The palace halls were eerily silent as eight-year old prince Nash ran through them. There should have been guards everywhere, asking him what he was doing at this, the sixth hour of the night. But there was no one in sight. Nash's footsteps echoed uncomfortably loud on the stone floor of the palace. He wondered briefly if the soldier who had woken him was alright.
"Prince Nash!" The young royal rolled over sleepily and sat up.
"Huh? What's wrong, Primus?"
"The palace is under attack! You must go, young prince, find your sisters, and get out of here!"
Nash stared at the guard through eyes heavy with sleep. It wasn't possible, what he was being told. "The palace is under attack?" he repeated dumbly.
"Yes! Listen carefully. Dress yourself in dark, lose clothing- clothing you can carry things in. Retrieve your sisters and tell them the same. Fill your clothes with food and money and run to Drachelm. Seek out our friend Stalminus; he will take care of you. Now, please your majesty, go!"
Nash had not wasted any more time. Quickly he had dressed himself in layers of lose clothing and covered himself with a dark cloak. Making sure he was still wearing his shark-tooth locket and silver ring that marked him as a twin, he went to his sisters' room.
Princesses Marin and Iris shared a large bedroom closer across the palace from the crown prince's room. Marin was a light sleeper and sat straight up in bed as soon as her brother entered the room.
"Hoping to play a joke on us while we sleep, dear brother?" she asked in a teasing tone.
"No jokes this time, Marin," Nash said grimly, shaking four-year old Iris awake. "The palace is under attack."
"An attack in the middle of the night. How rude!"
"I'm serious, Marin! Get your darkest and loosest clothes on and hurry up!" The lines in her brother's face were enough to convince Marin that he was serious.
"Where are Mother and Father?" She asked, hastily slipping into a dark dress.
"I don't know." Nash was busy trying to get Iris dressed.
"Are we playing a game, big brother?" Iris asked, smiling up at him.
"Yes, Iris," Nash told her. "To win you have to be very quiet and very fast."
"Like a rabbit," Iris whispered.
"That's right," her brother said, forcing a smile. "Like a rabbit." He began to lace up Iris's sturdy walking shoes.
"Now can we go get Mom and Dad?" Marin asked.
"No! We have to go out through the secret passage." Nash went over to the far left corner of the room and felt along the wall. Finding the secret panel that opened the tunnel, Nash pushed with all his strength. With a strange, creaking sound, the stones slid away to reveal a gaping and black tunnel.
"Come on," Nash hissed, realizing his sisters weren't following him.
"But… it's so dark. Can't we take a torch?"
"No time! Besides, light will give away our location!"
Marin was about to continue protesting when there was a sudden crash from outside, followed by many footsteps and men's voices speaking in a strange language. For the first time, the danger they were in became clear to all three children. Hastily, Marin grabbed Iris's hand and dragged her over to the tunnel. After pushing her in, despite the girl's whining about it being dark and smelling bad, Marin scrambled in after her. Nash came last, pushing the secret panel on the opposite side of the concealed entrance. The stones crawled back into place leaving the three siblings in total darkness.
Seconds later, Astranian soldiers burst through the door and looked around. "Find those two royal brats!" The leader of the group ordered. "Our victory will be short-lived if the crown prince escapes! He's a smart little whelp. He'll come back with help."
"Yes sir, Lord Heartland."
Feeling their way along the dark stone passage, the royal children made slow progress in the tunnel. It had originally been constructed as a way to escape in case of an attack, but Nash and Marin had never actually thought they'd have to use it this way. For the most part, they had used it as a way to escape the servants that were supposed to be looking after them. It had been a great source of frustration to all the men and women assigned to keep an eye on the royal twins.
The tunnel came out in the royal kitchen, which was abandoned. No one was even in the sleeping quarters.
"Where is everyone?" Marin asked, clutching Iris's hand.
"Running for their lives, just bas we should be," Nash said. "Fill your clothes with as much bread as you can. Bread keeps longer than fruit or cheese, so not as much of that. And no meat- it will attract animals." The crown prince hurriedly began filling three water sacks- made from the hides of goats- with water.
"Where will we go?" Marin asked.
"To Drachelm. To seek out Stalminus."
"Dumon's father?"
"Yes. He'll help us."
Marin brightened. "We'll get to see Dumon, then."
"But we have to get there first," Nash pointed out, beginning to fill is own pockets with bread. Then he handed out the water skins, which were all slung over shoulders, and then, with Nash holding Iris's left hand and Marin holding her right, the three royals sprinted out into the night.
At night, the gardens of the palace were a maze of strange shapes reaching out to grab the fleeing prince and princesses. Several times, one of them tripped and fell to their knees, but no one ever cried out. Fear of being discovered kept their lips sealed.
They had just made it out of the gardens and were coming around to the front of the castle when Nash suddenly turned around and jerked his sisters back into the shrubbery.
"Nash, what-" Marin hushed when she saw the hordes of enemy soldiers flooding in and out of her home. "Oh no! How are we going to get to the beach?"
"We'll just have to wait until there's less of them," Nash whispered, pulling Iris close in a tight hug.
They stayed crouched in the bushes for what felt like an eternity. Marin's legs began to cramp, but she didn't dare move for fear of being heard rustling about. Finally, the soldiers began to thin out, and Nash decided it was time to move.
They made it outside the palace walls through a small garden gate and then made a mad dash for the small docks used privately by the royal family and their guests when they wished to travel out on the ocean for their enjoyment. No one had bothered to guard it.
As they ran across the sand, the three royals could see the huge looming shapes of enemy ships, coming out of their hiding places and sailing directly towards Nash, Marin, and Iris's home country.
Reaching the small rowboat that was always kept tied up at the royal dock for emergencies, Marin and Iris stumbled into it, panting heavily. Marin turned around and reached for her brother, only to find him staring back the way they had come- at a line of torches moving across the sand towards them.
"How could they have known about our private dock?" Nash murmured.
"It doesn't matter," Marin said desperately. "Please, Nash, just get in the boat!"
Her brother turned towards her slowly. "I can't" he said.
"What do you mean, you can't? Come on, please-"
"I'm sorry, Marin," Nash said, pulling of his cloak, filled with food, and his water skin. "But I'm the crown prince. They'll chase after me, which will give you time to get away." Nash pressed his share of the provisions into his sister's hands.
"Nash, no," Marin said. "You don't have to do this. We can still make it together- besides, I can't row the boat by myself!"
"You don't have to row," Nash said firmly. "The current will take you towards Drachelm. Just drift."
"But-"
"Marin! This is the only way," the crown prince said, and for the first time, Marin saw the pain in his eyes. "Give me your hand," he instructed. Trembling, Marin did as he told her. "See these rings?" Nash asked, holding up his own hand. Twin silver bands, one around each of the twins' ring finders, twinkled in the moonlight.
Marin nodded, sniffing. She would not cry.
"That ring that you wear, and this one that I wear, are signs that we are twins- born as two vessels of the same soul. Remember, sister, no matter what happens, I will never leave your side."
For a long moment, the two siblings stared into each other's eyes. Then Nash turned and dove into the water, swimming away from his sisters and making enough noise to call his pursuers after him. Marin curled up in the bottom of the rowboat, trying to comfort Iris, who was weeping silently.
It would be the last time the girls saw their brother for six cycles of the sun.
