explain it to her. "Those coats...on women. Well during the Zbecognian wars there were quite a lot of women who followed the army around, working as... Well you get the picture."

"Ugh!" She exclaimed, her face contorting in disgust. Evie shrugged the coat off quickly. "I only brought it because it made me think of Papa but Ew no you take it!"

Chuckling at her, I took the heavy coat. Finally Evie picked up a large shoulder bag from the floor before pulling back a curtain of seaweed. It lead to a steep slope into a grey world.

Two maids in black dresses stood a little way away from us, each holding a horse. One of them was Saffron.

I ran forward to my darling beast and stroked her mane. She rested her head over my shoulder and chuffed. Pains ripped my skin open as I pulled myself up onto her back, avoiding two saddle bags. By the time I was atop her, I had to sit panting for a few moments. Whilst trying to regain my breath, I watched Evie speak in low tones with the maids. She embraced them both and then jumped herself very awkwardly onto her own horse.

"We'll all be home before you know it." Evie smiled ruefully down at the maids. Then she inclined her head to me and set off at a trot. Saffron huffed again before following them.

We rode heavily east in silence for about half an hour before Evie had to stop and get off. Pulling off the path in a thick forest, I jumped off first and helped her down, taking Evie's leather clad waist in my hands. She came down mere inches away from me, before darting off into the bushes to relieve herself. I leaned back against a tree, my chest itching like mad.

"Are you alright?" Evie popped up back beside me. Her hair had fallen down and was thick and tangled over her shoulders.

Shrugging, I pushed a wisp of hair behind her ear. "Chest is hurting me. It's fine. Do you need to break any longer or shall we push on?"

She shrugged, placing a hand lightly on my chest. "Do you need any medicine?"

My chest screamed so I said yes. "I didn't realise we had any."

Evie grinned impishly. "There's medicine everywhere if you know where to look." She pecked me on the cheek before darting back off into the forest like a leveret. It seemed all the more plausible that she had actually escaped the palace by herself.

I leaned back against the tree and shared a look with Evie's horse, who was unsurprisingly uninterested.

Five minutes passed and then there she was again. Her hair had slipped out even more and her eyes had a wild look which fit with the trees exactly. She held up a stick proudly.

"Chew it." Evie tossed the stick to me. I only just caught it.

"Are you mad?" I scoffed, twisting the brown twig in my hands. "Eve I thought you said we had medicine."

She laughed gently and put her arms around my waist. "You're such a city boy. That's a willow branch, it has a painkiller in the sap. If you chew it, it releases at a steady rate."

Creasing my eyebrows, I tried to figure out just how much she was pulling my leg. "You know in the palace we had doctors, pills, mixtures, sterile bandages. You know, stuff that actually worked."

"Hmm." She placed her head gently on my chest, my heart beat quicker at the action. "You also have a brother who stabbed you in the back and you were put on a trial you didn't know you were facing. Plus I do have sterile bandages, actually." She kissed my lips then took the branch and forced it into my mouth, before going over to start untying the horses. "I've been in woods like these for a lot of my life you know. The lake where that willow is is where Nick taught me to swim. Your fancy doctors might have studied in fancy colleges, but I know how to survive authentically. In the woods."

Evie led Saffron and her horse back to me and glared at me until I started chewing. Even through the bitter taste a huge swell of love for her infected me like a fever. I took the branch out of her mouth to see her better. The light filtering through the trees cast an emerald shine over the forest floor. Evergreens. Even in the dead winter the trees were still green, the climate still warm. The ground was soft, coated in the green leaves which had fallen.

"Maybe..." I muttered when she was close enough for me to speak quietly. "Maybe we ought to wait about here for a little longer." I moved a little of her hair over her shoulder, hoping she'd catch me drift.

She blushed deeply red, dipped her head for a moment but then lifted it back to me, her golden flecked eyes shining gleefully. "You're hurt." She spoke with a little chiding in her voice, but I knew she understood what I wanted. "If we do this now then it'll hurt you. Is that really how you want it? For the first time? In the middle of a forest?" Her eyelashes hid her emotion and I cursed them, yet still loved them more.

I shrugged, smiling. "It's a rather beautiful place here. And if your magic branch works..."

Evie pressed the reins into my hands and her lips into mine. "Wait until you're not a cripple, Ganechka. Have a little patience." Then she put the branch back in my mouth, laughing to herself.

So on we rode.