"Wait!" the Red Knight calls.
Evading his attempt to grab me, I fly down the stairs and look around wildly for the torches to show me where to go.
All of them are lit. There's no way to know which direction is the one that'll lead me to the Shadow Knight.
"Halt!" the Red Knight snatches my arm hard and yanks me back to the stairwell. "You need listen to this, Naia."
I look up at my name, urgency, yearning, and fear threatening to tear me apart.
"This battle is necessary. 'Tis the only way we know to stop the curse."
Staring at him, I can't speak, my throat tight.
"The Desert Knight refused all reasoning," he continues more softly. "But he agreed to a duel. The victor claims triumph over all the realm. The Shadow Knight has never been bested in combat."
"Nor the Desert Knight," my squire says from the top of the stairs.
"Did I not warn you about speaking out?" the Red Knight snaps at him.
"Aye, m'lord." The squire's gaze is on me.
"When I wish you to impart your news, I will direct you to do so."
I can't muster the smile I want to at the abashed squire. Genuinely happy to see him alive and well, not shoved under a bench seat in the Red Knight's carriage, I'm also a blink away from exploding.
"Let me go," I say hoarsely.
"Do you not see?" the Red Knight asks, frowning. "When the Shadow Knight wins, he will have conquered all the realms. My brother-by-bonding will not take his father's place; he understands why we are here and I will swear allegiance to any man if it prevents the death of my realm."
A trickle of hope creeps through me, followed by doubt as I recall what he asked me for, a way back to my world. "I can't give you what you want."
"You will have a lifetime to find a way to do so."
I shake my head and test his grip. He's not letting me go. "You don't understand! The Shadow Knight dies in battle with the Desert Knight!"
"How do you know? Have you magic?"
"No. But . . ." How to explain I read it in a book before coming here? I gasp. "You know the person who sent me, the one you want to find?"
He nods.
"She declared it so before I came. It was in a message of sorts. At the final battle between the Shadow and Desert Knights, the Shadow Knight is mortally wounded."
The Red Knight's chiseled features are hard to read. There's concern in his gaze. "He must live to face the curse after defeating his enemies."