I glanced over at Milena. She hadn't tried to hide the fact that we were extra weight on her trip, so trying to show our appreciation I said, “You're really good at this traveling stuff.”

Her eyes shifted over to me. “Thanks.” She paused, then added, “I would think you would be too if you had to travel for painting.”

My cheeks warmed. This girl had brought me out of an awful city and was letting me tag along on her travels. The least I owed her was the truth. “I'm not actually a painter.”

Milena laughed. “Yeah, I figured.” She fiddled with some of the wood. “So, who are you?”

“My name is Elody Bequette, and I'm just a regular girl who happens to be betrothed to Prince Errol in Shivani’s Vineyard.”

Milena huffed, staring into the fire. “And you consider yourself a regular girl.”

“I’m sorry,” I added quickly, sitting down next to her. “I didn’t mean to lie to you. It's just… I ran away and I’ve never really been outside the Vineyard, especially not on my own. I didn’t know who I could trust.”

Milena didn’t take her eyes off the flames as they licked the wood. “Yeah, trust is few and far between out here.”

I didn't know what she meant by that, but I wanted to trust her, so I pushed past her comment. “What about you? Are you from Indeedra?”

“No, I was born in Oderra.”

“Oh, that's pretty far from Indeedra isn't it? I slightly remember from looking at a map.”

Milena nodded. “Yep, one day I decided I didn’t want to be in Oderra anymore. So, I packed up my things and left.”

“That sounds nice,” I said. “Just being able to pack up and adventure someplace else.”

“Yeah, it was an adventure alright.” Milena looked over at me. “What about you? How did a princess bride like you end up in a dirty place like Scultera?”

By now I’d come to feel a little ashamed of the story. “This man said he was going to Amerenth, and that he would take me there.”

“You were going to run away.”

I nodded. “But he lied and kidnapped me. He brought me to Scultera to make me a…” I paused at the word.

“A prostitute?” Milena said the word for me. “It's not for everyone.”

I released a small laugh. “No, it isn’t. I don’t know how you do it. I was really terrified.”

“Well for one, I chose to be a prostitute. I wasn't sold into it like livestock,” Milena said. “And even I would never work in Scultera. It's disgusting and all kinds of wrong.”

Just the image of Dominick’s face sent shivers down my spine.

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“So, this Prince Errol. What was so terrible about him that you had to run away?”

“Oh nothing,” I replied. “Errol is nothing short of a gentleman. Any girl would be lucky to marry him.”

“Then why did you run away?”

“I didn’t want to marry him. At least not now. I wanted to see the world, adventure.”

Milena nodded. “So, you thought the best way of doing that was trusting a random guy off the street who said he’d take you to some distant land?” She laughed. “Wow, how nice it must be to live life so simply.”

My cheeks burned now, but this time not with embarrassment. I was already ashamed of my decisions, I didn't need some girl I just met rubbing it in. “I didn't have a choice. I couldn't just plan it out with some reputable person. Word would have somehow gotten back to the palace, or worse my mother.” I moved a dirty strand of hair out my face. “Nice to live such a simple life? No, it's nice to be able to choose your life.”

I’d done my best not to think about the people I'd left behind. By now my mother was probably in hysterics, threatening to trounce about the land just to find me. Even I showed up, she'd probably just dry her tears and put back on her mother-of-the bride face.

Milena exhaled loud enough to pull me out of my own thoughts. “We’re kinda the same if you think about it, right? Being a prostitute, being a princess. We’re both doing things we don't want to do and getting paid for it.”

“I do not get paid to be a princess!” I snapped. “And I'm not a princess.”

“Yet,” Milena said. “The second you return to the Vineyard, you're a princess, am I right?”

I fiddled with my necklace. “I don't intend to return.”

“And where do you intend to go then?”

“Somewhere,” I replied. “I haven't worked it all out yet. But anywhere that's not the Vineyard.” Anywhere that people didn't recognize me, and I could live my own life, choosing what and how I wanted to do things.

Milena adjusted herself so she was lying out on the ground. I admired that she could sprawl out on the ground like it was comfortable. I already assumed I’d need to curl up like Will to be comfortable enough to even fall asleep.

I woke to a continuous scratching sound near me. Opening one eye, I saw that Milena was scattering some of the wood with her foot. When she glanced in my direction, I quickly shut my eyes, hoping she hadn't seen me.

Unfortunately, she had, and said loudly, “Wake up sleeping beauties. It's time to get moving. Unless you want to spend another night out here.”

Sleeping beauties didn’t describe me. My hair stuck out in random places and I felt dirt and eye gunk flake around my eyes. I picked up my canteen to use the water inside to wash my face, then figured I'd probably need that water later. I wiped my face and smoothed my hair back to as manageable as I could make it.

Milena had her hair braided back. This was a good idea to keep it from getting knotty, but I wasn't ready to stop wearing my hair down just yet.

We started off in silence. Milena kept a few steps ahead of us. The sun hung low in the sky, warming the air just slightly for now.

I couldn't do this whole trip in silence. I looked at Will and asked, “How did you sleep?”

Will scratched his head and a few particles of dirt fell out. “Did I sleep? Didn't feel like it.”

I smiled. “You were the first one out.”

“Sorry about that,” he said, returning a gentler form of my smile. “Guess that trek made more tired than I thought. I don't know if I'm cut out for this.”

I wasn't ready to call it quits after just two uncomfortable nights, and I wasn't going to let Will drop out either. “You'll get used to it,” I assured him.

Watching the sun climb into the sky and mercilessly gleam down on us was one thing. But watching it drop toward the horizon filled me with apprehension. I’d encouraged Will that we could do this, but truthfully, I didn't know if I could sleep on this cracked ground one more night. I sighed with relief when we came to the top of an incline and could see the city a few yards away from the base of the hill.

“What's Rhyl like?” I asked Milena as we began our descent down the hill. “Compared to Scultera.”

“I don't think any city is comparable to Scultera,” she replied. “But Rhyl is nice. Kind of a quiet town.”

A quiet town without ruthless slave traders sounded wonderful. And at least I could check that off my list of cities visited. We'd only be here a day or two, then restart our trip to Indeedra, and then Will and I would officially start our travels.