"-been dead for hours now."

My eyes opened slowly, drawn out of my slumber by the familiar voice coming from below. I rubbed my eyes to clear them and squinted at the road. There were men there, gathered around the carriage and the fallen, holding torches and examining the scene on horseback. One, the one who had spoken, slid from his mount and knelt by his King. I saw his red cloak and the symbol of the guard but it was not until he spoke that I recognized him. "You three, check the forest. I do not see the children among the dead. If they ran off-"

"Ridley," It was my own voice that had spoken but I could hardly recognize it myself. Hoarse and rough, barely a whisper. But he had heard it. He held up a hand to quiet his men and cast his eyes about. Hastily, I reached to untie the rope around me with fumbling fingers.

"Sir, what-"

"Shh."

He quieted his men again. I could see him straining to hear, waiting for me to call out again, as I made my way down the trunk to the solid ground beneath.

"Did you hear that?" He asked. "It sounded like-"

"Ridley," I said his name again as I stepped out into the light of their torches. The men around us stood, stunned, as the Commander of my father's army turned to face me. He breathed a sigh of relief as his open mouth closed to a smile and he rushed forward, kneeling in the dirt to embrace me.

"Princess," he breathed into my hair. "Adelaide. You're alright."

"She's covered in blood, Commander," One of his men spoke and he pulled away, examining me at arm's length.

"Are you hurt?"

I shook my head. "It isn't mine."

A flash of sorrow overtook his features and his grip on my shoulders tightened as if he were holding on so that neither of us fell apart. Then his expression changed, his lips set into a firm line.

"Adelaide, I need you to tell me what happened."

I was staring at my mother's body behind him. He shook me.

"Adelaide."

"We were in the forest," I told him, my eyes remaining firmly on my mother. "Alder, Aislynn, and I. We were arguing. They shot him. Through the neck with an arrow. Aislynn and I ran but she got her foot stuck and she told me to go. She said I had to warn father but by the time I got here, he was... they were... I heard her scream as I ran. Is she- are they- they're dead, aren't they? All of them."

His expression softened. Some of his men turned away. Some closed their eyes. I felt it then. The rage. It took over my body completely. I gritted my teeth and cried out in a mixture of anger and mourning.

"No!" I screamed, my shrill voice piercing the dark night. "No, no, no! They can't be dead! They can't! You have to help them! We have to do something! We have to-"

"Adelaide," He grabbed me and held me firmly against him, subduing my struggling little body easily. I kicked at him, bit his arm, balled my fist and punched at his chest. But still he held on.

"Let me go! You have to let me! I have to follow them! I have to kill them!"

"Adelaide, you can't. You're just a little girl. Please. Stop."

"I'm not just a little girl! I can fight too! I can kill them! I have to kill them! Ridley, let me go!"

"Take her," He snapped to one of his men. "Subdue her. Chain her if you have to. We have to get her back to the palace and off of these roads. Hadley, ride to her grandfather. Tell him what has happened. Tell him Etzera is in need of him."

The men moved to follow his orders and a new pair of hands were grasping me and pulling me away. I screamed. I kicked and clawed and tried in vain to tear myself from the strong man's arms to no avail. He forced me back into the same carriage I had been travelling in with my family just hours before and he locked me inside. I clawed at the walls for some time, screaming in anger as the wagon headed off, back to where we came from. Finally, I gave up. My anger relented and I fell upon the floor of the carriage, knees clutched to my chest, tears streaming down my cheeks as I listened to the low thrum of the men's conversation outside of this wagon.

"-how they would have known."

"Rirdans do not usually travel so far inland. How did no one see them travelling from the coast?"

"They were heading south. We must warn our allies."

And finally, before I fell asleep again at the rocking of the wagon, the Commander's voice spoke clearly. "It is the end of the peace. This means war."

A week later, I sat on a small stool in the nursery, the book that a servant had given me laying forgotten on my lap. I watched my youngest brother, the only other surviving member of my family, as he played with blocks while a middle aged woman tried to get him to say the Vyndolian word for blocks. Blokai. He just ignored her and kept playing, far too young for any interest in language. He was only three after all. And yet they were calling him King.

The door opened behind me and the servant stood, bowing her head to the newcomer. I did not need to turn to know that it was my grandmother who joined us. She smiled and dismissed the woman so that the three of us were alone. She crossed the room and knelt beside Acton, sweeping his hair back to plant a kiss on his forehead.

"You must speak some time, you know," She turned to look at me then. Her grey hair was coming unbound and I wondered if she had been cleaning again. She did not like how the servants at the palace did it. She claimed they did not know the correct way of dusting a mantel or folding a sheet like her servants back at her estate did. I thought it was simply a form of homesickness though I would never say as much. I met her eyes now and said nothing. "Honestly, Adelaide. It's been a week. I know that you are grieving. We all are. But your grandfather worries for you. As if he doesn't have enough to worry about. And I tire of this game. Mourning is easy. Moving forward is hard. And it starts with a gratitude for what you do have."

She placed a hand on Acton's head and stroked his hair. He smiled happily up at her but she was still watching me.

"You have each other," She told me, gesturing between myself and my brother. "No matter what happens, Adelaide, you must remember that. There will come a day when all you have is each other. You must always protect one another."

I said nothing, only narrowed my eyes at her. She did not understand. She could never understand. She lost a daughter and two grandchildren. That was horrible. But I lost a mother, a father, two siblings, and the lionshare of my heart. I felt nothing there now, nothing but cold, hollow darkness.

"Anger will consume you. If you let it. You must not."

"Lady Isolda," a servant girl said as she burst into the room. My grandmother smiled kindly up at her. She paused to bow and then hastened on. "My apologies. Lord Hollis has requested your presence in court. He has just called it to order."

"Of course," My grandmother stood and reached down to take my brother's hand. He grasped it with his pudgy toddler fingers, wrapping his fist around two of her fingers. She looked over to me and held out her other hand. I stood but I did not take it. Instead, I simply followed her and my brother out of the nursery, through the halls, and toward the throne room.

My grandparents had arrived the very morning after we had returned from the road. My grandmother had doted on me for days but had since hardened her stance, having apparently decided that it was time to move on. I had hardly seen my grandfather outside of meals and the occasional bedtime. It seemed that the matter of succession and repairing a country grieving for its King was one which took a great deal of time. It had been decided only two days after my return that Acton would follow in his father's footsteps and that my grandfather would hold the throne until Acton came of age.

"Isolda," my grandfather greeted his wife with a tired smile and a peck on the cheek before he peered down at us and his grin widened. "Acton and Adelaide, I'm so happy you've come to court."

I said nothing, only took my seat next to my grandmother as she sat at my grandfather's side and held Acton in her lap. Then, court began. Petitioners brought their concerns to my grandfather and he heard each one of them before choosing the wisest course available to him and sending them on their way. He heard concerns ranging from the sale of barley to the Rirdans gathered on the coast and he spoke well on each count. But not so well as my father, not so wise as my father. It was tedious and I found my patience quite stretched thin by the tenth petitioner. Just then, the doors at the back of the hall burst open and a man ran through them, only stopping when he reached the dais.

"Lord Hollis!" He gasped, out of breath, eyes wild and searching. He was filthy from the road, his cloak trailing in dirt on the marble floor which had my grandmother wrinkling her nose in disgust. My grandfather regarded him with some surprise.

"Speak," He commanded and the man nodded, catching his breath.

"I've been sent by Queen Earline. Though she was in a dire situation upon my departure. Vyndoli has been taken."

The hall erupted in mutters of surprise and terror. Even Acton seemed to sense that something was wrong, his lower lip pouted out as if about to cry. The murmuring grew louder until my grandfather pounded his fist upon the arm of my father's throne and silenced them all.

"What do you mean taken?" He sought to clarify.

"Conquered, Lord," The man told him, shoulders falling in despair as he did.

"Conquered. That isn't possible. Vyndoli is an entire country."

"They have been falling to the Rirdans for some time now. It started on the coast. They took towns there, small fishing villages and the like. But they set up roots. They settled. And then more of them came over. They moved inland, taking more towns and villages, until they amassed a large enough army to take the Fortress of Mardenall. Then they moved to the capital."

"In all this time, why were we not informed?" My grandfather's face was reddening with anger. The messenger saw it.

"I- I'm not sure, Lord. I am only a messenger. But I have heard it said that King Preston did not want to appear weak. He thought he could handle the issue himself."

"And meanwhile sent for my son to journey through lands he knew to be volatile?"

The hall fell silent. I looked at the messenger. Was what my grandfather suggesting true? Was the royal family of Vyndoli to blame for the death of two thirds of my family?

"Lord, I don't- please. I'm only a messenger."

His words seemed to soothe my grandfather's anger. But not mine. He shooed the man away and dismissed court. We watched as he and his advisors disappeared into my father's study, arguing loudly about what was to be done about Vyndoli. My grandmother reached out to me but I jerked away. Turning my back on her, I fled the throne room and made my way through the halls. I was not sure where he would be but I knew it was nearby. I found him in the hall of the royal residences, coming from the direction of my mother and father's old room.

"Teach me to fight," I demanded. He turned to look at me, surprised to hear me speak after my week of silence. He sighed then and shook his head.

"You heard about Vyndoli," Ridley said. It was not a question.

"You have to now."

He considered me for a moment. "It is not appropriate to teach a woman how to fight."

"I am not a woman. Not yet. And even when I am, I won't be just a woman. I am a princess. With no father and no brother in any condition to fight for me. With what I've seen and what I know, I am only asking for the tools. To protect myself if it should come to it."

"I will protect you if it should come to it."

"You won't always be here. You weren't there."

We stood only a few feet apart, staring at one another, both of our stubborn sides daring the other to back down.

"Fine," He finally relented. "I cannot deny that you have been through far more than a little girl should. And I cannot promise you will never go through such hardship again. So, if it is what you wish, I will teach you to fight."

"The same way you teach your men. The way you were teaching Alder."

"It will take time."

"Time," I repeated, smiling sadly up at him, "is all I have left."