Sick to her stomach, Lilac spun, eyes darting between the nearby shrubs for a better hiding spot for the three of them.
It was too late.
She spotted it through the trees. A royal Camargue cantered towards them, its rider in a billowing robe emblazoned with the signature red and gold of the kingdom coat of arms.
“Steady… Whoa.”
The newcomer halted abruptly in front of Lilac. The steed whinnied and puffed out his chest self-importantly, his equine coat luminous against the roaring bonfire.
While the rider preoccupied himself with smoothing his shoulder length hair and unmounting the horse, Lilac hastily threw her hood back on. Swallowing her panic, she exhaled a string of expletives under her breath.
It couldn’t be.
It absolutely could not.
The young boy she knew from the Le Tallec soirée was no more. In his place stood a towering soldier, platinum hair silver and rippling in the moonlight. His rounded cherub face had thinned into boxy cheekbones and a jutting chin, though his stifling pride had evidently persevered through the years.
“Mademoiselle!” Sinclair said, offering an arm. Lilac could have imagined it, but he stepped gingerly, almost as if unable to put his full weight on his right leg. Knowing him, he’d try to hide even the smallest injury in the presence of a woman. “I mustn’t let these vile creatures harass you any further! Certainly not a lovely maiden such as yourself.”
He didn’t recognize her. Keeping her chin tucked, Lilac pretended not to see his outstretched gloved hand. Unsure of how her unfortunate ability worked, she prayed her impromptu lies wouldn’t come out in the Darkling Tongue
“I was only passing through to get a drink of water,” she directed at him with her head down and a gesture toward the river. “I was so thirsty that I failed to take notice of their camp until after. They were not doing me any harm.”
She heard Sinclair draw his sword from its sheath as he positioned himself between Lilac and the camp of trembling korrigans. Aife and her mother still stood beside her, trembling against the trunks of the princess’s legs.
“What have we here?” His proud voice rang through the tight clearing, and Lilac chanced a look up from under her hood. Sinclair eyed the sweets in Aife’s arms and the rest which had fallen beside Lilac’s sack. “Ah! Stealing from the damsel, I see? I hold no mercy for thieves.”
Without regard for the child, he pointed his blade downward. The tip of his sword came to rest just centimeters from Aife’s round nose.
“Don’t!” Lilac and Blitzrik shouted simultaneously. Lilac took a step forward and Blitzrik had leaped out from his hiding place, behind the nearest tent.
Sinclair blinked at the appearance of Blitzrik. The rest of them had retreated into their tents, but Lilac could see a couple peeking out from behind the entrance flaps. Their chief stood guardedly between Sinclair and the campground with what looked like a makeshift wooden sword.
“Don’t you dare touch them. Don’t you… That is a mother and child. Remove your blade from them this instant!” Blitzrik’s grey face had turned purple. A single vein was visible above his bushy eyebrows.
As Sinclair faced the campfire, Lilac tried to catch Blitzrik’s eye, frantically shaking her head and patting the air in signal for him to take things down a notch. If provoked, Sinclair would kill him where he stood, without blinking. It wouldn’t take much at all.
Blitzrik finally met her gaze. “Princess,” he cried. “You won’t let this man harm us, will you?”
Lilac’s face drained. He totally missed the signal. And here she thought she might actually get out of it without Sinclair recognizing her. She steeled herself, preparing for Sinclair’s reaction.
But Sinclair only shifted his sword from Aife to Blitzrik and shouted. “He’s yelling. Mademoiselle, he’s shouting at us! That’s a-a known act of aggression! Why, quickly gather your belongings and mount my horse. Mount it with haste!”
Frowning at his word choice, Lilac realized something. He couldn’t understand the korrigans the way she could. Still, she was in no rush to obey Sinclair’s direction. Hesitantly, she looked down at Aife and her mother, who in turn watched her face carefully for cues. They didn’t understand a word Sinclair spoke; as expected, they looked terrified, and Aife kept stealing nervous glances at Sinclair’s sword.
Lilac grimaced. There was but one surefire way she would be able to convince her unwelcome savior to leave the poor creatures alone.
With a deep breath and square of her shoulders, she slinked slowly toward Sinclair. “Pardon.” She hesitated before placing her palm as delicately as possible on the back of his neck, as she’d seen her mother do many a time when her father was distraught. As she’d hoped, his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly. “I am so grateful for you coming to rescue me,” she said softly, though the words stuck to the roof of her mouth.
“It is my honorable duty, Mademoiselle,” Sinclair said. “Now, I must slay this foul beast. You needn’t watch this, so shield your eyes if you must!” As he spoke, he raised his blade high above Blitzrik’s head.
Lilac cursed and flung herself between them, her hood falling back as she did. She threw him her coyest smile and allowed the cloak to drop even further, exposing the tops of her shoulders above the stitching on her dress.
“Woman, what in the bloody hell are you—” He stopped, blinking in the shadows. “Lilac?”
She bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from grinning too widely at Sinclair, hoping the look would pass as coy flirtation. He gaped and lowered his blade.
His translucent skin turned the color of beets. “What on earth are you doing here? The entire kingdom is searching for you—though, my men and I have been the only ones brave enough to scour Brocéliande tonight… Never mind any of that. Allow me to first finish these monsters, and then we can chat.”
He readied his weapon, but the princess sidled even closer and looked up at Sinclair through her lashes.
“Sinclair, my sweet,” she insisted demurely, reaching to stroking his bicep with her fingertip. “We haven’t seen each other for nearly a decade. We were merely children then, but in the years since, I could not help but think of you.” Of how stupid and priggish you are.
Lilac watched his ego swell along with his chest.
“Is that so? All this time, I’ve been under a different impression entirely.”
He obviously wasn’t as dumb as he’d led on. Lilac wracked her brain for something more convincing to say; in all those years with her limited freedoms, she’d at least learned enough of persuasion and stealth to retreat to the queen’s rose garden whenever the tower grew too stifling. Romance, however, was an area she lacked experience with, and could not feign well.
She forced a smile. “Indeed. Now, you can waste your time on these useless korrigans,” she waved a dismissive hand behind her, “or, you could allow me to show you just how grateful I am.”
Each word left Lilac’s tongue like scathing iron, and she held back a gag.
“Grateful, you say?” The wolfish grin on his face widened.
“So grateful. You see, I’d gotten lost…” She looked around at the lush greenery, trying to think of the most idiotic thing that could lead a damsel astray. “Picking flowers. The bluebells here, they’re simply beautiful.”