Thank you so much for the response to the first chapter! I apologize for not replying to reviews – I don't generally reply, but I read and appreciate each one.

I want to clarify one thing, because apparently there was a bit of confusion about this in the first chapter – the man in the white mask who killed Christine's father, and the man who dragged her off into the forest were two different people.

Scene II

Raoul

In the dead of night the destroyed village quieted to an eerie field of ghosts. I stepped carefully, trying not to see the eyes of our victims, but it was difficult when they seemed to glow in the darkness. The stench of charred flesh was strong. Astrid followed behind me, snorting and pawing nervously at the ground.

For a moment, I just stood and stared at the carnage. I had done this. Not singlehandedly, and not willingly, but still. I was a good soldier. I followed orders. Before, it had always been rival armies. Men who would just as soon kill me as I them.

I stared at the body of a pregnant woman whose skull had been split open, and felt bile rise in my throat. The general had told us it was our duty to wipe out the inferiors, the ones who had wronged us in the past. And I always followed orders.

A small flock of crows descended on the village, already gathering for their feast. I shuddered and nudged Astrid into the forest.

It took awhile to find the girl. I hadn't wanted to mark her position in any noticeable way, in case one of the others came by. I wove vaguely through the trees until I stumbled upon her prone form. She had slumped over as if in death, and I might have worried that one of the other soldiers had gotten to her, if not for the little puffs of breath that hovered in the night air.

Little mystery. I had almost killed her. I sighed and trudged over to the tree she was bound to, lifting her chin with my hand. Her eyes fluttered, but didn't open, so I peeled back one of her eyelids with my thumb, and lifted the lantern.

Startling blue. Impossible, but there it was. There was no way I could harm her now. The girl stared ahead, seeing nothing.

With another sigh, I reached back and pulled the grimy cloth from her mouth. It took a bit longer to untangle the knots that held the rope in place. When it fell away, the girl collapsed to the ground, where she lay, groaning weakly. There were red marks on her arms where the rope had rubbed against them. I might have felt bad about that, but I didn't. If not for me, she would have been dead.

The forest was silent. I stared at the girl, wondering if she would move or try to escape, but she remained completely motionless. An owl hooted in the branches above us. "Well, then," I muttered after a moment. "Let's be on our way."

I lifted her up and draped her prone form over Astrid's back. The mare snorted and tossed her head, trying to understand the unfamiliar addition of weight as I swung my leg up on the side.

It was a good feeling to be moving back towards the camp. Perhaps it was childish of me, but I had never been fond of the night. I tried not to imagine the ghosts of our victims drifting through the trees, clutching their heads and moaning in torment. I whispered a quick prayer to Varana for safety, and focused ahead, relieved when the forest gave way to open fields. About a mile later, our camp came into view. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon, and the faint outlines of a hundred or so tents were visible.

Eagerly I rode forward, knowing that we would be on the move soon and that if I arrived quickly, I might get a few short minutes of sleep.

No one noticed my quiet return to camp. Astrid lowered her head and made a sound that was eerily similar to a human sigh – she seemed to feel as relieved as I was to be far away from the burning embers of our victims. "No trouble now," I whispered in her ear as I tied her reins to a wooden stake mounted in the ground beside my tent. Astrid hardly spared me a glance as she set about grazing on the grass and weeds around her feet.

As soon as I had secured her, the opening flap of the next tent slid aside, and a young man appeared, stifling a yawn behind his thick fingers. He took note of the fact that I was fully dressed, my hair stirred about by the wind, and his lips curled back in a teasing grin. "Where have you been at this early hour?" He wondered aloud.

"Out." I was standing with my back to him, so that the girl was hidden from his line of sight. It was with reluctance that I reached up and pulled her from Astrid's back.

"Wanderlust grabbed you? Or are you simply too much of a coward to piss in the presence of other men?" He laughed at his own jab.

I didn't answer. Dawn was already announcing its young arrival to the sky, and I could hear other voices beginning to take up a quiet murmur. Exhaustion was beginning to weigh down on me, and I was not in a mood for jokes. Tiredly, I trudged over to the front of my own tent and laid her down before it.

I heard another taunt die in my companion's mouth. When I turned, his eyes were fixed on the girl. "That is not allowed," he whispered.

I groaned and knelt to the ground, rubbing my eyes. "I'm well aware of what is and isn't allowed, Daevid," I muttered. I was not in the mood for explanations right now, and anyways, with the girl's eyes closed he probably would not believe me.

Daevid gave me a long, searching look, trying to understand what would compel a straight-laced soldier to drag a dirt-covered foreigner back to camp with him. He dropped his shoulders, and the teasing glint leaked out of his eyes. "Would you like me to kill it for you?" he offered, drawing a small dagger out of his belt. The compassion in his tone might have been touching, if it didn't come with murderous intent.

I quelled that thought. After all, I was no different. "No, I don't want you to kill her – it."

"Erik will be displeased."

"That is between Erik and myself, isn't it?" I responded a bit gruffly. I had known, when I chose to let the girl live, that I would have to defend my choice against others who would certainly be angered. There were virtually no rules during an attack. The foreigners were below us, made up of unworthy bone and blood, not even worthy of being called human. It was generally understood that one could do whatever one wanted to them – including the young women – while the blood and swords were still flying. But at the end of the day, they were to be left dead. To bring one back with me was to defile our people with the foreigner's undesirable presence.

At one point soon, I would have to explain myself. At the moment I was too tired.

"Make something to eat," I grumbled at Daevid, and then ducked into my tent, dragging the still-unconscious girl with me.

Some time later, I cracked my eyes open, stretched, and crawled back into the daylight. The sun had risen higher, but the edges of the sky were still pink. A small group of soldiers was clustered around the fire, breakfasting on an unsavory mixture of bacon and cornmeal. I accepted a plate from the soldier next to me and squatted down, spooning it quickly into my mouth.

Phillipe made his way over to me after a few minutes. As a brother who'd played a fatherly role in my life for many years, he still struggled to leave me on my own, no matter how independent I had become. He merely wanted to see me succeed, and my affection for him as a brother kept me from being bothered by his constant presence.

"I found a mare yesterday during the raid," he told me, easing slowly down onto his knees.

"Did you now?"

"She had a colt with her." He paused to chew through a spoonful of cornmeal before continuing. "He's a beauty. Smooth, dark coat, strong legs…I'm lucky I saw him before anyone else did."

Many of the soldiers liked to save the livestock for home. Even now, I could hear the confused baying of goats and sheep rising from the makeshift paddock in the center of camp.

"Raoul…" Phillipe paused and seemed to choke something back. "Is it true, what Daevid told me?"

I shoved another spoonful of cornmeal into my mouth and chewed more vigorously than before.

"Tell me you didn't bring one of them back alive." A sneer overcame Phillipe's mouth and twisted his next words. "So help me, Raoul, if you risk our family honor for a little plaything –"

"It's different," I spat, hurt by his insinuation. "She's like us. She's Romin, at least partially."

Phillipe snorted. "Impossible."

I set my plate down on the ground and turned to him. "Look at me, brother," I hissed lowly, so that my words would not be overheard by the obviously eavesdropping soldiers around us. "I know what I saw. Of course I would never risk my place in the army for a little foreign child. But if she is Romin –"

"You're mistaken," Phillipe snapped, cutting me off.

I had no opportunity to argue, for at that moment the front flap of my tent was thrown back, and there stood the girl, shaking and wide-eyed. Every single pair of eyes in the immediate vicinity locked on her in the same moment. For a moment, no one spoke, moved, or even breathed.

Then the girl sucked in a fearful, choked breath. I was on my feet as soon as I saw her legs bend in preparation to flee. She stumbled out of our little circle of tents and took off running. I groaned and muttered a low oath that was fairly uncharacteristic of me before giving chase.

She was faster than I would have thought, given her haggard appearance, and a small section of my mind was impressed as it watched her vault over a crate and dart between two tents. But that tiny voice was drowned out by the need to catch and quiet her, for she was raising quite a bit of commotion and swiftly drawing attention.

It was not altogether difficult. I was weary, but strong and well-trained, whereas she was exhausted, starving, and weak. She tripped over a thick clod of dirt and went sprawling, and I quickly threw an arm around her waist, muttering a quick apology to the soldiers that were looking on in confusion.

Still, the girl resisted. She began kicking and scratching at my arms, all the while screaming to raise hell. The few men who had still been asleep were poking their heads out of the tents, searching for the disruption. I winced and clapped a hand over her mouth, only to yank it back a moment later as she bit down, hard.

"You little animal," I hissed, wishing for a moment that I had just left her to die.

The screaming continued until I thought my eardrums would burst. Finally, I reached my tent and let her fall to the ground. The girl backed away from me on hands and knees.

"If you know what is good for you, you will stay there and not move until I tell you to," I told her, doubtful that she would understand. Confusion overshadowed the fear in her blue eyes.

But a moment later, that became the least of my problems, as I heard a chilling voice speak up from behind me.

"What is this?" Erik demanded coldly. I turned slowly, and was met with the horrible sight of the bone mask, through which his two eyes burned furiously. But those eyes were not fixed on me. Instead, they peered, unforgiving, at the girl. She shrieked and curled up into a ball under his gaze.

Erik took an aggressive step toward her and pulled his bloodstained sword from his belt.

Yes, I am indeed cutting it off there.

No, I did not plan on waiting this long to update, and I do not plan on doing so again…however, I'm going into my senior year of high school and things are getting very busy very fast, so I can't say for sure.

On a side note, I just saw the final Harry Potter movie yesterday morning…and cried. I'm in that happy-that-it's-a-satisfying-ending-but-sad-that-it's-over stage. If anyone wants to geek out about Harry Potter with me, I'm open.

The Queen's Reprise