It was morning when I heard the first scream. To be honest, I had never heard anything like it. It made the blood in my veins freeze and I stopped dead in my tracks.

Just to clear things up, usually we don't have people screaming randomly in our castle. We're actually a very calm royal family. My father is the King of Telmar and so I'm pretty sure he's seen more than I have, but generally we don't have a lot of drama around the house. Sometimes the cooks make something that my father doesn't like and then it might get a little messy, but nothing serious actually ever happens. So naturally, when I heard the screams I was first of all, very scared and second of all, very confused.

A door behind me opened, giving me a scare. I turned to see my mother. She looked torn up and like she hadn't gotten a single hour of sleep last night.

"Analise?"

"What's going on?"

She walked towards me with a brisk pace and placed a stern hand on my shoulder, guiding me back to my room. "Nothing that concerns you."

"But I heard –"

"Don't question it, Analise, for your own sake."

"I –"

"No."

I didn't try again, but my mind was buzzing. My mother gave a light push back into my room and closed the door quickly. I stared at the golden artwork that had been painted on my white door and traced my fingers across the 'A', that my father had once carved here. It was a beautiful day out, but there wasn't much for me to do.

I had never left the castle's grounds and since I had explored every last corner of our huge gardens, curiosity won over. I quickly got dressed in my favourite blue dress. It was my favourite, since it was incredibly comfortable and I could run and jump and all that in it. I slipped out of my chambers and tip toed back down the hallway.

The person had stopped screaming, but as I pushed my ear to the door where my mother had come out I could hear groaning. My father was speaking, but I couldn't make out the words – it was just like a constant hum.

Should I go in? Pretend that I had forgotten that I should stay in my room? My mother would be furious, but at least then something would be happening. Letting my hands push down on the door handle slowly, I pushed the door open. At the sight of the room, I let out a gasp and threw my hands over my mouth.

On the ground lay a boy and from what I could see of his face and physique, he wasn't much older than me. His shirt was ripped open, revealing some nasty cuts and his face was bruised.

My father had his back facing me when I entered, but at the sound of my reaction he turned.

"Get out, Analise!"

"What are you doing?" I ran to kneel by the boy. What could someone so young have done to deserve this?

My father glanced at the boy, like it was merely an inconvenience.

"Come," he took my hand, but I pulled away, still staring at the boys cuts. They looked deep.

"Someone has to disinfect these. And put on bandages," I went into overprotective mode, which was something I always did when someone was hurt. I my have never been outside the castle's boundaries, but that didn't mean that I hadn't educated myself on almost every single topic, including medical things. When you know how to help someone, there's absolutely no reason not to help – right?

"Analise, stop. I'll have a doctor look at him, I need to you to come with me," my father grabbed my hand and pulled me up. "Now."

"Let go!" I wasn't quite ready to hold his hand, not before he had given me a great explanation. It was obviously his work, I noticed that his dagger was lying on the ground and I noticed the blood.

Still, I followed him out of the room, glancing back at the boy who still hadn't stirred.

As soon as we were out of the room, I exploded. "What was that? Why on earth were you hurting him like that? That is unacceptable! You were torturing him. That is inhumane!"

"Analise, please calm down."

"Calm down? You want me to…? What is wrong with you?"

He smacked me across the face, making me shut up. I stared up at him, anger rising.

"Let me explain."

"There is nothing you can say, that makes torturing a… 16, 17 year old acceptable."

"Yes, there is."

"No, there's –"

"Ana!"

I stopped talking, not because I wanted to, but because I knew it wouldn't do me any good to not let him talk.

"He is the enemy."

I scoffed. "He's my age!"

"Come with me."

I followed him down the corridor and into our library. Our library was where I spent most of my time. We had unlimited books – I had lived here 15 years and still hadn't even read one fourth. My father sat down in the huge leather armchair, where I usually sat. From there, you could see all the way to the ocean and even though it was an amazing view, it always filled me with longing.

'One day, Analise, one day you can leave, but only when we know there is no danger out there'. Sometimes that sentence was my only comfort, something my mother had told me when I was younger.

"I don't want you speak, communicate or even go near that boy, do you understand me?"

"Will he be taken care of?" I stuck out my upper lip and crossed my arms, indicating that I wasn't in the mood for negotiating.

"No."

"Then I do not accept your offer."

"It was not an offer, it was an order."

I shook my head.

"An, he comes from a dangerous place and from dangerous people. He is very capable of hurting you, me, anyone. We need him to find out where the others are, so that we can… discuss with them about the future of our country."

"Discuss?"

He didn't answer that.

"So you're torturing someone not even half your age, to give you information?"

"We are not torturing, we gave him a choice. Sadly, he chose the hard way."

"Can you please listen to yourself?"

"Analise, go to your room."

I glared at him. "Fine."

I stomped out of the library, enraged. At least I hadn't agreed to his offer… order, whatever. I was the only princess I knew of, who actually stood up to her parents – it was pathetic. Nothing was more annoying than watching a young girl do everything her father told her to do. "Sure, papa, I'll just let the boy bleed to death." Not going to happen.