When I woke up the following morning, I wondered if the whole of last night had been an amazing dream, but there was a soreness between my legs and a fizzing in my body that said otherwise.

There was also a dent in the mattress beside me where Adrien had slept and I could still catch his scent on the air. I guessed that he had gotten up early to return to his post outside the door, hoping that his comrades would not realize what had happened last night. I was not sure how feasible that was - I had been pretty loud and I was pretty sure that we broke the bed the second time. On the other hand, his job had been to keep me in the room and there was no way I was going anywhere.

I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, smiling. I wasn't sure I would ever stop smiling again. My life had changed last night. My world had gotten a lot bigger and made room for a happiness I had never thought would be mine. It was not just that the sex had made me feel things for which I lacked any sphere of comparison, there had been more to last night than mind-blowing pleasure. I had felt loved.

My entire life I had been told that I was loved by the gods, but I had never felt it. Probably because their earthly representatives had seen fit to beat me every time I so much as cracked a smile. And that was supposed to be 'love', too. I might have been pretty ignorant about the world but I knew enough to know that that wasn't love by any definition. It seemed unlikely that Adrien 'loved me' by his definition of the word, but someone whose life had been so devoid of affection has a much more elastic definition. It was strange to think that the first person to show me love - emotional and physical - had been my 'enemy', but it also seemed pretty much in keeping with how I lived my life. I was wicked, and sleeping with the enemy was what we wicked girls are supposed to do.

As I got up and got dressed, I wondered where my wickedness might take me next. Were there other places still to explore? Adrien had hinted that lovemaking had an almost infinite variety, which he would endeavor to show me when he had gotten his strength back and could walk again. Which I think was a compliment of some sort.

A bang on my door announced the arrival of Gage.

"Good morning." I had nothing but smiles for everyone that morning.

"Breakfast," Gage growled.

"Thank you." Increasingly, it didn't seem to me that Gage hated me, he was just unfriendly, and I was confident I could turn that around with a sunny demeanor.

From Jax, on the other hand, I felt an increasing hatred. It was interesting to compare the attitudes of the two men towards me. Gage had no time for anyone, and the longer I knew him, the less personally I took his snarls and muttering. Jax, on the other hand, seemed to be a nice man, throwing in a joke here and a kind comment there, who nonetheless had a marked dislike of me. I was not yet in a position to say why, and the conversation at breakfast was concerned with something else entirely.

"Those were some impressive night terrors you had last night," commented Killian, making Gage snigger and Adrien turn red.

"Alright, so you heard."

"Heard?" Jax looked up from his breakfast. "They called out the guard - thought the Sudders were coming."

"One of them was," said Killian, making Gage laugh again.

"Laugh it up," said Adrien.

"And I believed you." Jax shook his head. "Fell in a pond?"

"That was true," Adrien butted in. "We did fall in a pond."

"And last night?"

"Well... "

"More like Comerville?"

"No," Adrien leapt on this. "Nothing like Comerville. Reason being; she's still here." He pointed at me triumphantly.

"Delighted though we all are," said Jax, "that, on this occasion, you screwing the enemy had not completely compromised the mission we're on, I would still prefer it if you could keep - what is it you call it again?"

"Hercules," said Killian.

"Which is false advertising," added Gage.

"If you could keep Hercules in your tunic - or at least out of Sudders - we'd all be happier," Jax concluded.

"How did you know I... How did you know about Hercules?" Adrien stuttered.

"That girl in Stackwell," muttered Gage.

"She forgot your name and started screaming 'Hercules' instead," explained Killian, helpfully.

I listened as the conversation continued. What interested me was that, while they weren't pleased with Adrien, they weren't angry with him, either. They were not just comrades in arms, they were friends, and close ones. One of their number had done something stupid and they wouldn't let him forget it, but nor would they ostracize him or treat him poorly as a consequence. Perhaps it was my imagination, or perhaps the events of last night had gotten me looking at the world differently, but it seemed to me that, while they were disappointed in him, they were also a little proud of him. And perhaps a little jealous. Maybe? My eyes wandered around the group of men and I allowed myself to wonder. And maybe to dream.

Now we were clear of the forest, the landscape changed dramatically, buckling upwards, angular spines of rock breaking through the course grass. As we progressed, the rock increasingly dominated the landscape, diving away to either side of us as sheer cliffs, rising into mountains in the shadow of which we rode, wending a steady path upwards. I had seen such landscapes painted on the walls of the temple - the old lands our people had inhabited before the rift, but to see them in actuality was something else entirely. This was the new world I had been wanting to see since we had left the temple precinct and it did not disappoint. It might not have been the best new thing I had experienced in the past twenty-four hours but, with no disrespect to Adrien, it came a close second. I was in another world.

Occasionally, as we traveled, we saw small townships that could have fit inside the temple precinct - a few basic huts, cattle enclosed by fences, and rough farmland. If I had had to imagine the civilization against which my people had fought a long war, then this would not have been it. Those other people we passed on the road all traveled on horseback - men and women. They were not all as big as my escorts, but the Norren seemed to be a hearty race, tough and as rugged as the landscape they lived in. Most carried weapons of some sort with them, though none wore anything resembling a uniform. They stared at me with as much curiosity as I stared at them. There might not be much physical difference between Sudder and Norren, but my clothes marked me out as different as surely as if I had had 'Sudder' branded on my forehead.

"Can I ask a rude question?"

Jax turned in his saddle to look at me but said nothing, which I decided to interpret as a yes.

"I haven't seen a lot of my own land - in fact, I've now seen more of yours - but it sort of seems like we're better equipped for a war."

"There's more of you," replied Jax without turning. "You have better weapons and more resources."

"That's kind of what I meant." I nodded. "So, I suppose I'm asking; how are you not getting creamed?" I heard Gage growl behind me and I added, "I understand you have some significant advantages, but there are just the four of you and I refuse to believe that every Norren is like you."

"We know the terrain." Jax still didn't look at me as he spoke. "We don't need to build citadels like your people, the landscape is a citadel in itself. If Sudders try to invade then they get ambushed and they don't ever see the people doing it. Also," for the first time he looked back at me, "we have something real to fight for."

I decided that follow-up questions - though I had them - would be a bad idea.

By mid-afternoon, we were high in the mountains, and the steep slopes began to give way to ridges and plateaus where larger townships could exist, defended by their remote location and inhospitable topography.

"Where are we going?" I asked Gage.

"Holm's Rest," he replied.

"Is that the capital of Norren?"

"You can call it that."

I got a fuller explanation from Killian. Norren had no such thing as a capital city - the villages and towns technically ruled themselves as independent tribes. But in this time of war, all the disparate tribes more or less recognized the authority of a single 'King' who made his home in Holm's Rest, a mountain stronghold that towered over a collection of homes nestling in its long shadow.

To be honest, when Holm's Rest came into view, I found myself questioning Killian's use of the word 'stronghold' - though not out loud, of course. It was the most impressive building I had seen in Norren, and at the center of the largest town, but it still did not compare to the temple complex in which I had grown up, and I could only imagine how it was dwarfed by the mighty citadels of the Sudder. It was built on a foundation of massive rocks, hewn from the cliffs in which it was set, but the main body of the building was made of wood and was surprisingly elegant - built mainly for defense, but still with an eye on how it looked.

As we approached, people streamed out of the houses to meet us, yelling and cheering. The mission had been a success and the four guys were the heroes of the day. I knew that it wasn't me they were cheering, but it still felt like a nice way to be greeted. Right up until they caught sight of me. I thought I knew what it was to be hated - the Caretakers weren't supposed to hate the Chosen but I was somehow the exception to that rule, and the other girls had always seemed to dislike me more with each passing day - but looking into the eyes of the Norren as they recognized me as their enemy, I saw a hatred I had never known before. Their eyes seemed to burn as they looked at me. In me - this one, small girl - they saw a representative of the Sudder race, and that was all they saw: a Sudder. I was the personification of every faceless soldier who had killed their loved ones. They began to yell abuse at me, and I think they would have thrown things if I hadn't been seated with Gage.

"Quiet!" To my surprise, it was Jax who stood up in the stirrups of his horse to admonish the mob. "You all know that no one's got more reason to hate the Sudder than me. But she's done you no harm. She's just some kid they bred as a sacrifice. She may be a Sudder by birth but she's got as much reason to hate them as we have. And even if that wasn't the case, you don't treat a kid like that. That's what a Sudder would do. We're better than them."

I suppose that I had seen my companions as just four soldiers on a commando raid, but I now saw that they had some standing in their community. The shouting stopped and a few people hung their heads guiltily. They shot up glances at me, looking at me for the first time as a human being and not just as a Sudder. They still didn't like what they saw - could not get past what I was - but what they saw also surprised them. They had probably never seen the Sudder close-up before, or, at least, not outside the heat of battle, I was not what they had expected; I was small, normal, scared.

For myself, I was looking at the massed Norren for the first time and was a little unhappy with what I saw, too. They were a largely built people, which in the men I found interesting in a way I didn't examine too closely. In the women, I found it... intimidating. I had always been slightly built, and the morning exercise regimen of running, climbing and training that I performed had given me a trim, coltish body. I'd always been pretty happy with it as a body, right up until I saw the statuesque women of Norren. They all seemed to be tall, long-legged and large breasted, topped with wild, untamed hair. 'Buxom' was not a word that was used much in the temple precinct, for various reasons, but I had always made a point of learning words I was not supposed to know, and 'buxom' was definitely the word that sprang to mind when describing these women. It was definitely not the word that sprang to mind when describing me. I wouldn't have said my boobs were small - pleasingly firm handfuls was more apt - but next to the Norren wenches, I looked like a different species.

As the men dismounted - Gage lifting me down with muscular ease - some of the Norren rushed up to welcome them back with sloppy kisses, which the men seemed to enjoy more than I was happy with. Three giggling girls bounced up to Adrien, kissing him and running hands over his body. He shot me a guilty look but still returned their affection. A redhead with a cleavage that was impressive even by Norren standards, threw her arms around Jax playfully and he gave her broad backside a hearty smack. They headed off together while I stared, feeling hotly, and inexplicably, irate. Jax might have spoken up for me, but in the main he showed me little but hatred, why should I care who he went off with?

With astonishing speed, preparations began for a feast to celebrate the return of the warriors and the success of their mission. The fact that they had only brought one of the potential victims back did nothing to dampen spirits, they were still confident that they had dealt the Sudder a fatal blow. The guys were swiftly drafted in to set up tables, which meant Gage had to do something with me.

"This is humiliating," I pleaded as he tied me up beside some horses.

"Would you rather go in a cell?"

"No, but..."

"You're our prisoner."

I nodded. "I know that but, seriously; what do you think I'm going to do? If I ran away then where would I go?"

"Back the way we came," said Gage, flatly. "I told Jax we ought to blindfold you or put you in a box but he said it would be cruel. Apparently, that was a deal-breaker."

"I could help set up for the party?" I suggested.

"You just stay where you're put."

"I don't have a lot of choice, do I?" I pointed out, indicating the rope.

As afternoon passed into evening, the party began. Huge joints of meat were roasted above fires, creating a smell better than any food I had ever even imagined. Large flagons of something called 'ale' were passed around and the men - and some of the women - competed to see who could drink them fastest.

Somehow, I felt someone was watching me and I turned to see Jax returning, no longer accompanied by the redhead. For a split second, when I first turned to meet his gaze, I saw in his eyes a heat that was quite unlike that which I normally saw there. It was more like the look which Adrien had gotten in his eyes the night before. The moment did not last long; whatever was there dissolved swiftly into hatred and contempt, and he looked away from me. Once again, though, I continued to stare after him. For a deliciously wicked moment, I recalled Adrien on top of me, inside me, giving me sensations I had never experienced before - but it wasn't Adrien now, it was Jax, channeling his hatred into wild and passionate lovemaking. I shook my head to dispel the image from my mind. What the hell was wrong with me?

Tables were pushed together and a band comprising a fiddle, a drummer and a piper began to play music so far removed from the slow dirge of temple songs that calling both 'music' seemed an insult to the word. And as the music began, so did the dancing.

Virgins bred for sacrifice were, of course, taught to dance. Specifically, we were taught the three festival dances which were performed with the passage of the seasons and which had a series of choreographed steps that had to be followed exactly without any variation. Which could be translated as; if you get the steps wrong you will be punished by the gods, or if they are busy then by the Caretakers. I was lousy at dancing when I was little. I seemed completely incapable of learning the steps, my feet always insisting on doing other things. In those early lessons, I spent more time bent over being punished than I did on my feet dancing. Eventually, the steps were very literally beaten into me and I could have danced them in my sleep. But not to this music. This music resisted such regulated dancing. It invited non-conformity, it insisted on something wild, free and unfettered. And the music got the dancing it deserved. I watched with wide eyes as the couples, trios and groups took to the floor to jog up and down, round and round, in and out of each other, twisting in wild patterns, changing partners, bounding this way and that, all with a joyful, almost feverish look in their eyes. The only thing I felt I could compare it to was what Adrien and I had done the other night. The two things felt related somehow.

Elsewhere on the dance floor, Killian danced in eccentric fashion with a slim yet busty brunette, spinning her round in his arms before switching partners with another dancer. Gage danced closely with a pair of girls, still not smiling, and yet clearly enjoying himself.

"Here."

I looked up to see Adrien offering me a flagon of ale and a plate of meat.

"Thanks," I said, and found myself calmed by looking up into his blue eyes.

But the moment didn't last, as, seconds later, Adrien was dragged onto the dance floor by one of the girls who had been kissing him earlier. I could see the other two waiting on the sidelines, anxiously anticipating their turn. He shot me a look that seemed to say 'what's a man to do?'.

I drank a long swallow of the ale and then almost choked it back up. It was going to be a long night.