The Royal Castle connected to the podium through a hallway lined with ornate suits of armor, empty vessels of Raul’s past. One armor set caught Hector’s attention, an ancient bronze helm, pauldrons, breastplate, bracers and greaves tinged pale turquoise from aged corrosion.

He followed Terese at an ambling pace, as if they were taking a pleasant stroll.

“Why do you follow her?” Hector asked. Terese paused, turning to face him. Her voice was soft, her words pronounced in the harsh clipped tongue of the Orient.

“I am sworn to her. She freed me from my master.”

“And now you serve another, a mad Queen guided only by her whims.”

“The Queen may seem fickle in nature, but her actions always serve a purpose. Why else do you think she wishes to pair with you?”

Cold realization struck Hector.

“She seeks to bear my child, and consolidate the High Throne. Does she truly think that would give her the right of High Queen?”

Terese’s silence was her answer.

“You used me,” Hector’s voice trembled with anger, and shame. Burning frustration welled within him at his own helplessness, clawing shame at having been seduced so easily.

“Does the Queen now scheme to hold me hostage, thinking she can coerce herself into the Empire with ancient obscured legality?”

Hector knew he had few options. He was powerless, having entered the Spider Queen’s web, and now she would take his body along with everything he held dear.

“Queen Lillian would never swear fealty to her. And she would still need the Crown Steward’s accord. This is a perversion of the Laws. I will not be pulled into her plot.”

“You do not have to convince me. Follow me, if you want to live.”

Confusion and doubt clouded Hector’s mind, stilting his tongue.

“Why help me?”

“We are but pawns in their eyes. The Queen thinks she owns me, but I am no one’s slave. This plot grows deeper than you know. We must make haste to your guard. Only they can protect you.”

They passed through spiral staircases and winding halls dimmed by dying braziers mounted on the walls.

“You must flee to the forest. The Queen has patrols waiting should you turn back to the capital. It is the last place she will search for you. Your army is vastly outnumbered by the Queen’s legions. There is nothing they can do.”

“I shall leave loyal men to their deaths?” Hector exclaimed.

“Raul is loyal to their Queen, since the Broken Rebellion. Alerting your men would only give away your presence. You know this is true.”

Baric paced in front of Hector’s quarters, the other Crown Guards’ backs to the wall, his furrowed face loosened when he saw their approach.

“Prepare the guard. We leave for the Long Wall immediately. And not by carriage, you must ferry me skyward.”

“My liege, what is the meaning of this?”

“Queen Lyssa means to conquer the High Throne, by any means if she must. We must hide away into the forest.”

“I knew she was a poison to the Empire,” Baric swore. “I wish it were not so.”

“I will tell the Queen that you have fled back to the capital,” Terese interrupted. “No doubt she will organize her Circle in search of you, she is expecting it. You must wait in the forest until I return.”

“It is a day’s flight to Hearth,” Baric said. “We will ensure your safety.”

“It may be so, but with the Prince’s added weight it will be longer. You would not be able to lose her, even unburdened.”

“How will you find us?” Hector asked hurriedly. “And how would we reach the forest in the midst of the siege.”

“The mages spend all their strength during the day to power the war machines,” Terese answered. “The army will not see you in the dark, provided you fly high enough. Fly straight past the direction of the camp until you reach the untouched front of the Green Pass. Keep a torch alight at night in signal. You may have to wait several days before I reach you.”

“I don’t trust her,” Baric said gruffly. “She is the Queen’s apprentice. Why would she be helping us?”

“Queen Lyssa is insane,” Hector spoke in defense, “If not for Terese I would be forced against my will at her mercy.”

“Say we do reach the Green Pass and you return. What then?” Baric questioned Terese.

“We would move to the edges of the continent, and travel close to the waters until we reach the Heartlands’ borders. I know where the Queen has positioned her patrols, and can keep us out of sight of both first and sixth sense. The journey should take no more than two days. Every moment we waste the Queen will wonder of the Prince’s whereabouts. You must act now. Go out through the window of your quarters.”

Baric opened the wooden shutters of the window, then grabbed the black iron bars and pulled them out from the joined stonework, cracking and crumbling before his strength.

“A lantern should suffice for the signal,” the captain motioned to one of his men before he used a knife to cut the leather strappings holding his breastplate. Baric handed the knife along with its belted sheath to Hector.

“Use it only as a last resort. My liege,” he said as if in apology, “Wear my cloak, it will keep you warm. Grab hold of my back and do not let go.”

Hector wrapped his arms over Baric’s broad shoulders, lacing his hands together. Baric held Hector’s legs from behind his knees, strong hands that assured his safety. The safety of flying upon a mage’s back unsecured at blistering speed. That was what it felt like when the captain stepped out from the window and plummeted down, Hector’s gut catapulting upwards as they rose until he witnessed the sprawling city continue past his eye.

This is what a bird must see, Hector marveled despite the danger. Every day a wonder just from a new perspective. The Crown Guard exited the window one by one to join them before the flock of mages gathered in a V formation, their captain at the forefront.

Hector’s eyes stung as the wind blew against their path, howling in its tenacity. Darkness obscured them, the stark white moon veiled in blackened cloud, its brilliance dimmed to silhouette the faraway Elder Tree. Angry orange pinpoints of torchlight littered the camp, an entrenched fortress swollen with tents past the neverending line of the Long Wall. Beyond the camp lay the great trebuchets, hulking shadows guarded by patrols of soldiers armed with more torches.

Baric slowed down in his gradual descent to the Green Pass below. They floated down past the still intact trees not yet razed with pitch and oil, leaves unable to withstand the fire’s wrath, leaving behind blackened barren branches. They landed onto the ground, a bed of ash swallowing their boots a hand breadth’s deep.

Hector’s hands let go of each other, numb from the wind and stress of the unbroken grip. His legs buckled, threatening to collapse beneath him. A Crown Guard lit the lamp he held by striking two sparkstones contained within the device together, lighting the wick. A soft warm glow revealed their surroundings. Great trees, singed and blackened by the inferno. They were taller than the war machines, gnarled titans that stood proudly stoic even in the face of their demise. Hector noticed their branches connected, growing seamlessly with one another.

“We must move quickly,” Baric stated. They trudged through the thick ash. Where the destruction ended life began, moss and shrubbery dotted between the colossal trees, sprouting in verdant contrast to the grey trail of death.

“Further,” the captain urged them onwards. “We don’t want to be in the way of the catapults when they start firing.”

Eventually Hector spoke up, “If we walk any further Terese will never be able to find us. We should wait here and keep the lantern aloft in signal.”

They halted, the Crown Guard forming a circle around Hector, the lantern suspended in the air above.

“The girl is now dead if she is lucky,” Baric said. “We should head west, until we reach the Oceanum.”

“No! We wait for Terese. Only she knows how to guide us away from the Queen’s patrols.

“My duty is to keep you safe, Hector. That girl serves her own agenda. I told you, she cannot be trusted.”

“We wait here for the remainder of the night,” Hector said firmly. “One night, and when day breaks we leave. We owe her that much.”

“Very well.”

“Baric. Thank you.”

The captain nodded in reply, “You should rest, and save your strength.”

Hector slumped down against a nearby tree and waited, growing more restless with each passing moment. Roth had abandoned him to the Queen’s mercy, of which he had seen firsthand, or lack thereof. Is this what father meant? Hector’s mind changed from one dark thought to the next, pondering on the recent events. Wolves at the door, clawing for entrance.

The Crown Steward spent more time with Hector than even his own father, teaching him the ways of the Empire and its court. He had hoped Roth would grow fond of his only charge over the years, but the Steward maintained the same aloofness and even chillier candor than King Alexander. Hector had never expected such a betrayal from Roth however. They meant to control the war from the start. And I was merely in their way, a hindrance they could squash at any moment should they be unable to gain favor.

He shook his head, gazing above, overlapping foliage that left pockets of precious space for the stray moonlight to wander through. The wildlife had retreated deeper into the Green Pass, their absence unnerving in the silence they left behind.

So they waited, distant leaves rustling in the breeze, the lantern unmoving as the ring of men around it, dark blue cloaked sentinels ever watchful. A dozen men willing to follow and fight an entire kingdom for him.

Why would a man die for another, not bonded by blood or kinship? Is it a belief, an ideal? What would make a man carry such resolve upon his shoulders, and not be crushed by its impossible demands?

“My liege,” Baric murmured, stirring Hector awake. “Something approaches.”

Hector rushed up to see a faint light in the darkness, growing stronger in the distance. As it drew closer he could make out the hooded form holding a lantern, of which there was no doubt was the slender body of a woman.

“She made it,” he breathed.

When she neared them he saw her mask beneath her hood, glinting silver, beaten into the likeness of the Queen’s apprentice’s face. For the Queen herself, wearing a mask that also resembled her own visage, appeared in front of Terese, gliding forward with silent predatory grace.

Her Circle walked behind her, their forms concealed within their long cloaks; their shadowed helms appearing as half man, half monstrous bird. He noticed that there were also hooded forms cloaked dark blue of his own kingdom in the lantern’s yellow glow. Roth’s own Circle.

Hector felt cold fear envelope his body, threatening to paralyze his limbs.

“Hector,” Baric spoke, voice low. “When the lantern is extinguished, run to the forest, and do not look back. I will find you. Run. Now.”

As the lantern was snuffed out, Hector broke into a run, hearing Baric’s cry, “Form a line!”

The sounds of steel clashing against steel rang throughout the forest, echoing with the force of their blows. Soon after came the cries of dying mens’ screams.

Hector continued running, gasping for breath as his cloak whirled behind him in his escape. He dodged past brush and turned round trees, conscious to not slam headfirst into the roken wood.

His foot caught on Baric’s cloak, causing him to land face first against the fortunate moss covered earth; his crown falling and rolling astray.

“My Prince,” Queen Lyssa’s distant voice pealed like a bell, hauntingly melodious.

Hector scrambled up and hid behind a tree, struggling to hold his wheezing breath.

“My Prince,” she called out in singsong, as if it was a game. “Come out, my Prince. I can sense you. Sense your fear.”

The Queen purred, “If you do not come out now I will make sure the remaining days of your life end in exquisite agony. I am no savage, I will make sure you live at least a week. Did your captain tell you the things I am capable of?" Her tone hardened. "He’s dead by the way. He died a warrior’s death, not one you shall earn in this life. At the end I will leave your body in this forest, unrecognizable only for the crown you wear. Just like I left your father.”

Hector fought to contain his panic. He knew there was no escape. And that there would be no mercy given by the Spider Queen.