It seemed that a good night's sleep was all my mind needed to sort itself out. All the nuggets of conversation that I'd been unable to puzzle out before had slid themselves into place, enlightening me at least a little as to what the prince and princess likely had planned for me.

Beatriz had been right to worry about my penchant for negotiation, especially if my assumptions about Frederico's plan proved to be true. He'd made a judgement call when he'd ordered her to save my life, probably hoping that by helping me, I'd help him. He didn't need to know that I intended to do whatever it took to topple Dulciana's stolen throne. Instead, I'd let him think that he still needed to buy his alliance with me.

After all, with what I'd gone through in Ardalone, I wasn't leaving without bargaining for as much as I could from its rightful king.

But my mind's orderly cataloguing of facts was interrupted when I found myself shaken awake by the crown prince, before the pre-dawn sky had even tinged purple.

"We must be going," Frederico had said, his words a harried whisper. Somewhere in the dark of the forest, horses whickered. Fisting the sleep from my eyes, I found it far easier to rise than I had last night, the world coming into focus, albeit dimly, far more quickly.

"Wear this," Frederico said, tossing a bundled up dark cloak my way. It was heavier than I expected, a sword lurking in its folds. I didn't have time to contemplate why our campsite had already been cleaned up, all traces of the fire washed away and the saddlebags packed, nor why they'd suddenly gifted me with a weapon.

Something was wrong.

"Hurry up," Beatriz hissed, extending a hand to me from where she sat astride a horse, a dark hood already pulled over her head. Frederico had already mounted his own horse, sparing us little more than a glance before disappearing between the dark trees.

"How did I manage such a privilege?" I asked the princess, attempting some levity as I settled myself in behind her.

She said nothing, instead urging her horse forward after Frederico's. I lurched, unaccustomed to riding two to a saddle and, tempted though I was, unwilling to grab hold of her waist.

"Hold on," she snapped over her shoulder.

Well, that solved that.

I tried not to clear my throat as I did as she asked, forcing my mind to think of a great many other things than the position I now found myself in, straddling a horse with Beatriz between my legs. Or the way her waist felt beneath my hands.

Thankfully, cleared as it was, my mind was all too happy to oblige. Namely by seizing onto the fact that, for once, Beatriz hadn't risen to my sparring. And that we were riding very quickly through the darkened forest.

I risked a glance back over my shoulder, but the trees were silent save for the sounds of our horses, Frederico's shadow slowly coming into focus in front of us as the sky began to brighten.

"We seem to be in quite the hurry," I whispered.

"Stop talking," Beatriz whispered back.

Our silence soon ended, as we burst free from the trees onto a road, no more than a few paces later. Frederico had already taken off at a gallop, thundering hooves the only sound in the pre-dawn silence. Beatriz did not wait, forcing me to hold her even tighter as I jostled and bounced around behind her.

As the sky turned pink, Frederico finally slowed his pace, the trees thinning to reveal the roofs of a town between the whispering grassy knolls. He left the road, skirting the backs of the buildings until we came upon one that was unmistakably an inn.

A shadow detached itself from the darkened back doorway, but rather than startle or back away, Frederico was already sliding from his saddle. Beatriz reined to a halt, ordering me to dismount. My feet had barely touched the ground before hers did, her fingers flying deftly as she undid the saddlebags.

"Can I do something to help?" I asked, attempting to undo those on my side of the horse. She shouldered the packs as if they weighed less than a parasol.

"I told you to stop talking," she said, her brown eyes meeting mine over the horse's back.

She was worried and trying not to show it.

"We don't have much time," the shadow said in Ardal, once Frederico had undone all of his saddlebags as well. "Follow me."

He led us into a stable, only the cool pre-dawn light leaking through the cracks illuminating our way. Four horses stood ready, tacked and awake, and the twins wasted no time in hoisting their saddlebags into place.

"Can he ride?" the shadow asked.

"Less talking, more moving please," Beatriz said, strain colouring her tone.

"You said they weren't far behind you," Frederico said, "The longer we dally, the closer they get."

That was enough to quiet the shadow, who revealed himself to be a young man with an eerily familiar face when he pulled down his hood. He was taller than both Frederico and Beatriz, with the broad-shoulders and thick neck of a fighter, armed to the teeth beneath his cloak. For some reason, his chiseled cheekbones conjured images of a wailing husband and a dying wife, coloured by the chaos and terror of my last night in Relizia.

But there was no time to think about how this young man so resembled the dying duque's heir.

"Hurry up," Beatriz snapped, thrusting the reins of the fourth horse into my hands. Frederico and the familiar-looking man had already left the barn, leading their horses around to the back of the building.

I didn't need to be asked twice.

I was astride my horse before she had mounted hers, the other two already hurrying away. I waited, but that earned me nothing more than an irritated demand for me to hurry up once again. She took up the tail position of our group, her eyes scouring the road behind us. Ahead, the young man had taken the lead, confirming my suspicion that he and Beatriz were two bodyguards meant to protect two princes.

I sent up a quick prayer that all the weapons strapped to the newcomer wouldn't be needed before we reached whatever safe haven we were headed towards.

We'd almost reached the edge of the village when the cause for our haste was revealed. A scouting party of at least a dozen soldiers appeared on the road we'd thundered down in the early morning light, covering the distance between us at the respectable clip.

"You said a half dozen!" Frederico barked at the other man, who simply gulped as he reached a hand down to the pommel of his sword.

"Get them to safety, Rafael!" Beatriz shouted, kicking her horse into a gallop and smacking the rump of mine as she passed to startle it into motion.

Behind us, a shout went up as we tore down the road, Frederico following as the other man, Rafael, veered into the farm fields surrounding the village. I crouched in my saddle as he led us over fence after fence, through the crops and finally out into a rolling meadow, the grasses swaying peacefully in the golden light of dawn.

"Bea, they're gaining on us!" Rafael shouted, when he risked a look back over his shoulder. I followed his gaze to the line of soldiers fanning out behind us, weapons drawn.

But what I didn't expect to see was Beatriz, her cloak gone to free her arms and her bow already slung free, wheeling her horse to the right. She raced across the open field, headed away from the three of us. I yanked my own reins to slow my mount while she swung around in an arc towards the soldiers, kicking one of her feet free from the stirrups to crouch on the near side of her horse.

She was using it for cover as she tore an arrow from the quiver at her back.

"Keep going! You'll only get in her way!"

The shout had me whirling back frontwards, to where Prince Frederico had yelled back over his shoulder, neither he nor Rafael slowing their pace as they disappeared over the next hill. I spun back towards Beatriz and the advancing line of soldiers, only to be met with another cry, this one of pain.

Two of the twelve men had already fallen from their saddles, a third listing sideways with an arrow in his shoulder.

A shout went up from their leader and the advance slowed as Beatriz rode away to flank them, another one of her shots finding its mark in the belly of another soldier. Two more of her arrows sailed just shy of their targets before she kicked her leg back over her horse, racing away from Frederico to draw the soldiers away from her brother.

I drew my sword, unwilling to let her face them alone even if I was probably the least qualified. Rafael, whoever he was, had clearly been ordered to ensure Prince Frederico's safe escape, the pair of them gaining distance across the rolling hills. That left me as Beatriz' last hope against the eight remaining men. She'd saved my life, twice, and I decided that at the very least, I ought to chase and fell as many soldiers as I could before they caught her.

But rather than continue to ride away across the next hill, Beatriz swung her horse around again. Four of the men had been ordered after her and she fired on them first, missing two and swerving out of the path of one of their swords before readying her bow again. She'd positioned herself behind the other four men, their captain only just noticing her approach when an arrow bloomed through the belly of the man beside him.

I hadn't realized his attention had been trained on me.

"Move!" Beatriz shouted in Pretanian, as the captain of the soldiers barked a command.

I yanked my reins, ducking in the saddle as a pair of crossbow bolts sailed past me. I cursed, kicking my horse into a gallop. If I'd had any doubt about it, I now knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was hopeless on a battlefield.

I rode towards the rising sun, Beatriz already cresting the hill ahead of me as the soldiers behind us madly attempted to reorganize themselves in the face of the princess' onslaught. Another crossbow bolt whistled past, grazing my ear and igniting an explosion of pain. Heart hammering in my chest, my fingers clenched around my sword as I cursed my luck for being given a sword rather than a bow. According to James Amberly, I was an excellent archer, but a terrible swordsman, though I hadn't exactly hoped to ever put such knowledge to the test when my very life was on the line.

But there was no time to bemoan that lack of training now, not when the sound of thundering hooves echoed behind me. I roared encouragement to my horse, the sun slipping free of the horizon before me. I squinted against it, losing Beatriz' outline in the blinding blur of red-gold light.

Even though my horse was fresher, the soldiers gained on me, swords ringing free from their sheaths as they approached to flank me. I cut hard to the left to better free my sword arm, but the soldier to that side had clearly anticipated such a move, his blade meeting mine with shuddering intensity. I parried, clumsily, and nearly unseated myself in the process.

"Get down!"

I had barely enough time to look towards the shout before I flattened myself against my horse's neck, an arrow slicing past where my shoulder had been mere moments before. The soldier parrying me screamed, tumbling from his saddle.

Beatriz was upon me before I could blink away the glare of the sun that had blinded me to her approach, felling the other soldier with a sword-stroke that looked far easier than it ought to, especially for a...

I stopped myself. Yes, Beatriz was a woman, but she'd already proven herself to be a far more competent warrior than my own sorry, male self.

"Get out of here!" she shouted at me, pointing her bloodied sword towards the hilltop Frederico and Rafael had crested when I'd turned back.

"You need he-"

"You are getting in my way, idiota! You-" she snapped, only to cut herself off with a hiss of pain as blood bloomed on her left arm, sliced open by a crossbow bolt. She glared down at it in annoyance, before a ululating cry, loaded with wrath, escaped her lips as she rounded on the remaining soldiers.

It was enough to have the hairs of my arms standing on end as I watched her race down the hill, bloody sword in the air, her hair tangled and freed from her braid like a halo of darkness in the dawn light. She was death incarnate and the few remaining men knew it.

And now she was angry.

**A/N: I know, I knowwww, another cliffhanger! But I couldn't have the second half written and edited before I ran out of writing time this weekend...so I figured something was better than nothing.

That being said, I've had this chapter in my head for some time now because it's finally my girl Beatriz's turn to shine. I've wanted to write a character like her since I started writing, so it's fun to finally be able to unleash her into the world! And if you needed any hint as to what inspired me to finally get to writing her this year, just take a look at the music up top haha. (TBH, I think we all need more fierce females in our lives, especially with the world going the way it is.)

I know she's nothing like the heroines you're used to from me (looking at you, Libby and Isabelle!), but hopefully you guys will warm up to her nonetheless :)

As always, if you enjoyed it, please take a moment to vote and comment!! **