Anastasia studied Nyes' face to see any signs of remorse or shame, but there were none. Instead she looked eager to… betray her… again. And why was her face looking so pale? 

"So you led them here despite me warning you against it?" Anastasia spoke as her stomach muscles had hardened. 

"I had to m'lady!" She replied with innocent wide eyes. "You were just not listening to me!" 

Ráild laughed lightly. "Once Nyles had thrown your hair pin inside the first portal you all had crossed, we rushed to that spot. Unfortunately, the vokudlak had moved you away from there. We were left in a lurch and didn't know where to go." 

One of the Faes right beside the lattice railing of the bridge flapped his wings restlessly as if trying to stay in the air without action. 

Ráild continued, "Our men scoured throughout the area to find you but you people had disappeared." He walked to Nyles, held her hand and kissed her palm. The girl looked at him coyly. "Because of her we could trace you for the second time." He stroked her hair. "Poor Nyles, she really did try to take you to the portal and you managed to break it! That was very impressive, Your Highness!" He smirked as if saying that to an insignificant person. 

"Speak nicely with her," Ileus snarled. 

"Else what vokudlak?" Ráild snarled back. 

"His name is Ileus," Anastasia said in a warning tone. 

Ráild threw his head back and laughed. There was a vicious smile on Nyles' lips too as she stared at them, as if she conveyed them with her eyes that they were trapped… forever. 

"It seems the little princess has started developing ego issues," Ráild mocked her. 

Ileus growled at him again. 

Another Fae guard perched himself on the railing, placed his elbow on his thigh and looked at them. His wings remained open. 

"Do you know what I did to the cave where you broke the portal?" Ráild said in a voice as cold as the blizzard on the outside. "I razed it to the ground." 

Anastasia frowned. So that was why they heard the rumble behind them. 

"Not only that, I razed every campsite you people stopped at!" 

So that was why there was continuous rumbling that they heard. 

"You do have anger issues." Anastasia scoffed.

"We weren't sure that you had come this way, but then Nyles had dropped so many things along the way that finding you became easy." He looked at Nyles fondly who walked behind him. "The trouble occurred when we were unable to find the entrance of the tunnel. This whole mountain is shrouded with a thick mist. It took us forever to find the entrance!" 

That explained all the turbulence in the air outside the tunnel. 

Nyles held Ráild's waist from behind and pressed a kiss on his shoulder. Anastasia felt so repulsed that she could puke. What was happening?

"Once we found it, things were easy." A victory smile appeared on his face. He patted Nyles' hands and removed them from his waist. He took a step forward. "Your absence in the kingdom has been very concerning, princess. Aed Ruad is extremely unhappy and so is Maple." 

Nyles chuckled. "Princess Maple becomes upset very easily. What is she going to do now?" She looked at Anastasia. "M'lady, you must not upset Maple." 

Ráild interjected, "Unlike my father, I have very less patience, Your Highness, especially when it comes to people who are against the kingdom." There was no emotion in his eyes. 

Anastasia hadn't really known Ráild so much. She knew him as Iskra's son. He used to watch her from afar. After his father's death, she was surprised that he was inducted in Aed Ruad's army. She was always cautious of him and so she maintained her distance. During her limited outings, if she ever found him walking alongside Aed Ruad or Maple, he would look at her too, but with guarded expressions. 

"Your father was one of the best men I had seen in my life. Don't take his name with that wily tongue of yours, else he would turn in his grave!" Anastasia lashed. 

He exhaled heavily as his jaw became hard. "Well I am not exactly proud of my father. He did shame our family's name. I am the opposite of being patient!" 

Fear mixed with repulsion skittered down Anastasia's spine. "I really did hate you," she said, disgust flowing through her voice. She felt that the anger that had spread in her chest was slowly turning in steely determination to kill him—for Iskra. She was sure even Iskra would have wanted that. 

"The feeling was mutual, Your Highness!" he said stoically. 

Lovac got restless and moved sideways. Anastasia stroked his mane to calm him and replied, "It wasn't your father who shamed your family's name, Ráild! It is you who is doing it and that bitch, your mistress, who is standing behind you, who is aiding you." Words poured like hot acid from her tongue. 

Nyles chuckled. "Good, you have come to know about us. It was getting difficult to report about all your activities and at the same time being with you. Why do you think I really wanted to go back?" 

"Let me guess Nyles," said Anastasia acerbically. "So that after I got married to Aed Ruad, a handmaiden would become Ráild's wife and live happily ever after? At my expense?"

Nyles' eyes shone. "Oh my God, m'lady. You are pretty intelligent. I thought you were so dumb!" She walked in front of Ráild and said, "I really thought that after all those medicines that I gave you, your brain was fried! Now to come to think of it, you are… intelligent." She chuckled again. "But not as intelligent as me!" 

Anastasia narrowed her eyes. 

"Don't look so surprised m'lady!" Nyles said. "You see I doubled your dosage of medicine for the past few days ever since you escaped. That medicine is nothing but magic suppressants. Your heart is healthy and fine. It's just that Aed Ruad and Maple wanted to suppress your magic, let alone hone it. At the Kralj palace where I had regular supply of the green pills, it wasn't a problem. Whenever your face glowed, we knew your magic was thrumming to come out. So we increased the dose. However, when I came out in Sgiath Biò, I was on my own. I just doubled up your dosage. The medicine is so potent that it stops your magic from coming out." 

"So that's why she was frothing last night," Ileus remarked, his voice full with loathe. 

"Yes!" Nyles exclaimed clasping her hands. The pill must have ravaged her body before reaching her heart. And as her pulse fell, her heart must have struggled to beat." 

"For a handmaiden, you know a lot, Nyles," Anastasia said. At this point of time she didn't feel surprised. All she felt was only abhorrence and dark rage that stretched to her insides and roiled her stomach. And she wanted to kill her. 

Nyles held her chin high. "Of course, m'lady. After all, I have been taught in this field by none other than princess Maple." 

Yes, she needed to go.

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