Just when I think I’m going to have to finally give in and use the hole in the ground to pee, I hear the door opening at the top of the steps. As it opens, I hear a loud alarm—it sounds almost like old alarm sirens from World War II documentaries―blaring loudly.

The door doesn’t shut, and the alarm keeps blasting as footsteps trot down the stairs.

Two guards appear in the hallway, and Siegfried grasps the bars and leans forward to get a better look. “What’s going on?” he shouts.

“Nordia didn’t agree to our terms,” one of the guards says.

“Let me go then!” Siegfried shouts.

“No can do,” the guard says. “Both of you just lost a lot of value, but we may need you later for some prisoner exchanges.”

“Fuck!” Siegfried says. “Let me fight at least!”

Siegfried promised he’d save me, but I don’t trust him very much. Still, if I at least pretend to let him save me, it might get me into a position where it’s just Siegfried who I have to escape from rather than a full squad of separatists lead by General Olmstead.

“Put your hands through the bars,” the guard says to Siegfried.

“Fuck off,” he snaps.

“We’re abandoning the castle―it’s too easy of an artillery target. We can leave you here, if you’d like. The dungeon will be safe; you’ll be sealed in here to die of thirst—”

Siegfried sticks his hands out, and the guard cuffs him.

Then everything around us starts shaking, and I hear the sound of an explosion from up above.

“Come on!” the other guard shouts, unlocking my cell.

He doesn’t cuff me, but he grabs my wrist and pulls me up the stairs. The other guard keeps Siegfried in front of him, a gun pointed at his back.

Another explosion booms loudly above us, and I see a key sticking out of the guard’s pocket who is standing in front of me. Without taking time to think if it’s a bad idea or not, I snatch the key out of his pocket and clutch it in my hand.

I expect a gun to jab into my back, or for someone to hit me, but nothing happens. I have the key, for all the good it might do me.

We clear the stairs, and there’s no sign of the artillery having hit the castle.

Olmstead’s men are grabbing everything they can, shoving it into briefcases and satchels.

Olmstead’s voice booms out across the main space of the castle. “That shot missed us by only a few hundred meters! We’re leaving in two minutes, so go, go!”

“So,” Siegfried says, using his sickly sweet voice he reserves for me. “It seems your Prince Rikard has abandoned you. He chose his war over you.”

I scoff at him. Rikard didn’t choose this, and if he did, he had a good reason for it.

The guards hurry us outside and toward the snowy rolling hills of northern Sydia. We’re on foot in the snow, and from the height of the castle’s hill we can see the roads leading north. I see Humvees and tanks lurching forward. Squads of soldiers march along the roads, while lines of civilians in tattered clothes march South. The refugees are all holding overstuffed bags and suitcases—they’ve taken what few things they can save, leaving the rest behind.

“Look what your prince did,” the guard says to me, shaking his head.

“You assholes started this,” I hiss. “In case you have forgotten already. Or is there some serious 1984 shit going on in your heads?”

“Quite a mouth for a princess,” the guard says, tugging me along. We’re heading along some path through the snow, made simply by many men walking along the same route. It looks like it’s leading toward the main road that is packed full of tanks and refugees.

The guard finally lets me go. “Keep walking forward. You’ve got a lot to learn, Princess. This war started hundreds of years ago, and we don’t forget.”

“Trace anything far back enough,” I say, “and you can find a way to blame either side in a conflict.”

“Romulus killed Remus, not the other way around,” the guard says. “There’s always a root cause, and someone is always the one who started it.”

I give up talking to him. Siegfried laughs. Does he not realize that he’s Romulus in this scenario? That he tried to kill his own cousins?

It feels like everyone has gone mad. Why didn’t the king agree to keep the peace? And wouldn't Rikard have fought to negotiate for my safety? Rikard wouldn’t just abandon me. So if he couldn’t convince his father to get me back peacefully, I need to assume he’s still coming to rescue me.

Unfortunately, we’re about a half mile from the main road, which is filled with soldiers and tanks. Right now at least, only two guards are watching over Siegfried and me.

I don’t know what Olmstead and the rest of his men are doing, but they’re still back in the castle. I look back over my shoulder to see an empty trail behind us.

Is Siegfried drawing the same conclusion that I am? Should I give Siegfried the key? Is it better to have Siegfried in control of me than these guards?

I bite my parched lip so hard it starts bleeding. Time is running out.

I yelp, lunge forward, and fall flat on my face into the dirty snow. As I fall, I toss the key behind me, making sure it lands in one of the footprints rather than in deep snow.

Both guards turn toward where I’ve fallen. The one watching Siegfried even lowers his gun, and both reach their hands out to help me up.

While they are distracted, I lock eyes with Siegfried, and then slowly lower and shift my eyes toward the key.

I watch as he dives down, snatching it up with his hands still cuffed behind his back.

The guard turns back toward him, ignoring me then as the other one helps me to my feet.

“Get up!” he shouts at Siegfried, kicking him in his leg with the toe of his boot.

“You offer the princess a hand, and you kick me with your boot?”

“Up!” he shouts, pointing his gun again at Siegfried.

Siegfried gets his feet under him and rises up. I look down to see that the key is no longer on the ground. He got it, so now it’s only a matter of time. I have to be ready.

We keep walking, but I realize the guard is behind Siegfried, and even though he has the key, he can’t use it while the guard is looking right at him. I can’t exactly fall down again, even if my dress is covered in mud and soaking wet.

“C-c-c-can I have your coat?” I say, turning toward the guard following along behind Siegfried.

“We’ll be in a transport soon,” he says. “Heated.”

“She’s freezing half to death,” Siegfried says. “Just give her your coat? Aren’t you a gentleman?”

The guard grumbles, but he unstraps the gun from his back, places the stock onto the ground, and starts on his zipper.

I see Siegfried’s arms flex, and know he’s working the key. It should be any second now.

The moment I see the cuffs drop, I dive forward and grab the assault rifle from the ground. It’s the same model Rikard trained me to use, and I aim it up toward the guard who is still armed, and pull the trigger.

The shot hits him in the chest, and he crumples down as Siegfried tackles the other to the ground.

I consider just shooting them both, but I might need Siegfried to help me get across the border.

Siegfried brings the cuffs around the man’s neck and pulls. He digs the chains into his neck until it turns red, choking all existing life out of the guard. The guard’s body twitches a few times, and then it goes limp.

I don’t lower the gun. I hold it up, pointed right at Siegfried.

Siegfried raises his hands and shows me his palms. “Come now, Princess, you need my help to get out of here.”

“How do I know you won’t try to use me as a bargaining chip again?”

“You saw how that worked out last time,” he says. “I just want to get out of Nordia entirely.”

“How?” I shout, pointing down the road. “You see that, right?”

He nods, then starts stripping the clothes off the man he strangled. He tosses the coat to me, but I don’t let go of the gun to pick it up. My arms are shaking so badly from the cold, it will kill me if I don’t get warm soon.

Siegfried strips the other guard and puts his clothes on. “Now I can travel on the road right up to the border. I don’t even need you.”

I hold the gun as steadily as I can despite my shivers, pointing it right at his face, but not getting close enough that he can grab it away from me.

“You should go south,” he says. “You look like a refugee in those rags. You heard Olmstead―you’re not worth as much to anyone now that the war has started.”

“Let’s go then,” I say. “Stay in front of me.”

“What kind of refugee holds an assault rifle?” he asks. “We need to move before Olmstead and his men catch up to us.

Damn it!

Siegfried is dragging both bodies off the path and throwing handfuls of snow onto them to cover them up. When the bodies are covered, he works to hide the trails of blood with more snow.

I could just shoot Siegfried. I already killed one man. Then again, it was self-defense. As awful as Siegfried is, I don’t think I can execute him in cold blood.

I reach for the magazine, and pull it out of the gun. I tip it over to dump out the bullets, but they don’t come out.

“It’s spring-loaded,” he says. “You have to―”

I throw the magazine at him. “You do it!”

“A gun would be helpful for us―”

“Do it!” I shout.

He starts to pop the bullets out one by one, until they are poking out of the snow below us.

“Give it back to me,” I say.

He throws it back, and I check to make sure it’s empty.

“Step away from the bullets,” I say.

He takes ten paces forward, and only then do I pop the magazine back in. I hand him the gun.

“Point it at me,” I say. “And walk me to the road. We’ll go our separate ways as soon as there’s an opening.”

He nods and points the gun at me.

Just then, out of the corner of my eye, I see what looks like a mirage cutting across the sky.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Keep walking,” Siegfried says.

I look over and see the shimmering shape getting bigger and bigger, and it seems to be getting closer to the ground.

Just when I think I’m hallucinating, I see a trail cutting across the snow, and the shimmering shape becomes visible as the snow sticks to it as it slides across the hills just below the castle.

Somehow I know it’s Rikard, and I break away from Siegfried and run toward him.