“Was she alone when she left?”
Now this one was tricky. If I said yes, then the prince would think she ran away again. But in reality, she had traveled back to my time alone. I didn’t want him to think she abandoned her family, and see her punished if she ever returned. Then again, I was with her. It would be hard to lie about. I had to tell the partial truth.
“No, she wasn’t,” I replied, not giving any more details as I wondered how I’d be able to get around the question. The prince nodded again. I guessed my answer was enough for him.
“What nationality of people were with her?” He was guessing that she was kidnapped, and that was a good line for me to work with.
“That I don’t know. I don’t know the difference between any of the men I saw last night. I wasn’t raised here. I don’t know how you tell where anyone is from,” I answered. Selective truth telling was easier than I thought. Maybe I was cut out to play this game. The prince nodded. He had to already have known that much, but either forgot, or wanted to test me. Either way, it didn’t matter. I was telling the truth. I didn’t know where the various men came from.
“Why did you run?” he asked, moving on to details about me now.
“Because Lady Saska told me to please Lord Enil, and I could not. If I were married to the man, it would have been different, but I’m not,” I replied. I didn’t even care if he saw that as a lie. There was no way I was ever planning to be alone in a room with a guy like Lord Enil.
“Who sent you to be alone with Lord Enil?” Prince Saru asked, coming closer and staring into my eyes again.
How could he not know? It was strange. Didn’t he tell Lady Saska to give me to the older man? The look in his eyes, and his question, gave me the answer. I had a good feeling it was never his order.
“Lady Saska,” I replied, not even blinking. I don’t know if anyone ever told him what an evil wife he had, but I wasn’t going to lie about that. She already hated me and was trying to get me hurt. What more could she do?
Prince Saru nodded and walked back a few paces. After a moment in thought, he turned to me and eyed me over. “That should do,” he said before waving the guards I hadn’t noticed forward into the room.
My heart began to beat. Was I in trouble for telling him that his wife was to blame for me running away? Did he really mean for me to be a play toy for this Lord Enil? I glanced at the lines on my hand to see if I could travel through time soon. They were still incomplete, but a tiny bit was solid colored at the base of my wrist. There was enough to run, but I had to be sure I would make it. If I used any of the time travel ability, it would mean a longer wait until I got back home to the future. The guard that had found me came in with the others and smiled at me gently, like he was trying to calm a caged animal. I got the feeling he didn’t want me to disappear. Could I trust him? He could see the lines. Did that make him trustworthy? He waited for me to approach them as they all stopped and waited. I had no choice but to go with them, and I had to hope that my mysterious guard was there to help me if needed.
The prince didn’t even notice my hesitation as he began to leave the room. I followed behind him, flanked by guards. I didn’t know how to get far in the palace, but I was sure of our direction now. We were going back to the eating hall that I was in the night before. Lady Juni mentioned everyone was there, and I had to hope my punishment wasn’t to be given to someone waiting there for me. I’d take the risk and disappear as far as I could if it came to that. Prince Saru walked ahead and waited only briefly as two more guards opened the door.
“Prince Arik-ninari, I have found your bride in one piece,” my cousin called in to the room as he entered.
A man toward the back of the room turned to our entrance and hurried over to us as the conversations around the room quieted. The man was young, much younger than I expected, but he didn’t seem like a prince. Several of the men were dressed more elaborately than he was. Great, I was being married off to a young, poor prince. I watched the young man hopefully. If this was really my punishment, I was going to take it. I didn’t see Lord Enil anywhere, and hoped that was the case.
“Prince Saru,” the kid said, bowing to the prince beside me. “Prince Arik-ninari has begun packing his traveling companions to head back home. He left me here to say good-bye to you.” The young man wasn’t the prince. That was a bit disappointing. At least all of this was taking time. And time was what I needed, as the power to travel was slowly regenerating in my arm.
“Leaving?” Prince Saru asked, confused and anxious at the thought.
“Yes, since you lost his bride,” the kid added, looking to me. He nodded like he was appraising me and was only partially sure I was the right person.
“I didn’t lose her. I have found her, and will bring her to him myself,” Prince Saru added, a bit frustrated.
Prince Saru turned on his heels and led me out of the dining hall. I found it strange that my cousin was riled. Was this prince that important? What piece of the puzzle was I fulfilling now? What was my cousin getting by trading me off to this prince? I kind of wanted to know more. It was strange to go from being a normal college kid to a girl trapped in some other world. I didn’t know much about the time, or the people, but this was where I was supposed to be born. Now it just seemed foreign to me.
Prince Saru kept walking and didn’t even look back to see if I had followed. It was temping just to stand still, but I got the hint, when the guards around me began to move closer, that I was to follow my cousin. We walked through an elaborate entrance hall that matched the dining hall, and out to the courtyard. It was mostly empty, except for a small group that was packing up carts and animals.
“Prince Arik-ninari,” Prince Saru called into the small group of people all going about their jobs.
The guard who had escorted me from my hiding place back into the rest of the palace stood beside me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him as Prince Saru made his way through the crowd that getting ready to leave. The guard wasn’t being mean, but protective of me in the swarm of people doing their jobs. Mules were being packed up with goods and people were all going about their duties, ignoring the yelling prince. It would have been easy to be run into in the mess of people as they ignored me completely. In the center of the mess was a well-dressed man. He stood taller than his workers, and pointed in various directions as he talked with his back to us. His sandy brown hair curled at the edges and brushed the top of his tunic.
My guard held tight, yet gently, to me.
“Don’t run now,” the man warned me. “It isn’t safe for you to stay here. Prince Arik-ninari is nothing like the one you ran from last night. You’ll be safe with him before you can travel again. Just don’t accept any gifts from the prince. He will protect you, yet do not trust him. You must leave with Prince Arik-ninari now, before Lady Saska gets her way,” the guard whispered to me.
“You know who I am?” I asked. He could see the lines, and knew what they meant.
“Yes, but ask no more from me. I’ll be beside you, and make sure you stay safe,” the guard replied. I looked up at his grey-purple eyes. He reminded me a lot of Logan, but I could tell that there was nothing hidden in the young guard. He was trying to help me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The guard smiled. “Someone you will know in time.”
“Prince Arik-ninari,” Prince Saru called again, a bit louder, to be heard over the noise of all of the people.
The man in the middle didn’t turn around as Prince Saru pushed his way next to him. Prince Saru elaborately spoke, flinging his arms around as he explained something to the man. When he was finished with his rant, the man nodded, and Prince Saru hurried back over to me with a smile plastered on his face. It looked like my cousin would get his way in selling me off.
“The prince will still have you,” Prince Saru told me, as if my running off had jeopardized my honor. “He has important business to attend to back at his household immediately. You’ll go
with him to his home to marry him. From this point on, you belong to him.”
Great, I was being married off like an object. I wasn’t a fan of the time period as it was, but this made it even less of a fun time. A forced marriage wasn’t exactly good news if you asked me, but a journey would give me time to recover my ability to travel. Hopefully, there would be enough time before I’d be married to the man that was still standing with his back to us. He didn’t even turn to look at me. Guess he didn’t need to since I was his now. The guard had promised me I’d be safe, and I hoped that would be the case. I don’t know why, but I trusted him. His grey-purple eyes were too much like Logan’s for me to not trust him.
“You must leave now with him,” Prince Saru continued, pushing me forward toward the unknown man. It wasn’t enticing me any to be running off into who knows where with some prince, but I couldn’t say no and I didn’t want to risk time travel quite yet. It had to be a last resort, as I needed to get home.
I moved near the new prince, and his baby-faced messenger was beside him. The messenger offered me a hand to step into the chariot that was prepared. When they said I was leaving immediately, they were serious. I stepped up and waited. I didn’t even want to look at the new prince. I was terrified enough. The chariot didn’t exactly look like the safest means of travel either. I’d have much rather been tossed in one of the carts behind us. The prince climbed in after me and placed his arms under my own as he grabbed the reins to the horses.
“Thank you for finally joining me, lady,” the prince said into my ear. He voice felt familiar, but I didn’t turn around. I didn’t know a single person left in the past. Maybe this man was a relative of someone I knew in the present. “Please accept this as a wedding gift.”
He tried to place a ring on my finger. I tightened my hand into a fist. I wasn’t going to accept any gifts from him.
“No, thank you,” I replied, still staring straight ahead.
The prince chuckled. “I see. This wasn’t an arrangement you approved of. Then will you also refuse the gift from your cousin?”
He held a bracelet in front of my face. It looked just like the same ones around my wrist. From the corner of my eye, my cousin nodded from across the way. I was sure he was saying I couldn’t deny a gift from him. Was it safe? The guard said to not accept gifts, but the prince said it was from my cousin. The prince clipped the bracelet around my wrist with all the others. There was no need for such extravagance, but I figured there was no getting away from it. I continued to face forward. I really didn’t want any gifts from the new prince or my cousin.
“My lord, are you ready,” the messenger asked from behind us.
The prince replied by snapping his horses into motion. I gripped the side of the chariot as it moved. I wasn’t expecting to feel the movement beneath my feet as much as I did. I was a city girl. This put me completely out of my element. The chariot picked up speed and the wind blew through my hair. I turned slightly to grab my loose hair and keep it from whipping the prince in the face; the prince was driving us, after all, and I wanted to be safe. My mouth dropped when I finally saw the prince and figured out why I recognized the voice.
“No need to worry, Mari; I really am an expert at driving one of these things,” Logan said as the horse turned slightly, leading us down a street that was a straight shot out of town. I could see from the slope as we went downhill that we were really leaving the city. “I’ve spent years in this time period.”
I figured out why Logan never came to help me when I needed him. Logan Jones was Prince Arik-ninari, my betrothed.
Logan drove the chariot through town and didn’t add anything more to his explanation. Why was he the prince? Why was he betrothed to me? Why didn’t he just take me home? The more I thought, the more questions kept popping into my head. It made no sense. Obviously Logan was in a position of power and could do almost whatever he wanted. Why were we just taking a ride? I needed to get home. Everyone was back in the future, not here. Maybe he was leading us away to time travel out of this place. We couldn’t just disappear from the middle of a courtyard full of people. The scenery continued to fly by, and it became clear we were going for a ride and not trying to lose our escort. I turned back and tried to talk to him, holding my hair to keep it from flapping in his face. He had to have some sort of plan, and I wanted in on it.
“What are we doing?” My voice was covered by the wind.
Logan smiled and moved closer to my ear. “I can’t hear you with all this noise. We can talk later when we’re on the boat.” His hot breath on my ear sent shivers down to my toes. I hated the lasting feelings I had for him. I wanted to go home, and he was toying with me again.
“Boat?” I asked. He just smiled and didn’t reply. I got the hint. I wasn’t getting any answers now, that was for sure.
Logan kept the horses going as we proceeded through town. I didn’t get much of a look at my surroundings before with Seth, since I had to hide my identity, but now I could see it all as it whirled past. The white adobe houses lined the street and people jumped out of the way of our chariot as it charged by. Logan didn’t even slowdown in fear of hitting anyone, but I guess he didn’t have to. Everyone saw and heard us coming and moved before he would have had to worry. I looked at the faces of people as we passed and tried to understand it all. If I had been born in the past, these would have been my people. This is where I’d have been raised. This would have been home. These tan-skinned people, mostly with dark eyes staring back at me, would have been my neighbors. It was strange to think of it that way. Nothing was familiar, and nothing felt like home. Could I have been happy here? I would never know for sure, but part of me knew one thing. I wouldn’t have been happy without ever meeting Seth.
Logan turned the chariot onto a new street that was less filled with people but with more with potholes and obstacles he easily avoided. He was right; he knew how to drive one of these things. He was showing off, but I wasn’t about to give him a compliment. I was still too confused about the situation. He could have taken me home already. That was the plan, after all. Maybe not his plan, as it was starting to seem, but it was the plan we all agreed on. What was he up to now? I still couldn’t trust him completely. The situation seemed just too off to be able to believe that he was going to do as we agreed. Besides, if he was going to take me home, couldn’t he have done it earlier? It was his guard that found me.
Logan hit a pothole in the Swiss cheese-like street, and I had to let go of my hair to grab onto the rail in front of me with both hands. The wheel on the left side bounced off the ground momentarily. Chariots didn’t seem safe in my book, but this made it even less safe. The whole thing felt like it could tip over at any moment. Logan laughed as my hair whipped him in the face, and he moved one of his hands around my waist to help steady me. He did that on purpose. I didn’t reach back to pull my hair out of his face, choosing to leave it there. My stubbornness just made Logan laugh more. Well, at least he was having a fun time. I just wanted to get back to my mother and Seth, and learn more about my father.
The ride didn’t last that long after Logan’s attempt to impress me with his chariot driving skills. He could have done a better job by just taking me home, but that didn’t seem to be in the plans at the moment. The harbor wasn’t far beyond the bumpy road. I could smell the water before I could officially see it. I had no idea where in the world I was, and wished I had a map to see what body of water we were approaching. I took another deep breath. The smell did feel like home to me now unlike the city we just left had.
Logan slowed down to allow his entourage to catch up with us. I hadn’t noticed my purple-eyed guard was riding next to us until we slowed. Had he been there the whole time? Logan pulled up to the dock next to four ships that were already waiting for us with a crew on board. The ship looked like it had two levels. The top were almost bare of travelers, but the bottom levels were filled with people sitting at oars. Logan pulled up his chariot at the dock and hopped off. I turne
d around to find my mystery guard offering me his hand to help me down.
Logan was gone before I could ask him any questions, and he was directing the people that had come with us from the palace. He was obviously too busy to take care of me. I didn’t see a return to the future any time soon. I’d have to wait for the lines to return on my arm before I could head home on my own. This must have been one of those time periods that Logan was in charge. He certainly had a life in this era.
“This way, Mari.” The guard directed me, distracting me from my thoughts.
I stayed a second to look at Logan, but it was clear that he was occupied. I still wanted to ask him to take me home immediately, but there was no way I could talk to him about taking me home with so many people around us. I hated that it would have to wait.
The purple-eyed guard led me onto one of the ships. There was a seating place near the back with comfy pillows strewn about the floor of the ship. The guard motioned for me to sit, but I didn’t. I stood and stared at him. This was getting to be too much. Why couldn’t Logan just take me home? I hated to feel like a whiny kid, but what I needed to do in the past was done. We saved everyone, and they were back in the future. I wanted to go to the future. Didn’t Logan? Why were we still here?
“Who are you?” I interrogated him. He seemed to know much more than he was letting on, and I was getting sick of being left in the dark.
“Everyone calls me Kye,” he replied, motioning to the pillows again. He obviously wanted me to sit down.
“Okay, Kye, who are you?” I repeated myself. His answer really didn’t get to what I wanted to know. That made the guard smile. He had been serious from the first moment I met him, I had to pause when he reacted with amusement.
Kye looked good with a smile. He was dressed just like the rest of the warriors that accompanied us, sword and all hanging around his waist, but he didn’t fit the clothing. The way he walked, and the way he looked me in the eyes—that was something all the other guards didn’t do—made me wonder more about him. He looked to be about my age, maybe a little older, and not truly one of the guards. There was just something different about the way he held himself. He was just as much of a mystery as Logan was. Kye took off his helmet, and his red hair shone in the light. Shockingly, it was the same color as mine. If he was Nahrin, was he also of royal blood? Logan told me that the royals were the only ones with red hair around here. Kye stared at me as I gaped in shock at his hair. His purple eyes danced with amusement. They were the same shade as Logan’s eyes, and it was almost like I was looking at him. Thankfully, the smile and the hair made Kye completely different from my ex-boyfriend, who was too preoccupied to take me back to my time and family.