"It will be hard to get a scent in this snow," the woman says. She's nearly as tall as the man she speaks with. "We should have waited until after the storm cleared."
The shorter man looks into the sky and shakes his head. "This is our only chance. She is alone, unprotected by the demon she lives with. All the signs say we must act now."
They know so much. But how?
They circle the clearing, checking bushes and trees. It won't be long before they find my tracks, until they get to my tree. If I move or try to run, they will catch me. I'm paralyzed with fear.
The shorter man looks up suddenly, as if he heard something, but I haven't moved an inch. I'm barely breathing.
He smiles. "She's here. Somewhere close. She can hear us."
"Good," the woman says. "Then she will know we have only come to take her home. Princess Arianna, come out and show yourself. We are not the enemies you fear. We are your kin. Your true family." Her voice is full of authority, but I don't understand what she means.
"You do not belong with the demons who have tried to destroy our world," she says. "You are Fae. And you are the true ruler of this world."
Hands grab me from behind. "Found her!" It's the shorter man. He snuck up on me while the woman talked. This time, I am too weak to fight. He places a cloth over my face. "Sorry about this, Your Highness. But it's time to get you home."
***
When I awaken, I find myself slung over the shoulder of the tall man. I struggle free of his arms, and he drops me unceremoniously on the snow-packed ground of a wooded forest.
"Be gentle with her. She is not to be hurt," the woman says.
"She bit me," the tall man says, rubbing his arm where I did, indeed take a bite.
"Seems she learned more from the demons than we realized," the short man says with a chuckle.
The tall man glares at him, but I interrupt their bickering. "Who are you and where are you taking me?"
My hands and feet are tied together with rope, and I can't stand or do much but sit on the cold ground glaring at the three of them. My wrist is still bleeding, and with my hands behind my back, I rub my finger into the blood and draw on the earth. I know the symbol by heart, having traced it on Fen's wrist so many times.
If I can call to him through magic, maybe he can find me.
The woman approaches me before I can finish the symbol, and I shift my hands to cover it, so she doesn't see what I tried to do. I need them to lower their guard, so I can try again.
"I'm going to cut the ropes on your feet so you can walk," she says, "but if you fight me, you'll stay in the ropes, understand?"
I nod and watch as she pulls out a knife and frees my feet from the constraints.
She helps me stand, and I look around for a way to escape, but I have no idea where we are.
"You will freeze to death before ever finding help," the short man says.
I'm still wobbly from the drug they gave me, and my vision is blurry. The woman grips my arm and escorts me forward, to a cave carved into the side of a mountain. "To answer your question, we are taking you to your rightful kingdom."
"What are you talking about?"
The cave is large, much larger than the one Fen and I escaped into. Stalactites hang from the roof like menacing crystal weapons. They are beautiful in a cold, hard way.
"You will see soon enough," the woman says.
We walk deeper into the cave and reach a spacious cavern. Two towering blocks of stone stand as sentinels at the corners of a stone door. In the middle is an imprint in the shape of a hand with a small spike sticking out from the palm. The woman places her hand on it, impaling her skin. The handprint glows a bright white as she pulls away, and the intricate pattern inside runs with thin lines of her blood.
From within the structure something shifts and moves, metal mechanisms clicking into place, and then the door opens. The tall man nudges me into the stone box, and the others follow us in. The doors close, leaving us in utter darkness. The woman speaks a word I don't understand, and a ball of light forms just above us, glowing bright enough to illuminate the space.
Magic?
I don't have much time to consider, because the stone box we are in starts to move. I gasp and nearly fall, but the tall man catches my arm and holds onto me as we begin to sink into the ground.
"This is one of many secret passages that connect the two sides of our world, allowing us to travel between them with ease," the woman explains.
"Where is it taking us?" I ask, my voice falling flat in the confined space.
"You'll see," she says with a secret smile.
We begin to move faster and faster, and my stomach flips and topples until I feel like vomiting. I shuffle to one of the walls and lean against it, my shoulders aching from being pulled behind me.
"Did you kill the king?" I ask, thinking of Fen's investigation and the missing pieces he hasn't put together, like how the enemy gained access to High Castle. "Is this how you infiltrated the castle?"