Moving fast, she pulled her tiranthe from the saddlebag, and while the others stared at her as if her wits had flown, she began to strum in a fast, crazy manner.

Before she could speak, Taniva snapped her fingers. She laughed silently, beckoning to her guards. "Sing! Dance!" she ordered.

Yuzhyu, breathing fast, pulled out her hand drum and began to tap it; the two older guards were blank-faced as they clapped, but Dartha grinned, a quick flash that was a lot like Taniva's grin. She began twirling in between the others, dancing round the handsomely furnished cell as if she did this sort of thing every day.

Shera began to sing the song that Rhis played. Rhis joined in, ignoring the dryness of her throat.

And so, when four guards entered, swords in hand, it was their turn to stare in amazement.

Iardith still looked sardonic, but at least she played fair. She crossed her arms across her front, not the least discommoded to be found sitting up in bed in her nightgown, as she said loftily, "I wanted some music."

The guards turned eyes of various pale shades from the regal princess to the group of players who plied away, ending a song and plunging into another. Dartha danced toward them, forcing them to lift the ready swords and step back.

One of them gave a faint shrug, said a single word, and they withdrewa"relocking the door behind them.

Rhis lifted her hand, but at Taniva's quick gesture, she resumed playing.

"Do not stop," she said, pointing to the open windows.

"That was fast thinking," Iardith said cordially. "But if Jarvas is the one to come up here to investigate in the morning, he'll recognize you at once."

Taniva retorted, "Then will ask why you do not recognize us."

"I will of course say that all servants look alike," Iardith snapped back.

Rhis glanced at her groupa"how very different they were from one anothera"and snorted a laugh despite her wildly beating heart.

Iardith added, "Besides, it won't really matter what I say. Jarvas does what I want."

"So you can want him to send us away," Shera said, as Rhis kept strumming the tiranthe.

"Oh, yes," Iardith said with an indifferent shrug. "At least you did come. Though I wonder why? No matter. You can go right back, with some messages to the rest of those fools. Beginning with that disgusting little toad, Dandiar the Scribe. So I shall always think of him."

Rhis felt her sympathies swinginga"quite unreasonably, she reminded herself firmlya"to the real Prince Lios. Beside her, Yuzhyu looked down at her drum, her face crimson.

Iardith never even glanced her way.

"So you find out," Taniva said. "Hah!"

"He told you?" Shera asked curiously, her brow crinkled. Rhis wondered if Shera, like Rhis herself, imagined Dandiar confessing the truth before a marriage proposal.

But Iardith said, "He didn't." She looked up at the windows, her long, pretty fingers twiddling with her braid in a rare fussy gesture, then she dropped her hands into her lap, making one of her graceful poses. "Lios did. Or whatever that lackey calls himself." And in a calm voice, as if describing an everyday occurrence, "The party was about to end, and the fool had yet to come to the point. Since the world knows I cannot go home empty handeda"I have to marry a crown, and my own honor demands that it be a better one than my father'sa"I followed him to his room after the concert. I thought a little flirting and romantic talk would hurry him along. But as soon as I tried to kiss him, he panicked. As he should! He knew right well what my father would do if some servant tried to flirt with me."

Shera's and Rhis's eyes met. Marry a crown, Rhis thought. Lios might have been a stick of wood or an old hedgehog, just as long as he would get her a crown.

As though her thoughts paralleled Rhis's, Iardith said, "He is a handsome enough lad, that I will say. Though dull as can be. All he likes is sporta"racinga"shootinga"wrestlinga"fencing. Tchah! Anyway, he panicked. It was quite funny, really, though at the time I was just angry. Told me who he really was, and who Lios really was. When I stamped out, ready to murder that snake of a scribe for daring to lie to me, there was Jarvas. I'd been ignoring him, though he's almost as easy on the eyes as that Lios-lackey. Damatras might be big, and everyone is afraid of them, but the truth is, they are almost as poor as Arpalon. I want to be rich," she finished. "But beggars cannot be choosers, and when he started trying to argue with me about not having danced with hima"that I was playing with his feelingsa"I cut through the rot and said I wished someone would take me away."

She shrugged, and smiled. "So he did." She laughed. "I must say, he catches a hint fast. Better, he organized everything himself. I didn't have to do a thing, yet we were gone by sunup. Though that journey left much to be desireda"I can see it will take some time to teach them how a monarch ought to travel. And be treated. But I can wait to civilize these barbarians. I need that crown on my head first."

She huffed out a breath, then went on briskly, "So, that brings me to my messages. You must see to it that my father knows that this was my idea. He can bl.u.s.ter all he wantsa"he may get a better settlement that waya"but he's not to rubbish up my plans by sending an army."

Taniva said in a low, rough voice, "So at least you think of those who must fight in your cause. And of the lands trampled in the fighting."

Iardith shook back her braids. "I don't like fighting and blood, no. Especially when Arpalon would come out the worst of it, I dareswear. I do not want a disaster a.s.sociated with my name." She pointed imperially at the floor. "So now they've all heard you plinking that thing, and no one has come back upstairs to investigate further. Unless you want to knock and deal with the night guard, they've probably forgotten all about you. I suggest we get some sleep. They can let you out in the morning."

Taniva gestured to Dartha, who dropped to the floor, peered beneath the door, then rose, shaking her head. She held up six fingers. Six guards now on the landing, where there'd been none before.

Taniva sighed. Rhis suspected she wanted to break out the way they'd broken in. They sure couldn't now. If it were home, Rhis thought, someone would be wanting to know who let us up here. I don't think they're going to forget by morning.

"Tomorrow will be another long, no doubt ghastly day. It's going to take real work to make this place half-way civilized enough to spend my life in."

Iardith flung herself back on the bed, and clapped out the lights, leaving everyone else to dispose themselves as best they could on the floor.

Rhis did not want to ask her to share the bed. She realized everyone else felt the same when Shera said accusingly, "You might at least spare us a pillow or two. You don't need all those."

Fluff! Fluff! Two down-stuffed pillows landed, one on top of Rhis, the other farther away. "Shut up," Iardith said.

Summer or not, the tower room was chilly, open as it was to the outside air. When the sounds of footsteps clattering beyond the door woke Rhis, she found Shera's hair tickling her nose. They'd curled up together, under both cloaks. When Rhis raised her head, her temples panging, she discovered Yuzhyu's bright hair just behind her; she'd shared their pillow, facing the other way.

Taniva and two of her guards had taken the second pillow, the oldest sitting up beside the door. From the steady gleam in her eyes, reflection from the bleak dawn light in the window, she'd sat up all night; later Rhis found out that indeed, she'd kept checking all night to see if the ma.s.sive guard placed round the tower had diminished so they could sneak away, but it never had.

The girls rose, rubbing eyes, yawning, shaking heads, clothes, cloaks. Everyone went still when the door swung open and Jarvas stopped abruptly on the threshold, several of his Damatran guard crowding behind him.

He no longer wore the sinister dark velvet she'd seen him in at Eskanda. He was dressed like his guards, in st.u.r.dy tunics of practical brown, belted at the waist, with loose riding trousers stuffed into their boots. They all wore knives and swordsa"including Jarvas.

His scowl turned into a frown of perplexity when his gaze reached Taniva, and then cleared. "You? Here?" he exclaimed, and grinned.

Taniva scowled.

"Give it back," Jarvas said, advancing into the room. He hopped over saddlebags and pillows and cloaks, taking up a stance directly before Taniva. He held out his hand.

Taniva snorted. "I buried it in the forest."

Jarvas said something that made Dartha choke on a laugh and Taniva fight a grin. But she just crossed her arms. "Give it," Jarvas said. "It's on you. I wouldn't set to horse without my bridle. You have my knife. I want it backa"and I won it fair-and-fair," he added. Then waved a hand around the room. "You can't get out. If you want to fight me, I'd be more than happy to. But you'll lose."

Taniva tipped her head. "Maybe. Here. Not on the plains," she added with a darkling glance, as she put her hand inside her blue smock and withdrew it reluctantly. Then slapped the silver-and-black handled knife onto his palm, the blue gems winking in the rainy morning light.

Iardith had been watching with an increasingly dire frown. It was immediately clear to Rhis, at least, that she expected to be the center of attention, and did not like her betrothed talking to anyone else. "What's this about?" she demanded. "Never mind, it's already boring. Where's my breakfast?"

The look of disgust that Jarvas sent her made Rhis gasp. She remembered quite well how besotted Jarvas had been with the Perfect Princess at the Eskanda partya"a besottedness that, if his expression was anything to go by, had long since vanished.

"You can all come downstairs," he said.

Iardith said, "Once I am properly dressed. And you had better remember that whatever you decide about them, I am a hostage, not a prisoner. I want at least some of them to take messages back, that will be to the benefit of us both."

Jarvas jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and his guards retreated, clattering back down the steps. "My father will sort all that out," he said only, and banged the door shut behind him, leaving the girls alone.

Iardith lunged out of bed, flinging off her nightgown with an impatient rip. As she moved to the vanity table across the room and snapped her fingers over the silver pitcher (which began to steam gently) she said over her shoulder to Rhis, "You can stop with the disapproving frown any time, Princess Perfect," she said nastily. "I plan to get you out first. I remember quite well how much you toadied up to Prince Scribe. You'll take my messages, and Prince Scribe can do what he does so well, and write the letters."

Rhis recoiled. "Princess Perfect?" When she remembered having called Iardith the Perfect Princess, her face heated up.

Iardith splashed the magically heated water into the silver basin, and bathed her hands and face, making no attempt to spare any water for the others.

Then she stepped through the cleaning frame on the opposite side of the room, without inviting anyone to share the water, or the frame.

"Oh, aren't you just so innocent, my dear," Iardith said, toweling her skin vigorously until it glowed a dusky rose. "Save it for someone who will be impressed with your model deportment and good behavior." Iardith yanked her way into a soft linen under-dress of pale yellow, then flung a heavy, ribbon-flounced over-dress to Shera. "Here. Help me with that. Jarvas, the idiot, wouldn't travel with my maid. Well, he paid for it," she added with a small smile. "Go ahead." She pulled the expensive velvet gown of ochre impatiently over her head. "Lace up the back." The golden embroidery glimmered in the watery light.

Shera complied, pulling the silk laces with a hard yank that made Iardith gasp, and spin around.

Shera said sweetly as she tied the knot, "I'm sorry, did I hurt you? I've never done anyone's laces before."

Iardith flounced around and began to finger her hair out of its night braid. Shera sent a wink at Rhis, whose eyes had teared up as she waited for her turn to step through the cleaning frame. Behind were the soft noises of the others fixing hair, changing, repacking.

After Dartha, Rhis stepped through the cleaning frame, wishing it would whisk away tears the way it did grime. But Iardith did not pay her the least heed as she marched out and down the stairs, leaving the others to follow.

"Am I really like Elda?" Rhis whispered to Shera.

"Of course not," Shera whispered back indignantly. "Do you think I would ride in a carriage willingly with a prating, pompous Elda?"

"I'm sure Elda doesn't think she pratesa""

"Oh, yes she does," Shera said briskly. "She likes prating. She told me once that she spends the last time of the day before she falls asleep arranging useful things to say, and she trusts her daughter is writing them down for the benefit of future generations. You wouldn't do that. Ever."

Rhis gulped on a watery laugh.

"Oom," Yuzhyu said, quite distinctly. Rhis realized the Ndaian princess hadn't said that for a very long time. "Yiss, om! Time to zee Kink of Damatras."

Iardith sighed. "I so detest awkward accents."

"Om!"

Shera giggled.

Rhis followed, surrept.i.tiously wiping her eyes on her shoulder as she hefted her saddlebag. With a mischievous grin, Yuzhyu said "Om!" every step they took all the way down the winding towera"and there were a lot of steps. Iardith muttered in affront, but when the other girls m.u.f.fled laughtera"Shera whispering "Om, om," under her breatha"she gave a sharp sigh and remained silent.

When they reached the ground floor, the Damatran guards closed around them, carrying spears, with swords worn at their sides. The girls walked down the flagged hall surrounded by these tall, fierce-looking fellows. Though they looked far less sinister, the way they kept sneaking peeks at Iardith, who marched first, head held high, her shining fall of black hair streaming smoothly down to her heels. Rhis's feelings swooped. She fought a flutter of giggles.

The urge to laugh was gone all too soon. They marched down a hall with a high stone ceiling, then stopped outside two ma.s.sive iron-reinforced doors. Rhis tightened her arms around her saddle-bag, dreading a barbarian throne room, complete with b.l.o.o.d.y weapons mounted on the walls, skulls used as dishware, maybe a torture instrument or two as decoration, and a lot more fierce-looking guards.

They pa.s.sed inside a narrow room. A tall, ma.s.sive man who had to be Jarvas's father sat near a huge arched window, beyond which rain poured. The King of Damatras was eating his breakfast as he listened to reports from soberly dressed men and women, all with looped braids. As Jarvas led his party in the king paused with his spoon in the air to give orders, whereupon the man or woman spoken to bustled out and the next in line moved to his table and began their report.

The kingly signs were his golden cup, and the diamond drop he wore in one ear. Otherwise he was as soberly dressed as his minions; the only color was that provided by nature, the silver-streaked pale hair lying on his shoulders, and in his braided beard.

Jarvas stepped up to Rhis's side. She gave him an uneasy glance; they had never spoken before. She was scared enough without any Damatrans coming right up to her.

"Don't tell my father who you are," Jarvas muttered. And dropped back before she could answer.

Yuzhyu's eyes flicked between them.

The king looked up from his eggs and toasted bread. When he saw Iardith, his thick eyebrows contracted. "What is she doing herea"who are these others?"

Jarvas pointed to Taniva. "What were you doing, anyway? You didn't really go up there to dance and sing?" He sent an accusing look at Iardith. "Despite what was said."

Iardith just shrugged. "I hope," she enunciated, "there is a breakfast ordered for mea"and I am not required to eat it in front of a gaggle of lackeys."

The king and Jarvas ignored her. Despite the situation, Rhis felt another b.u.t.terfly-wing of laughter behind her ribs: it obviously had not only been a hideous journey for the swain, but the king didn't seem any more enamored of the Beauty of Arpalon than his son now was.

"We come to rescue Princess from Arpalon," Taniva said, confronting the king, arms crossed.

The king frowned. "You are High Plains?"

"Taniva ofa""

"Heh," the king said, and grinned. It was a humorous grin, but there was far too much gloat in his voice when he said, "Your father is going to just hate the ransom I'm going to demand."

Taniva said something that made the king throw back his head and laugh. "You've got courage, girl, but then we knew that." He glanced wryly at his son. "Got your blade back?"

Jarvas pointed silently to the blue gemstones winking above his belt.

"And these others? Potential ransoms, I trust?"

"Shera of Gensam," Shera said in a small voice.

"Yuzhyu of Ndai."

Rhis couldn't figure out why Jarvas had said what he'd said. Did he mean her ill? She'd been the most afraid for Taniva, royal descendant of this king's worst enemy. But so far, the king seemed reasonable.

Besides, she refused to lie, unlike Some People.

She lifted her chin. "Rhis of Nym."

The king pushed his chair back. It squeaked on the flagstones, making several people wince. "You are? You are?" He began to laugh.

Jarvas sighed softly just behind Rhis as the king got to his feet and approached them. He was even bigger than Rhis had imagined. She fell back an uncertain step or two as the king approached, grinning down at her. "You are? By all that's richa"and that means your father. Jarvas!" He swung around. "You can put all these over in the garrison prison. The guest cells." He chuckled as he wagged his hand at Shera, Taniva, and Yuzhyu. "Including that onea"" He jerked his thumb at Iardith.

"What?" she snapped. "I told you, I agreed to your marriage terms. You only have to get my father to agreea""

"Your father," the Damatran king retorted, "is as poor as a miller in a drought. You might have been good for a cushion alliance, but that's it. This little thinga"" He flicked Rhis's hastily made, lopsided braid. "a"comes from a land that might be as big as an ink blot on the map, but Nym is richer then Arpalon, Gensam, and the High Plains together! Maybe even as rich as Vesarja. Who knows? Though I mean to find out! She goes into the guest tower, boys. We want her comfortable, we want her safe. Very safe. If she gets down those stairs past you, every one of you will wish you'd chosen to be bricklayers before you die." He laughed again, somehow sounding both jolly and quite heartless. "Don't forget writing implements. Her father is going to pay a smacking good bride price, or an even bigger ransom! She can think about her choice while uninterrupted." He swung around and glared at Iardith. "You, we'll get rid of as soon as I squeeze that strutting rooster of a father of yours. Hah!"

Rhis looked around, dazed. Taniva winced, Iardith looked cold and unconcerned, Shera's eyes had filled.

Jarvas lifted a shoulder, as if to say: I warned you.

Rhis's eyes stung as the guards advanced.

Just before they closed around her, Yuzhyu stepped close. "Remember, Lios comes," she whispered.