Ella's eyes grew wide and she held her entire body rigid. The prince reached forward and with incredibly fast reflexes he snatched at the long shape. A moment later he held the snake in the air behind its neck as the lower half of its body writhed and swayed.

Ella drew back, looking frantically around for more snakes, but this was the only one. She stepped away from the prince as he grinned at her.

"What kind of snake is it?" she asked.

"It is called a death adder," he said.

"Lord of the Sky," she breathed. "I could have been killed."

"Not a chance." Prince Ilathor's smiled broadened. "This poor fellow is suffering from a misnomer."

"What do you mean?"

"He is very slow and rarely moves away when approached. So he was named a deaf adder. Over the years the name has become distorted, and now he is a death adder. Yet he harms no one."

"Why do you think the name changed?"

Ilathor shrugged. "Perhaps so that a man like me can impress a woman like you."

"You can let him go now," Ella said, looking askance at the prince.

He flung out his arm, the snake flying through the air to land in a nearby bush.

Ella quickly washed her face, and then was silent as she walked by the prince's side, returning to where the horses were being offered some respite from the journey on the sandy banks of a small river.

As they remounted and Ella kicked Afiri forwards, she looked back the way they had come. The long column stretched as far as the eye could see, tens of thousands of horsemen and many more on foot. Camp followers trailed in their wake: cooks, tinkers, grooms and whores. Ella was glad she rode with the prince and Jehral at the head of the column, otherwise she would have been as covered with dust as those behind. Bartolo and Shani also rode at the head, along with ten Petryan elementalists, friends of Shani's from Tlaxor.

Ella was surrounded by friends, and Prince Ilathor was always nearby, yet she felt alone. Since their night together she'd told the prince she needed time to think, and he'd respectfully honoured her request. Ella felt guilty when she thought about Killian. Did that mean she didn't love the prince?

As Prince Ilathor took them through the Gap of Garl, away from his homeland and towards Tingara, she realised she had never been this far from home. She wondered where Miro was, and whether he was safe. She fingered the pendant on its chain at her neck, and wondered what Prince Ilathor planned to do when they reached Tingara.