Dusk neared as we reached the bottom of the hill and we stopped to breathe the horses. Alum approached me to discuss our situation.

'The road to Helmfirth abounds with bandits,' he said.

'I know. I have faced them,' I replied, chiding him for taking control so easily. I surprised myself: mere weeks previously I had prayed for someone else to put everything right. Now I would not relinquish my autonomy, even to a Prince, my fiancé. I had the confidence to know my own ability, and would not have it taken from my hands merely because I was a woman.

'Of course,' Alum said gently. 'I only meant that we need to consider our options. We are about to enter Trent, your ex-fiancé's land. What is our plan? Which road shall we take? And, more presently, how late into the night will we continue to travel, risking the horses? We will have to rest eventually, where shall we do so? Do we wait for my housecarls to reach us?'

'I think our best option is to reach Helmfirth before Wilbern or his messengers do. Then we can journey a few hours south and hire a barge to take us to Haelling Cove. As long as we reach Helmfirth before Wilbern's man, it’s our best option,' I said, having considered it earlier that day. I was hardly a geographic expert but the barge had been the plan for our previous trip so it couldn’t have been too bad an idea.

'What if no barge is leaving?' Alum asked.

'Then we will have to take the road,' I answered. It was the only answer I could give, though I did not feel that it mattered greatly: if we were still ahead at Helmfirth, we’d likely remain so for the rest of the journey.

Yet Alum shook his head in disagreement. 'I don’t like this. It is too risky. You do not understand how more… important… nobles manage their realms.'

'What does that mean?' I asked irritably.

'It means that it is likely that Helmfirth has already heard of what happened in Hollowhold. My father uses a network of linked portal users to communicate quickly across the real, and I have no doubt that the Crowers have a similar mechanism in place,' Alum explained.

My jaw dropped in horror. It was an unholy use of portalmancy, a crime against nature. The creation of portals was a personal experience, almost sacred, and their joining was intensely intimate. To use them in such a utilitarian manner was a perversion of their inherent nobility akin to incest or cannibalism. Of course, it was natural for people naturally linked in matrimony to offer their portals as a desperate means of hastily passing information from one place to another during times of crisis, but to maintain a permanent and impersonal network went against everything I had been taught. It went against the teachings of Yoru.

Alum sensed my disgust and said, 'Are you that naive?'

I gulped. 'I suppose I am. I was never privy to Father's sources of intelligence. I know that there is great benefit to using portals in such a manner, but it does not sit well with me.'

'A good ruler uses every tools available to him,' Alum said. 'Though views such as yours have necessitated the secrecy of the portal information networks.' Then he rolled his eyes and bit his lip in frustration. 'None of this helps us. I meant only that we should be aware that Helmfirth may be expecting us.'

'I understand,' I said, meeting and holding his gaze. 'But I know of no path to Ebonreach which avoids Helmfirth, and if one exists I suspect the price of passage is great. I do not see any other option than to make for Helmfirth's riverside docks and seek passage down the Haelling.'

'I concur,' Alum said. 'Yet I think we should wait for my housecarls to arrive. We should present as formidable a force as possible to deter a conflict at Helmfirth.'

I considered his proposal. If we waited for the Prince's Guard to arrive we’d lose any advantage in speed. Conversely, if Wilbern was able to operate a portal network such as Alum had described, speed was no longer a factor and we should favour strength. I sighed and reluctantly agreed with Alum, despite feeling that he was being overcautious. I hadn’t really considered Alum's lack of experience outside of the comforts of the capital before, and resolved to keep it in mind.

We travelled to a roadside village of such small importance that I cannot even recall its name. The inn was called the Majestic Hornet for no reason that I could see. Due to the late hour of our arrival and its small capacity, we were forced to reveal our identities to secure lodgings.

Alum and I booked separate rooms to keep our betrothal as inconspicuous as possible, though that didn't stop us from sharing a bed during the night. Our second coupling was almost as joyful as the first, bereft of discomfort but still possessing a degree of tentative enthusiasm.

The housecarls arrived the next day, and we stayed a second night at the Majestic Hornet rather than travel for only a few hours and have to stop on the side of the road. Despite the precariousness situation I found myself in, when we rode out the next day I did so with a girlish grin spread between my cheeks. Regeda glanced sardonically at me but knew better than to say anything.

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None we encountered on the road stopped to speak with us. Now that we were accompanied by dozens of housecarls clad in the Prince's colours I no longer wore the obfuscating cloak, and had bade the men of the Reach to proudly display their colours. We had little fear of highwaymen, though our pace was somewhat slowed by our large party To his credit, Alum would not tolerate unnecessary delays, and his housecarls were sufficiently well-trained to travel for long stretches of time without pause.

I had never travelled with a party so large, and I felt a small taste of what had intoxicated Timoth whenever he took command on the walls of Haelling Cove. I could only imagine how powerful being in charge of more than a Prince's Guard would make a person feel.

We travelled for several days, driving deeper into the heart of Trent. I was anxious as to the reception we would receive upon our arrival at Helmfirth, but least of all did I expect what occurred.

We were not met by any representative of the Duke; nor by the accusing stares of proud townsfolk, angry that I had scorned their heir apparent. Instead, we happened upon a city dark with mourning. The city guard wore black armbands, and the commoners were clad in drab cloaks and hoods. Colourful signs had been covered with ragged brown cloth and the conversations were quiet and respectful. I knew at once what had occurred.

Duke Wiseria had died.

'We will find no royal welcome here,' I murmured to Alum.

'Nor conflict, I hope,' he replied. ‘Our timing is fortuitous.’

It was late in the afternoon and the sky was as grey as the city. Alum and I led our troupe directly through the city without pause to reach the docks before dusk, when the last barges would depart. The last thing I wanted was to have to spend the night in Trent's capital, especially now Wiseria was dead and the instability that I could have prevented would now take hold. And Wilbern would be forced to return home.

'There had better be a barge willing to take us,' I muttered rhetorically. It would have to be a big barge to accommodate the entire party; one not too heavily laden with other passengers or supplies.

Some of the housecarls began to fall behind due to the long day of journeying we had endured in order to reach the Haelling before dusk, and Alum gave them permission to rest now and join us as soon as possible. The two of us rode on with all possible haste, accompanied by Regeda, my bodyguards, and perhaps a dozen of Alum's housecarls. We arrived in time to see a large barge being untied from the dock by a handful of deckhands.

'Halt!' Alum called. I said nothing, for I knew that both his authority and his volume were superior to mine. 'I am a Prince of Halivaara, and I command you to keep those ropes tied.'

The deckhands paused, and one stepped forward to face us. 'Prince Alum?' he asked, uncertainly.

'It is I. Your barge is most impressive. Tell me, bargemaster, how many men and horses is there room for?'

The bargemaster scratched his head. He looked to be in his forties, but already his hairline had receded and his scalp had thinned, leaving twin grey bushes atop his ears. 'Aye, I have room for your party,' he replied in a strong Trent accent.

'My housecarls ride a short distance behind me. Half of the Prince's Guard, all mounted on Mountain Duchy stallions,' Alum said. I bit my tongue to prevent myself from speaking up. Certainly, I would have tried to make light of our party's size to convince the bargemaster to grant us passage, thus making it his problem if we could not fit. Now, if he refused us, we would have no one to blame but ourselves.

'The Thomasin is a fat lass, aye,' he replied. He spat into the grass beside him, almost uncaring of the royal presence before him. It revolted me, but I had seen how peasants acted thanks to my Haelling Cove upbringing. I wondered how Alum would deal with meeting commoners from outside of Hollowhold. The bargemaster continued, 'Yet I do not think I can do what you ask of me. I have a hundred crates of Hollintay brass and glass, and fifty crates of Mountain Duchy silks and timepieces, all bound for Trackford.'

'I am your Prince!' Alum cried, aghast. He was flabbergasted by the man's casual disregard for royal commands. I sighed. My fiancé had a lot to learn about the rest of his realm. The bargemaster had a family to feed and deckhands to pay. I knew that we’d have to offer him coin to unload the boat and leave the goods behind.

I trotted forward, putting Lilac beside Alum and sitting up to exaggerate my substantial height. 'We will, of course, pay you in gold for the delay in transporting your cargo.'

'Aye, that'd be grand, my lady,' he replied. 'And a letter, signed by the Prince, explaining the delay.'

'What?' Alum began, but I waved a hand to silence him. I was on a bit of a power trip, using my personal influence to silence a Prince of the realm, but it was the best thing to do in the circumstances.

'Of course,' I said smoothly. I then made a face at Alum, and he sighed reluctantly, knowing full well what had transpired between us. I wondered if I would be able to use his power and his name once we were married. Perhaps he would learn his own strengths and take matters back into his own hands.

The Prince shook the bargemaster's hands, and they set their men – the deckhands and the housecarls – to emptying the barge of crates. There were other passengers but they were few. Most of them were of Ebonreach, and while they were vacated during the unloading I spoke to them to ease their frustrations at the delay. One lady spoke of my banishment of Steib with great reverence, and I realised that my efforts must have had a real impact on people's lives.

'It was the right thing to do,' I told her truthfully. She smiled and bowed her head.

Soon the horses were loaded onto the barge and taken to the lower decks. Regeda visited a nearby farmyard or stable and returned with a cart laden with several bales of hay which were also carried onto the Tomasin. Hours passed in darkness and escalating cold before any human passengers were permitted to board the vessel, and I was aggrieved but unsurprised to find that I would have to sleep among the common folk and soldiers. At least I’d had the foresight to remove my blanket from Lilac's saddlebags. It occurred to me that had we been travelling by the road, I could have slept in my portal. Sadly, if I tried that on the barge, I’d have exited the portal and found no boat beneath me in the morning. As such, when the Thomasin was finally put underway, I curled up near the bow of the ship, with Alum and Regeda nearest me.