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Kendra loathed the feeling of slick, greasy hair. Sweat and dirt coated each strand like some confectioner had dipped them in sugar and water. Perspiration plastered her waves against her forehead and irritated Kendra to no end. Of course, she had expected that she would garner some grossness while traversing long-forgotten, moldy tunnels after destroying a foreign throne room. She knew that was logical to expect.

What she would have never expected in a million years is that she'd have to do any of that—the destruction, the tunneling—ever.

Honestly, for most of her life, she had thought she would only become a monarch very late into her life. She had believed she would grow up with tutors and learn how to be a lady, courting suitors and spending her days dallying with pleasure and frivolity. And by the time she would have needed to don the kingdom's crown, she would have been old enough and wise enough to do it easily and perfectly.

If Kendra could tell her younger self of the great many things totally thrown off course that had led to her grand adventure now, she was sure her child aspect would run and hide.

Now, if news of grand adventure complete with crawling in dirty tunnels had made it to Seth as a child, he would have been absolutely ecstatic. The horror.

She paused from the crawling to wipe sweat drips away, leaving even more dirt streaks across her forehead. Her effort was futile.

Ickiness covered her outsides and insides. The emotional turmoil of the past 48 hours had left her thoroughly exhausted, full of anxiety, and too encumbered to unpack any of it.

"We're almost there," Seth said. He was leading at the front of the pack. Kendra never really got to see him when he was in his element: sneaking around and causing mischief. Turns out, he excelled at such things, not that she had ever doubted.

Though, sometimes she still thought of him as much younger—the version of him when they had spent all their time together. If she tried to find things to be grateful about concerning Terrabelle, that would be one of them. That her brother was with her through all of it, and that they got to spend a lot more time together than in the recent past.

It was nice, and she got to reconfigure the young Seth of her mind to match the capable young man before her.

It was thanks to Seth that they had even got this far. He had successfully led her and Garreth across the castle, mainly through secret passages.

When they had to forgo the tunnels due to some missing connection, Garreth's sword work took the brunt of the enemy blade until they could duck back inside the damp walls.

In those few skirmishes, Kendra hadn't been much help and she knew it.

After not receiving any sustenance for the last 24 or so hours, Kendra was feeling incredibly faint. Not to mention her throne room performance depleting her magic after maintaining an absolute drought for months. Honestly, Kendra was surprised she still had consciousness and didn't stumble more than she already had.

Garreth's sword scraped the stone as he crawled behind Seth. Kendra had insisted on being last, so she could keep on eye on Garreth. Her trust had degraded and the thought of him behind her back where he could stab her wasn't terribly enjoyable. Bitterness and anger swelled at the thought and many scenes of conflict flashed through her mind, gratifying the urge she had to throttle the prince.

"Only a minute more, I'd guess," Seth said. He had been saying something along those lines for a while, so Kendra had lost hope a long time ago and had come to this conclusion: this would be her end. Dead in some Terrabellian princess's tunnels with dirt and grime and mold as her accessories. Pitiful.

"Good," Garreth said. His words lacked his usual light-hearted tone, and dove deep into grittiness. Her skin crawled at the unfamiliar cadence. "My elbows are aching."

"Old man," Seth tsked. If Seth knew what had gone down yesterday, he probably wouldn't be so friendly to the prince. But he didn't understand the rift between her and the Terrabellian prince and was instead acting perfectly civil...it was a good thing
because Kendra didn't think she was capable of such kindness at the moment. Her mind was crowded with too many acidic thoughts.

As they approached the end of this tunnel, the noise Kendra had originally discounted as the usual cacophony of the castle became more defined until they resembled clear voices. She wasn't alone in her thoughts as Seth stopped and halted the caravan.

This was their destination, Kendra was sure.

The voices had stopped.

"Light?" Seth whispered. She knew what he wanted her to do—they'd used such shorthand in daily life back at Fablehaven. He simply wanted her to conjure an orb of light for him.

Steeling herself, she reached deep inside. Almost scraping the proverbial bottom now, as her reservoir was depleted. Dizziness and nausea accompanied the simple act but soon an orb floated out of her palm and towards Seth.

Garreth clenched his muscles as it past him and Kendra heard the shaky exhale after Seth snatched it with his hand.

She knew that Garreth was probably doing pretty well for someone who grew up under a regime of hatred. Logically, she knew that. However, her heart just didn't have much room for sympathy at the moment. Maybe later, once she'd unwound, some of the bitterness could abdicate and make room for empathy. Maybe. It didn't seem so likely at the moment.

Seth brought his arm back and threw the orb forward like he was pitching a ball at a tournament. The orb burst on the far surface with a shower of shimmers, and the shadowy end became a wooden door.

"We're here," Seth whispered. "But, I'm not sure who else is...hopefully..."

He didn't finish the thought. A blanket of darkness descended upon the three of them and Kendra shivered. Garreth did too, but Kendra didn't hold that against him. It was cold.

Facing this type of darkness, her heightened eyesight was useless. Seeing true darkness whenever Seth bestowed it had become a novelty.

They shimmied forward, a little bit blindly, and then Seth nudged open the door.

Hushed voices suddenly became people she knew and loved. Even with the teeny-weensy sliver of sight she had through the mess of limbs in front of her, Eve's bright sky blue dress popped through.

Kendra felt the darkness recede in a ripple. Warmth began to spread to her extremities again.

"Seth!" Vanessa gasped. After that, jubilations crowded her ears as all three of them resumed their short, but pretty humiliating, crawl. It was tolerable, though, as she expected everyone had to have crawled on their hands and knees in such a cramped tunnel as this one to get to this cave—where a dragon supposedly roosted.

Once all of their feet had been pulled through the opening and were standing on the floor of the cavern, a genuine smile brightened Kendra's face. Embraces were exchanged between Kendra and Seth with Vanessa, Patton, and Warren. Seth hugged Eve and the two Terrabellians embraced each other as well.

"Did you bring them all down here, Eve?" Kendra asked. She knew that had been the plan, but the fact that the young princess had accomplished as much was astonishing.

"I did." Eve beamed. She was practically bouncing on the tips of her toes. "But, it helped that they were already trying to lay down escape plans."

"She shouldn't sell herself short.". He sat on a crate marked coal as a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "She could make a fine adventurer one day."

Garreth balked at the suggestion. "Oh, no."

"Still worse than me, though, right?" Seth asked. He used Eve's head as an armrest.

Eve swatted his shoulder and pushed him away. "You know I would be better."

"Well—"

"Aht!" Eve held a finger up. "Don't deny it."

As their banter continued, Vanessa laid a hand on Kendra's shoulder. Kendra gripped it with hers and faced Vanessa. Her concerned eyes searched Kendra.

Vanessa knew, more than anyone, the turmoils that Kendra must be undergoing in the wake of such disruptive events. Her lady-in-waiting could probably guess at some of her more abject lines of thought. It was comforting to know she was there.

While Patton, Eve, and Seth remained absorbed in their conversation as they laughed and elbowed each other, Garreth sat on the perimeter. Sometimes he contributed a word or two, but his eyes kept drifting over to Kendra. She wished he would stop it.

"Those two will be incredibly strong allies to Fablehaven, but we will have to work on the logistics of Terrabelle's leadership." Warren alighted beside the two women. "What's the status of Dalgorel?"

It was somewhat jarring to hear Warren refer to the king purely by his last name after many months of only the utmost respect and honorifics oozing off her chancellor's lips. It was a stark reminder of the deception their party had committed and the kingdom they had taken advantage of.

When they had arrived, Kendra had held no qualms about doing such a thing. She had been tired, hungry, scared, desolate, and couldn't care less about any ethical implication. But, now, after creating such tight ties with many of the Terrabellians, she felt remorseful that those relationships had been formed under false pretenses.

However, it really hadn't been an option to be honest. If those people had known the truth of her abilities and the true reasons her court had been refugees, they might have never treated her with kindness.

How would they speak of her now, now that the truth will be out? Now that she has publicly attacked their king and stolen away their heirs?

As Kendra thought of the king and his current condition, she wondered how it would look to the eyes of the people. Immobilized and bloody and childless.

Kendra answered Warren's question. "Chained up in his throne room by vines. Alive."

"How long do you estimate it will hold? Would his subordinates have already freed him at this point?" Warren had no notebook on him, but his focus suggested he intended to inscribe the words directly onto his brain.

Kendra laughed at the assumption that someone could have freed him in the past hour. It wasn't a normal laugh of hers—not sweet or delicate or pretty. It suggested malice and mock. Garreth glanced at her from across the room.

Under concerned glances, she felt like she was regressing back to the angry, orphan girl of yesteryear. She could feel the slide—but she couldn't stop it and had no motivation to, otherwise. People change. Could she control that? "No, I think it will be much longer. They aren't of a normal nature. I poured almost all I had into creating them."

Vanessa placed a hand onto Kendra's forehead, alarmed. Her palm was cool and her rings pressed into Kendra's skin. "What? You know that is bad practice. How do you feel?"

Anger bubbled up in her, and words on the tip of her tongue begged to snap at Vanessa. But after a moment, the concern on Vanessa's face turned from an irritant to something that summoned pressure in Kendra's face. Nevertheless, adrenaline and hormonal anger still flooded her veins.

But, this was what Kendra had trained for her entire life. To keep a lid on things. Even though, at the moment, it felt like the lid had flown off a while ago.

"I'm fine," Kendra tempered the irritation in her voice, but Vanessa still furrowed her eyebrows and Warren paused his mental calculations.

Vanessa cradled her cheek and began to speak, but just then Eve stepped onto a crate and called out to the group. Dust and mud and grime coated the princess's gorgeous dress.

Kendra was grateful for the interruption, because tears had already sprung to her eyes. She blinked rapidly and breathed in and out. With time, the pressure of her eyes and danger of mortification abated. Goodness. This was not like her.

"Now, there are two people in the room that know of the guest I'm about to introduce." Eve couldn't suppress the mischief in her wide smile. It was so uncanny to Seth that Kendra felt the same exact anxiety rise. "He likes cool entrances, so I ask everyone to close your eyes."

"This is a bad idea," Kendra stated flatly. If this guest was the dragon, this was genuinely idiotic. What if Garreth pulled a sword on Raxtus or someone was spooked and injured themself?
Eve was treating this whole excursion as little more than a game at the moment.

"Oh, come on, Kendra, let it happen," Seth pleaded. "It will be funny."

Of course he sided with her. Maybe that was how they handled such horrifying prospects, but to Kendra, games felt like a mockery of their danger.

"I mean, I guess it isn't necessary to close your eyes," Eve said. "Just scooch to the side."

As they did, bits of agitated dust flew from the floor and Kendra noticed animal tracks appearing in the film of the floor. That...wasn't right.

"Raxtus, introduce yourself!"

The air shimmered and rippled to reveal, scale by scale, a prismatic dragon. The dragon was smaller than the ones Kendra had read about with Muriel or on postcards from Wyrmroost. It wasn't what she had expected—and her hopes for making it out alive plummeted. How was this dragon going to carry them all out?

Soot stained Raxtus' beautiful coloring, and he looked skinnier than she thought dragons were supposed to be.

Those were Kendra's thoughts on seeing him. Many of the other people in the group voiced expletives immediately.

Eve and Seth cackled in the corner while the other members recovered. Garreth clutched his pearls and tried to catch his breath.

The dragons' iridescent eyes fixed on her as his head tilted. "I haven't seen a handmaiden of the fairy queen in centuries. I've been curious."

Kendra seldom used that title, but it certainly fit her. She had seen it before, in scrawled handwriting across old religious works, and recognized the description of herself.

"I was curious too." Kendra bowed her head. Surprisingly, she didn't feel the draconic fear that Muriel had told her about or that her grandparents had prepared for in Wyrmroost. Maybe it was because of her magic, or maybe not all dragons did that. She had no clue. "I haven't seen a dragon all my life. My name's Kendra."

She left off her royal title. It didn't feel applicable at the moment.

He closed his eyes and offered his head. It seemed like she wanted to pat him. Hopefully, she wasn't misreading the situation. If so, this was about to become one of the most embarrassing diplomatic moments of her life.

As soon as her hand made contact, the dragon began to glow brighter and brighter. Everyone held up their hands to the eyes and Kendra heard a few groans.

She pulled back her hand. The scales had felt reptilian and strangely cold. The light dimmed.

Kendra looked around sheepishly. "My bad, guys."

"Oh, don't apologize," Raxtus grinned and stretched out his wings. They collided with a few heads and the walls of the cavern. "I haven't felt that good in decades—ever since the king locked me up. Do it again."

He inclined his head again and waited patiently. It almost made her laugh, how gracious he was even as a dragon. She felt happy helping him.

"Close your eyes, guys," she warned. She placed her hand back on him and he began to glow again. It got bright, so very bright, that the soot that stained all their faces became very apparent, but the glow didn't hurt Kendra's eyes like it hurt the others.

Raxtus began to purr.

She was happy it was helping him, but Kendra began to notice a slight fatigue in her begin to build. Ah, so this ability to transmit light also sapped at her energy. She withdrew her hand.

"You know, Eve, with the size of your party and my general dereliction in this mine, I honestly thought this plan was futile, but," Raxtus bounced from claw to claw like a little kid, "with this little torch here, I can bust out of here no problem."

"Sweet!" Eve clapped her hands like a little kid celebrating their natality. "Everyone hop on!"

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Wind whipped Kendra's hair around; the gusts like a cane against her lips, skin, and squinted eyes. On top of Raxtus, she squeezed her legs like she would on Glory. Seth wrapped his arms around her, and so did Patton behind him. Warren, Vanessa, Eve, and Garreth all languished in one of Raxtus's four claws. Seth occasionally muttered complaints about the wind chill in her ear.

No one was comfortable, least of all Raxtus. Even with Kendra's constant stream of energy.

But, at the moment, it was a mad dash to put as much space as possible between them and Terrabelle. Arrows had flown through the air seconds after Raxtus had erupted from the ground below. A gigantic sinkhole swallowed a whole guard tower until it was satiated enough to stop expanding. Ultimately, Raxtus had decided not to use his invisibility in an attempt to conserve as much energy as possible citing the immense load he planned to carry.

As arrows had whizzed thimble-lengths away from Kendra, she had regretted that decision. But, within moments, they were out of Terrabelle's range, and the passengers could more or less rest easy.

Seth's arms eased their hold. The rolling fields of a last-ditch harvest and frozen crops slowly gave way to a blanket of towering trees. Raxtus concentrated on following the winding river that ensured they were heading West.

As the dappled landscape melted and froze beneath them, Kendra began to lose control of herself. Her legs grew slack and her mind struggled to find purchase on any one thought. She was so tired.

Raxtus dove down and Kendra pitched forward. Her torso sank down, but her legs flew up and over her head like a scorpion. She slipped through Seth's loose hug. As though through muddled underwater, Seth screamed and reached for her. He grabbed her wrist as she dangled over Raxtus's neck.

Screams and shouts seemed so far away as Kendra melted into the embrace of nothingness. Finally.

The hold around her wrist became loose then gone. Wind tore at her clothing. She was weightless.

A small smile graced her lips. Finally, some rest.

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thank you for reading!

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