The next to ambush her were, surprisingly, a group of children. Daliya glimpsed them as they neared the main road that would have taken them back to the castle. From Haitham’s amused smile, he too, must have noticed their presence.

  They watched her with suspicious and wary eyes as they approached her. Two little boys and a girl.

  “Who should ask?”

  “You go.”

  “No. You go.”

  “I thought you were our leader!”

  Daliya stood there, waiting for them to finish their argument and tell her what they wanted from her. Her lips tilted up in amusement as the ‘leader’ stomped his feet, announcing that he decided as their leader to have them draw paper rock scissors to see who would ask her. Unfortunately for him, he lost all three rounds. The two other children refused his request for a rematch.

  He shot a betrayed look at his friends as they pushed him forward.

  “You need something?” Daliya asked.

  The kid fidgeted on his feet. He glanced at his friends, then back at her, before turning his gaze to the ground.

  Daliya kneeled on the ground, the child’s gaze now level with hers. She smiled encouragingly for him to speak.

  “I… eh…”

  She nodded, waiting for him to continue.

  With a final glance at his friends. He took a deep breath and looked shyly at her.

  “Karim. Talyn said that you… Your Highness, I mean.” Daliya smiled, shaking her head at his flustered face. “She said that you went to look for him.”

  So they were Karim’s friends.

  She nodded. “I did. He’s fine. If that’s what you’re asking.”

  He gave a sharp nod. “But–but, their house is empty. Do you… eh… know where he is?”

  She hesitated, her smile faltering slightly.

  Honestly, she didn’t know where Karim and his mother were. She had left Haitham to deal with the whole thing. He had said he would get them to safety. That was all that mattered.

  “He went to visit his family,” Haitham said next to her. She glanced at him. He sat, one knee barely touching the ground.

  “Really?” the girl, Talyn, Daliya presumed, said.

  She inched closer, emboldened. The other kid followed soon after. The three children encircled them. Daliya’s smile widened at their ease.

  “When will he be back?” the third kid asked.

  “Ah. That’s not for me to decide, don’t you think?” he lifted a finger at their dejected faces. “I heard they serve honey cakes at their relatives’ house. So, I guess he’ll be back when all the cakes are eaten.”

  The children let out an awed exclamation.

  “I knew it,” the small roup’s leader said. “He better save some for us, or he’ll be the ‘it’ in our tag game for a whole month.” He huffed.

  “I want a honey cake,” Talyn grumbled.

  Their this frine, seemingly the more mature of them all, tutted. He shook his head. “I would say make it two months. No, three months. He broke his promise. He said he’ll show me how to find squirrels. But he’s gone now, eating honey cakes while I’m here with no squirrels.”

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  Daliya let out a chortle. The children startled. They glanced warily at her before they burst into giggles.

  “We’ll let him know you were worried about him., right?” She glanced at Haitham. He nodded, smiling.

  The children’s faces flushed. They spluttered.

  “We’re not worried. We just wanted to play. We were going to the field to make flower crowns,” Talyn said.

  “To hunt squirrels!”

  “To make flower crowns! He promised!”

  Their leader interjected, putting a hand over their shoulders. “We were going to make crowns for the hunting champion.”

  They paused, then nodded at him, convinced by his words.

  Daliya felt a trickle of guilt in her chest. They had taken Karim away from his friends to god knows what future.

  If there was any.

  She stifled the sigh from escaping her lips, trying to keep the smile on her face.

  These children… they were so innocent. And so was Karim. And now, his whole life was uprooted because of something out of his hands.

  There had to be something she could do. She was the empire’s sole princess, for crying out loud. It was her job to protect her people's daily and mundane lives. It was her duty to ensure that their lives weren’t interrupted and they had the chance for a normal and worry-free existence.

  She had to do something.

  But what could she do? She knew little about the emperor, little bits and pieces she could glean from her talk with Haitham.

  She knew the emperor regarded the princess as more of a tool he could use against people like her than a family member. His daughter.

  She knew he was a heartless tyrant who had taken it upon himself to eradicate innocent people for no crimes they committed.

  How could she reason with someone like him? She might as well lose her life the second she proved useless to his cause—which she already was. She refused to raise her blade against innocents, no matter the emperor’s retribution. That, she was sure of.

  The princess might have been a weapon in her father’s hand. But she was neither the real princess nor was she his daughter. And more importantly, she wasn’t a criminal for hire.

  She knew that one day, her determination would bring her to the other side of the emperor’s blade. But she couldn’t bring herself to care. Not one bit.

  What she could do now was train and train and train till she mastered all her powers. So that if that day ever came, she would be ready.

  She already had an appointment with death—one too many. She wouldn’t give the emperor the satisfaction of holding the blade that ended her.

  Not that she planned on dying. She would grow stronger and outlive whatever fate had in store for her. Strangely enough, since meeting the Seer, the vision was nothing but a memory. Something that, if she closed her eyes tight enough, she could pretend never seeing. A mere nightmare she could ignore the second she opened her eyes.

  If only things were that easy.

  Talyn took out a small wooden knight statue and handed it to Daliya. “Can you give him this? My grandfather finished it yesterday, but he’s gone now,” she said in a small voice.

  Daliya gazed at the statuette in her palm, caressing her finger against its smooth surface. “Karim liked the knight’s order?” she asked.

  Talyn gave a sharp nod. “He wants to be a knight when he grows up.”

  “I see.”

  “Me too! I wanna be a knight like my father!” Talyn added.

  Daliya blinked at her beaming face. Her father? A knight? She would have to find out who it was.

  The two children soon followed after, expressing their desire to enter into the princess’s employ and fight evil with their big, strong swords.

  Heroes like the knight’s order.

  Daliya watched the excited children, guilt gnawing at her chest. She couldn’t tell them the truth and shatter their childhood dreams, so she smiled at them, nodding as they told her how strong they would be once they were proper adults.

  She felt Haitham still beside her, sensing his shoulders tense and the slight change in his breathing. She shot him a curious look. He shook his head, mouthing, ‘I’ll be back,’ before standing and disappearing behind the slopped roof of one of the houses. The children’s delight echoed as they stared at where he was.

  “I wanna be strong like him!”

  “Me too!”

  “I’m going to become even stronger than him!”

  “Stop lying! He’s the princess’s personal knight! No one can be stronger!”

  “Then I’ll become the princess’s personal knight!” The child glanced at her, asking for her support.

  Daliya laughed. “Of course.”

  Her words only served in the other two’s upset yells.

  “It’s not fair! I wanted to ask her first!”

  Daliya’s laughter turned into a full-bellied laugh. She watched the kids squabble for a future knightly position. But she couldn’t help the slight worry at Haitham’s strange behavior. After reassuring the children that they can all become knights and sending them back to the square to watch the festivities’ preparations—with a renewed promise to relay their messages to Karim—she set off to find her wayward bodyguard.