This was her second time in a cell.

The first time was during her first year in Officer Training. The trainers had dragged all the new initiates to the dungeons in the middle of the night and left them there for two days without food. Three stone walls and bars of steel; at the end of the second day, a guard chucked a hunting knife in each of their cells and they were instructed to get themselves out. Leyla grimaced as she remembered slicing her hand while attempting to saw the bars. Naturally, it was a pure waste of time. After trying a dozen or so other methods, she had eventually created a ruckus to attract a guard, used her belt to pull him in tight, then pressed her knife to his neck. He had given her the cell keys in short order.

Leyla sighed, leaning against the only wall of her prison as she observed. The Greenlander cell was a lot smaller than the one in the Warrior Kingdom, it was also not half as dark. The long room, located within in hut on the outskirts of King's Town, had six cells in total with long bars between each. There were three other detainees in the ones on either side of her, but they kept to themselves.

All was quiet.

Letting herself slide to the floor, she hugged her legs. How long had she been in this place? Were Finn and Alec looking for her? And were they ever going to feed her? Her stomach growled in hunger.

The minutes ticked by, marked by the intermittent laughter of the Greenlander guards in the next room. There were four of them, she remembered from when they walked her through the small building. They wore swords, no bows and arrows, and judging by their movements they were as poorly trained as Light guards. It would be easy to break out of here. But then what? She would become a wanted criminal in the Greenlands and lose her chance to find her father. By Tevvuk's beard this was frustrating.

Her stomach growled again and she thought about the orphans. Had they gone to old Sosostris like she told them to? Leyla hoped so, she hated the thought of them being hungry.

"Food!" A tall guard came in, holding a tray with four bowls. He handed the first three to the other prisoners, then came to unlock her cell door. She stood back, waiting for him to place it on the floor and leave. But he didn't leave. He just stood for a moment, watching her. Black hair, light brown eyes and a shaggy beard that grew over pimples the size of thumbnails; he was an unattractive fellow with a cruel glint in his eye.

"You're too pretty to be a criminal." His spat as he talked and some of it landed in her bowl.

The idiot was asking for trouble. "I am not a criminal."

He took another step forward. "So you didn't steal that necklace like the shopkeeper says?"

"I did not." She watched his approach, stepping her right leg back and adjusting her body weight. If he tried anything, she was going to have to knock him out.

"Why don't I search you? If you don't have it on you, we can work something out."

Leyla held her hand up in warning. "Don't come closer, I don't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me?" The guard laughed heartily, then opened his arms out wide. "I am much bigger than you and I have a sword. How are you thinking of hurting me?"

Leyla frowned at the man's foolishness. "I'm warning you, Greenlander. Leave. Now."

The man laughed harder and Leyla noticed the woman in the cell to her left giving her a pitying look. Her dark brown hair was tied back to reveal bruises along her jaw and neck. Her eyes filled with fear, she turned her back and covered her ears. Leyla's temper flared. The guard obviously enjoyed playing with his charges. Well then, she would teach him a new game...

"Come now, we can have a nice time, you and I..." The guards' eyes narrowed, giving away his intention just before he lunged. Leyla side stepped his attack, then shoved him in the direction he was headed. Off balance and moving at great speed, the guard hit his head on the back wall of the cell and fell to the ground.

"You BITCH!" he cried out as he swayed back up to his feet. "I'm going to make sure you scream in pain!" He tried to hit her face. She blocked his punches easily, letting him exhaust himself with one swing after another. Greenlander guards were weaker than she had imagined, or perhaps it was just this idiot.

Having led him round towards the back wall once more, she let him take two more swings, then jabbed at the pressure points on his neck. He fell down like a log.

"Idiot," she muttered into the silent room. Grabbing the cell keys from his waist, she walked out and locked the door.

"Free us too!" the two men in the right cell called, their voices laced with excitement. The woman in the left cell said nothing. Her expression was blank as she regarded the fallen guard. Then she gave Leyla an imperceptible nod and turned away.

For a moment Leyla wondered what the woman was charged with, she just couldn't picture her as a criminal. But that was neither here nor there. Straightening the red skirts of her dress, she sat down across from from her cell and proceeded to wait.

"What are you doing? Free us!" The men insisted angrily, shaking their cell bars.

"There are four soldiers in that room out there and as stupid as they are, they have swords. They also keep the outside door locked, which means you will need their keys and the time to find the right one if you want to escape." Leyla glared at the prisoners, then stretched out her feet in front of her and readjusted her dress. "Without me, you don't have a chance against them, and I am not going anywhere."

One of the men kicked the cell bars and spat in her direction. Then silence fell once more, and Leyla leaned her head back against the wall, her mind wondering.

Some time later, a ruckus in the other room snapped her out of a semi-sleep.

"Stop! You can't go in there! Just wait and we will bring the prisoner to you!"

"Move!" Alec's voice reached her just before he appeared with two Green guards following him in panic. Their expressions when they noticed her sitting outside her cell were so comical she almost laughed. Almost.

The dangerous look on Alec's face wouldn't allow for humour.

"Are you alright?" He asked with suppressed fury as she got up from the floor.

Leyla nodded, then threw the heavy keys to the guards who were gaping at their unmoving friend inside the cell . "He isn't dead, although deserves to be."

"What the hell did you do?" One of them turned on her, fingers balled into a fist.

"Lift that hand and I will cut it off." Alec growled.

The men both took a step back, cowering under the Warrior's stare. Then Alec turned his attention back to her. "Do you know who stole the bloody necklace?"

So, he knew the whole story. Of course he did, otherwise he wouldn't have found her here.

"No. But I wouldn't be surprised if the shopkeeper did it himself. He is a liar and a coward."

Alec nodded. "Who else was near the shop when the theft happened?"

Leyla described the spectators on the street. A woman with a large mole over her lip, a man with an orange moustache that curled down, two young men who had ink stains on their hands...By the time she finished describing them all, the guards had carried their unconscious friend through to the other room.

"That's good enough," Alec said. Then he stepped closer and switched to Warrior tongue: "We are in a foreign land, one that you have never been to before. Why did you leave on your own?"

She didn't say anything, but the memory of last nights conversation was clear in her mind. "It was early. I didn't want to bother you."

Alec raised a brow, then reached forward to cup her cheek. She pulled away.

"You were mad. At me?" He asked, surprised. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head, it wouldn't take him long to figure out how ridiculous she had been.

"No. Yes, I was mad, but not at you. At myself." She raised her hand to her throat, her fingers touching the Prorex's necklace. What would Raphael think if he knew his Consort was in Greenlander jail? Michael certainly wouldn't be impressed. Where was he anyway? She needed him to kick her back into gear with his wry humour.

"Why?"

Leyla looked at Alec in surprise. He never pried into things that were personal. "It's not important."

"It is." Alec shifted his weight, casting a quick glance over his shoulder to the door the guards had taken. "I promised not to ask you questions, and I have not. I don't expect you to tell me what happened at the Land of Light, or how you got engaged to that bloody Prorex or even what you are looking for in the Greenlands. I'm not asking you those questions, but this you can tell me. Tell me why you were angry. Tell me why you left without a word. Tell me the truth."

He wasn't pleading, he was demanding, but the expression in his eyes was vulnerable. Had she ever seen Alec look vulnerable?

By Tevvuk's beard, this had gone on too long. She was not someone who hid from the truth. She was no coward.

"Yesterday, when we were out in the town, you were being kind, and I...imagined your attentions to mean something they didn't. This morning, I was embarrassed at my stupidity and avoided you intentionally." Leyla looked at her hands, not wanting to see his reaction. Would he laugh at her? Or worse, would he pity her? Think of her as yet another girl who was in love with him?

Although she wasn't in love with him! She definitely wasn't. She was just...something...

"Leyla." Alec lifted her chin until she was looking up at him. His expression was warm and a smile lurked at the corner of his mouth. "You don't understand men at all, do you?"

She blinked. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Probably because it's true." He was grinning now. "How could you still not know how I feel?"

Know how he felt? How was she supposed to know that?

"General Alec?" A Greenland soldier came back through, cutting her question short.

His smile replaced by a neutral countenance, Alec ignored the man behind him, but switched back to Greenlandic. "I will go find the real thief. In the mean time, if anyone so much as raises their voice at you, feel free to break their necks. Or don't bother, and I will do it for you." He then turned to the pale guard and raised his brow. "Lead the way out."

The male prisoners laughed at the comical way the guard tripped over himself out the door. Leyla walked back into her empty cell and sat down to wait.

"Your man seems decent." The woman in the neighbouring cell spoke softly. "There aren't many decent men in this world. You should hold on to him."

"He's not my-" Leyla stopped herself short, remembering Old Sosostris had gotten the same misguided impression. "Why do you think he is my man?"

The woman smiled a sad little smile. "It's in the eyes. When he looks at you, there is no doubt that he is looking at his woman."

His woman? Leyla scoffed at the ludicrous thought. There was no way General Alec of the House of Steel, apple of the King's eye and fiancé of the Warrior Princess thought of her as his woman.