Sam started following the Marshal, keeping a bit of a distance but not enough to loose him. She knew that she probably hadn't had much of a choice in letting him walk with his hands free. She couldn't have fought with him and tried to take the sword away from him herself. She didn't try to fool herself into thinking that it could have been a battle that she could have won. But he was free now and the part of her that didn't trust him remained wary, ready to attempt an escape if it became necessary. It had been so much easier to think he wouldn't betray her when the two of them hadn't been alone with him and when he was at least a little secured... Fear nipped at her, making her stomach ache a little. What if he had taken her for a fool? What if she had let him get into her head?

She felt something light land on her shoulder and she knew if she glanced over she would see Dorothea there once again. Sam was becoming used to having the princess perched there. Dorothea whispered to her and she could hear the fear in her voice and Sam bit her lip, uneasy and a bit guilty. She looked over and met the princess's yellow cat eyes before looking away, back at where the Marshal was walking in front of them. Sam thought about telling her what August had confided to her the previous night, and the words were on her tongue before she swallowed them back.

There were a few more moments of silence as Sam considered her response. She opened her mouth as though to respond a couple of times before closing it again, as though she had decided that wasn't the best thing to say. She finally let out a sigh and looked back at Dorothea. "Look...what I know is that there are things out there. Things that I can't protect myself from, let alone you. He could. Maybe." Sam shook her head, obviously uneasy about it. "To be honest I don't have a very good reason. I know it's a risk. And it'll probably blow up in my face. But he could have taken you and had left me behind with the Shades and the Jockal? And he didn't? I don' know..." She sighed again. "We need his sword in this forest, and I don't have the skill to use it. But be prepared if we have to make a run for it." Sam doubted if her words provided any comfort to the other girl at all. 

~~~

Narissa;s eyes were closed but she could see. Looking through Darius's eyes all she saw was treetops. The forest stretched on and on for miles like a giant blanket at covered the eastern portion of the land. All she could see were trees, trees, and more trees. Past Eldonia and into Verinia. Eventually Darius flew over the King's road and she could make out the shapes of Prince Liam's caravan as the journeyed deeper into the woods and father away from Eldonia's capital. Narissa willed her familiar to continue the search before opening her eyes, leaving the raven's mind and returning to her own.

The queen swept down the stairs and back into the front room and she knelt beside a cabinet and eased a drawer open. She searched the contents before producing another hand held mirror and held it gently by the silver handle. Beyond the handle and it's larger size it was identical to the one she had given the Marshal. These mirrors had come from her home, her childhood in Verinia. Narissa remembered a time long ago when she would use the mirrors to contact Isabel in the middle of the night. But much had changed since them.

She gazed down at her reflection and swiped her hand down the smooth surface. It did not leave a streak and the reflection was replaced by darkness. Wherever Derrick's mirror was it was dark... Perhaps he had lost it or he was being held somewhere by whoever had broken into her hollow, in a cave or underground. Or perhaps the mirror was in the man's pocket. 'Derrick?" she whispered furiously, taking care not to speak too loudly in case there were any others present, if Derrick still had the thing at all.