Will stared between the Marshal and Raquelle during their exchange, mouth slightly open as he tried to wrap his head around what the Marshal had told him, an what the two of them were saying. Raquelle had done this? He knew that she had been pursuing Liam for years, but this... Liam was blind now. Because of her. Was she really willing to go to such extreme levels for her crush? Will considered the princess for a moment as he held the still shaking Liam up. No one had rushed to the princess when the cat had attacked her and she had screamed and thrashed about, and now her gown was all but ruined and she had blood from her wounds. She should never have come. That was clear.

"Perhaps your attendants should take you back to Eldonia, Princess," he said in a cool, passive tone before securing Liam and gently urging him forward with the other men as they started towards the horse farm. It was eaier with the Marshal helping him, but for a short while he went back. For Samantha. Will paused momentarily to watch him go, his brow furrowed in thought. He had told Raquelle that her mother needed a new agent, and even if he wasn't too busy thinking for the company and for Liam he wouldn't have any idea what he had meant by that. One thing was for sure. The Marshal had a lot to explain to them.

After a short while the farmhouse came into view out of the darkness, and Will led Liam and the rest of the men towards the house. There was dim light in the windows and smoke emitting from the chimney, and Will took a breath as he rocked out his hand to knock on the door. He looked behind him to the rumpled looking men and then beside him to the blinded prince. He only hoped the owner of this farm would be as willing to help them as the dwarves had said he would be.

~~~

Sam stirred a little when she was picked up again. Her eyelids were heavy, but she managed to blink them open to gaze blearily up at August as he carried her. Her lips flickered into a small smile and she rest her head against his shoulder again, making a sleepy murmuring sound as she did so. "Hey. Did you get the fire out?" The smoke from the remnants of the destroyed filled her nose and she made a slight face at the unpleasant smell as her head rose once again to look around. 

The camp was all but deserted and empty, except for the burned tents and supplies and Raquelle. She looked like...crap. Her dress was dirty and bloody and her hair was a disaster. It filled her with a slight sense of satisfaction, but she'd never tell anyone that. Besides all she really cared about at the moment was everyone else that had been at the camp. "Where is everyone? Will, Liam, and Dorothea? Are they okay? What happened?" She turned her head to look back up at August, and she seemed to realize for the first time that they were moving away from the burned campsite. "Where are we going?"

~~~

Raquelle would not need to tell her mother anything. Darius had been there, ever watchful in the trees. And he had seen everything. And if he saw it, Narissa saw it. She was wrenched from her bed that night, her heart pounding and her eyes wide and furious as the vision of Marshal Derrick declaring she needed to find herself a new agent flashed in her mind over and over again. She was out of the room and striding down the hall to her quarters in a heartbeat. She didn't bother covering her nightdress, she didn't have the time for such things. All that mattered was the Marshal. 

She was slipping behind the secret door and striding through her archway into her hallow in no time at all. Her green eyes lit with a furious fir, she wrenched the drawer pen to pull her mirror out and she did not bother lowering her voice when she spoke. "Marshal!" she spat in a rage as she glared at the smooth surface. "August Derrick! You will speak to me! You will explain!"