Bal finally urged his disobedient horse to a gallop and caught up with the princess. He nudged his horse close to hers and coughed to get her attention. She staunchly refused to look at him and kept her attention pinned to the wasteland ahead of her.

“Miss, if you would permit a humble demon to share his opinion, I do believe we should talk about this plan of yours.”

She turned her head slightly, not looking at Bal, but he knew she was listening.

“It’s stupid. Very stupid. In fact, I struggle to call it a plan at all.”

She said nothing but urged her horse to move a little faster to pull ahead of Bal’s. Cas brought his horse between Ell and Bal, glaring at Bal. So dramatic this one was. Cas needed to lighten up a bit or else he could pull a muscle in his face from all that frowning.

Bal needed her to listen to what he had to say, and it seemed his little supplicant act wasn’t proving fruitful. It was time to change tactics.

“Listen, Ell, I’m just going to be frank with you. I know a little something about running and hiding. In fact, I’d say I know an awful more about it than you or your hound dog here.”

Cas bared his teeth at Bal, upset at Bal’s tone. Hound dog indeed.

“So, I believe it would be wise if you listened to my expert opinion in this matter. This whole wondering around the wastes thing? Pointless. You may be lost, but those who are trying to kill you sure aren’t. They just have to follow our tracks, which no one has even bothered to conceal by the way.”

They would be tracked down in these wastes eventually and their corpses thrown in unmarked graves. If they even gave them that courtesy. Mr. Skull Crusher didn’t seem like the type to bother with final rites. Besides, there wasn’t many opportunities to cause a little wanton destruction out in the wastes. The wastes were dusty planes that stretched out into the horizon, no end in sight. The only people out here were either lost or stupid. Or perhaps in this group’s case, both. Bal needed to nudge them back towards civilisation, else the only evil he could do would be tormenting these two.

They must have seen the truth in Bal’s words, but Ell stuck to being petulant and ignored him.

“Why are the assassins after you anyway, Miss? I get that you are a little princess and all, a tempting target for various reasons, but you said your siblings sent them after you? What, were they envious that you got a bigger cake for your birthday? Oh, maybe you were daddy’s favourite? I can’t imagine you being anyone’s favourite though.”

Ell still ignored him, but he could hear her seething. That was reassuring. This whole business would be terribly boring if he couldn’t torment his summoner at least. Cas, however, would not sit quietly as his mistress was insulted. Just as Bal knew he wouldn’t.

“Enough! How dare you speak to her highness like that! You shall speak to her in the way befitting a princess of Yem!”

Well that dragged Cas into the conversation nicely.

“Okay, loyal protector of the finest princess in all of Yem, why are her siblings trying to make sure she meets an unfortunate accident?”

Cas looked to Ell for permission, but she just shrugged. Taking it as permission, Cas continued.

“His majesty, the great emperor of Yem, is regretfully terminally ill. Contrary to his predecessors, he has not yet chosen an heir, and we believe he does not mean to do so. That means people have begun to gather around the prince or princess they believe should be the next emperor. The emperor prevents civil war for now, but a succession war is inevitable it seems.”

Pieces of the puzzle started linking together in Bal’s head and he thought he had a good idea of what it’s final form would look like look like.

“So, they tried to pick off Ell here discreetly, I’m guessing.”

A solemn nod was all he received in response from Cas. The muscle head looked worried. Perhaps it was him that Bal should be working on to coax them back to civilisation. He would agree with Bal if he believed that Ell would be safe.

Bal also noted the lack of any other guards apart from Cas accompanying the princess. The lack of support probably meant that she was the runt of the litter. Not surprising they tried to pick off the weakest first. In fact, Bal was surprised they hadn’t managed to off her yet. She wasn’t exactly survivor material. She must have lasted this long through sheer dumb luck and Cas’s loyal help. Why was Cas so loyal to the runt anyway? It was creeping Bal out.

Well, her being the weakest was a bit of good news. It meant that while they would still try to kill her, they wouldn’t try too hard. Given how easy those assassins went down in the saloon, they evidently hadn’t poured much money into this venture. They also seemed to want to avoid being connected to her death in anyway, which would probably explain why those assassins avoided each other rather awkwardly in the saloon. Having the murder of one of their siblings pinned on them could tip the balance of power away from them.

“So, what’s the goal then, princess? Just run away from assassins the rest of your life? I didn’t peg you to be that stupid.”

He most certainly did think she was that stupid but telling her that probably wouldn’t help convince her.

“Don’t you want to fight back? Stop flailing around the wastes lost and head back to your home. Take what is rightfully yours!”

A bloody civil war sounded absolutely delightful to Bal. So much destruction. So much chaos. Brothers killing brothers, sons killing fathers. War was wonderful, and it being a civil one was just the icing on the cake. They were always the most miserable wars, his mother had always said, because the opposing sides had to live with each other afterwards. If only he could convince Ell to take him there. Maybe he should be nicer to her.

A grumble of ‘Bastard’ was the only response from the princess, but the idea was planted. Now he just needed to water it somehow. She needed to be confident enough to return, and the first step was to get rid of the assassins on their tail. After that, well, Bal was never one for long term schemes. He would find something to send her charging back to her home.

A small collection of buildings came into existence on the horizon. Probably another mine. They had passed one like it the other day. These humans set them up everywhere on the frontier, hunting for their precious mithril. They would tear each other apart with pickaxes if they heard a rumour that mithril grew inside someone. The mine didn’t look like much from here, but perhaps it would do for Bal’s scheme.

“Listen friends, I think we should head to that mine over there.”

“And why should we listen to you demon? You probably want the assassins to find us!”

While that certainly did seem entertaining, he had high hopes for these fools now that he was stuck with them. Getting them killed wouldn’t be beneficial.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that friend, there has been someone following us for a while now.”

Bal turned and pointed out a distance figure to Cas.

“Why didn’t you tell us we were being followed! You are truly despicable, demon!”

Bal grinned at the compliment.

“You didn’t ask.”

A round of colourful swears flowed out of Ell’s mouth. She had an impressive vocabulary; she spat words even Bal thought were terribly offensive. Which was strange, given that he was probably a manifestation of evil and all that.

Bal had spotted the figure following behind them a couple of days ago. The assassins seemed content to patiently follow them and made no moves, so Bal made no moves either. If he told Cas, he would likely charge out nobly to challenge the assassin and heroically get his head chopped off. No, what Bal needed was a good opportunity to ambush the assassin. Maybe it would give his little princess a good confidence boost to see that they could be killed.

Bal chuckled to himself as he made his horse gallop towards the mining village, the others following behind. Giving confidence boosts to Princesses. What was his life coming to?