When I woke up the next morning, Commander Jago was standing outside my cell.

Leo had not found any evidence to prove my innocence.

Commander Jago came in and wrapped a big, strong length of rope around my wrists. The feel of it chilled my heart. This was it.

He said nothing to me as we walked out the dungeons and up the steps to the castle; nothing as he marched me down the corridors; nothing as he pushed me towards the group of wyverns that were waiting on the platforms outside.

King Xander, Queen Kassandra, Princess Camilla, Leo, Elise, all their retainers, and a handful of the Royal Guard were there. They, too, were all silent, as if they were already observing my death. King Xander's expression gave nothing away, but Queen Kassandra turned her head from the scene, crossing her arms over her chest and showing him her back. Princess Camilla touched her shoulder tenderly. Elise's eyes were red from crying, and now more tears slid down her cheeks.

Leo was standing at the head of them all, his hands clasped behind his back and his posture like Crown Prince Leo, the way he had been when I'd first met him. But his eyes were filled with grief.

I looked away. Commander Jago guided me towards the wyverns.

"Hold!" Leo called, his voice echoing in the solemn silence.

Jago froze.

I looked over my shoulder at the royal family. Leo had moved his hands from behind his back and clenched them into fists. "Captain Grace will ride with me."

King Xander frowned. "Leo --"

"Captain Grace will ride with me." He spun on his heel to face his older brother, and the temperature of the castle grounds dropped.

Even though they were family, I thought that Leo had probably overstepped the mark. It felt as if the order of the whole universe was balancing on a knife's edge.

King Xander sighed and broke eye contact, turning away. When he spoke, his voice was weary. "Fine. Bring Captain Grace to Leo's wyvern."

Commander Jago marched me back over to them. As King Xander and Queen Kassandra went one way and Elise and Princess Camilla went the other, only Leo remained still.

When we reached him, Jago backed away. Leo stepped forward and put his arms around me.

"Leo," I whispered against his shoulder. I could feel the eyes of almost everyone in our company upon us.

"It doesn't matter," he said, even though I would have bet that he was blushing. "I don't know how you have managed to get so far under my skin, but I will help you to escape from Windmire today or die trying."

He pulled away and put his hand on the rope that was binding my wrists together, leading me towards the wyvern that Niles was holding.

Leo gave me a leg-up onto the beast so that I was sitting in front of the saddle. Then Niles helped him on, and he put one arm around my waist. "As you can't hold on to anything, this should stop you from falling."

I shivered at his touch, and for a moment, I nearly leant back against his chest and lost myself. But I couldn't, because it would hurt too much. We had run out of time.

Niles moved away to mount his own wyvern. Leo leaned closer to me so that his lips were almost brushing my ear. "The rope around your wrists is tough. Work on it as soon as we're in the air. It will give you less to do in Windmire."

"All right," I whispered.

King Xander's wyvern rose from our crowd, followed by those of his retainers. Then Queen Kassandra and her retainers lifted off.

Then it was our turn.

Leo clicked his tongue, and our wyvern rose into the air. My stomach lurched, but it was not as scary as the first time I'd ridden. I knew that Leo would keep me safe.

We began to spiral around and around, the others turning above us like enormous crows and more people taking off below. I let one of my knives drop down my sleeve and caught it in the palm of my hand.

As I sawed the thick lengths of rope around my wrists, I looked at the castle we were leaving behind. It may have been nothing like Macarath, but I realised now that I had been beginning to view it as a home. The castle was dark, but it contained magical places like the world of books in Leo's study. The waters beneath us were murky, but the platforms that ran above them held the watchtower from which beautiful music was played. The inhabitants may have been frighteningly powerful, but they were also kind and fiercely loyal. And the levels of suspicion may have been high, but there had still been room for drinking and poker games, teasing and flirting, training and learning.

Goodbye, Castle Krakenburg.

I moved my gaze upwards to the bright light of the real, overcast world. My eyes started to sting. What I'd been part of had been nothing more than a twisted fairy tale. I was a commoner, not a prince's best friend, and certainly not his lover. It was time for me to face the destiny that Leo had first intended.

Oh, Leo. How I wished that I had been given the time to delve even further beneath his cold exterior. He had given me a glimpse of the man he truly was, but it would never be enough.

By the time we reached the top of the castle walls, my ropes were partially cut. I slid my knife back up my sleeve and squinted as my eyes adjusted to the light. Our wyvern spiralled down and landed.

Leo dismounted first, then held my waist as I struggled to get off without the use of my hands. My heart thundered at the feel of him. But all too soon, I was on the ground.

He held onto me for one long, last moment. In the best-case scenario, I would be lucky enough to escape and I would never see him again. In the worst-case scenario, I would die.

"Goodbye, Grace," he murmured as the Royal Guard approached us. "Good luck."

I smiled sadly. "Perhaps we'll meet again in another life."

There were four black carriages waiting next to the castle walls. I was led to the front and pushed in.

Most of the Royal Guard backed away again, but Commander Jago sat down opposite me. The door was slammed shut. The carriage jerked forward. The clip-clop of horses' hooves grew as the carriage behind us started to move, and the next, and the next.

I looked out the window as we turned away from the gates I had arrived through. I stayed there as we passed over the boundary of Windmire and the tall, thin buildings began to pass us by. I stayed there as people stopped in the dull streets and stared at us. I even stayed there as they realised our procession was carrying a prisoner and they started to jeer.

Let them. My heart was too broken for me to care.

***

A noose marked the spot where I would be executed.

We clattered from another street of spindly buildings into a city square of grey stone, where a tree like the paintings in the throne room stood. A wooden platform had been constructed in front of it, and a set of steps led from there to the top. From one of the highest branches, a thick piece of rope hung.

A large crowd was gathered around the platform, shouting and jostling, and it took a few minutes for the guards stationed at the scene to clear a path for the carriages to travel through. Ours stopped next to the steps of the platform. Commander Jago opened the door and herded me onto the stage.

There was a fenced-off section almost directly below us. The second carriage had stopped next to it, and Elise and Princess Camilla were clambering out. Leo and Queen Kassandra were already standing there. The Queen of Nohr was glaring at her carriage. Leo was watching me, his gaze pained.

The second carriage moved on, then stopped by the steps to our platform. King Xander got out and climbed up beside me. He seemed to loom even larger than usual now that he was holding my life in his hands.

Unable to help myself, I whispered, "This is going to break Leo's heart."

The King clenched his jaw and turned away.

Once all the retainers were in the private area and all the carriages had moved out of the square, two more people joined the royal viewers. Lord Tor and Lady Savina. I gritted my teeth.

King Xander walked to the edge of the platform. The crowd fell silent.

"We are gathered here today to witness the hanging of Captain Grace," King Xander said, "charged with the murders of six royal servants and one attempted murder."

The crowd roared.

He raised his voice. "As this was part of a plot against the royal family, Captain Grace is also charged with high treason. With such a staggering amount of crimes stacked against her, she is to be punished immediately." He looked at me. "She is, however, entitled to some final words."

That would have delighted me if Commander Jago had not been holding onto my rope handcuffs. I would be able to talk all I liked, but I would never be able to buy the time to cut myself free.

Still, talking could do other things.

I looked out at the crowd, and a sea of hostile faces stared back at me. I'd never spoken publicly before in my life, and a wave of nerves washed over me. The only way to do it was to close my eyes.

"At the beginning of this week," I began, "I came to Castle Krakenburg to help the royal family solve two murders. Two murders that had been committed before I'd even arrived. During the course of my stay, my involvement in the case became known to the culprit, and they framed me. Now here I stand, awaiting my death. So before my life is brought to an end, I beg you to listen to the facts for yourselves in the hope that someone will catch the murderer once I am gone."

"Captain Grace," King Xander warned.

I opened my eyes.

"Let her." Leo came to the edge of the private area so that he was just below the platform. "No matter the crime, those who are about to be hanged are entitled to say as much as they like. It's the law." He glared at his brother.

"Fine," King Xander said. "But this will not change your fate, Captain Grace."

"It might change someone else's," I replied.

I explained, in as little detail as I could, everything relevant to the case that had happened both before and after my arrival at Castle Krakenburg. Then I ran through the list of culprits.

The crowd was quietening.

"Gideon is dead," I said. "Presumably killed by the murderer. Clara," I caught Leo's eye, "has a strong alibi?"

Leo nodded.

"The Hoshidan ninjas," I said, "have been under constant surveillance since the fourth murder. But we have no more suspects to turn to. So now I ask: who could get around the excuses that have been given to them?

"Gideon died before the final victim, so that rules him out. Clara could have lied, but so many people have said they saw her that it's unlikely. The ninjas have the skills to kill six people silently in a busy castle. And they could have sneaked past their guards...it should have been obvious to me all along. They're ninjas."

The crowd murmured uncertainly. 

"That's enough," King Xander said, giving me a sidelong glance.

I lowered my voice so that only he and Commander Jago could hear. "I think the culprit is the woman we suspected right from the start. Kaon. She hates all Nohrians."

King Xander just shook his head and looked past me. "Take her up."

The crowd's murmurs were growing. As Commander Jago led me towards the steps, they burst into roars of protest.

Good. I had made them uncertain. But I had not made King Xander uncertain, and I had not been given the opportunity to cut my ropes. There was no hope for me now.

I was going to die.

As I put my foot on the first step that would lead me to the noose, I glanced over my shoulder. I wanted to have one last look at Leo.

At the fringes of the crowd, someone wearing a long and bulky cloak with the hood drawn up was leaning over a sack. The cloth was unbound and spread out -- and filled with shurikens. They shone under the weak sunlight, awash with something dark and wet.

"Look out!" I yelled.

As the person drew a shuriken and straightened up, their hood fell back. But it was not a woman with a mop of dark hair and a scarred face that resided beneath it.

It was a blonde.

Emiko.