Early the next morning, the group left the town hoping to put some distance between themselves and the capital. The mayor promised to make the citizens keep quiet about what they saw, both for their own safety and the safety of the princess.

Devrim chuckled to himself that he was not their chief concern, but he also could not blame them. If he were in their shoes, he would feel the same way about Mairwen. The group headed out east of the town and then hooked south, making sure that any loose tongues would give faulty information.

After much discussion, Bella and Candela were left behind with the healer. Bella, who could not walk while her leg healed, would need to be carried on a stretcher, so she and her sister decided that they could not slow the others down. It was a tough call, and the women would be missed. Mairwen felt like she had said goodbye to another piece of her mother when she hugged them for the last time.

The group traipsed along in silence for quite some time. Seeing that his daughter was melancholy, Devrim tried to comfort Mairwen. "I know it was hard to leave Bella and Candela behind, but they will be safer in the village than with us."

Mairwen stared forward, hiding the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks behind a brave face. "It was the right choice, but that does not make it easier."

Devrim draped his arm around the princess. "You are right. You have had so much loss, my dear. You have lost your home. Aurora is missing. Alaron is not in his right mind, and everything seems to have fallen apart before our eyes." The Emperor wanted to kick himself. He was being anything but comforting! The girl did not seem to notice. She was lost in her own thoughts.

"I feel like everything will be ok except that Renat..." the princess's whisper trailed off as the hot tears finally escaped. She buried her head against her father as they walked along. "I lost Renat," Mairwen finally managed.

"Renat was probably just captured. There is still a chance to save him." Devrim hugged his daughter. He was confused when her gentle crying turned to sobs.

"Father! Renat died in the explosion. He was trying save us, and something went horribly wrong." Mairwen was inconsolable. Eira and Junayd, who had been giving the royals their space, crowded in tightly to give them a little privacy from the rest of the group. Devrim appreciated their thoughtfulness as he held his weeping little girl.

"I can see your heart is broken," he said gently. "I am sorry for the pain you feel. Losing a father-figure, even one you have known for so brief a time, must be very painful."

The man's words confused Mairwen into stopping mid-sob. "Father-figure?" she asked.

"Yes, but do not worry. I am not jealous. There is plenty of room in your heart for both of us." Devrim was glad he had somehow stopped Mairwen's crying. He gave himself a mental pat on the back.

"Father, what exactly do you know about Renat?" Mairwen queried.

Devrim tried to sound more knowledgeable than he was. "I never had the pleasure to meet the man, but I heard many good things. He was brilliant, and obviously skilled in science and invention. He was a wise old gentleman..." The man's voice trailed off.

Mairwen could not help but smile as she wiped the tears from her face. "Old at heart maybe. How old do you think Renat was?"

Having heard the conversation progress, Junayd and Eira exchanged a nervous glance.

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"Water!" a scout called from the front of the group. The outburst took the two royals' attention and Devrim never answered his daughter's question.

"It is just as well that he does not know about Renat and the princess," Junayd said to Eira behind the Emperor's back. "I do not think you can kill a ghost, but His Majesty would surely try!"

The group came up to the water's edge. "Is this the Great River?" Mairwen asked.

The scout shook his head and made a negative gesture. "This stream meets up with the Great River further south."

"How far are we from the Southern Fort?" Devrim asked the scout. He seemed to know the terrain better than anyone else.

The scout hesitated. "Less than a week on horseback, but on foot at the pace we are going...it could take many weeks."

The Southern Fort was a bit of a misnomer. At one point it had been as far south as the Valiant Empire reached, but now it was much more centrally located. The Empress had placed her resources there so that her army would have somewhere to fall back in case something went wrong in battle. Aurora never imagined that her castle would be so easily overrun.

"Fill up your jugs and water skins. We will take a short break before we continue onward," Devrim announced.

The news was well received, and the group spread along the banks to get their fill of water. Junayd, the scout, and an archer did a sweep of the area before returning to relax. Junayd's face was deep in thought when he returned.

"Someone is definitely following us," the general said in Devrim in hushed tones. "But they seem to have backed off when we stopped. They are not good at covering their tracks but they know better than to get backed into a corner. The spies seem to be waiting to see what we will do. My guess is they are more of the pirates who crashed."

"How many do you think there are?" The Emperor asked.

Junayd drew a quick map of the area in the dirt and pointed to a point just behind where they were. "I spotted at least three or four sets of tracks here and here. If there is more than one group, that number could easily double or triple."

Devrim took in the information. "But we still outnumber them, so they are unlikely to ambush us. We must remain vigilant."

"If only we had a way to put some extra distance between ourselves and them…" Junayd muttered.

"Or a way to capture them," Devrim added. The two men thought for a moment. If they turned and pursued the ones tracking them, they could easily run into a larger group that was following behind the first. They could be walking into a trap. It made more sense to keep running and make it to the Southern Fort before the enemy was large enough to engage.

"Your Majesty!" Okan yelled, bringing Junayd and Devrim's eyes toward the stream. Okan looked frantic, and the Emperor's senses were suddenly on edge. The archer's next words confirmed the man's worry. "The princess is missing!"

"What happened?" Devim called as he and Junayd ran to Okan. The rest of the troops rose to their feet, awaiting orders.

Okan scratched the back of his head. "While I was filling my water-skin, Princess Mairwen asked me what the name of the stream was. I told her I thought it was the Winding Stream, but I was not positive. When I turned around after getting my water, the princess was gone. No one saw her leave."

"Where is Eira?" Junayd demanded to know.

"She is missing too, it seems." Okan wanted to shrink from the men's gazes. They looked like they might kill the messenger.

Devrim swallowed his urge to scream at all the men. He was just as guilty of letting the girl out of his sight as the rest of them. "Unless the pirates are really that good, Mairwen left willingly."

"Perhaps she went to relieve herself," Junayd suggested. "Women need privacy for that sort of thing."

"How long has she been gone?" Devrim asked Okan.

"Too long for a simple trip like that," the archer confirmed.

Devrim began to give orders. "Spread out and start looking for Mairwen and Eira. Make sure to go in pairs or small groups. There is no reason for us to get picked off by the pirates. If anyone has information on the girls' whereabouts, find me immediately!"

The group scurried out like ants from a mound in search of the lost princess. Devrim and Junayd stayed together and headed west along the river bank. If Okan was facing the stream when Mairwen disappeared, it was unlikely that she had tried to cross.

"Unless she fell in," the Emperor mumbled. He quickly dismissed the thought. The water was not terribly deep and surely Okan would have noticed a splash.

Going north or east did not make sense because that is the direction from which they came and therefore pirates threatened to be both of those fronts. Only west made any sense at all, but Devrim could still not fathom what made his daughter up and leave without explanation.

"Over here!" a scout called. Devrim and Junayd rushed ahead to where the man was kneeling at the riverbank. In soft mud, a perfectly formed dainty shoe print was being slowly filled by the stream. "The princess went this way!" The scout confirmed the others' thoughts.

"Gather everyone and send them this way," Devrim ordered the scout. The Emperor and Junayd quickened their pace along the water's edge. "What would make Mairwen do such a crazy thing?" Devrim asked the general.

"I cannot pretend to know the female mind, Your Majesty. Much less a teenage female mind." But even as Junayd spoke, a thought came to him. "What did Okan call this body of water?"

Devrim looked up as he tried to think and tripped over a stone out-jut. His pace faltered, and he nearly took a bite out of the ground. The stumble, however, jogged his memory. "This is supposed to the the Winding Stream. Why?"

Junayd gave a half smile. "That daughter of yours is always problem-solving. I think I know where she went. If I am right, she is not far off."

The two men followed the stream through two more bends. A sound above the water's chuckling began to fill Devrim's ears. At first he could not place it.

Then as they turned the final crook, the trees opened into a large plain where Mairwen and Eira stood chatting amicably with an older gentleman leaning on a fence.

Behind the trio, beasts of burden as far as the eye could see were grazing on the lush grass.