Vel hardly got the moment to utter a word as an armed escort took her, Sigurd, Aden, and Amalia towards a stable near the docks. Captain Enno, so he introduced himself as, went on, “High Queen Imara will be interested in your claim. Understand that, while we might respectfully refer to you as ‘majesty’ or ‘highness’, it is only in the due case that you truly are who you say you are.”

  “So you don’t━”

  “You will be appraised by a courtier at the palace. Time is of the essence, and we here in Ymril do not like to take risks. However, should you be lying, expect to serve time.”

  “In the army?” Vel asked, blinking.

  “In jail,” Sigurd said in unison with the knight, pausing to look at the captain before he helped Vel up on a mount behind the captain. Notably, none of them were permitted to ride alone, so when Sigurd mounted behind a lighter weight man, it was somewhat of a comical sight. For Vel, however, holding the waist of a man she didn’t know felt . . . awkward, to say the least.

  “Why the high queen and not the queen herself?” Sigurd asked.

  “There’s a difference?” Vel added.

  “The high queen is no longer the ruling authority, and acts as advisor to her majesty. She is the prior queen,” the captain answered for Vel, and all but ignored Sigurd. Great.

  He spurred the large black stallion forward, Vel yelping at the sheer size and speed of the mount. Compared to the horses they rode on in Alnonor, this thing was a monster, enough that Vel was forced to tighten her grip on the captain, particularly since he didn’t seem to be slowing down. They galloped. Oh, how they galloped through the bustling streets of Ymril’s southern port city. And miraculously, no one was run over. Perhaps that had something to do with the knight riding ahead of them, cracking a whip on repeat, the sound booming throughout the street. Really, how did he do that?

  The ride out of the city was seamless, the streets cleared away for them. Once they were out, the knight ahead of them put his whip away, but still headed up the group of twelve knights. Twelve. Did Edard have this many when he requested asylum?

  “Why did you call me ‘majesty’?” Vel asked, raising her voice about the sound of pounding hooves and bristling wind.

  “Because if you are the [sacrifice], then you are a princess of Ymril,” the knight answered stoically.

  “Do you believe I’m a reincarnation of her, then?” Vel asked.

  “I know so,” the knight answered.

  For a long moment, Vel considered that. Edard had told her that he thought she was a reincarnation, and Sigurd suggested that her hair color might have come from her prior life, but . . . having a complete and utter stranger seemed to really make it sink in. She wasn’t just a sacrifice to some sick gods, nor a warrior meant to kill those gods, but an actual princess.

  She recalled when Edard had named her, “You don’t have a name? Well . . . how about Velmira?” He had taken a strand of her lavender hair in a hand, running down the length of it before meeting her eyes with his grey orbs, “Because you look like a princess.”

  Had he known then? she wondered, curling the fabric of the captain’s coat in her fists. How long had he known for? Perhaps, he hadn’t thought it true as he had their last night together. In contrast, he looked like he knew their last night; knew that she was a reincarnation of the same girl. She closed her eyes, her behind hurting with each stride of the stallion beneath her, a good distraction from her questions, ones that made a part of her mad at him for not simply whisking her away. However, she was still, in large part, mad at herself for not letting him.

  I’ll make it up to him, I swear, she thought.

  A roar shattered through the wind, Vel jerking and looking towards the sound in front of them. The captain pulled to a stop as she peered around his shoulder, leaning to see the three goblins atop . . . cats? They were massive with yellow and black stripes, and far more intimidating than the little green beings that rode atop them.

  The goblins rushed atop their cats, each bearing a spear and wearing white and blue robes. Church robes.

  “Carnal dogs,” the captain hissed, as if the words he spoke were some sort of curse. “Bowmen!” he shouted, not really having to order it before arrows were loosed towards the goblins. One arrow knocked a goblin from his mount on the right, and another hit the left tiger, but the tiger did nothing more than yowl.

  “Stand and fight!” Enno ordered. He pulled on the reins, turning their stallion around. He drew the sword at his hip, despite moving himself and Vel to the back of the twelve-men squadron. Once they reached the back, they turned back around, just in time to see the three tigers clash in a head on collision with the first three knights.

  Vel gasped as the knight with the whip was knocked from his horse entirely, the mount going down with a distressed cry. The thrown knight didn’t get back up when he landed. The tiger turned on another mounted soldier, but the goblin on top of him slid from its back, landing with his spear sliding deep into the knight’s gut.

  Aden let out a guttural cry, the knight he rode with holding him in place. “Let me go! I have to heal him! Get off!”

  “We can’t just let them die,” Vel said, and as she moved to slide off the horse, the captain snatched her wrist.

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  “Trust my men, your majesty,” he said, then nodded his head to the man beside them. This knight, unlike the others, wore a deep magenta uniform. His eyes were aglow, his lips moving. Purple light danced from his hands, spiraling around his form, then moved towards the tigers. It ran over their faces, two of them mid jump towards the next set of knights, who pulled their horses back, or rather, had no choice as the mounts were briefly spooked.

  The tigers dropped to the ground, as if dead.

  “What was that?” Vel asked.

  “A sleeping spell. Now we can deal with the goblins,” the captain said, the bowmen easily taking them down. “We keep going.” He spurred the horse forward, Vel’s eyes glued to the knight, dead in a puddle of his own blood. She turned her head towards Aden, who was now held like a child in front of the knight escorting him.

  “Why! Why didn’t you let me! I could have━!” Aden gasped, wide eyed.

  Vel clenched her jaw, watching Aden as he clutched the knight’s suit. He trembled, then shook his head, closing his eyes. It was hard, seeing him so . . . different, and her heart ached, aching at the loss of life, and aching for Aden’s inability to do anything about it. Or rather, being prevented from doing anything about it.

  We’re their charges, she realized, looking around at the other knights. Their sole purpose was to get them to the capital alive, even if that meant giving their own lives for people that they didn’t even know. Even Enno had said she would need to be appraised, or something, and yet . . . But they do know, she thought.

  Just earlier, they’d been sworn at, called slurs, and now the same kind of people were protecting them, much in a way she’d seen before. Vel took a deep breath, realizing what was happening before her. All over again, she was sacred. But this time, differently. Her life was valued.

  “There will be more,” Vel said, looking towards the trees that were on either side of the road. “Many more,” she whispered.

  “I will stake my life on getting you to the high queen, majesty,” Enno assured.

  “I know,” Velmira said. And I’m afraid of that.

  She watched as trees went by, one after the other, each somehow more frightening than the last. Something could be hiding, waiting to jump out at them, and then more lives could be lost. Aden would panic more, and she would feel more guilty, more . . .

  “Velmira,” Sigurd called from the other side of her. She turned her head, looking at him. “It’s going to be okay.”

  She nodded, though she didn’t entirely believe it, not when she saw the giant cat that soared straight over his head and landed on the neck of the stallion beneath her. The horse dropped, Vel gasping for her lost air as she hit the ground beside it. The captain was much quicker to rise to his feet, stabbing at the beast’s shoulder.

  It howled, then effortlessly batted him away with a paw before facing Vel with large green eyes.

  [Skill gained: Tiger Taming]

  [0.5 Magic added]

  Vel scrambled to her feet, leaping away as she pushed against the ground with [rock throw]. It wasn’t enough, no, the beast was soaring closer with each beat of her racing her, as if threatening that one of these would be her last.

  [Spry Jump Level 2]

  [Feather Foot level 8]

  [Rock Throw level 42]

  Its maw was wide open, its claw outstretched. Vel threw her hands up, her arms moving slow in comparison. There was nothing she could do to outrun this thing!

  She felt the tip of its sharp metal claws on her arm, though she didn’t register the pain, not until the beast suddenly jerked to the left and she landed on the ground.

  [Tough Hide level 61]

  [Iridescent Hide level 3]

  In its place was a speckled stallion, eyes fiercely defiant as the knight atop it pierced his sword straight into the cat’s gut. The creature yowled and twitched before going limp.

  “Vel!” Sigurd called. While he rushed towards her, Vel pushed herself up with a shaky hand. She might have faced a blood spider easily four times the size of a tiger, and yet, it wasn’t quite so terrifying. No, this thing targeted her more than it did defend its territory. It was being controlled, by . . .

  [Sever link], she thought, considering if it would work for these things. Was [tiger taming] different from [kin control]. It sounded different, like “taming” meant it still had a choice, but it was magic regardless, so was there a link?

  “Are you okay?” Sigurd asked, helping her up to her feet.

  “Yeah,” she nodded, staring at the dead tiger. Had it not been trying to kill her, she might have thought it cute. “And I think I have a way to stop the tigers from outright targeting us,” she said, looking up at Sigurd.

  “Let’s keep going,” Enno said, and Vel turned to look at him, Aden freed to heal somebody, it seemed. The teenager turned to Vel next. He snatched her arm, mending the scratch on it with hyper-focused eyes.

  “How long until we reach the capital?” Amalia asked.

  “If we ride hard all day, we can get there by tonight,” Enno replied.

  “We’ve hardly gone an hour, Captain,” the short knight Vel met with earlier said.

  “I think I can sever the link between these tigers and their masters,” Vel said. “Please, let’s just keep going.”

  “I’m just saying, we should consider some plans on how to deal with them if yours doesn’t work, majesty,” the knight said.

  “My lieutenant is right,” Enno said. “Majesty, please ride with our spellcaster, Voran. Voran, have sleep spells pre-prepared for the tigers.”

  “Yes sir,” the knight in magenta nodded, and offered Vel a hand up. She obliged, and as soon as the others were mounted, they continued onward.

  “Spearmen on the outside of our formation, her majesty in the center,” Captain Enno ordered, the group moving only slightly, given that their prior formation was very similar.

  They pushed forward, and just as they did, two tigers emerged from the trees, one on either side of the group. Vel activated [sever link]. A thin strand linked the tiger to something deep into the woods, the strand a lot thinner and harder to see than it was for the spiders. Vel snapped it, and when it recoiled and vanished, the tiger paused, almost as if it were confused.

  [Sever Link level 14]

  After a short moment, another silver strand stretched out, just as the tiger looked as if it were going to retreat back into the woods. As it relinked to the beast, it barreled after them again, but with quite a bit more distance to cover.

  That was when tendrils from Voran’s spell reached the tiger and the animal collapsed. She turned her head, the other tiger already far behind on the ground.

  “I can stall them, but I can’t keep them from coming after us,” Vel said.

  “That’s better than nothing,” Voran replied, briefly glancing back at her. “That can give me time to cast [sleep].”

  Vel nodded.

  [Skill gained: Radial Search]

  [0.5 Magic added]

  Her grip around Voran’s waist tightened. Someone was looking for her, and while she knew she was protected, the entire group around them wasn’t.

  “More are coming.”