I stalked down the hall away from the body. I will find the owner of those claw marks, and they will regret the day they were born.

With that happy note, Caleb came towards me with a look of confusion on his face. He came up next to me, and took my arm.

"Why were you in such a hurry to leave, my queen?" Caleb joked, lightly nudging me with his elbow. I ignored him. He sent me a look of hurt. I sighed.

"The servant boy who guided me around the past few days was found dead. His body claw marks, but he was unmistakable. It was certainly him," I muttered. Caleb was suddenly as serious as me.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. I nodded, acknowledging that I had heard him. We continued in silence.

When we finally reached my room, Caleb left me at the door. I opened the door, jumping when I saw someone in my room. I threw my pocket knife, which missed her by a mile. I could have sworn it would hit her, yet it embedded itself into the window sill.

"I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Maxine Serene, although I would prefer Max. I'll be your handmaid now that you're queen," Max said, while pushing her dark hair out of her face.

"Kiora Thorn. Nice to meet you, Max." I shook her hand. She was significantly shorter than me, but I saw determination in her eyes. She was a fighter. Her complexion was one of cocoa. She also had tucked a bow and arrows into the corner. An archer.

"You like my bow? My father carved it for me. It's a tradition among the Wind Whisperers." Max crossed her arms, watching me for a reaction.

"That explains the knife not hitting you." I sighed, and went to go grab the knife. It was a good throw, and would have hit her. Maybe. But there was no questioning that it was deep in the window sill.

As I was trying to pull out my knife from the wall, Max picked up my sword to look at it.

"Almace. My father had it forged once I was old enough to hold a sword." I gazed at Max marvelling at the blade.

"Named after the sword in the song of Roland?" Max asked. I nodded. She touched the edge, and yelped in surprise as the sword cut her.

"Weren't you taught not to touch sharp objects?" I said jokingly. She glared at me.

"Well I didn't think just touching the darn thing would cut me. Now excuse me while I go retrieve a bandaid," she replied. She gently put Almace back into its sheath, and went into the bathroom. I collapsed onto the bed. Once she came back, with a bandaid on her finger, she sat down next to me.

"I don't want to be dressed in the morning, or anything odd like that. We could just hang out in here and be friends," I supplied. Max looked relieved.

"That sounds great!" She jumped up, suddenly excited, with all the energy of a hyper puppy.

"Slow down! I'm tired, and you're jumping so fast that you're blurring!" I grabbed her shoulders, and she chuckled.

"Sorry, my lady," She sank a lot of sarcasm into 'my lady'. She then did a very incorrect curtsy, then fell over. It was my turn to laugh.

"Ha ha, very funny," Max growled, dusting non existent dust off her pants. That just made me laugh more.

"I'm going to change into something less fancy and more durable, then we can talk some more." I took some clothes out of my drawers, marched into the bathroom, and closed the door to change.

When I came back out, Max was sitting on the bed trying to get signal on a phone in her hand.

"You do know that this place has no signal for a reason?" She stuck her tongue out at me, but said nothing. She finally sighed and put down the phone.

"What do you want to do?" She asked. I shrugged. Max scooted closer to me.

"I like you with Caleb. He deserves someone sensible. I'm glad you came along. If you hadn't, then Wade would have been king, and no offense to anyone, but no one wanted that. He's ruthless, and doesn't understand the rules of society. He would wage war with the Unabled," Max whispered. Unabled was what people with abilities called normal people. Or, if they were feeling rude, humans, implying that they were lesser beings. Unabled, if said to an Unabled, would make them feel insulted, however it was really just short for without abilities. They would call what we have power, but everyone has power. Not everyone has abilities.

If Wade wanted a war with the Unabled, and if he became king, there wasn't much anyone could have done. At least there was a silver lining to me being discovered.

"I'm glad too," I whispered, barely audible. I had an odd feeling she heard me anyway.

As we poked fun at each other long into the night, Robert's dead eyes had almost faded from my thoughts. If the guards noticed the bags under my eyes the next day, they didn't say a word.