Mai woke, and immediately she began to feel uncomfortable. The sense of mystery she had felt last night was gone. She had fallen asleep on one of the carriage’s benches, but upon awakening, she found that while her feet were still on the bench, she had fallen so that her head and shoulders were on the floor, and she ached.

Mai leaned up, and all the jewelry she wore jingled. She maneuvered her way back to actually sitting on the bench, where she let out an involuntary sob. She was alone, without any attendants. It could be acceptable to lose her composure in private, couldn’t it?

Yesterday’s events came at her hard and fast. She had realized before, quite a while before, that her life as she knew it was over, but until now, she had no idea what that meant. Tears flowed freely.

Mai’s father was dead. All the people she knew at the court were probably dead as well, and things could only get worse. I am protected by…No! Held captive by a warrior who will not tell me anything about who he is. Mai knew she had nothing left, nothing except a man named Broken who probably was just going to rape her and kill her, anyway.

Mai’s gold hoop earrings, her gold necklace, her gold wristbands and ankle bracelets, they all did nothing for her. They did nothing for her in a way she had never understood before. She wanted to rip all of her jewelry off, except, if she did so, it would mean she really was done, and she cared nothing about the honor of her House. She had to keep wearing it all, for the sake of House Tachen.

The princess reached for the door of the carriage, and stepped out. Even as she looked all across the expanse of fields, brilliant in the morning, Broken was nowhere to be found. Mai didn’t worry. Broken would be back to claim what was his soon enough.

In her head, Mai heard the words she knew Broken would say to her, after he revealed the truth about himself. ‘You didn’t really think I was your knight in shining armor, did you, Princess? You didn’t really think I wanted to help you? You did? Well, that’s a laugh. No, it really is, you just don’t get it!

Mai collapsed to her knees as fresh tears welled in her eyes, tears she now shed without hesitation. She kept hearing Broken’s voice. You’re crying now, Princess? Why would you do that? There’s nothing to be afraid of…well, there’s plenty to be afraid of, but what’s going to happen is still going to happen, like it or not. And you might like it, or at least some perverted part of you will.

“What’s wrong?”

Mai’s head flashed around as she saw Broken come around the side of the carriage, arms filled with what looked like another meal. She got to her feet almost immediately, eyes blazing with anger. “How dare you act like this!” she shouted. “How dare you make me believe, for a moment, that things might work out!” She wanted to hit him, wanted to hurt him, but she had at least some honor to maintain.

Broken set the food on the grass. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Don’t pretend any longer, lowborn! I know what you’re after!” Mai assumed that Broken would grab her, and tell her to quiet down, so that the people on the road wouldn’t hear her, or he would deny her words, and tell her that he had no idea what she was talking about. Either way, Mai knew what she would say next.

But Broken said neither. “What am I after?” he asked plainly.

“You know what you want from me,” said Mai, hesitating a little.

“If I do, then what could be the harm in saying it?” asked Broken.

Silence came from Mai. Her anger was too much for words, but as so, she didn’t know how to express it.

“You fear my intentions are not benign,” said Broken.

“Yes, monster,” said Mai. She found that her words no longer came out in a shout. However, they were edged better now, and stronger.

“So what do you have to gain by calling a bluff?” asked Broken.

“I want to get this over with.”

“Why?” said the man. “Don’t you enjoy life, at least a little? Come, sit down, and have breakfast.”

Broken sat, and Mai did as well, though she didn’t know why. They ate in utter silence.

“Can I do anything to make you think better of me?” asked Broken, when they were done.

“No.”

Broken packed up what was left of their meal. “Then let’s go. If we head far enough south, eventually there will be a town.”

Broken then gave some horse feed to Aruith, which had strangely enough not run off. Broken hitched the horse back up to the carriage.

As Mai watched, Broken sat in the driver’s seat of the carriage, and then beckoned for her to sit next to him. Knowing that Broken would just chase her down if she tried to run, Mai obliged. Broken took the reins, and, more gently than most drivers Mai had seen, urged Aruith to move up to the main road.

The horse slowly moved up the gentle hill until they reached the paved ground. Broken then urged Aruith in a direction that was presumably south, though how he knew that, Mai wasn’t sure.

As they traveled, the road was all but empty. A few travelers on horseback passed them in both directions, easily speeding past the slow carriage. Mai understood why. In times of chaos, she had been taught, most commoners hunkered down and the rest wanted to get where they were going as quickly as possible.

Hours passed in silence. There was a short stop for midday meal, and then they continued on. Mai had nothing to say.

The land they traveled on slowly became more and more hilly, almost mountainous. Fog came and went, and Mai soon lost track of the number of hills they had cleared. Trees grew around the road.

All Mai could do was wait. She wondered if the few travelers she had seen thought her and Broken an odd pair, or if they had even noticed her at all. As Mai realized she could not herself remember what the folk that had passed them had looked like, she decided that they all had been too wrapped up in their own troubles to care.

Another traveler passed them right then, riding a black horse, in stark contrast to Aruith’s white. Heading in the opposite direction, he seemed to slow down as he passed by the carriage, but afterwards, he sped up again. In turn, Broken gave the traveler a rather strange look.

Their carriage headed on through the hills, but Broken began to look more wary.

Good, Mai thought, though she didn’t know the reason for Broken’s behavior. Let him sweat a little.

A few minutes later, a man came out from behind a rock, planting himself firmly in the middle of the road before Broken could ride past him. Broken pulled Aruith to a halt.

“Welcome to this part of the Tachen Hills, traveler,” said the man in the road. His clothes were torn and shabby, but he seemed to be completely confident.

“Might I ask your name?” asked Broken.

“I am Devin,” said the man. He removed his cap, revealing a face of twenty and some years, and patted an oddly straight sword at his waist.

As if that was some sort of signal, men crept out of the woods from all around, encircling the carriage. There seemed to be about a dozen of them, and they all held weapons.

“I am a Thief-Lord,” said Devin, “and these are my crew. Hand over the lady’s jewels, and perhaps some other things and we’ll let you be on your way.”

Broken got down from his seat. “I don’t suppose you’d let me fight you in single combat?” he said to Devin, nonchalantly. He started to slowly draw his sword.

“No, I’m no fool to get a warrior’s sword anywhere near me,” said Devin. He gave a glance to one of his followers, who held a crossbow. “One more step forward, and you’ll be dead, and there’s no reason to be dead in a business transaction.”

The man holding the crossbow pointed it solidly at Broken. For a moment, it seemed to Mai as if Broken would rush Devin, and try to fight them all, regardless of the odds. But only for a moment.

Broken slammed his sword back into his sheath, and Devin and the crossbow man smiled. A laugh rolled up from the entire group of bandits.

“It seems you’ve called my bluff,” said Broken, quite calmly.

“We’ll be having the lady’s jewels, then?” asked Devin.

“If this is actually a robbery,” said Broken, “let’s do it properly.” As Mai craned her head to see, Broken opened the doors to the carriage. “As you can see, there’s nothing inside,” he said, as the bandits watched him carefully.

“All right then, let’s do this right,” said Devin. “Call the lady down from the carriage.”

Broken turned to Mai immediately. He gestured to her by crooking the fingers of his hand. Despite being called like a dog, Mai got up and came over.

Upon seeing how rude Broken was to his lady, Devin and his crew laughed again. “Arch, Brad,” called Devin. “You two check the wagon, top and bottom, see if there’s really nothing important inside.” As those two did as they were told, Devin turned to Broken. “You’re going to have to give me your sword now,” he said. “It looks valuable.”

“Of course,” said Broken, drawing his blade, and tossing it over to Devin, who just barely caught the sword by its hilt.

The thief looked rather surprised that Broken had turned over his weapon so easily. “Your dagger too,” he said, and that weapon Broken quickly withdrew and tossed to the ground.

As another member of the bandits took Broken’s weapons, Devin stepped closer.

“You’re not like any warrior I ever met before,” he said, sounding genuinely surprised, not sarcastic. “What are you doing with the lady?”

“I just follow my instincts,” said Broken. “I was in the Imperial City when the Emperor died, and fate led me to her.”

“So you’re not her protector,” said Devin. “You’re just some random guy who made his way into the Imperial Palace, stole some things, and made off with a lady.”

“You could say that,” said Broken. “Now it seems though, my good fortune has taken a turn for the worse.”

“That it has,” said Devin. He looked over at Arch and Brad, who had opened every single compartment on the carriage, and now seemed to be checking for hidden ones. “You found anything?”

“Nothing, boss,” said the bigger one. “Just some provisions, that’s all.”

“Well, close everything up, Arch,” said Devin. “We’ll soon be on our way. If only everyone was this cooperative.”

“You’ll be wanting the lady’s gold, then?” asked Broken.

“Yup,” said Devin. “Shame to take things from a fellow thief, but business is business. The gold will probably wind up at the same pawn shop, anyway.” He took out a bag. “Take it from her, and toss it all in here.”

Broken looked at Mai. “Take the gold off,” he said, in a voice deadly serious. He took the bag from Devin.

Mai slowly reached up and undid the catch on her necklace, thinking about how she had been so willing to give up all the gold in the morning, but now that she was called upon to do just that, it took effort. She tossed the necklace in the bag, pulled off her wristbands, and put them in as well.

It took Mai a long time to take off the earrings. A servant had always put them on for her, and she barely knew how to do it. After removing the two ankle bands, she found suddenly that she was done. She had no more gold, no more reminders of her former affluence. It was all in the bag that Broken held.

Broken gave the bag to Devin, who took it, and seemed to feel how heavy it was. “Wow,” he said. “Who is she, anyway, to have this much?”

“The Princess Maiako as Arathou del Tachen,” said Broken, without hesitating. “Daughter to our late Emperor.”

“I must say,” said Devin. “You got a catch.” At the carriage, Arch and Brad finally stepped away. “Well, we’ll be leaving you,” said Devin. “But I almost wish we could take her too.”

“For a night, you could,” said Broken.

“What?”

“It’s getting late, and I need a safe place to stay,” said Broken, “and what better place to stay than a den of thieves? We might even be able to work out a long term arrangement, as I doubt I’ll be able to return to my old duties as a warrior in the Occluded City.”

“So you were a guard,” said Devin. “And I like your thinking. Seeing as you’ve just provided us with our best catch ever, I don’t see a problem letting you stay the night. For more than that, you’ll just have to wait and see…People!” he called to his crew. “We’re having two guests tonight,” he said, and there were grunts all around of assent. “Anyway,” said Devin, “What’s your name?”

“Broken,” said Broken.

“So you’re a commoner who’s also a warrior,” remarked Devin. “I’ve heard of a few of those, and I mean a few. There were probably like, ten in the entire history of the Empire.”

“I proved my worth to many people,” said Broken. “I hope to prove my worth to you as well.”

“Broken’s a crap name,” said Devin. “Why would your mother name you that?”

“Maybe she didn’t like me.”

“Then why didn’t you change it?”

“Why bother?”