Looking at Connor's angry face, Lily couldn't say that she really wanted to tell him everything – or anything, for that matter.  He was already angry enough; what on earth would he think when he found out that she had seduced him and ruined his life for a dress and a shawl? She didn't know much about his temper, but if he had any temper at all, he wouldn't be content to let her off with a mere tongue-lashing.  She nervously eyed his tall form, his muscles.  He was clearly stronger than Jack, and he already knew how to fight.

"Well, I...um..." Staring at the ground, Lily was ashamed to feel tears of fright in her eyes.  "I'm...I'm sorry," she choked out through a throat that had suddenly closed up.  "I didn't mean to get you into trouble, I really didn't.  I'm so sorry.  Please forgive me?"

"Forgive you?" He sounded incredulous and more than a little angry.  "How can I do that? I bear half of the blame, but you knew exactly what you were doing, Princess, and more likely than not, you knew the consequences as well.  Didn't you?"  The last question came out loud, clipped, and furious.

"I thought... I mean, that... I didn't think that you were so angry at me..."  She swallowed hard, feeling worse and worse every second.

"I wasn't."  A smile that wasn't a smile at all touched his lips.  "But I had a long and very uncomfortable night to think about it, didn't I?"  He put a hand under her chin and gently but firmly forced her to look up at him.  Seeing the tears that had spilled over onto her cheeks, his voice quieted a bit.  "After all, why should the man bear all the blame? You approached me, Princess, and now I can never go back to my job.  What am I supposed to do? I was raised to be a guard and to be loyal to your father.  I cannot be a guard for your father anymore, nor would I feel right guarding another king.  As far as I'm concerned, my life is over."

"I'm sorry," Lily cried in earnest.  "I was wrong."

"Were you? I didn't follow you because I was angry; I followed you because I swore to protect you and I was worried.  I heard pieces of your conversation with that... that boy, if that's what he was, and I think you'd better tell me everything."

"You followed me because you were worried?"  She wrenched her chin away from him.  "The fact that you were facing execution had nothing to do with it, of course, did it?"  Lily regretted the words the instant they passed her lips, but it was too late.

"Mock me, will you?" A strong hand closed tightly around her neck.  Her heart lurched in fright as she tried in vain to tug the hand away.  Was he really going to kill her? She really didn't know what he was capable of, and some men would kill for much less.  "Look, Princess," he snarled, his angry face inches from her frightened one, "I followed you because I swore an oath.  It's not an oath I'm very happy to keep sacred right now, but whatever else I may be, I have honor."

There were lights flashing in front of her eyes as she struggled to draw a breath.  She was still trying to pull his implacable hand away from her neck, but her fingers were weakening. 

"Enough honor," Lily managed to croak, "that you're trying to strangle me?"

As the meaning of her words sunk in, he snatched his hand away from her neck as though it were burned, horrified.  Sinking to her knees, she coughed and wheezed, trying to catch her breath, her eyes watering.  As she slowly recovered, he walked to the other end of the meadow and leaned against a tree, still looking angry, but looking unhappier with every second.

There was a moment of silence, both Lily and Connor feeling guilty.  Above them, birds chirped gaily and a light breeze danced through the leaves.  It was such a beautiful day that it was hard to believe what Gump had told her about the parts of the forest that were slowly dying. 

Despite the fact that Connor had almost just killed her, Lily felt like she should say something that would assuage his guilt somewhat.  Had she not done what she'd done, he wouldn't have almost strangled her, after all.

Finally she cleared her throat and said, in a voice that was only slightly hoarser than usual, "Honor's a funny thing, isn't it? For all you know, you just may have been doing the kindest thing by attempting to strangle me before I get any further."  Though she couldn't see his face, she had the feeling that it still looked every bit as anguished.  Feeling almost giddy, she added, "Between a peaceful death and becoming a sexual slave to a demon, well—"

The words died on her tongue as his head snapped up and she saw the look in his eyes.  There was surprise and confusion, yes, but there was also something more.  Anger and despair, and... Was that guilt? She stared back, wondering what he saw in her own teary eyes.  Their eyes remained locked for the count of seven...eight...

She tore her eyes away as he asked in a strange voice, "A demon? S—sexual slave?"

"You wouldn't believe me, Connor." She sighed, and closed her eyes, already weary.  "You don't need to come with me.  I release you from your oath.  Go, find a nice girl, and settle down in some cottage."

"I can't do that," he said, strangely bitter. 

"Of course you can!" she exclaimed.  "Didn't you hear me say that I release you?"

"I heard."  He looked at her, his eyes burning.  "But that doesn't release me.  Tell me your story and let's be on our way."

Lily chose to ignore his strangeness.  If he really wanted to come with her, for whatever reason, she couldn't physically restrain him.  "This... this forest is a strange place," she said weakly, gesturing around them.  "Things can happen here that you wouldn't believe, even if you saw them."

Seeing the misery on her face, Connor said quietly, "After seeing that thing you were talking to, I promise I'll believe you.  I have good eyesight, and there's no chance that he was human."

Finally, she weakened.  "All right, Connor.  I'll tell you.  Can we please get going?" For she'd already accepted that he was going with her, violent bullhead that he was.  Upset as she was, part of her was comforted at the thought of not making this journey alone.

"When are you going to tell me? That sexual slave part did sound rather interesting..."

"I beg your pardon?!" she screeched, her face turning bright red.  Then she saw the teasing look in his eyes and relaxed slightly, though the blush remained.  "I'll tell you as we walk.  She glanced up briefly at the sun.  "We have a long way to go, and not as much time as we'd like."

He ran a hand through his tousled sandy hair at her cryptic words, but eventually just shrugged, walked back across the small meadow and helped her to her feet.  Lily tried to ignore his surprised glance as she deftly buckled her sword belt around her waist.

After offering him a bit of food from her pack, which he eagerly accepted, they started walking toward the distant mountains with the ice on their peaks.

Lily ran through her thoughts, trying to organize them.  "So... to make a long story short, I touched a unicorn, and Jack dove into a pool looking for—"

"Whoa!" Connor exclaimed.  "Slow down there.  No making a long story short, Princess.  I want to hear the whole thing, with details and explanations."  Her protest died unspoken when he looked at her with a devilish grin on his face.  "My life's been boring, after all.  I love tales of a good adventure.  There's that, and we've got a long way to go, as you said, so you might as well stretch it out as much as possible.  So, for starters—who's Jack?"

I guess that I couldn't put off telling him forever.  Lily sighed.  Then she told him, and she told him everything.  It wasn't too horrible; it certainly kept her thoughts off of her aching legs and feet.  While telling him, though, she kept a careful eye on him, somehow feeling as though knowing his reactions to everything was a very important thing.  So she noted it all.  She noticed how a muscle in his face twitched whenever she mentioned Jack.  She noticed how his face became curiously blank when she told him about the unicorns.  She noticed the disdain when she told him about the goblins.  And she noted the fear in his eyes whenever Darkness was mentioned.

"...with a final swing of the sword," she unconsciously demonstrated, her ring twinkling on her hand, "Jack cast Darkness into the abyss.  He screamed... and then he was gone.  Only a shooting star or two was left.  Jack then broke the spell on me by finding and returning my ring... and that was it.  I returned to the castle."  She looked at Connor's face in profile as they wove through trees.  He stared straight ahead.

"So, this Jack," he said, his voice casual, "is he your... lover?"

Of all things that he could have chosen to ask about, she had thought that Jack was not the most likely.  Lily would have thought that she had blushed enough in the last few days enough for a lifetime, but apparently there was still a blush or two left in her.  "I don't think you have the right to ask me that!"  He shrugged.  Feeling insulted, she said sharply, "If you've had as much experience as it seemed like you had, you ought to be able to fathom the answer to that question for yourself."

Connor coughed.  "So no, then.  Not a lover.  Then... what is he?"

"You don't need to know that," Lily said.  "It's none of your business what Jack and I are to each other."

"If I'm going to be protecting you against anything and everything, it damn well is my business what the relationships in your life are!"

A trickle of sweat rolled down Lily's forehead.  She swiped at it angrily, seeing Connor's taut face.  "Very well, then.  Jack is my best friend."  Looking unaccountably relieved, Connor started to speak, but Lily cut him off.  "He is also the man I love, and the man who saved me many times, body and soul.  He was my innocent childhood friend, but he is so much more than that now, and I could never dream of sharing myself with another, knowing that he is there for me."

Connor's face now had a dangerous look on it.  "Is that so?" he asked very quietly.  "Then what was I?"  Lily blinked, flummoxed.  For a moment, thinking about Jack, she had managed to forget the chaos her life had become, and the things she had done.

"You were..." she trailed off, remembering.  After a moment of silence, broken only by their breathing and the sound of their feet moving forward, Lily knew that there was only one thing she could say.  "You were amazing."

He looked startled and not a little flattered.  "That wasn't what I meant, and you know it."

Lily stared at her feet, unconsciously flexing her sword hand.  If she had thought that he was angry before... "It... it occurs to me that my story is only half told," she said feebly.  "Maybe if I tell you more, you'll see how you fit into this."

So again the forest echoed with the sound of Lily's lilting voice, made slightly husky by the earlier near-strangling.  This time, though, she didn't dare to look at Connor.  She kept her eyes firmly planted on the trail ahead of her.  Sometimes she could almost swear that she would step forward, and the scenery would change around her.  She just accepted it though, and whispered a silent thank you to Gump as she spoke.

*********************************************************

Meanwhile, Gump was searching the forest behind them, every now and again shifting them forward on their path a bit.  He'd been looking for an hour, and he still hadn't found what he was looking for.

"Broomsticks and cobblestones!" he muttered, irritated.  Gump prided himself on an innate sense of where this and that lay within his forest.  In fact, almost never had he been eluded before.  However, half of his energy today lay in helping the princess and her companion; he simply didn't have the energy to focus on finding Jack.  Finally, he lost patience, and snapped, "Oona!" The small shining light that was Oona darted in front of his face, whistling.  "Find him, and be quick about it!"

Though he could swear that he heard a tiny sarcastic laugh, Oona followed his orders without complaint and zoomed off into the distance.  Gump sat on a rock and waited, again shifting Lily and her friend forward about a hundred feet.  It wasn't much, but it was he could manage.  He sighed, knowing that Lily would definitely not be pleased with him for this, but did he not know the evil that was Darkness better than she? Did he not know what she was going up against?  Besides, he thought, a grim smile touching his round face, he had never actually promised.

Finally, Oona returned.  Flying up to Gump's ear, she whispered in a tinkling voice, "He's sitting on the cliff above the Ring Pond, and he doesn't look very well.  Why, he didn't even hear me flying above him!"

Gump nodded.  It was exactly as he had expected.  "Don't sound so surprised, Oona.  You know what's been going on every bit as well as I do."

"Well, yes, but," the pout in her voice was almost tangible; "he didn't hear me!"

He rolled his eyes skyward.  Much as he disliked it, found it ridiculous, and had told her so many times, Oona insisted on nursing a crush on Jack that at times nearly bordered on obsession.  Jack knew it, and usually humored the fairy, as often as Gump told him not to, that it was more cruel than kind.  The young human would just laugh and say that it made her happy, so how could it be cruel? Gump shook his head.  Jack didn't understand cruelty any more than he understood evil.  He knew they existed, but they never entered the man's happy little idyll.  I would say, Gump thought, that your innocence would get you into trouble one day, except for the fact that it already has.  So why haven't you learned?

"Never mind that," he told the fairy sharply.  "I need to talk to him."

With Gump's knowledge of the forest, it only took them a matter of minutes to find Jack sitting glumly on the cliff, exactly as Oona had said.  His feet were dangling off the edge, and he stared sadly down into the pond.

"Jack?" Gump asked, not wanting to startle the man, who was, after all, in a precarious position, but knowing that there was no time to waste.

Jack didn't even flinch.  "I dove into that pond to get her ring, Gump.  She told me that she would marry whoever gave it back to her, and I gave it back to her."

"I know, Jack."  Gump sighed.  He wasn't one for male bonding and sympathy, but he knew that Jack wouldn't listen to him unless he let Jack angst for a minute or two.

"I picked up a sword for her.  I went into The Great Tree for her.  I killed for her.  I almost died for her."

"...or because of her, my friend."

Jack waved Gump's interruption away with a flutter of his hand.  His wild face was dark with pain.  "You've never known love, Gump, so how could you understand?"

"You might be surprised how much love I've known," Gump replied.

"She's betrothed! To some prince!"

Gump shrugged.  "She is a princess, Jack."

"She left me.  She stopped coming to see me, and now she's betrothed and happy! An old peasant lady told me so! So she's either forgotten me, or she hates me! She must hate me, Gump, but how could she, when I loved her from the first second I saw her? We were just children, meeting in a forest, but I loved her." Jack let out a choked cry.  "Oh god, I'm miserable.  How could she do this to me? She promised me, Gump! She said, 'Don't you wish this was our wedding ring?' and 'I will marry whoever finds this ring,' and I found it, Gump, I--" 

Gump remained calm as Jack ranted.  Very calmly, he pulled his fiddle from its cradle on his back.  Very calmly, he drew it back.  Very calmly, he gave Jack a good whack on the back of the head with it.  And very calmly, he sat still as Jack's yelping and wildly flailing body hit the water far below with a large splash.

He could feel the surprise and fear of the fish in the pond within some distant corner of his body, but he knew that none of them were hurt, and so paid no attention.  Instead, he just waited for Jack to surface, silently apologizing to his fiddle.

And surface he did, spluttering violently.  "Gump!" he yelled.  "What was that? I could've been killed! That hurt!"

"I'm sure it did," Gump called back pleasantly.  "And that was because you are a fool, Jack.  A well-meaning fool, but a fool nonetheless! 'An old peasant lady,' you say?"  He cackled.  "You claim to die with love for her, but how can you expect me to believe you when you don't even recognize her when she appears right in front of your eyes?"  Jack's wet face below went pale as he realized the meaning of Gump's words, but Gump mercilessly drove it home anyway.  "That was Lily, you idiot, and you couldn't even see beyond her disguise."

"Lily..." Jack whispered, trying to remember the old peasant woman.  He sniffled.  "S—so? That doesn't make her any less betrothed, does it?"

"Betrothed she may indeed be, but she's not happy it about it."

"But," Jack said weakly, still attempting to tread water, "she said that—"

"—that she was happy?" Gump snorted.  "Can you not think of a reason that she might have said that?"

"Oh," Jack whispered after a moment.  "...Because she was angry with me for not recognizing her..."

"Exactly, Jack.  Now that you've come to your senses, get out of the water, and come up here.  Lily's in great danger."  As Jack quickly scrambled out of the water, a full-sized Oona assisting him and glaring up at Gump, Gump felt a sharp pain just below his breastbone, a pain that drained just a little more of his strength.  He clutched his chest with a hand that suddenly seemed too small and weak to hold any power over anything.  "As are we all, I fear," he whispered.

*********************************************************

"Wait! Wait just a minute here!" Connor halted dead in his tracks, staring at Lily with an angry look she was coming to recognize all too well.

"N—no," she said.  "We really, er, should keep going, Connor.  We have no time to stop unless we see a stream."

Lily kept walking, but Connor reached out a strong arm and grabbed her, jerking her back towards him. 

"Are you saying," he said irately, "that you slept with me in order to obtain a dress and shawl?"

Since it was far too late to maintain her dignity, Lily said, pulling her shoulder out of his grasp, "And because I really did want to, Connor, really."

"I can't believe this.  You...you used me!" he snapped at her.

"You had no problem when you simply thought that I had an attraction to you.  That wasn't a lie! There was this other part, but that wasn't the whole of it," she said pleadingly.

"You ruined my life for those?" He stared pointedly at her clothes.

Lily fought the urge to cross her hands over her breasts.  "I couldn't very well travel in a dress covered in lace, could I?"  His glare became fiercer.  "A—and," she added desperately, "you used me too, did you not? You used me for c—carnal relations, for a firm and willing body," she stammered out, amazed at her temerity.  "I'll bet you bragged to all of your friends afterwards how you knew the princess of the castle.  You used me every bit as much as I used you."

"Used you?!" Connor roared.  "Princess Lily, you don't know anything, do you?"  He grabbed her upper arms so tightly that she winced and knew that she would have bruises.  Backing her up against the nearest tree, he spoke, his voice angry and rough, "You think that what I did was using you? If you knew how badly I want to use you, you would never make that mistake again."

"S—sir g—guard," Lily stammered out, sincerely frightened, "I order y—you to un—unhand me immediately!"  She struggled, but he was like a rock: utterly immovable.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" But he did no such thing.  Instead, a dark look on his face, pinning her body to the tree behind her, Connor leaned in and kissed her. 

It was like no kiss she had ever known from Jack, and certainly not like Connor's gentle kisses back at the castle.  It was strange and threatening and hungry and desperate, and it barely even deserved to be called a kiss.  It was more like he was ravishing her mouth, dragging her naked into the light, stripping away all of her secrets until only her soul was left, and even that was battered.

And, as much as it horrified her, it was terribly arousing.  Her knees grew weak and she clenched her hands to keep them from linking around his neck.

Lily managed to tear her mouth away.  "Connor," she sobbed for breath, "please stop this."

"Or what?" he whispered, also short of breath.  "You'll have me dragged into the dungeon, Princess? And pretend you didn't like it?"  A slight sneer touched his handsome face, though underneath it, she could tell, though she didn't know how, that he was very shaken.  "Used you, did I?"

He started to lower his mouth to hers again, and goodness only knows what would have happened had there not been a sudden loud rustling from the other side of the gentle hill in front of them.

Connor's head snapped to the side, all thoughts of kissing and using suddenly forgotten.  "Quickly, Lily!" he whispered, forgetting to call her Princess in his haste.  "Hide in those bushes!"

He half-dragged, half-carried her over to said bushes, and set about manipulating pieces of the bush to shield their forms from whatever was coming.  For her part, Lily lay limply beneath the bushes, barely feeling their tickle against her face.  She'd wanted to run to the bushes, but she was too shocked about what had just happened.  Connor had kissed her against her will, pressing his body against hers, and he had almost hurt her, and she had liked it.  Damn you, Darkness! That feeling must be your doing! Isn't it? If she had felt capable of movement, she would have thrown her hands over her face.  As it was, she barely managed to close her eyes as she felt him crawling beneath the bushes to lie curled up beside her, though they soon opened again.  If her death was coming, she did not wish to meet it with closed eyes.

Lily's deep, shuddering breaths sounded impossibly loud to her, but it still startled her when he laid a suddenly gentle hand over her mouth and whispered urgently, "Ssshhh!"  His dark brown eyes keenly searched the area around them through the shelter of the bushes.

"What..." she managed to whisper, even through his warm hand, "...what is out there?"

He looked down at her seriously, all enmity – if that's what it was called – forgotten in the pressure of the moment.  "Whatever it is, it's not good.  Princess, whatever it is, pray that it does not find us."

Struck by the bleak note in his voice, Lily closed her eyes and prayed.