The first white cloak crossed House Beldor's western wall after the last family vessel vanished beyond the northern river bend.
Ethren saw him from the great-hall roof.
"West wall!" he shouted.
The warning bell answered from the inner yard. Beldor archers rose behind the parapet and released together. Two white-cloaked soldiers fell from the wall. A third reached the walkway and drove a short blade through the bell keeper before the second warning could sound.
Below, House Beldor stood empty by design.
The youngest children had left before sunset with Lady Beldor and the sealed northern papers. Two wagons had carried servants too old or injured for horseback down to the waiting vessels. The ships bore no house colours and would not raise Welhemdor's flag until they crossed beyond Stornian patrol waters.
Zyn would meet them.
That was what Denedrick had promised.
Ethren wanted his father.
Want had ceased to possess authority in House Beldor an hour earlier.
"South stair," Eugert called.
He stood in the roof doorway with a hunting bow in hand. No royal colour marked his clothes. Denedrick's Hand had cut his hair shorter and rubbed ash into it, as though six months of hiding could be improved by making a prince look like a stable boy who had lost an argument with a chimney.
Three white cloaks entered the stair below.
Ethren drew his sword.
"You were ordered to the horses."
"So were you."
"I am defending my house."
Eugert set an arrow to the string. "I am standing in it."
The first soldier reached the top step.
Ethren met him with the rising cut of House Esnor, a style designed for fighting from narrow castle stairs. The soldier blocked high. Ethren changed his grip and kicked the man's knee sideways. Eugert's arrow passed over Ethren's shoulder and struck the second attacker beneath the collar.
The first man fell.
The third retreated before courage could become loyalty.
Ethren looked at Eugert.
"That was close to my ear."
"Your ear moved."
"It was attached to me."
"Then move all of you next time."
For one breath, they were in the lower garden again with wooden swords and no kingdom hunting either of them.
The centre of the courtyard flashed white.
Air folded inward.
Thedra appeared inside a ring of scorched stone.
Twelve white cloaks arrived with her, packed too closely by the teleportation field. Two fell to their knees vomiting. One emerged with frost across his armour. The crystal in Thedra's bare hand went dark.
She discarded it.
Her grey-white armour caught the firelight. Seven lines marked her vambrace.
The remaining Beldor guards turned toward her.
"Do not," the Hand said.
Too late.
Three attacked.
Thedra crossed the yard without seeming to hurry. She removed the first sword, broke the second man's stance, and drove her shoulder into the third. All three struck the ground before the first stolen weapon stopped sliding.
She looked up at the roof.
Directly at Eugert.
"Your Highness."
Ethren stepped between them.
Thedra's gaze moved to him. "Your father has abandoned this house."
"He trusted me to decorate it."
"With bodies?"
"The white clashes with the banners."
The Hand reached the roof behind them, breathing hard. Blood covered one sleeve, not all of it his.
"Young lord. The north stable. Now."
Ethren did not move.
From the city below came the bells of Hillbeard's eastern gate.
Not warning.
Surrender.
White cloaks had opened it.
More soldiers were entering the city.
Eugert lowered his bow. "Ethren."
The cost of leaving arrived all at once: the great hall where his mother knew every winter draft; the lower garden; the wall marked with the height of five Beldor children; servants carrying water toward fires soldiers had started; men on the western parapet buying minutes they would never use.
His father had chosen which fight remained possible.
Ethren hated him for being right.
He backed toward the stair.
Thedra followed from below.
"If you take him through the northern gate," she called, "the king's riders will have you before the old roots."
Ethren looked at the Hand.
The older man smiled despite the blood on his teeth.
"Who said anything about a gate?"
He struck the roof lever with his sword pommel.
The tiles beneath the musicians' chimney collapsed into a maintenance chute older than House Beldor's claim to the hill. Ethren caught Eugert by the coat and pulled him into the dark as arrows crossed above them.
They landed in hay behind the north stable.
Two saddled horses waited.
Denedrick had planned even their disobedience.
The western route to Greenwald lay sealed inside one saddlebag. Beyond Greenwald waited the Talmorian border.
Ethren stared at the third empty stall where his father's horse should have been.
Then Thedra's sword entered the stable door from the other side.
"Ride," Eugert said.
They rode.
Behind them, House Beldor filled with white cloaks searching rooms its family had already left.