The footsteps slowed as they approached the clearing, and I was just able to make out the purple hair from where I was hiding. Amatista, then. She wasn’t the worst person to come across, at least. Had it been Zumra, I’d have run in the other direction.
Amatista came to a full stop, looking around the clearing. I hid further behind the tree since my hair was so brightly colored, and I didn’t exactly have a hood to cover it up. A sharp crack rang out, and I cursed silently, picking my foot up off the stick I’d broken.
Amatista’s head whipped toward me, and I sighed in defeat, slinking out from my hiding place. She looked me over with narrow eyes and a sharp eyebrow pitching upwards.
“Why were you hiding?” she asked suspiciously, and I appreciated that she wasn’t concealing it.
“I didn’t know who it was at first.” I defended, putting my hands on my hips. Alfrikr’s warnings about the cutthroat nature of this competition still rang in my ears, and this way, my hand was close enough to unsheathe my dagger if I needed to.
I was sure Zumra wanted to be queen desperately enough that she’d try to take me out at the first opportunity, but I had no idea about Amethyst’s competitor. She remained frustratingly elusive.
“Plus, I don’t exactly trust any of the ladies here,” I explained, watching her closely enough to see her lips twitch upwards before she straightened them.
“Youdoseem smarter than the others,” she said evenly, leaving me feeling vaguely insulted despite the seeming compliment.
“I certainly like to think so,” I responded, and got another almost-smile from her.
“We should go together.” She nodded, her tone decisive, as if she’d decided for both of us.
“And why would I go with you?” I asked her skeptically, internally weighing my options.
“Because two heads are better than one when it comes to getting out of here,” she argued, blinking as if shocked that I would argue. “We’re both smart, and you’re different from the other ladies. Take Zumra, for instance. We both know she’d step over us to get to the palace first. I’ve been watching everyone closely, and you don’t have the same entitlement the others do. You befriended Faiza right away, despite many seeing her as the weak link due toher position. So, I trust you to have my back should the need arise, and I’ll have yours in return.”
“Why would you bother having my back when we’re supposed to be competing against one another?” I asked her more for clarification than for argument's sake. I didn’t see why she would trust me when logic said the opposite should be true.
She sighed, frustrated, as she ran a hand through her voluminous amethyst hair. Her tie had come loose at some point, leaving the purple waves to fall around her face and down past her shoulders.
“My father insisted I enter this stupid thing,” she admitted, looking down at the ground and avoiding my eyes. “I couldn’t tell him the truth.”
“The truth?” I questioned, my eyebrow raising.
“That I’m in love with someone else,” she said quietly, as if her father might hear her from here. “He wants to marry me off for the biggest advantage he can get.” She scoffed, shaking her head. “But I have no desire to win and be forced to marry High King Azurill.”
She smiled, her hands coming out and flipping to show me her palms. “So, you see? We have no real reason to have any enmity between us. We might as well help one another out of this damn forest. Despite my lack of desire to win, I do want to live.”
I couldn’t help cracking a smile at that and sighed in defeat, nodding my head in agreement. “Alright, any ideas then, Lady Amatista?”
“Please, call me Tista.” She smiled proudly, “And as a matter of fact, I do.”
“Okay, Tista,” I said, feeling a bit off balance to be seemingly making more friends among the nobles. More people who’d be hurt when this was all over. “What are you thinking?”
“I’ve been heading East for at least an hour, and this is the first intersection of its kind I’ve found,” she explained, grabbing a stick to begin sketching in the dirt. “I know the palace is Northeast, so I think if we veer North, we might have the best luck at finding a way out.”
My eyebrows flew upward, impressed by her navigational skills. I had no idea what direction the palace was from here. She was from Amethyst Court, though, known for its scholars, and she’d already proven at the talent competition that she had followed that pursuit avidly.
We began to turn Northeast when the hair on my arms stood on end. I paused, grabbing Amatista’s arm and bringing her to a halt.
“What?” she asked, looking around with alarm. “What’s wrong?”
I wasn’t surewhat, but something was definitelywrong.
It was then I spotted it, spitting out a curse as the mist flooded through the trees, heading straight toward us. The mist looked like regular fog, but I had no desire to find out exactly how it differed once you were inside of it. So we immediately began running Northeast, hoping to outrun the swirling haze that seemed to be chasing us.
Amatista kept up with my fast pace admirably, only panting a bit and lagging a step or two behind. Our heads were both constantly swiveling behind us to track the mist as we ran, branches and leaves swatting us in the face as we tried to keep heading in the right direction despite the mist trying to force us off the path as much as possible.
“Fuck,” I swore, watching the way the mist determinedly kept after us, sweeping over the forest in the exact direction we needed to continue in. It seemed to be speeding up too, and I knew with a certainty that I felt in my bones that we wouldn’t be able to avoid it swallowing us into its depths.
“It’s coming straight for us!” Amatista practically yelled, the sound of the mist surprisingly loud as it loomed closer. As if an unnatural tempest existed within it.
