We walk down a dark drafty hallway, up a serpentine staircase; outlined by light on the other side coming through space between the door and frame. We approach closed double doors. Shaylo takes care to open them quietly and we both enter. Unlike the hallway and staircase leading to King Wolfrim’s chambers the room is well lit. The thick red velvet window coverings are drawn shut despite that it is the middle of the afternoon. Only the lamps are lighting the room.

  “Sit,” he orders, “both of you.” I take a seat across from Shaylo on a sofa; Wolfrim sits across from us so that Shaylo and I are on his left and right, like a triangle. This chamber is massive, there is a lounging area where we are sitting, and at the other end there is a giant lavish four poster bed with a red velvet canopy draped around so you don't see the pillows, or the bed unless the canopy is opened. There is a fireplace beside us and next to the bedside; there is some sort of cabinet and elaborate table. I spot a few fancy stemmed drinking glasses and an assortment of liquor. I look at him, then at Shaylo and then back to him. In what I guess is the calmest tone he can speak, given the situation he says, “So I understand that you are one of my daughter’s newest hires?”

  I try to swallow, but my throat is dry, Shaylo encourages, “Go on Taylan, you can tell him the truth.” I look at her and then back at him, unsure.

  I blurt out, “I don't know what you’re talking about.” My heart vibrates. Shaylo’s eyes meet mine. She glances down for a second then back up without saying anything except I know she is urging me while dumb founded. I am too afraid and look down to avoid either of their eyes.

  “Taylan go on you have to tell him.” I don't think she realizes; it is not nerves holding me back. It is the decision that I have made. I want no part in this game. I am not taking sides.

  I investigate King Wolfrim's black eyes, secretly coaching myself to keep eye contact, appear confidant and certain, though I am a pile of nerves on the inside, “I have no idea who you are talking about, or what this is all about.”

  There is a moment of utter confusion from Wolfrim and Shaylo. They stare at one another. No one knows how to react. Wolfrim stares back at me realizing that what just came out of my mouth is untrue but knowing that I have made a choice. Shaylo is fuming on the other hand. As I glance at her, she explodes.

  “You brainless twit,” she shouts, “after all we have been through!” She takes a step closer. “I even forgave you for killing my husband. All that I ask for you to do is tell the truth.” She takes another step closer. “I have even taken the courtesy of bringing you to the Palace for an opportunity into a life only a few will ever see.” I hold my ground saying nothing. Shaylo continues, “You choose to not even give me the gratitude of avenging my captors, or Shrago's real killer.” She lunges at me, clutching her hands around my throat. I stumble, my legs fighting to stay up, I kick off those stupid heels, struggling to break free, clawing at her hands while trying to kick her, but it only makes her angrier. She tightens her grip, I am not making progress, I can't breathe, and I am starting to feel dizzy as I struggle to get out of her grasp. I catch a glimpse of Wolfrim, who is amused, and everything goes silent, it is out of my control. I drop to the floor.

  I must have only been out for a moment because when I open my eyes, it is to Shaylo straddling me on the floor; she must have loosened her grip enough for me to come around. I stay still and squint my eyes, into tiny slits so that neither Wolfrim nor Shaylo know. She has one hand on my throat and her main hand is reaching into her breast for something. To my horror, it is a dagger. Without hesitation, she maneuvers it to drive it into my throat with all the speed and force she can muster. I react, rocking my weight to roll over and get her off me. The force is enough; she misses my throat and drives the blade through the rug and into the floor. Shaylo struggles to free the blade, and I have opportunity to get her off me. With the force that I can muster, I get on my hands and knees, scrambling to rise after forcing Shaylo off me. Shaylo also gets up with a stumble and she reaches to free the blade. Panicked, I lunge for the blade, managing to pry it free and face her; we are moving together like a dance, slowly step by step, I with both hands firmly gripped on the dagger and facing her. Fearless, Shaylo thrusts at me roaring of rage and without anything to defend herself she goes for both my wrists and latches on to one. I flick my wrist, and she lets go. Just as she is about to strike again, I give her the generous contact of the blade, edging it along her throat, just as though Shrago did to me. Her rage evolves into panic. She backs away. I watch her, while still grasping the blade. Shaylo touches her hands to her throat, feeling the oozing wound and lets out an angry sob. Still looking at me, but addressing King Wolfrim, “Do something!” Wolfrim says nothing and watches with those emotionless black eyes. Frantic she cries, “Do something!” Her gait is wavering; she stumbles and then falls. It is hard to watch, and it is taking me back to the day that it happened to Shrago only this time Shaylo is alert and knows what is happening to her. She is whimpering now, incoherent words, sounding like she is asking Wolfrim to help her. I back away, frozen, but at the same time, I can't take my eyes off her. She whimpers to no one, “Come here.” I approach reluctantly, but I do so and stand above her so she can see me. She peers into the centers of my eyes; she knows it is me, “Why couldn't you give me this?” Shaylo says in a quivering whisper.

  “You know why.” I answer in the faintest whisper, practically mouthing the words and back away. She is dying; it is slow, messy, and hard to watch. She does not say anything else and slips into unconsciousness, she will be dead soon. I am reminded that I am not alone by the feeling of eyes watching me. I glance at him. He looks amused and applauds me, slow loud claps. It is an uncomfortable applause.

  “Well done, you know, I wasn't really a fan of her husband, or her for that matter.” I say nothing, Wolfrim continues, “Sure they helped me get to this status, but between you and I; I know that Shrago was looking for a bigger piece of the pie.” He winks at me. “Truth is a funny thing don't you think?” I swallow saying nothing, he continues, “I know that Shaylo wasn't lying to me.” I breathe and wait for him to continue, “That leaves you and me dear. Your silence speaks more than any words, but do you know what, I admire you. You just took down one of the most intimidating women I have ever known, and you took out her husband too? Amazing, is all I can say. You know dear I will give you two options, are you ready?” I stare at him, “Option one, you stay here in the Palace and work for me.” He seems amused with himself, closing a hand and glancing at his own neatly groomed fingernails for a second. He continues, looking back up at me, “Option two if you don't choose to work for me you can still stay here, but you will be living out your days in confinement and who knows, maybe your life will be short lived?” He has the look of a cat when it has caught a mouse by the tail. I am not going to have any of this. I back away from him and Shaylo who is lying in a spreading pool of blood. My back is now touching the door, he is waiting for my answer, but I say nothing. “So, I guess you have made your decision? Well, in my opinion it's a poor choice.” He smiles a confident, condescending grin, which causes me to shiver.

  Still with my back to the door, my hands find the knob. I twist it open and make a break for it. I fly down the hallway at a sprint, down the serpentine stairs, but stop dead at the closed door to the great room. If I open the door, I will need to face two guards. I can't do this; do I go back up the stairs, apologize and plead with Wolfrim to take the kinder option he proposed? My heart hurts and I back away from the door and up against the wall of the serpentine trying to urge myself to choose. When I touch my back to the stonewall it feels as though it moved as though my shoulder sunk into the wall. I turn and push against the wall, a secret passage opens. I shimmy through. The stonewall closes behind me and I find myself in complete darkness and silence. I have no idea if Wolfrim has approached the stairway, or what, but there is no time to ponder. I feel my way along the edge of the wall by crawling and making haste through the darkness. There are no corners; however, it feels as though this passage gradually turns, I never feel a corner. My eyes adjust, there is light at the end, coming from a space under a door. I crawl up to it and try to push, but it won't budge I get off my hands and knees to feel along the wall for a latch, or something. I am in luck; a lever, I pull it and the door creaks open. The room I come into is almost blinding, there are windows, and I run to them for my exit, but in the same moment I stop dead in my tracks.

  “Where are you going?” She asks. It is the mysterious woman that spoke to me from the lazy river.

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  “Please I need to get out of here.” I beg.

  “What about Princess Rosaleen? She should be here soon, and you serve her.” She says confused.

  “Please, I'll explain later just help me get out of here unnoticed.”

  She looks at me, as though deciding, as though she is contemplating if I am being truthful, she says, “Okay.”

  She walks briskly to her closet, gets a change of clothes for me, “Here put these on.” I strip down, tossing away the bloody blue dress Shaylo gave to me, not wasting any time and we switch. She tosses my dress in the back of her closet, and I put on this emerald, green satin robe, she is already in a blue one and puts her hood up; I do the same. She instructs, “Follow me.” She steps out of the window; I follow. Her room is on ground level, so we just step down into and around some shrubs that are below her window. She leads me at a steady walk to the pool area.

  I murmur, “We need to move faster.”

  “Not unless you want to draw attention to yourself.” She answers through her teeth while faking a smile.

  There are only two other women at the pool. They are sleeping on the beds. Quietly we approach and walk by completely unnoticed. She leads me through the same path that I had strolled through only hours before. We approach the spot where we had talked, deep in the garden, along the water’s edge of the lazy river. She disrobes and jumps in; I do the same. “Grab your robe in a bunch you will need to dress once we get you to somewhere private.” The currant guides us through the lazy river; my mind is playing games with me because I could swear that I hear the shouts of guards and fear that the shouts are related to finding me.

  She starts swimming towards the side; I copy, grabbing the edge and she reaches down and pops a grid off. She instructs, “Go through.” I duck under water, and she pushes me through a dark tunnel and then follows behind. There is enough air at the surface to bring our heads above water. She fidgets with the cover and manages to snap it back in place then urges “Keep swimming forward so that we can get out of earshot.” We move through this water tunnel and are soon engulfed in darkness.

  “Okay tell me what this is about?” She demands.

  I let out a breath and explain, “The short story is, King Wolfrim is an imposture and has been living this lie for a long time. Princess Rosaleen knows this now and the imposter knows that Rosaleen knows. I need to return to Rosaleen and my sister. I am leaving because I didn’t want to be on the opposing side. Rosaleen will return, but not under amicable circumstances and my plan is to return to her before she returns to the Palace. Please you can't share this with anyone.” I beg her.

  “Okay” She assures. I have no choice, but to trust her.

  “Please can I ask a favor?”

  “Yes sure.” She says.

  “Rosaleen wants to return, but she probably wants to return unnoticed. Could we use this way back? Or um let me re-think this, could you leave your window open so that we can make our way back in?” I have nothing more to offer Rosaleen other than showing her this secret passage as a show of my dedication and gratitude to her and she will believe me when questioned about the escape with Shaylo.

  “Yes, anything for the Princess and for a friend.” She answers. I can only trust her in that; this will not be a trap.

  “Now that I am up to speed on things, let’s move.” She suggests. We continue blindly down the tunnel, making our way to a cavern and the mouth opens to a beach. To the passerby, this would be a hard opening to spot because it is surrounded by many rock clusters, and the opening is only big enough for a couple of people to wade through at a time. We approach the shore, and both put our wet silks on, once again, another sunset to mark another pivotal day.

  “Thank you.” I say to her.

  “You’re welcome and let's hope that this works.” She says encouragingly.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Anything” She answers.

  “I have no idea where to find Princess Rosaleen. If she wanted to dock her ship in an alternative harbor from where she usually docks, or anchors in shallow waters, whatever, do you have any guesses where I should look?”

  “Yes, actually there is a second harbor about an hour journey by solar bike west of here and about another half hour west from there is a good spot where a lot of larger boats anchor.”

  “Great thank you.” I don't know if I should give her a hug, shake her hand, but I settle with a polite smile.

  “Oh, I forgot; that robe has an inner pocket, inside the pocket there’s a pouch with some kiros just to get you by until you return.” She says.

  “You don't know how much this means to me; I can't thank you enough. You know, I never got your name?” She smirks at me.

  “I'm Jodis.”

  “Nice to meet you officially and if everything works out, I will see you in a day, or two. Before I forget my name is Taylan.” I smirk back.

  “Nice to meet you officially, I wish you a safe return, see you soon.” Jodis waves me off. I catch a final glimpse of her hopping along the stones as I pause to look back after walking for a moment, and then she is out of sight.

  I have a long walk ahead of me and make my way around the rock crevices. I pick up three rocks and place them on a nearby bolder as a marker to tell that the entrance is near.

  The Palace from eyesight looks to be elevated like it is sitting on a stage overlooking its city; however, the courtyard must be at level with the ocean because from the tunnel I escaped through the pool is fed fresh ocean water. I take a moment to look at the Palace and then back in the direction of the city. My eyes are just playing tricks on me, and it must be the grand size of the Palace in comparison to the buildings of the city. It takes a long time to maneuver the rocky shore and soon find myself walking in the dark, which doesn’t help, but eventually I reach a street.

  I look around seeing some restaurants and shops, but nowhere do I see where I can rent a bike. I do spot a couple of parked water powered taxis and jog over and tap on a window, “Yes, where would you like to go?” The driver asks in a deep, slow, but steady voice.

  “Do you know of any solar bike rentals nearby that are open?” I ask because I don't think that I have enough to cover a taxi for such a long trip, and if it turns out to be a dead end then I won't have enough to make it back.

  “Yes, get in.” The driver assures in his deep voice. The driver takes me to where I need to go, and within no time, I have a bike rented and find myself on my way west.

  The first stop is well populated there are many streets and buildings, and the harbor is full of all sorts of docked boats and ships. In the bay, it is easy to see everything in the moonlight; the water is trickled with sparkling lights from anchored boats and ships. I walk to the end of the pier and look. If Rosaleen is here, her ship is anchored out there. I scan the bay and do not see anything that I recognize as Rosaleen’s ship, but there are quite out there. A few that could be hers. It is hard to tell, and I hate this second-guessing myself. It is nice that I can see them in the moonlight, but I can't be sure and decide to stop and think. I take a seat on the edge of the pier.

  I hear the holler of a man not too far; he must be on the next pier. “The boat’s lowered and ready to go ladies!” I know that voice! I race over to the next pier where it is coming from, stopping at the edge, spotting the man that called out. He is the one that lowered the boat for Rosaleen and me to go to Newlyn’s Island, the day I killed Shrago. Ashlea and Izavelle are approaching from behind, walking down the pier towards me. My heart stops for a second and the next, I am running as fast as my legs can carry me, so fast that I think Ashlea doesn’t recognize me. I wrap my arms around her, sobbing happy tears. “I didn't think I would ever see you again.” I blurt out in between sobs. Without saying anything, she knows it is me and returns my embrace. I know she is feeling the same.

  Izavelle wraps her arms around the both of us and whispers in my ear, “We thought we had lost you.” I managed to peel my arms off Ashlea; everything is a blur from the pier to the ship because I am just smiting about my reunion with Ashlea, and I am exhausted.

  In no time, I am reunited with Soolena and Princess Rosaleen. Rosaleen seems happy to see that I have returned however, I can tell that she is, wondering why I have come back.

  “Shaylo is dead, and King Wolfrim knows that you found your mother and know his secret.” I tell Rosaleen with everyone listening.

  Rosaleen answers, “You have to explain, so Wolfrim knows that Shaylo is dead?”

  “Yes” I answer, but then shake my head, “Yes that's right, but that's not what I meant to say. King Wolfrim knows that you know that he is not your real father, and he knows that you know that he was the one who broke up your family and exiled your mother.” It is obvious that Rosaleen had already assumed that.

  Rosaleen asks, “How is Shaylo dead?”

  “I killed her, in self-defence; she found out that it was me that killed Shrago and as much as I had explained why I had, she couldn’t forgive me.”

  “Where is Sitrus?” She asks. I need to tell a small lie because I am not sure how they would react if they found out that he didn't exactly follow orders in finding me and failing to return me to Newlyn.

  “I don't know?” It is the only thing that comes to mind.

  “I see; how did you find your way back to us?”

  “A woman, her name is Jodis; she helped me escape and suggested different areas for me to try to find you. She’s waiting for our return, she’s on our side.” I come to the realization, “Rosaleen, you need to move your ship. If she knew where you would be, I am sure Wolfrim, and his servants would guess the same. I am not sure how much of a head start we have if he has placed orders to find you?” Why didn't I think about that sooner?

  “Thank you, Taylan. Izavelle, Soolena and I will decide. Ashlea, take your sister to your room. You both need to rest, and we will call on you once we have decided.” I want to tell them more, but decide they have enough information, I don't object.

  Later, after resting with Ashlea in her room, we wake suddenly. It feels as though it is the middle of the night, “Get up we are leaving.”