It was the middle of the night when Rei was jerked awake by a hand clamping roughly onto her shoulder, shaking her non-too-gently. Her startled scream was muffled by another large, rough hand over her mouth, and a familiar voice hissed in her ear, "Take it easy! It’s just me, Princess."

She slumped, half relieved and half outraged, and jerked the hand away from her mouth, being sure to dig her nails into the flesh to show her displeasure. "Tasuki, you idiot!" she hissed, ignoring his yelp of pain. "What are you doing here? Aside from attempting to give me heart failure, that is?" She glared at his vague image outlined by the thin, pale moonlight streaming in through the window, and then her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. "If you even think of trying anything funny with me…" she began threatening, but was cut off by a loud snort of disgust.

"Ah, shut yer mouth, woman! I ain’t after that!" he growled. "Ya think if I’d wanted that I’d try an’ get it from you?"

"Well, probably nobody else would have you," Rei sniffed, flicking a lock of hair that had come loose from its braid over her shoulder.

Tasuki started to look insulted, but then suddenly grinned and leaned in close to her, hooded, amber eyes gazing into hers with a definite air of mischief. "And are ya sayin’ that you would?" he purred seductively, running a long finger up her cheek.

Rei squeaked and scrambled, wide-eyed, away from him, managing to fall off the bed in the process. Which really didn’t go over too well with her already-bruised body. She lay on the floor with the blankets tangled around her legs, while Tasuki collapsed in hysterics on the bed, clutching his stomach and rocking back and forth as he guffawed loudly.

"Shut up!" Rei snarled, tossing the pillow at his head. "Y-you boorish, insensitive…brute!"

"Oh, please stop! My bleedin’ heart!" Tasuki howled as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. "Ah, there ain’t no time for this, much fun as it is seein’ you lookin’ like a scared cat. We gotta get goin’ now."

Rei froze. "Going where?" she demanded suspiciously.

"Outta here, of course," Tasuki replied innocently. "C’mon. It’s gettin’ too close ta dawn fer my liking."

She regarded him with mute astonishment, and he sighed, reached over, and lifted the surprised princess to her feet, pulling her out of the room by the scruff of her collar. Rei finally seemed to realize what was happening, then, and reached out to grip his arm. "Y-you’re helping me to escape?" she stammered. "Why would you do that? Ayurhu will kill you when he finds out!"

Tasuki shrugged, looking decidedly uncomfortable, although he wouldn’t meet her gaze. "Ya ain’t supposed ta be here," he muttered, starting down the hall again, keeping the princess close to him. "An’ chances are the lunatic’ll kill me anyhow. He told me ta bring ‘im the crown prince, an’ I bring ‘im the princess instead. Ya don’t make a mistake like that an’ not pay fer it somehow. I figure if I’m gonna die anyhow, I may as well go doin’ somethin’ right for once in my life."

Rei blinked at him in mute astonishment for a moment, before suddenly swinging around and gripping the lapels of his shirt tightly, staring earnestly into his eyes. He blinked down at her, taken aback by this unexpected move. "Tasuki, if you get us both out of here alive, then I swear on my father’s crown that I will grant you a full pardon for everything you’ve done. I will get you a place to live; I’ll even get you a respectable job in the castle or anywhere else you like. Just get me out of here!"

Tasuki’s mouth gaped open for just a moment, before he caught himself and flashed her a wicked grin, instead. "Don’t worry, Princess," he assured her confidently, patting her on the head as one might a puppy. "I won’t let nuthin’ happen to ya. Yer like the little sister I never had, ya know? I gotta protect ya!"

Now it was Rei’s turn to blink, before a decidedly dangerous gleam entered her dark eyes. "Awww, you are so sweet!" she simpered, fluttering her eyelashes at him coyly. "And might I add that you are like an older brother that I never wanted?" And with that, she cuffed him upside the head and stalked away, muttering irritably to herself.

Tasuki watched her go with a befuddled expression, rubbing his sore ear delicately. "Yeesh!" he muttered to himself. "Was it somethin’ I said?"

They navigated the darkly-lit halls of the drafty castle with relatively little mishap, which worried Tasuki greatly. Rei didn’t seem to notice, but he couldn’t help feeling just a little uneasy. Ayurhu wasn’t stupid, and he didn’t trust anyone. He had spies to spy on his spies. Paranoid didn’t even begin to cover Ayurhu’s personality, although for someone who had as much to lose as he did, Tasuki couldn’t really fault him for it. Taking over an entire country was pretty simple work when one knew what they were doing. It was keeping it that was the hard part, he thought with grim amusement.

Something brushed against his arm, and he looked down to see Rei walking close to his side with an air of studied nonchalance. Apparently she was starting to sense the uneasy stillness of the castle, as well, and had decided that sticking close to him was more important than staying mad at whatever imagined insult she thought he’d given her. He hid his grin behind a cough and casually looped one arm around her shoulder in a friendly, comforting gesture, half expecting her to shove him away and start yelling again. Therefore, he was greatly surprised when she merely stiffened a little and kept walking, lips tightly sealed. She must’ve really been spooked. "We’re almost out, Princess. Relax, will ya? Yer startin’ ta spook me," he teased, and was rewarded with a brief glare and a noticeable change in her stiff posture.

And there was the entrance, dead ahead. An unused side-door that was kept mostly sealed, down a hallway in an area of the castle that wasn’t regularly patrolled. If he remembered right, Tasuki was certain that it led out into the forest that grew wild right up to the very walls of the castle (there was no outer wall surrounding the huge structure on that side, for some reason). Once they were in the forest and heading into the mountains, they were home-free. Tasuki knew those mountains like he knew his own name, and not even the best of Ayurhu’s spies could find him if he didn’t want to be found. Even magic was pretty much useless there for that sort of thing, since the mountains were full of deposits of iron and certain minerals that acted as a natural barrier against unwanted eyes.

"Almost there, Princess. Piece a cake," Tasuki murmured as his confidence began to build. Perhaps he was wrong. Maybe he was the one who was paranoid about things. Maybe Ayurhu was too worried about other things to even pay the spy-turned-traitor any attention. He reached out and pushed open the door—noting absently that the lock had been broken—and led the relieved princess out into the fresh air. "See? What’d I tell ya?" he bragged. "There was noth-"

And that’s where he stopped as his gaze fell upon the slim, dark-cloaked figure leaning casually against the trunk of a tree. The figure shifted, straightened, and turned to face the two escapees calmly, pale blue eyes clashing with an amber gaze. A chilling smirk curled upon thin, pale lips. The cool, sharp hiss of metal leaving its sheath echoed faintly, and a long blade appeared as if by magic. "I was wondering if you two would ever show up," Safir commented idly, his calm words belying the crazed gleam in his glassy eyes as he swung the blade back and forth…back and forth. "I was beginning to get bored."

Without another warning, the Assassin struck.

Somehow, she knew that she was dreaming again.

Instead of a king’s bedchambers, however, she found herself in the middle of a great forest, whose trees looked to be a thousand years old, reaching up into the heavens. Their mossy branches were hung with pale, whip-like vines. The air was chill and damp and smelled of old earth and ancient, growing things. A pale, wraith-like mist drifted between the huge ancient trunks, curling around her and grasping at her knees with cold fingers. It was a scene right out of a fairy tale, beautiful and eerie. She half expected to glimpse a Unicorn or two drifting in and out of the fog, but there was nothing. It seemed as though there had never been any living thing in this ancient woodland, aside from the trees.

"What a sad and lonely place," she whispered, and her voice—a mere breath of sound—echoed faintly all around her, like the call of a lost spirit. Despite herself, she shivered.

And then, the soft, clear notes of a flute reached her ears. She paused, entranced at the melody being played. It was haunting and beautiful, sad and happy all at once, and it was all around her, as insubstantial as the mist. It seemed familiar somehow. Her eyes slipped shut as she allowed the music to surround her, swaying softly back and forth as she unconsciously began to drift toward its source, allowing the melody to lead her rather than her eyes.

She knew instantly when she came upon the source, as her eyes opened slowly to fall upon a young man lounging casually on a golden couch; it didn’t occur to her to be surprised at finding a couch in the middle of a forest. It was he who played the melody so sweetly. She tilted her head to regard him curiously, unconsciously bringing her hands behind her back and lacing her fingers together, like a little girl. He seemed familiar to her somehow, just like the song.

He raised his lips from the flute to regard her in turn through soft-violet eyes, and she thought of how pretty his face was. It was an honest face, one which she felt she could trust. "How may I help you, Sweetling?" the man asked her kindly. His voice was gentle; a soft, lilting alto that set her mind at ease. She instinctively knew that this man was a friend.

"Are you an elf?" she asked curiously. It was an honest question. After all, who else would live in this fairy-tale forest but an elf?

She was rewarded with a soft laugh and an amused, "Nay." The man smiled at her as she scrunched her brow thoughtfully, and picked up a lute from the cushion beside him. "I wrote a new song," he told her impishly. "Shall I sing it for you?"

Her eyes widened. "Yes, please," she replied eagerly. She had always wanted to hear him sing…

She blinked. Well, that was silly. Of course she’d never wanted to hear him sing! She’d only just met him at this moment. Hadn’t she?

The soft-eyed man smiled again and placed his slender hand on the lute, strumming softly. What a lovely melody, she thought dreamily, and glanced enviously at the hand so carefully strumming the lute, wishing that she could play music like that.

She was stunned to see that those long, beautiful fingers were covered with blood.

"Oh, Sir!" she gasped, leaping forward and pointing at his hand. "Your hand is…"

Her warning died in her throat when the man, as though he had never heard her, opened his mouth and began to sing.

Her eyes widened as she listened to the words he sang, her heart beginning to pound a swift, painful rhythm in her throat. This song…this song! How could he write something like this?! The melody was lovely and his voice was so soft and beautiful…but the words…those horrible words! And his face, when she dared to look at him…it held such an expression, as though he were relishing in his music, in her abhorrence to the lyrics being sung.

Stop! she thought in horror, her hands flying up to cover her ears. Please stop! I don’t want to listen anymore!

But still that haunting melody played, and the man’s voice continued to echo all around her…inside of her…

She fell to her knees, wanting nothing more than to escape, to run away. It was as though she was rooted to the ground. The light mist grasping at her knees with invisible fingers had turned heavy, oppressive. It enshrouded her like a cloak of lead, choking her, sapping the strength from her arms and legs. She was dying. The song was killing her. She could feel it!

She couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t take those deadly-soft words, the horrible, suffocating weight of fear, and she opened her mouth to release an ear-piercing scream.

And the music stopped, just like that, as Serena bolted to her feet in a frenzy of blankets and panicked gasps and the final, lingering verse of the nightmare song…

"Serena? What in the world happened?" Miaka had, of course, been awake from the moment her sister screamed, and had watched her struggle to her feet and to now stare blindly into the dark forest, looking as though all the evil in the world was rushing down upon them at that moment. She seemed to be in some kind of shock. "Serena?" Miaka jumped to her feet as well and grabbed her sister’s shoulder, shaking it roughly, and was rewarded with a jump and another strangled shriek.

"Calm down! It’s just me!" the older girl exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around the other’s trembling form. "What happened, Serena? You scared ten years growth out of me!"

"I-I’m sorry," Serena mumbled. She was still trembling violently. "It was a nightmare. A terrible nightmare."

"A nightmare?" Miaka’s eyes widened. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I can’t," Serena whispered hopelessly, sliding from her sister’s grasp to the ground, burying her face in her tucked-up knees.

"Sometimes it helps to talk about it, though," Miaka insisted.

"No, you don’t understand. I can’t," Serena replied with bone-deep weariness. "I want to, but…but I’ve forgotten what I dreamed!"

Miaka’s eyes widened. "But you’re always so good at remembering your dreams."

"I know. It’s as though…as though something is blocking it from my mind. I…can recall vague images…but the whole picture is just…gone." She shuddered. "There was…a hand. A bleeding hand. A-and I remember…these words. ‘And there you fall where Death has passed’."

"That’s horrible!" Miaka gasped.

"I know." Serena’s voice was grimly amused. "I think there was a lot more where that came from, but I just can’t recall it at the moment. Honestly…I don’t think that I want to."

Miaka pursed her lips. "Well, okay then. Maybe we should just try to get some more sleep, okay? I’m sure you won’t have any more dreams like that."

"Yeah. Just a fluke," Serena whispered, laying back down on her bedroll. She listened as Miaka made herself comfortable beside her, falling back into sleep easily. Serena did not join her. She lay there on her side, eyes open and staring into the shadowed forest, and knew with certainty that there would be no more rest for her that night.

Time seemed to stop.

Rei watched Safir hurtling toward Tasuki, the sword slicing through the air in a deadly, glittering arch, and reacted instinctively. She shoved Tasuki away from her as hard as she could, while at the same time throwing herself in the other direction. The blade hissed through the air between them and connected, slicing cleanly through Rei’s thick braid of hair.

The princess landed on her side, the breath knocked clean out of her, and only dimly registered Tasuki’s pained yelp a few feet away. Forcing air back into her lungs, aware that danger was far from past, she lifted her head to look toward the former spy and make sure that he was okay. She immediately forgot all about him, however, when her eyes instead fell upon the braided length of black hair lying in the dirt just beside her. Violet eyes flew wide with horror as her hand flew instinctively to grasp at the familiar mane that normally streamed almost to her knees. To her utter dismay, her seeking fingers touched the ends of the sheared-off braid, already beginning to unravel from its confines, that now barely touched the middle of her back. The rest of her once-glorious mane did, indeed, lay in the dirt before her. "My…hair, " she whispered brokenly, almost unable to believe what her eyes and fingers were telling her to be true. "My hair!" she repeated in a loud wail. "Look what you did to it!"

"This ain’t the time ta be worryin’ about a bloody haircut, ya idiot!" Tasuki bellowed loudly, not in any mood to be polite. He had his own troubles at the moment. Safir, as soon as he had landed, had immediately turned and launched himself at the fire-haired bandit again; apparently he’d decided that Tasuki posed a much bigger threat than the fragile-looking princess. Tasuki, for his part, had been able to draw the curved dagger tucked into his belt in time to keep the sword from plunging into his heart, but the Assassin’s momentum had taken both of them to the ground, and now a maniacally-grinning Safir was straddling the bandit, attempting to drive the deadly blade into the other’s throat. Tasuki’s firm grip on the curved dagger, somehow blocking the sword’s decent, was the only thing saving him from a beheading, but his sweat-slicked palms and cramping fingers were beginning to slip ever-so-slightly, and the sword inched steadily closer.

"Traitors are not tolerated among Ayurhu’s followers," Safir hissed, his handsome face twisted into a mask of crazed glee. "Death is too good for the likes of you!"

"I agree," Tasuki panted as he struggled to keep the sword from his throat. "So how about not wastin’ yer time tryin’ ta kill me?"

"Oh, I might not kill you just yet," Safir growled. "I’ll make sure you suffer first. And then, maybe I’ll have a little fun with your arrogant little princess before I kill you. You’ve both caused me enough trouble, and I don’t like trouble. Besides, it isn’t like Ayurhu actually needs the little wench! Killing her will be fun, I think."

"Over…my…dead…body," Tasuki grunted, tightening his grip on the dagger despite the screaming protest of his cramped fingers.

"Well…if you insist." Safir’s lips curled into an evil smirk, and Tasuki belatedly realized that the Assassin had merely been playing with him as—in a lightning-fast move, so fast the eye could not follow—the dagger was knocked from his hands and the sword was raised above Safir’s head, ready to plunge through Tasuki’s heart.

The bandit when white, and the Assassin’s smile grew as he savored the fear in the amber eyes. So focused was he on his victim that he failed to notice anything around him…and so was unprepared when something suddenly slammed full-force into the side of his head, sending him flying in one direction and the sword in another. He was unconscious when he hit the dirt, a large, ugly bruise already beginning to swell around the deep gash in the side of his head.

Tasuki blinked and looked around, for a moment wondering what had happened and why he was still alive, until his gaze finally fell upon one extremely pissed-off princess standing over the Assassin, clutching a tree branch with both hands, which appeared to have snapped in half with the force of the blow she had dealt. The broken end dangled uselessly by a single strip of bark, and Tasuki was forced to wonder if the Assassin was even alive after a blow like that. Rei’s chest heaved with adrenaline as she glared hatefully at her victim, lying spread-eagle before her. "That," she hissed furiously, "was for being such an arrogant, ill-mannered, hateful, evil donkey of a human being!" She lifted the branch again, just as Safir—obviously still alive—began to stir. "And this," she added triumphantly, "is for my hair!" And she brought the branch down across Safir’s groin with all her might.

Safir, though obviously dazed, was still conscious enough to register pain—especially p ain like that—and he immediately screamed like a dying banshee and curled up into a fetal position before once again losing consciousness, while Tasuki looked on with wide eyes, cringing in pained sympathy.

One lesson he learned well that day: Never ever mess with a princess’s hair.

Rei tossed the branch aside and brushed her hands together before planting them firmly on her hips, turning to look Tasuki straight in the eye. "Well?" she asked smugly. "Are you going to just lay there like a cretin in the dirt, or are you going to help me tie him up so we can get the hell out of here?"

Tasuki quickly scrambled to obey.

To Part 18