Ever since I thought I witnessed Asa watching Milena that night, I noticed the amount of attention he gave her. I noticed it most often during conversations. The Prince focused on all of us whenever we talked, but particularly so with Milena. The way his entire body down to his toes pointed in her direction whenever she just made a comment, and he’d continuously pry at her for more information.

That was another thing he did that I noticed; he picked at her a lot. Milena could be saying something to Will or me, or maybe not even talking at all, just picking at her nails, and Prince Asa would try and get under her skin in some way. Maybe I was focusing on the pair too much, but it seemed that also the Prince continuously managed to find small reasons to touch her, with either a hand on her shoulder or her back. Whenever I thought he was being overtly flirtatious I would look over at Will to see if he noticed anything, but of course, he never did. And Milena, well I rarely could decipher exactly what she was feeling, but she never let on that she noticed it—or if she did notice, that she actually cared. This behavior continued throughout the two days it took us to reach Hastwell.

The bustling port city of Hastwell changed all our temperaments. I’d never been there, and I’d bet that neither Milena nor Will had either, but I’d heard about it. It was as lively, colorful, and crowded as people described it. Only about ten miles wide, the city was home to a plethora of different vendor carts and shops. Foods, clothing, jewelry, and anything else from both the inner and the outer cities were sold there. With so many merchants, there was only room for about ten houses, and a few shopkeepers lived in their stores.

The three of us became swept up in the hubbub of the city right away. The Prince tried to rein us in to give us a list of items we needed to pick up before our departure in the morning, but between Will’s wide eyes trying to take in everything and Milena commenting on everything that came into her line of sight, he quickly gave up.

We dispersed around the main square. I was happy that Milena chose to hang around me as opposed to the Prince. We went into a few shops where she talked me out of buying almost everything I picked up. She finally found a real interest outside of a store selling jewelry made from animal bones.

My interest in animal bones was little to none so I picked through a basket of miniature glass bottles, each with something different inside.

I looked over to show Milena a bottle with a single bone inside, only to see Asa showing her something else across the square. His had his hand placed at the small of her back as he pointed out things with his other hand.

“Enjoying the city, Elody?” Prince Asa asked me.

I nodded. “It's not something I’ve ever experienced before.”

“Hastwell has its own culture, that’s for sure.”

“You’re not very marveled by it,” I said. “I take it you’ve been here before.”

“A few times. As interesting as it always is, the truth is it’s a novelty city.”

“A novelty city? I’ve heard Hastwell is incredibly important to trading between cities. And almost anything or any piece of information can be found here.”

The Prince chuckled. “Then you’ve been talking to someone loyal to the Artieran crown. Naturally the Artierans believe Hastwell is a pride and joy after the Vineyard, a real pinnacle to the trade system.”

I bit my tongue to keep myself from coming on too defensive of the Artierans. Naturally I would be. After taking a half second, I asked, “And you disagree?”

“Of course. There are plenty other cities with higher revenue or more important trade resources. Hastwell is just something to come and see,” the Prince replied. “Makes for a nice family outing.”

I didn’t know if I believed him. I’d always been raised on the idea that Hastwell was a staple in the trade system, but as he’d mentioned, I’d been taught that by the Artierans themselves. But his judgement could be just as skewed as mine. After All, the Vepors and the Artierans were not two families to speak highly of the other.

The Prince moved over to another vendor to make a purchase, leaving Milena and I again.

“What do you think?” I asked her, though I doubted she’d really been listening.

“Artierans are wrong,” she replied without even a pause.

I was taken aback by her response. “Excuse me? Why do you think that? Just because he’s a prince?”

Milena laughed. “Of course not. But what he said is right. This place is a trip destination, a novelty. Even as a port, they’re not crucial to the trade system. Maybe Ketron’s, but not the main land. Take the city Elgin for example. Their rum is exported to almost every other city across the land. Now they’re a staple in the trade system.”

“I’ve never heard of Elgin’s rum.”

Milena looked at me with a bewildered expression, but in the same moment it was gone. “Figures. You don’t strike me as much of a drinker.”

“Neither do you,” I said.

I’d expected Milena to deliver a snide remark, but her eyes drifted past me. I looked over my shoulder to see what she was looking at—half expecting it to be the Prince—and my eyes landed on a man leading two brown mares through the square. He’d either used them to transport his goods here or planned to sell them, but either way, I didn’t outright see what caught Milena’s interest so much she hadn’t responded to me. Before I had a chance to ask her, she was already walking past me, not in the direction of the horses, however. In Prince Asa’s direction.

I followed her only because I was curious about her mental connection between horses and the Vepor Prince.

Milena walked right up to the Prince, so that as he turned around from finishing his transaction, he almost collided with her.

“I have a request for our return from Ketron Island,” she said.

“What?”

“While I appreciate you providing a wagon for us to ride in on our trek here, I'd prefer if when we came back, you had horses waiting for us ride to Kalbar.”

“Horses?” Prince Ass repeated.

Milena nodded and looked at me. “You know how to ride a horse right, Elody?”

I nodded. Horseback riding was very common in the Vineyard, in fact more than in any other place in the other kingdoms. In other kingdoms it was more common to see the royal families or some nobles riding, but the Artierans promoted horseback riding for all citizens, openly funding any sort of horse acreages.

It looked like a smile tried to work its way onto Asa’s lips, but he kept it at bay. “We'll see.” He shielded his eyes as he looked around the square. “I need to get a few more things.”

“No one is stopping you,” Milena said, earning her an eye roll from the prince before he strolled into the thicket of vendors.

I raised an eyebrow as I looked at Milena. “He's not going to have horses.”

“We’ll see, won't we?”

Milena and I continued to walk around the marketplace, coming across Will a little later in the afternoon. As soon as Milena saw him, she clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. Will had been hoodwinked into buying a golden lizard, but even myself looking at it, I could tell it was a fake. Personally, I wouldn’t have said anything, but Milena was quick to berate him on his ‘idiocy’.

Not that we had tried to help, Prince Asa took care of all the preparations for us for tomorrow and even for the night. When we found him a few hours later, he’d already found a quaint inn near the water’s edge for us to stay in. For someone supposedly so conniving, the Vepor Prince knew how to care for his company. But then again, he was a prince.

In the hours the three of us had spent perusing the market, I’d honestly started to forget about the interactions between Milena and the Prince. He reminded very quickly after walking into the inn.

As the Prince was showing us our rooms—one for Milena and me, one for Will, one for Clarence, and one for himself, all spread out along the same hall—he demonstrated another odd behavior. Milena and my room were the last in the hallway, which meant by the time we got to it, it was just the two of us and the Vepor Prince. As I was pushing the door open to go inside, I suddenly felt Milena not right behind me, and looked over my shoulder to see if she was following.

The Vepor Prince had pulled her aside to other side of the hall and was speaking in a hushed tone to her, his lips inches from her ear. I shouldn't have tried to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help it. Not that I could hear anything. I only managed to see the Prince slightly motion down the hall toward where his own room might be, and then Milena nod. As their private conversation ended, I quickly turned away, acting like I was still enthralled in the new room.

Milena walked past me into the room, now looking around at our stay for the night.

My mind raced a mile a minute. What had he said to her? Whatever it had been hadn’t been enough to throw her off. But then again, this was Milena. Someone could probably tell her they’d killed her parents and she wouldn't react. From the way Prince Asa had been acting the entire trip, plus the circumstance under which he’d met Milena, I had a pretty good idea what he’d asked her. I’d have bet money on that theory. The real question was would Milena go for it.

She was a prostitute. I shook that thought out of my head as my eyesight became less blurry and I focused more on her. She may have been a prostitute, but she was also one of the most stubborn, hard-hearted individuals I’d ever met. Surely, she wouldn't even consider a crude request like that.

As we got acquainted with the room, I did my best to wait patiently, but Milena didn't say a word about her conversation with the Prince. When dinner time rolled around, I considered asking Will if he knew anything or if he thought he could pull some information out of her, but I knew that would more than likely be a pointless effort.

The Prince didn’t join us for dinner, and naturally, Milena couldn’t have cared less about trying to invite him.

When Milena and I turned to our room and got ready for bed, I still hadn’t forgotten what I’d seen between her and the Vepor Prince. She hadn’t said a word about it during dinner or even when it was just the two of us walking back to the room.

I was driving myself crazy waiting for Milena to bring it up. She never did, however. We even turned the lights off to go to bed, and she still hadn’t even mentioned the Prince in the slightest.

I waited almost an hour and half, frozen stiff with controlled breathing, before I heard Milena finally slide out from under her covers. I heard her tip toe across the room, and just as she was turning the doorknob, I sat up. “Milena, where are you going?”

“I'm just going to check on some things.”

I crossed my arms. “Do these things have to do with Prince Asa?”

Even in the darkness I knew she was smiling. “I'm just going to check on some things, I'll be back.” She slipped out the door.