“No,” she snapped. Her gaze was back on Kile, her head tilted down this time as she studied him with a sinister glare.

“Excuse the rudeness, but I think perhaps you do.”

This caught the redhead’s attention. The woman turned to face Farilane. That worked . . . I guess.

The redhead moved toward her, an unpleasant sneer on her lips. “What are you going to do, princess? Have your soldiers beat me?”

“Of course not. And they aren’t soldiers. I mean, just look at them. Any army that suffered soldiers like these would beg to be conquered.”

“But you’re lost. No food or water. You’re desperate. People do crazy things when they’re scared. You don’t want to die out here, do you? Don’t want to be eaten by chipmunks, right?”

“Chipmunks don’t eat people.”

“So sure of that, are you? This is a weird forest. Strange things happen here.”

Can’t argue with that.

“This is part of the empire,” Sheldon said, asserting himself, stepping forward bravely—but stupidly. “She is the princess of the realm in which you live. Farilane is your ruler.”

Farilane cringed. That’s not likely to go over well.

The woman’s sight locked on him, her expression darkening. “This is the Mystic Wood. It lies in no realm but its own. This is a free place where no one has ever bent a knee to anyone, and no one is beaten for disobedience.”

“No one is beating anyone here,” Farilane said, putting her hands up, but slowly. She had the idea that the redhead was a wild thing, easily spooked, and . . . I exploded. “Could you please just tell us how to get out?”

“Follow the road.” the woman said.

Farilane rolled her eyes. “It runs in a loop.”

“No, it doesn’t. This path takes you where you need to go. Apparently, you need to go in circles.”

The woman turned, and without another word, walked away, vanishing into the fog. Farilane gave up on civility. She needed answers. “Wait here,” she told Kile and Sheldon and trotted forward into the mist hoping she wasn’t about to fall into a pit with sharpened spikes.

“Hold on. Wait!” Farilane called, but all she found was fog.

Then she heard whispering. The princess slowed down to listen. Two voices were speaking to each other. Carefully she crept forward until she could make out words.

“We should go.”

“No, she told us to stay.”

Dumbfounded, Farilane walked forward to find Sheldon and Kile, right where she’d left them. Startled, they spun, puzzled to see her coming up from behind.

“How did you do that?” Kile asked.

Farilane sighed. “The loop seems to have gotten smaller.”

“And the woman in green?” Sheldon asked.

The princess raised her hands in helplessness. “No idea.”

Chapter 10: The Truth About Lies

Chapter Ten
The Truth About Lies