Inch by inch, making sure to be in Ameena’s peripheral vision, Ellis shifted closer. Butt scoot by butt scoot, he closed the distance between them, ready for her to explode at him any moment. He tried to formulate the conversation and where it needed to go in his head, but he had never seen her like this. So every played out conversation seemed like a fantasy.

  Once he was an arms reach away, he stopped scooting towards her. She didn’t glance at him, so he took one last butt scoot forward, just to make extra sure she knew he was there. That done, he grabbed the pack over his shoulder and put it on his lap. Fishing through the meager contents for a moment, he pulled out an apple, some dried bread and a flask half filled with wine. He had stuffed it in his bag at Leno Warde’s house. Now seemed like the best time to use it.

  He held out the flask and every conversation in his mind died as he remembered that dream. And the name the Ant Killer used as a point of authority. A new question formed on his lips, one he was sure would either get him exactly what he wanted… or get him killed.

  “You're related to the Archduke, aren’t you?” He asked, turning to look at her just as she reached for the wine flask.

  She froze mid reach, her eyes still misty as she looked at him. “What does that matter?”

  He shrugged. “Is that why we’re here? Some kind of…takeover? Win the throne, like in the fairy tales?”

  She snatched the wine out of his hands and took a long, deep sip, shaking her head all the while. “Gods, no. You really are a peasant, I keep forgetting,” she muttered under her breath, before continuing. “That’s not how the throne works. I would need support from a dozen factions, and every member of each faction is someone I would burn alive given half the chance.”

  Ellis nodded like he cared. “Fair enough. But I…” The memory of the Ant Killer flashed through his mind. “Overheard one of the patrols discussing what ‘Lord Fray’ would do. And… you have that name.”

  She took another swig, before tossing the flask back at him. “He’s my father. And yes, he’s why we’re here.”

  Ellis took a swig. “So you're… a princess?”

  She snorted as she stuffed her mouth with a piece of bread. “Do I look like a princess to you?”

  He shrugged, not one thought of being deferrant or bowing entering his head. “I guess the Archduke’s a bit evil, from the way you describe him?”

  She laughed mirthlessly. “That’s definitely an apt word for that thing. I think he ignored me, at first. But when he found out my natural mana was 10...” she shuddered, a disgusted look spreading across her face. “His attention turned to me. Not as his daughter, but as a thing to appease his particular… appetites.”

  She stole the flask back out of Ellis’s hands, and finished the entire thing. “He hurt me in ways you could not imagine. And worst of all, it took me years to get to this point, right here and now, and I can see it slipping through my fingers. All of that training, bribing, and killing… was for nothing.”

  Ellis turned to the city. “I know what that’s like.”

  She snorted. “I know those guards and the Ant Killer escaped us, Ellis. And I know you must have lost someone important, but you have no idea what it's like. You haven’t waited years to get your revenge.”

  All the strategies in his mind snapped in half. That old friend crawled up his throat.

  “Lost?” he said, shaking his head. “Is that what you call it? Lost!? My little sister was killed because someone stabbed her through her face, cradled in the love of my life's arms.”

  Ellis was on his feet now, Ameena scrambling onto hers as he tried to loom over her.

  “My mother, my friends, my fucking neighbours were all burned alive in a church, right under the gods noses and they didn’t lift a finger to help!” He grabbed Ameena by the shoulders, shaking her violently as his voice cracked. “I ‘lost’ everything. Everything! Do you know what that’s ‘like’?”

  She pushed him backwards, tears streaming down her face.

  “I know better than you boy! Far better! Did they visit you in the night!? Did they tell you this is love!? As they hurt you!? As they burned you!? You have no idea what pain is! You had something to lose! A childhood! Friends! A lover!” She swung her hand towards the city, wiping at her face. “This is everything to me! This is all I have! This!” She pulled out the wand, and shoved it in his face. “Nothing else! Nothing!”

  Ellis didn’t know what he was doing, her breathing ragged as she slowly sank to her knees in front of him, her crying growing more broken with every passing moment. Tears fell down his face as he clenched his teeth to keep his mouth shut.

  He couldn’t let it end here, not when his mind had started working again. Her crying made a pit in his stomach, filling his head with questions he didn’t want to think about.

  Maybe if that duke hadn’t hurt her, she would have left you alone? She wouldn’t have been in that bar that night, and maybe Michael would have just passed us by? And if he did, maybe, just maybe, he would have killed you along with the rest?

  Ellis almost laughed at the thought, remembering his speech to his people what felt so long ago. He had argued that life shouldn’t be based on an if, and he still agreed with that sentiment with every fibre of his being.

  And no amount of maybe’s would ever change what happened.

  He looked back down to Ameena, sobbing on her knees, her face cradled in her hands with the wand laying at her side, forgotten.

  Ellis crouched down in front of her, lifting his arms to wrap her in a hug. Her knife was under his throat before he could blink, her hard sobs turning to a hateful glare she aimed at him through the tears.

  He did not lower his arms, which were now half dangling around her. “I… I… I know you probably don’t like these… but I don’t know what to say, and I’m trying to help. I’m just trying to be nice, I don’t mean nothing by it.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she pushed the knife deeper into his throat, drawing a drop of blood, her teeth gritted in a snarl.

  The knife dropped into his lap as she threw her arms around him. She sobbed into his shoulder, half writhing, half trying to pull herself deeper into the embrace, as if it were her first. Ellis wrapped his arms around her in turn, not saying a word as her tears wet his shoulder.

  They stayed like that for a long time, Ellis making sure his hands stayed near her shoulders and that his head never leaned against hers. Her writhing stopped eventually, the fight leaving her as she sagged deeper into his arms, her sobbing now replaced with a quiet weeping. After a time, she spoke again, whispering into his ear, “I’m sorry.”

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  Ellis thought he heard a hint of guilt, a hint of admission for what she did. He suppressed the urge to stab her in the back. It was only in his head. It had to be.

  “I’m sorry, too. For all of it. You were just a child, you didn’t deserve that. I do—”

  “Ellis?” she whispered once again. “Stop talking.”

  “Right, sorry.”

  They sat together like that for a while, the nighttime air drifting softly around them as the seconds ticked by, before she put her hand on his chest and pushed him backward, making him fall onto his arse. She sat back down in her original spot, munching on the cheese as she smoothed out the creases in her pants, like nothing at all had happened.

  He would humour that part, at least. He sat down next to her, also in his original spot, and took the last sip of wine.

  She didn’t let the silence last long. “Can you help me convince Michael not to kill us?”

  Ellis dusted the dirt off his hands and took a bite of the bread. “I’ll try.”

  She nodded in thanks. “Any suggestions on how to get into that palace, then?”

  Their shoulders were only a handspan apart now.

  “Well… uh…. You don’t want to wait. Going through the gates is suicide, tunnels is a fifty fifty suicide until we get into the city, then it’s a definite suicide. Sooo… let’s go with probable suicide. The mountain.”

  Ameena huffed. “Ellis, for fucks sake, how many times—”

  “Wait wait, hear me out. Yes, going up the mountain would give them time to prepare since they’d see us coming, and those palace guards are probably very powerful so it’d be a hard fight. But look at the levels next to my name. Look at that mad dog you keep leashed,” Ellis pointed a thumb over his shoulder, the way Michale had walked. “I mean, sure, we will probably die. But right now? It’s our best shot at getting into the palace. And I know for a fact there is no other alternative other than waiting for a few years.”

  Ameena chewed her lip, her eyes sweeping across the hilltop. “The fortress would be impenetrable.”

  “Maybe. But ignore the maybe’s for now. Think about it, if those men are on top of the mountain, they have to have guard shifts. They can’t just live up there.”

  Ameena looked like she was smacked, as she finished the thought. “Which means they have a way into the palace, since I haven’t seen them use the front gate.”

  Ellis waved his hand at the city wall’s, lined with hundreds of men. “And I’d much prefer taking on twenty palace guards rather than two thousand regular ones.”

  She let loose a deep sigh, like she’d been holding it in. With a smile, she patted his shoulder. “We have a path forward. Gods, that’s why I kept you around. Thank you. We just have to convince, as you would put it, the ‘mad dog’.”

  Ellis shared her smile. “That should be easy if we just tell him what we’ll be facing.”

  They fell into a comfortable silence as they ate. Despite his casual munching on the stale bread, Ellis still felt a cold trickle of sweat running down his spine, the cool breeze making him shudder.

  But it wasn’t the cold seeping into his bones that had him afraid. No. He had to ask the question. It was now or never.

  But never in his life had words terrified him so much. What would she say? Would she accept?

  He shook his head. Since their second night on the road, he had been waiting for an opportunity like this. The moment felt right. The beautiful view in front of them, undimmed by the dark, had set the mood, and the embrace they shared had only amplified it.

  With his heart in his throat, he started speaking.

  “Ameena… I have something to ask of you, once this is all done.”

  His voice had changed, and she noted it in a heart beat. She scooted away, eyeing him with suspicion as she asked, “And what is that?”

  Swallowing the fear down, he sat up straight, turned to look at her, and asked the question that might have her stick that dagger through his throat.

  “Will you help me kill Michael?”

  The words hung between them, the confession of a lifetime. Her eyes narrowed to slits, her hand drifting towards the knife. The silence that stretched seemed like something he could touch. But his sharp ears picked up loud footsteps and a hum approaching them.

  “You’ve seen what he’s like! How strong he’s becoming!” Ellis stumbled over the words. “I can’t let that thing just exist! He is a monster!”

  Ameena didn’t answer, just continued to search his face with her eyes.

  Ellis almost begged, “Look what he’s done the last few weeks! Once he helps us with the Ant Killer and the Archduke, our revenge will be complete! We won’t need him anymore! Killing him is a just thing, Ameena. Tell me I’m wrong! Tell me that thing doesn’t need to die!”

  She visibly relaxed, the suspicion draining out of her shoulders as she turned away, the footsteps growing louder.

  “Ameena!” Ellis half shouted, grabbing her shoulder and making her look at him.

  “I agree! Alright!? But I don’t even know if it’s possible for us!”

  And that’s when Michael decided to break through the underbrush. “Ellis! Are you putting ideas in that woman’s head again!? I told you what the fuck was going to happen! And it’s going to happen!”

  Ellis started scrambling backwards as Michael stomped towards him. “I think you might even like this one better than charging straight through the gates!” he tried, his voice an octave higher than usual. “All we need to do is go up the mountain! That way you can even fight palace guards! We can see if you're really the strongest one in the city that way!”

  Michael grabbed Ellis’s foot and hauled him backward, before lifting him off the floor. “I know I’m the strongest! I don’t need to listen to your bullshit.”

  Ameena was on her feet as Michael towered over Ellis. His shirt ripped as Michael throttled him.

  Michael cocked back a wrist, but stopped the punch as Ameena grabbed his arm. “Then why go through some weak conscripts when you can fight real warriors!? Show off what you're really capable of!? Isn’t that better?”

  Michael swung Ellist around, his legs crashing into a nearby tree. A sharp pain throbbed up his shins as the big man complained, “For fucks sakes, you always do this when I’m away! You scheme and plan and fuck up everything! Just do as I say!”

  “We did! We killed all those patrols your way, did we not!? And now you can do something our way!” Ameena tried, looking to Ellis for support like he wasn’t being tossed around.

  “And the Ant Killer will be there too! I can get my revenge, and you can kill that fucker right then and there! It’s a win win!” Ellis tried, grabbing hold of Michael’s forearm for balance.

  Michael rolled his eyes, “He won’t be on top of the mountain you idio—”

  “But he will be in the palace! Which is what the top of the mountain leads to!” Ameena corrected for Ellis.

  Michael threw Ellis to the floor like an afterthought, and whirled on Ameena. “You said it was ‘impossible’! And now all of a sudden it’s your entire plan!? I swear to—”

  Throwing caution to the wind, Ameena smacked both hands against his cheeks and made him look directly into her tear filled eyes. “We can’t do it without you! You are the only reason it’s possible! But it’s going to be so hard! I can’t… I need you to help me kill the Archduke! And that’s the only way we can! Please help me!”

  Ellis crawled back onto his feet despite the pain. His hand hovered over his dagger as he watched the argument. Michael seemed shocked, the deep furrow of his eyebrows and the curl on his lips replaced by wide eyes.

  His lips pressed into a thin frown as he reached up and took a hold of her hands, his touch almost gentle.

  “Fine, fine... We do it your way.”

  “Thank you,” she said, wrenching her hands away from him.

  He put his hands on his hips, and gazed up at the black speck lit up by torches sitting right on top of the mountain. “So… what is the plan?”

  Ameena turned to Ellis, and stared right into his eyes. “Ellis made an excellent suggestion. I am in full support of it.”

  Ellis nodded in understanding, before they both turned to stare at the black speck, as she spoke to Michael’s side. “And this is how we’re going to get in.”