Moonlight enveloped the crumbling battlements of Castle Yuri like a pale veil.
Princess Arya gazed at the flickering of the torches along the parapets below as she pressed her forehead against the chilly stone ledge. Silence reigned up here in her tower, but the wind carried echoes of the distant town's night watch-bells tolling, guards' boots on cobblestones. And she couldn't do anything but nut and burrow into thoughts of her pal.
Last memories of her father giving her a beautiful silver locket birthday present made her want to cry more. Its back bears a promise—and a caution: Strength is forged in the wounds we survive. Fortitude. It seemed inaccessible.
The silence below was pierced by a rough shriek of steel against steel. The heart of Arya tightened. This sounded... different from the training swordsmen who sparred in the courtyard every night.
She slipped out of the window and slithered toward the door, each hushed step serving as a reminder of her isolation in this quiet stronghold. The noise level began to increase consequently, making her breath hitch, enabling the satin skirt of her gown to rustle again on the hardwood plank.
A sudden draft caused the candles in the hallway beyond to gutter. Arya's heartbeat increased. She kept thinking about the threats her mother had warned her about, both visible and invisible. Her uncle banished all of the obedient soldiers when he took the throne. The guards she had known had strange new crests.
Arya halted at the bottom of the steps. Steel clashed with steel, footsteps roared, and a low voice she knew all too well broke through the confusion, saying, "Bring her to me."
"Princess Arya," she said, straining to speak. There was an ashy taste to the name.
Stepping back toward the vacant throne room, she drew the dagger at her waist, her lone weapon, and took a steadying breath, knowing that if she were taken, she would confront them on her own terms.
Tonight she could be haunted by the ghosts of old grievances. But Arya, Yuri's child, wasn't afraid. Her father was a king.
And she would battle.