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Cold slipped through the window and glided along Serenity's cheek, a caustic breeze on her bare flesh. She shuddered and rubbed her left palm into the side of her face with fierce strokes. Her hand abandoned the chill skin and dove past her shoulder down to her hip, splayed fingers hoping to catch a corner of her blanket. Instead, her hand caught hold of flesh. Human flesh. Foreign flesh. Her eyelids quickly fractured to let her sight ingurgitate the world. Ami's left hand lay palm-up on Serenity's dress-covered legs. Her blue-haired friend's mouth was open and wad of drool sat just below the right-side of her dry lips. Serenity gaped at her friend and willed her heart to plod along at its normal pace. When she did regain her composure, however, it did not take her long to note that she was in a wooden box-one that moved.

"Ami!" Serenity slapped the backside of her right hand against Ami's closest shoulder. "Ami! Wake up!"

Ami's left eye was half-sealed with sleep. She rubbed it fiercely with her palm and straightened herself up in the seat. She blinked slowly for a few moments before she turned to see Serenity. "You're awake?"

"That's what you want to know? If I'm awake?" Serenity sibilated. Her heart punched at her ribs. "Where are we!"

Ami looked around the wooden box slowly. She still had not swiped at the drool that now began to dry just below her lips. "We're still in the carriage."

Serenity resisted the urge to surround Ami's neck with angry fingers. The quivers that now held her hands hostage, however, would probably not allow her to grip anything effectively; she was terrified. "Ami, where are we? Why are we in a carriage?"

Ami absently swiped at the drool and then ran the same hand through her bright blue hair. Serenity frowned. Ami seemed unaware of her actions, which only added to Serenity's nervous. Ami was the only semblance of constancy she had; if Ami were to be unable to reassure Serenity within a few moments—

"Ami!" Serenity snapped. The fear began to make her feel physically ill. "Ami! Answer me! Why are we here!"

Ami's blue eyes finally found Serenity's face. Serenity's stomach took another plummet when she saw the hopelessness in Ami's face. "I don't know how to tell you." She began to rub the shoulder that had been struck by Serenity's hasty hand. "How are you feeling? Do you remember anything about what's happened?"
Serenity sat back and drew her blonde eyebrows together in concentration. What did she remember? Memories of a wolf danced in her mind. A wolf? She tried to remove the image from her head but failed. There had been a wolf. A wolf with eyes that shone blue from beneath the layers of fur…covering the mask. A mask. Not a wolf. The Snowball.

Ami watched Serenity's face carefully, but the blonde-haired woman did not notice her friend's intense stare. Her father…and fingers wrapped around her neck. She shuddered, and Ami rested a consoling hand on her knee, which frightened Serenity and did nothing to reassure her. Did Ami know about her father's abuse? How angry he had been with her? No. She had not told anyone—or had she? Even if she hadn't, her father…had he told someone what had happened? And even if he had, did it matter? What had happened after that?

The moon had been black, but was that before or after? Before? Maybe. She remembered her palms covered in her father's blood. Had she hit him? She strained her mind to remember what she had done after that point, but nothing came except the memory of soft, gentle blue traced with something. . .something cold, and then-perhaps before that memory?—the white moon.

"Where are we, Ami?"

Ami patted Serenity's knee, although the action could not be labeled conscious. "We're in a carriage."

Serenity's nostrils flared, and Ami recoiled visibly from the venomous stare. "And where," Serenity fought to keep from shrieking and spoke very slowly, carefully enunciating every word, "is the carriage going?"

Ami cringed, and when she answered, her voice rose as though she meant to ask Serenity if she had named the correct destination. "To Taues."

Serenity's temper prickled, the only thing keeping her from breaking down into tears. She grappled with her anger as best as could. "Why?"

Ami took on the personality of a scared rabbit and began to look for an exit. Her face paled; she shook; her eyes frantically looked for a way out, but her body remained perfectly still, paralyzed. "I-I don't think that I should tell you, Serenity. Please don't ask me."

"Who am I supposed to ask, then?" she demanded. Already her eyes were wet, and her breath hitched in her throat. The wooden slats lining the interior of the carriage seemed to bend and twist closer to her body in an attempt to squeeze all of the air from the small space. The brown-cushioned seats pressed hard into her tailbone and the maroon curtains shut out any natural light. It was too much. Serenity lunged towards the nearest curtain and clawed it open. The long nail on her right forefinger snapped backwards past the quick and made the young woman howl with a quick pain. She clutched the offended finger to her chest and sobbed.

Ami quickly surrounded her arms around Serenity's earthquake in an attempt to calm emotional outburst. "Oh gods, Serenity. You don't want to know. You really don't want to know."

Serenity tried to catch her breath and keep from being sick. She rubbed her eyes with her hands over Ami's shoulders and arms. Then movement from outside the window she had forcefully uncovered caught her eyes, and the anger returned. "What are they doing here?"

Ami removed herself from Serenity and slowly turned to follow her friend's line of sight. Again her face colour paled noticeably. She tried to casually recover the window. "Escorting us?" she suggested.

"You really convince me when you say it like that, Ami." Serenity hiccupped. Her eyes narrowed on their supposed escort. "Why are they going to Taues? They signed a year-long contract with our town."

"So, then, maybe this is part of their duties?" Ami suggested.

Serenity whirled to face her friend again. Ami recoiled from Serenity; she moved herself back a little only after she seemed satisfied that Serenity had made no physical threats against her. Serenity, while not yet ready to lash out with her limbs, spat angrily at Ami. Ami stared at Serenity and tried to make sense of the incomprehensible words that spilled from the blonde's mouth. After screeching her frustration at being too angry to think straight much less speak, Serenity threw herself up against the carriage's seat and stomped her feet. Ami let out a slow, quiet breath and tried not to encourage another like reaction from Serenity as she turned to speak again. Ami opened her mouth and began to form a starting syllable when the carriage stopped, and the door opened. Ami's mouth closed around the syllable and swallowed it deep.

"What's going on?" Kunzite demanded. "It sounded like you two were fighting."

Ami shook her head fiercely and looked intently at the floorboards. She did not speak or give any indication as to what had occurred. She waited for Serenity to speak, feared it. Serenity turned to Kunzite, looked through him. Her blue eyes slowly returned to the wall opposite her seat. "Why are you taking me to Taues?"

Kunzite frowned for a moment at Ami before he gave his full attention to Serenity. "It's where we were instructed to go," he replied.

"And who gave you those instructions?" Serenity's even tones screamed at Kunzite to phrase his answer carefully if he wanted to avoid her temper.

Kunzite shrugged. "A messenger came to us and told us to come to Taues. He spoke on behalf of Queen Beryl."

"You're taking me to see her!" Serenity shrieked. Serenity's forceful reaction made Ami wonder whether it would have been better to tell her about Endymion's proposal, or lack of proposal and the decision he had made.

Kunzite grinned. "Know something of her, do you?"

Serenity's nails dug deep into her palms as she struggled for some control over her anger. She turned to Kunzite and claimed his eyes with hers. "Why does Beryl have any interest in me?"

"She doesn't."

Ami's body shook silently. Kunzite's words were truthful, but he avoided giving Serenity more information than she had asked for, and the blonde knew that he held answers away from her. Ami waited for the next explosion. "Why are you taking me to Taues, General? Why am I included in this excursion?"

"We were instructed to bring you."

"On whose orders?" she pressed. Her voice had lost some of its control and hissed at Kunzite.

"Your village has received fifty imperial-marked pieces, courtesy of Queen Beryl, in exchange for-" Kunzite paused for a moment, remembering that the exchange had been for 'Lord Shield's wife' and that such wording may not appeal to the young woman at this moment, or at any other time for that matter.

"For what?" Serenity demanded.

"For your safe transport."

Serenity's eyes widened at the stupidity. "Allow me to get this straight, General; I think with a clear mind when I am able to voice my thoughts. My village was paid, instead of you and your companions, for my safe transport?" Her blue eyes narrowed. "Why would anyone have to pay my village for my transport? Why would my village have anything to do with me? Why would you not receive any payment for my transportation and still agree to transport me?"

Ami whimpered. Her friend was so close to an emotionally painful truth. What kind of friend would she be if she let a near stranger give such bad news? "They thought that you were a witch, Serenity. They were going to burn you. Queen Beryl's messenger paid for your life. He told the generals to take you to Taues."

Serenity turned slowly. Her head seemed disconnected from her body it moved so smoothly. Ami shuddered but held her face in place so that her friend could judge the truth of her statement. So smoothy—the stuff of nightmares. "Me?" Serenity asked. Her voice quivered. Ami wondered if she should be relieved that tears would come instead an anger directed at her.

Ami nodded and thought that she should say something more but Kunzite interrupted her thoughts. "If that's all, we should continue moving."

"Wait!" Serenity nearly leapt from the carriage in her attempt to arrest Kunzite's movement. "Why did he pay?"

Kunzite tossed a glance at Ami and took her pale features to mean that Serenity might not take kindly to Endymion's decision. "She was interested in you."

"Why?" Serenity pushed.

Kunzite sighed. "Ask your friend, maybe she can tell you. I need to get back now. We're a long way from home." He forced her back inside the carriage and secured the door. He could hear Serenity's muffled demands and almost regretted the situation in which he had left the other young woman. Almost. He motioned for the others to continue and swung up into the driver's seat again. The horses pulled the carriage forward again in unison. The two-horse team had been given to them as a thank you from the happy villagers. The carriage had cost them a bit, but once again the messenger proved unusually generous and timely.

Kunzite watched Endymion fall back from the others and pull up beside the slow-moving transport. "What was the shrieking about?"

Kunzite shrugged. "Your young miss decided to wake up and didn't favour being in a carriage bound for Taues."

Endymion contemplated his words quietly for a moment before he spoke. "She's quieter now, though, so everything is fine."

"Fine?" Kunzite shook his head. "I don't know that I'd define it as being fine."

"And how would you choose to define it, Kunzite?" Endymion's midnight eyes glared Kunzite down. "You have a knack for complicating things."

Kunzite swallowed Endymion's accusatory words and refused to rise to the challenge with anger. Instead, he decided to answer calmly in his best voice of reason. Zoicite, however, had other plans. Kunzite had failed to even see her drift back. "You seem to have my mate confused with me, Endy," she crooned. "Perhaps you should go for a gallop; I hear that there are few things other than a good jarring to let the cotton out of your head. It won't do you any good to be cotton-headed now that your bride's up. You might need to break the news to her tonight-about her engagement, you understand, because if I know Kunzite, and I do, his conversation with your witch-bride didn't include her imminent betrothal. You'll need your wits around you then, I think. I think that most women like to be informed of such matters, although I doubt the knowledge will bring her any semblance of joy."

The same hollow emptiness Endymion had sought to destroy when he first became a soldier curled in his stomach and nestled deep in his gut. How long had it been since he had felt to same quiet desperation? How long had it been since he had last wished for an episode of amnesia to everything take away? Surrounded by his friends he suddenly felt alone and despondent.

"Leave me alone, Zoicite." He heeled his horse into a canter and left both Zoicite and Kunzite behind. He tried to comprehend the situation on a rational level, but his mind rode a wave of red and every moment he considered his situation, he feel deeper and deeper into anger. Why shouldn't she be grateful to be his wife? He had saved her life, not only from the villages, but from the snow. She would have frozen out there had he not found her. Surely that would mean something to her. Yet as he rode on, his stomach twisted into complicated and unhappy designs that left cramps of stress in his abdomen. She would not be happy. How could she be?