Leon almost smiled. If he'd thought he would find her curled up in a corner in despair, he would have been sorely disappointed. She was stronger than that.

Al and Leon walked out of the cell first with the girls following.

The guard whispered to Ida, "she's captain Holloway's prisoner. What am I supposed to tell him?"

Leon turned. The guard's face paled. His back went ramrod straight.

"Tell him to come see me if he has any objections," Leon said.

The guard bowed. Summer gave him a weirded out look. They left the guard behind and descended the dark staircase. Every step felt like a stab in his side. Summer must be feeling worse.

"Find out who beat her up and who was on duty," Leon told Al.

"Got it." Al said. "Leon-"

"Not now Al."

Al looked straight ahead. At least he had the decency to look ashamed.

"Who gave you that bruise?" Leon asked. The bruise looks worse under the dim lights of the sporadic lanterns suspended along the wall.

Al rubbed his jaw with a wince and glanced behind them at the two girls. "Ida."

"She should've punched the other side since one wasn't enough to smarten you up."

Once in the courtyard below, it seemed like the number of people had doubled in the short time they were inside.

"You're with me," Leon said when Summer headed to Ida's horse.

Summer stared at the tall black stallion and winced.

"A hand?" he asked. She pursed her lips and nodded.

Leon picked her up by the waist and helped her onto his horse. She was so light that he almost dropped her on the other side of the horse. He climbed behind her.

He spurred his horse forward. Summer's head barely cleared his chin.

"You smell awful," he told her.

Summer chuckled then gasped, clutching her side. "Don't make me laugh. So where are we going?"

He considered how to better answer that. "To your temporary residence."

"Hmm, hopefully they have better food. I'm not partial to cold gruel."

She spoke absentmindedly, her head swinging this way and that, gaze drinking in the new scenery around her. The sun had disappeared below the horizon, and the pale gray of the castle walls looked almost white under the twilit sky.

"Are we in a castle?" she asked when they cleared the tall walls of the third perimeter and approached the main keep perched on the hill.

"No one told you?"

"No. Ida said we're in the capital. I assumed it was in the city."

Leon helped her down the horse. Her one good eye was wide open. "This is really a castle."

"No, this is the castle," Ida said with a smile.

Summer's eye widened even more. She whispered, "You mean this is where the king lives?"

"Yes, the king, the queen, the prince," Ida said. "Every monarch we have."

"Damn." Summer craned her neck to look at the sprawling structure, then looked back at Ida. "I'm not going to meet them, right?"

"I don't know." Ida smiled, satisfied with herself. "What do you think, Leon?"

Leon rubbed his forehead. "I think I need food."

He walked in, Al's shoulders shook next to him. Ida and Summer were still speaking behind. Ida would know where to take her.

"It's not funny," Leon said. He didn't know how Summer would react to the news of his identity. She had a general problem with authority figures. How would she react to him being a prince?

"I think it is, your highness."

"You're still not off the hook."

"Oh, I know." The laughter disappeared. "And I deserve it, I guess. I'm still not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing all over again, though."

"See, that's the issue," Leon said. "As of right now, you're not to concern yourself with Summer or anything she does or says. Ida will take care of her. Summer is my guest. Make it known."

Logan greeted them at the doors of Leon's wing with a deep bow. "The king has asked for your highness."

*** ***

More often than not, the king's evenings were dedicated to his wife. This evening, however, Leon was summoned to the study in the king's personal suite. Al accompanied him.

"Is the artifact back to its place, by the way?" Leon asked belatedly as he and Al walked down the hallway to the king's study. Their boots made light tapping sounds over the glossy white marble. The walls on either side were decorated with colorful tapestries and exotic paintings, most of them a gift from other nations.

"Yes, it's in the capable hands of the curator."

The two guards standing by the outer entrance put their right fists on the left side of their chest as he approached. Al and Leon walked past them into the waiting room; a circular, bare space with a seating arrangement and a small library on one wall. The door to his older brother's study was across the space.

At the doors of the study, Captain Holloway stood at attention. Holloway was the captain of the king's personal guards.

Despite the name, the royal personal guards, also known as the royal guards, did not have as a main mission trailing the royal in question every second of every day. They had other duties, missions that were too unique or too private to be assigned to regular city guards or military personnel.

Captain Holloway was the head of the running investigation in the museum heist where the artifact had been stolen.

Holloway put his fist on his chest and bowed his head. "Your highness."

"Captain." Leon nodded at Al. He stood on the other side of the door. Leon knocked and walked in.

Leon's older brother, Victor, had always been an avid admirer of beauty. Their mother always said her first born had inherited her flair for elegance and refinement. And it showed everywhere in his personal spaces.

The study had an entire wall with dark wood shelves filled with books. The windows opened to let in the night's cool wind, over which sheer curtains of light green danced. The fireplace roared with crackling flames. Over the mantel stood raw rocks of various colors and shapes, unique reminders of the places he or his wife had been to.

A carved table made with the white wood found only in an island across the ocean was next to the fireplace, around it were chairs upholstered with velvety green fabric embroidered in threads of gold. A tray of tea waited on the table next to the fireplace.

The other walls were paneled with that same rare white wood, carved with intricate details and threaded with golden and silver lines that shimmered under the chandelier overhead.

A large desk sat atop the carpeted floor. Behind it, his brother, the king of Springwood, sat.

"You've finally come to see me, brother," Victor said. His blue eyes were as alert and shrewd as Leon remembered. The embroidered waistcoat he wore was a color that reminded Leon of the red river, reddish hue streaked with green and gold over a white shirt rolled at the sleeves.

Leon stood in front of the desk, put a fist on his chest and bowed his head. "Your majesty."

Victor waved his hand to one of the chairs. "Sit down. You look like you're going to fall. You're lucky mother is away on travel. Otherwise, she would have been hovering over your shoulder from sunrise to sunset."

"Logan is doing all the hovering I can take," Leon said. Victor stood up and went to the table.

"Tea?"

"Please." Leon sat down and relaxed. There were few people in whose company he could completely loosen up. His brother was one of them. "Why open the window when a fire is roaring?"

"My lovely wife has just left. She had fed the fire until the room was unbearably hot and left. So you won't feel cold, she said. I opened the windows as soon as she left. Don't tell her that." Victor smiled. "She will come see you later. Or you'll go see her. The only reason she didn't stay is because she had a prior appointment."

Leon smiled. His sister in law, the queen, was the only woman he knew who could handle his brother. Their marriage was arranged, as was the case for most royal marriages. But the relationship between the two had blossomed into a beautiful thing. She had made his brother, and continued to make him, a better man.

"So," the king handed Leon a cup of hot aromatic tea and walked back to his chair with a cup of his own, "why haven't you come to see me?"

"I'm sure you know I just woke up." Leon sipped the hot drink, it slid down his throat smoothly, awakening his hunger. He was starving.

"Exactly. So imagine my surprise when the first place you rushed to is to save your damsel in distress."

Leon almost spilled tea on himself. He chuckled. His brother arched his brows, his face openly surprised.

"If you knew her," Leon said, "you'd know how silly that description is."

A damsel in distress was the last thing Summer was.

"I see," Victor leaned back and looked at his cup for a long moment. "The fact remains, she's a suspect in a dangerous theft, Al had confirmed as much. And to my understanding, she was found with a weapon over your body."

Leon leaned forward and stared at his brother. "Do you know what happened back there?"

"Up to the point where you fell in a river while trying to save her and a child, which was idiotic, Al or Ida should have done that. You're the first in line to the throne. You should act like it."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Ida was injured, Al was holding off the last men. I'm sure if he'd known the cliff was going to crumble down, he would have volunteered."

Victor sighed. "Whatever happened after that, I don't think there's anything that will justify your irrational behavior when it comes to your- lady friend."

Leon glared at Victor. He knew exactly what his brother was insinuating. Victor always managed to irritate him beyond reason. "She's not my 'lady friend'."

"Is that so?" the king said. "Then you should fill in the gaps here, because people will be talking. And Holloway can't possibly do his work if you're freeing his only suspect."

"Fine. I'll fill in the gaps," Leon said, dropping the cup of tea with a clatter on the plate. His mother would've scolded him for his manners, but he was too agitated. He fixed his brother with a scowl and spoke.

"By some miracle, we managed to not drown. I lost consciousness shortly after we pulled ourselves to firm ground. You know what the damsel in distress did? She found shelter, dragged me halfway across the forest to it while being half dead and poisoned herself.

"She treated my wounds, or I would've bled to death. She lit up a fire and kept me warm. She fed me wild berries and hunted fresh meat. She hauled water all the way from the river to my sorry self. She cleaned up vomit and waste after me because I was too weak or unconscious to do it. She had a dagger that she could've used to carve my heart out at any moment. Hell, she could've just left me there and I would've died on my own. She could've gone to the nearest town and saved her skin, she could've left me and walked away because I was dead weight. But she didn't. She stayed. She kept me alive.

"She protected me when those men found us, and used herself as bait to drag them away from me. She's the reason you still have a brother. So if you tell me to sit by while she's held in a prison cell, I will break your nose."

Victor blinked, then grinned widely and leaned back in his chair. "Very well then. She can stay."

Leon snapped his mouth shut, glared at his brother. "What? That's it?"

"I trust your judgment." Victor shrugged. "You're not one to make rash decisions."

They drank tea in silence for a moment before his brother picked up a document and read from it. "A dagger to the back of the neck. Instant death. A broken arm and a broken neck. Two men twice her size, dead. The four boys who broke into her cell; Cracked ribs, a broken arm, a broken nose, countless cruises and lacerations."

Leon smiled, proud of her. So those brats hadn't escaped unharmed. Good. Victor arched his brow and dropped the paper on his desk. "You want to have this woman in close quarters with your son?"

"She would be a great layer of protection."

"How did she learn all this, Leon?" Victor asked, tapping a finger to the document. "I haven't seen her. But Holloway says she's barely half his size and weight."

"A man trained her when she was but a child," Leon said. "A man named Boyd."

His brother frowned. Leon continued. "It took me a long time to figure out, and I don't think Ida and Al had figured it out yet. Boyd 'The Blade'. Do you remember him?"

"He's alive?" Victor leaned forward, coming to life like a wolf scenting blood.

"According to her, he's dead."

"Are you sure it's him?"

"My gut says it's him. I will know for sure when I show her a portrait of the man."

Boyd 'The Blade' was a legend among soldiers. He was one of his late father's most prized warriors. His skill in all bladed weapons was widely reputed as unmatched in the military across all neighboring nations.

Boyd had disappeared shortly after Leon's father died. No one knew where he went or what he did, whether he was alive or dead.

The name hadn't rung a bell in Leon's mind when Summer first mentioned him. He didn't link the two until he saw the man she'd killed with a dagger outside their cave. Boyd had been a legend in throwing daggers. It was rumored he could pin a butterfly to a tree bark from hundreds of yards. There was no way of knowing myth from truth. But the fact remained, the man had been a legend. And his legend still lived.

His brother slowly smiled. That annoying smile that said he was devising plans no one else knew. Leon sighed. "What?"

"You will keep clashing with Holloway if he's to continue being head of the investigation," the king finally said. "Holloway would insist on keeping your friend under lock."

Leon narrowed his eyes at Victor. He was manipulating him into taking charge of the investigation instead of Holloway.

"Fine." Leon sighed.

"You're better than him." Victor smiled. "Besides, his mother just passed away and his head isn't in it. But his pride won't let him delegate the investigation to someone else. This way is better."

Leon nodded. Fair enough.

"So when will I meet the lovely Summer?"

Leon scoffed, gulped his lukewarm tea down and stood up. "When hell freezes over."

Victor chuckled and stood. He walked over to Leon and hugged him. Leon had always thought his brother was bigger than life. He'd always been good at everything, and Leon never felt jealous of him. He'd always been proud to have such a perfect big brother.

Of course, as they both grew up, Leon discovered his brother wasn't perfect. He was only human. And he got on Leon's nerves very often. But in a small corner of Leon's heart, Victor was still the hero he saw as a child.

"I'm glad you're safe." Victor slapped Leon's back and pulled back. "But if you ever put your life in danger again, I will tell Mother you were the one who broke Grandmother's porcelain set."