Shasta's eighteenth birthday celebration was not much different than any other before it, and she soon found herself bored with the usual banquet-entertainment-reception routine. The food was as delicious as ever, and the performing troupe was as talented and engaging as she expected. The music was lively, the party guests were in high spirits, and Lyris and Bria talkative, but Shasta just couldn't get into a celebratory mood. She felt more like snuggling under a warm blanket with a cup of tea and a good book than parading around in diamonds and jewels and dancing the night away.

Still, she did her best to appear cheerful and energetic, trying not to let even a hint of boredom show on her face. Her father had gone to great lengths and even greater expense to prepare this party for her, and she wanted him to know she appreciated his efforts. So she put on her prettiest smile, and she laughed and applauded with the rest of the audience as the performers did their work.

She was very careful not to touch even a drop of wine at the table, having learned her lesson from the celebration a winter before. Shasta wanted to face the entire evening with a perfectly clear head. Captain Vaughn escorted her to the reception, where she waltzed with her father and various men of the court, some of whom she recognized from the viceroys' conferences.

At one point it seemed that Chancellor Kumire might actually ask her to dance, but she shrank behind Captain Vaughn's broad-shouldered frame, and he glared so imposingly that Kumire seemed to change his mind at the last minute. Instead of approaching her, he turned and made a show of inspecting the pastries on the nearby refreshment table. Shasta breathed a sigh of relief. Let the chancellor dance all he wanted with her lady-in-waiting. Bria obviously enjoyed his company, and as far as Shasta was concerned she was welcome to it.

Lyris stood serenely by the center fountain of the palace gardens where the musicians were playing. Wearing the white robes of the Pledged, her hair cut in the distinctive Ithyrian style, she would not be asked to dance. Those pursuing the service of the Goddess only danced at temple festivals, and then only in specific ceremonies as ordained by Ithyris.

A few of the young soldiers attending the party had actually summoned the courage to approach Shasta. Several of them were quite handsome and charming, and she'd accepted nearly all their invitations, aware that a turn on the floor with the Crown Princess of Ithyria was quite an honor for any young man in her father's service. It annoyed her, however, that none of them seemed to realize she was more than just a political celebrity. They sputtered shyly at her every attempt to make conversation, and Shasta found herself missing the company of her guardian. At least Talon would talk and tease, without staring as if she were some mythical fairy-tale creature.

After a particularly rousing waltz, she sank onto one of the garden benches to catch her breath. The musicians began to play a minuet, and a red-faced corporal came up to her. His voice cracked nervously as he asked her to dance. Shasta suppressed the urge to snicker and offered him a weary smile.

"I would love to, Corporal. But would you mind asking me again in a few minutes? I'm just so tired from that last waltz, I need a moment to rest."

"Oh. Of course, Highness." He bowed awkwardly and began to walk away. Shasta sighed. The poor boy was so nervous, she was certain he would probably be too discouraged to ask her a second time.

"What's your name, Corporal?" she called after him.

He spun around and offered a stiff military salute. "It's Jen, Highness. Corporal Jen Crossis, at your service."

"Well, Jen Crossis, don't forget about me. I expect you to be my partner for the next piece."

The grin on his face stretched from ear to ear. "I won't forget, Your Highness, I promise."

"That was very kind of you, Princess." Captain Vaughn spoke quietly from behind her seat. "I'd wager you just made that young man's evening."

"Ha. He hasn't danced with me yet. I'll probably step all over his feet and then he'll wish he never asked."

The captain chuckled, but eyed her with a concerned expression. "You look tired."

"I'm a bit winded, that's all." She smiled. "You've seen me more exhausted in our fencing lessons."

"Just trying to look out for you the way Talon would," he insisted cheerfully. "After last winter's...events, your guardian would skin me alive if I let anything happen to you."

At that moment, Shasta happened to glance toward the arched entrance to the palace gardens, which opened onto the grounds. She was startled to see two shadowy forms running across the hard-packed earth in the direction of the servants' stables. There was a glint of metal that she could have sworn looked just like Talon's new silver sword sheath, the one her father had given him for the Solstice. She rose to her feet and rubbed her eyes, squinting into the darkness beyond the garden arch, but the shadows were gone. Either they were too far away for her to see or she had only imagined the fleeting movements. It was silly of her to think that she recognized Talon from such a great distance, anyway.

Gripped with the impulse to investigate, she took a step toward the arch, but paused when she heard her name being called.

"Your Highness, the next dance is beginning."

Reluctantly Shasta shifted her attention from the archway to the eager young man waiting expectantly for her. "And you kept your promise, Corporal." Smiling as graciously as she could, she extended her hand so that he could kiss it. "Shall we?"

As they spun around amidst the other dancers, Shasta's gaze wandered repeatedly to the dark garden entrance. When the musicians finished playing and the corporal escorted her back to her seat on the bench, she turned to Captain Vaughn with the suggestion of a pout. "Why, Captain, you haven't been on the dance floor all evening."

He lifted an eyebrow. "My duty is to watch over you, Your Highness. Unless of course, you'd do me the honor?"

She fanned herself briskly and nodded. "It would be my pleasure, Captain, but I'm afraid I need a few moments to rest." She nodded in the direction of one of the benches across from the fountain where several ladies of the court were gathered together gossiping.

Shasta had noticed Captain Vaughn's attention was often drawn to that corner of the garden, and she knew why. Lady Minde, the daughter of the viceroy of Olsta province, was known to be Vaughn's favorite among the noblewomen at court. Though a self-proclaimed bachelor, he was not quite too old to be considered an eligible catch, and the golden-haired Minde was the only woman Shasta had ever seen him express an interest in.

She smirked as Vaughn's gaze followed the direction of her nod. "You should dance with her, Captain. She looks quite lonely over there by herself."

"You think so?"

In truth, Lady Minde appeared quite content to engage in conversation with her friends and showed no sign of loneliness whatsoever, but Shasta insisted anyway. "I'm sure she would love a chance to dance with one of the most eligible bachelors of the Ithyrian court. You should ask her. I'm just going to sit here for a while and rest."

For a moment the captain seemed undecided, his eyes flickering between Shasta and the beautiful Minde, but when the blond woman tilted her head back to laugh at something one of her companions said, causing the diamonds at her throat to glitter in the torchlight, he apparently made up his mind. "You're going to stay here?"

"Of course. Go on, have a good time." Shasta watched as the captain made his way through the throng of dancers and extended a hand to Lady Minde.

As she'd hoped, the pretty blonde accepted his offered arm and joined him on the dance floor. Shasta met his eyes and gave him a conspiratorial grin, and when she was sure that his attention was completely absorbed in his dancing partner, she stood and slowly made her way to the garden entrance.

Looking around to be sure no one was watching her leave, she slipped around the stone arch and moved briskly across the grounds toward the servants' stables. Her heart was pounding in her chest. This was probably a very bad idea, sneaking off alone into the dark, chasing mysterious shadows. This is exactly how I get myself into trouble. Father would kill me if he found out. What if there's an assassin waiting for me out here? But her curiosity, combined with the boredom that had built up throughout the evening, won out. It's probably nothing. At least it beats spending all night making nice with nervous soldiers and stuttering courtiers.

She winced as she stepped on the occasional small pebble scattered across the dirt. Her dainty dancing slippers were not designed for any surface rougher than a neatly tiled ballroom floor. But such a minor inconvenience could not deter her from her mission. When she reached the stable doors, she leaned against them for a moment to catch her breath, stiffening as a strange noise emanated from inside the stable. It sounded like a woman moaning.

Shasta pressed her ear to a gap between two of the wooden planks, and her eyes narrowed when she recognized the deep, throaty sound of Talon's laugh. I was right, she thought triumphantly. What in the name of the Goddess is he doing out here? Another moan, definitely feminine, suddenly made it clear that Talon was not alone.

Unable to hear much more than muffled voices through the stable door, Shasta made her way around the side of the building, to a loose plank that Daric had discovered when they were children. At some point one of the horses must have kicked a hole in the wall, and whoever had repaired it had obviously been lazy about his task-a single wide plank of wood, held by one nail at the top, was meant to patch the gap. Of course, this made it very easy to rotate the plank, and the hole was big enough for a small person to slip through. Shasta and Daric had used this secret entrance many times when the stable doors were barred.

There was the rather inconvenient matter of Shasta's ball gown, which she couldn't possibly remove. Awkwardly, she hitched the delicate fabric of the dress up around her waist so that it would not be snagged when she knelt in the dirt. After wrestling with it for a few minutes, she sank carefully to her knees and patted the petticoats down as they ballooned around her, then rotated the plank as slowly and quietly as she could. She might not be able to sneak all the way into the stable, but at least she'd have a better eavesdropping spot.

As it turned out, she was able to do much more than eavesdrop. Leaning forward, she caught a glimpse of movement in the hay, directly across from the stall she was peeking into. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the eerie glow of the lantern hanging from one of the support beams, and to discern just exactly what it was she was seeing.

Beneath a pile of blankets at the base of the haystack were two heads she immediately recognized. Erinda was the only person in the palace who had those mousy brown curls, though Shasta had never seen her wearing her hair down before. The other head was unmistakably Talon's. It took Shasta a moment to realize that she was intruding on something very private between her guardian and the chambermaid, but she found herself too fascinated to tear her eyes away.

Talon murmured something and Erinda giggled, then Talon's hand appeared from beneath the blanket to stroke the maid's cheek and he drew her in for a kiss. Shasta's face grew hot as she watched her guardian's mouth move over Erinda's with an intensity she was familiar with herself. Unconsciously she raised her own hand to her lips, recalling the feel of Talon's kiss...it had been exactly one winter ago, on this very same night, in fact, that she'd blackmailed him into giving her her first kiss. She'd been too embarrassed to mention it since, but she certainly hadn't forgotten.

Shasta caught her breath as Talon moved, rolling himself on top of Erinda, the lantern light painting shadows across the firm muscles of his bare back as the blankets fell to his waist. The sight caused a sudden golden twang in Shasta's stomach that spread heat through her body and caused her cheeks to burn even more fiercely. She heard Erinda sigh, and Talon's responding groan was guttural and feral, unlike anything Shasta had ever heard from him before. It caused a shiver of goose bumps to form down her arms, and with a gasp she dropped the plank back into place and rose to her feet. She ran back toward the gardens as if there were fire at her heels, untwisting her skirts from around her waist as she went.

She was so distraught that she nearly tripped over her own feet several times, and she had to pause behind the stone of the arch to pat her hair and settle her gown back over her petticoats before reentering the party. As unobtrusively as possible, she made her way to the refreshment table.

"Your Highness." If the serving girl noticed anything odd about Shasta's breathless appearance, she showed no sign of it. "What may I get for you?"

"Wine, if you please."

The girl selected one of the pitchers on the table and filled a crystal goblet, watching with large eyes as Shasta snatched it up and drained it. "More, Highness?"

"Yes, thank you."

She refilled the goblet. This time Shasta sipped in a much more ladylike manner.

"Princess!" Captain Vaughn clapped her on the shoulder and spun her to face him. "Where have you been? When I looked up you were gone."

"I'm perfectly fine, Captain. I needed to get up and stretch my legs. I was beginning to cramp a little. I'm sorry to have worried you." She offered him a smile, but his eyes were on the goblet in her hand.

"I thought you were going to stay away from the wine tonight."

"I changed my mind. Don't worry, I won't overdo it. This," she waved the glass, "is hardly enough to get me tipsy."

Vaughn still appeared concerned. "Would you like to retire for the night, Highness? You don't look well."

Shasta considered it. Her mind was still reeling from what she had seen in the stables, and embarrassment threatened to overwhelm her composure. But if she returned to her rooms now, Captain Vaughn was sure to accompany her and lurk around until Talon returned. The last thing she wanted was to spend the rest of the evening answering awkward questions. At least out here, among the other party guests, she could hope for a few moments in which she could ponder uninterrupted.

"Really, Captain, I'm fine," she insisted. "I just want to observe the rest of the dancing, I think."

He led her back over to the bench she had occupied earlier, and stood at attention behind her shoulder. Shasta realized that there was no way he would leave her unattended again, but she was grateful that at least she had her back to him and he could not see the emotions she knew must be warring on her face.

Embarrassment was tinged with irrational anger, though she could not tell whether she was angry with Talon, or Erinda, or herself. After all, what Talon did with his one free night was his own business. He was what-twenty-one winters of age now? A fully grown man. Of course he would be interested in women, especially one as flirtatious and attractive as Erinda. But girls flirted with Talon all the time, and though occasionally he responded in kind, Shasta had never noticed him pay more attention to one than another. He acted as if it were all a lighthearted game, and until tonight it hadn't occurred to her that he might have an interest in anything more. Apparently she had been very, very blind.

She could still hear his soft groan in the back of her mind and picture his smooth olive skin in the lantern light. This strange, wicked curiosity that had suddenly awakened within her was an entirely new feeling, at once both exciting and shameful. She found herself deliberately replaying the memory several times to hold on to the dark fascination it evoked.

How long had this been going on? Shasta tried to remember if she had witnessed anything between Erinda and Talon that might have given a clue as to the true nature of their relationship. She recalled their conversation earlier that afternoon and suddenly realized why Erinda had coughed so loudly and why Talon had such a strange note in his voice. She clapped a hand to her mouth. They had been laughing at her. Why wouldn't they?

A fresh surge of anger and humiliation washed over her. She had thought she knew everything there was to know about her guardian, and now she was finding out that, contrary to her rather self-centered assumption, he did indeed keep secrets from her.

"Ah, Talon." Captain Vaughn's voice broke into her thoughts, and at her guardian's name Shasta's head snapped up. Sure enough, Talon was striding toward them, now fully clothed of course, the gold braid of his uniform shining in the torchlight. Shasta looked away quickly, unable to meet his eyes.

"Captain Vaughn." Talon saluted formally. "How was the party?" His face darkened when he caught sight of the wine goblet in Shasta's hand, and he took it away from her. "What's this?"

Shasta didn't look up, and after a moment of awkward silence Vaughn shrugged. "The Princess wanted some wine after the dancing. Don't worry, my boy, I've kept an eye on her. She hasn't even finished one glass."

Talon grumbled something unintelligible, finished off the rest of the wine in two swallows and handed the empty crystal glass to a passing servant. Shasta caught sight of Erinda, who entered the garden through the archway and took a spot behind one of the refreshment tables to help serve the guests. She had rebraided her hair, though one stubborn strand still curled rebelliously down her forehead.

Feeling inexplicably vexed, Shasta rose to her feet and said, "I wish to retire for the night."

Captain Vaughn bowed deeply. "Pleasant dreams, Highness."

She acknowledged him with a tilt of her head. "Thank you for your services this evening, Captain. You were the perfect escort."

Without a glance or a word to her guardian, Shasta made her way through the party guests, pausing to kiss her father on the cheek and bid him good night. Then she continued into the palace and up the tower stairs to her rooms, Talon a few paces behind.

Talon opened the door for her, and she brushed past him without looking up. Shasta heard him close the door behind them, and suddenly his hand was on her shoulder. "Have I offended you somehow, Princess?"

Transfixed by the warmth of his fingers against her bare skin, she paused a moment before ducking away. She still refused to look at him, afraid he would read the jumbled emotions on her face. "No, of course not. I'm just very tired. Ready the privy chamber for me."

Obediently Talon inspected the small room, then stepped back to allow her to enter. Shasta closed the door behind her and wearily sank into one of the dressing chairs. This is ridiculous, she told herself firmly. You can't just avoid him the rest of your life. He shares your room, for the love of the Goddess! You're going to have to find a way to get over this. Talon was certainly not the first man in history to make love to a woman. This sort of thing happened all the time, and so long as it did not interfere with his duties why should she be bothered by it?

Taking a deep breath, Shasta stood and wrestled herself out of the heavy petticoats and skirts. Usually she had Lyris and Bria to help her with the task of undressing, but they were attending the party, and she wasn't about to send for Erinda or ask Talon to help her. Just the memory of his fingers against her skin was enough to make her shiver again.

After slipping on her nightshift and robe, she went through the motions of taking down her hair, brushing it out, washing her face, and using a damp cloth to clean the sweat from her shoulders and breasts. She would bathe first thing in the morning, she promised herself, as there was no one to draw a bath for her at the moment. She rinsed her mouth with a peppermint wash to eliminate the taste of the wine and then made quick use of the chamber pot. When she could no longer think of any other reason to prolong her stay in the privy, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

Talon had removed his jacket and boots and was in the process of unbuckling his sword belt as she emerged. For a moment Shasta stood watching him. She'd seen her guardian perform these same simple actions a hundred times before, but for the first time she noticed how the soft white linen shirt seemed to glow against his dark olive skin, how the broad, lean lines of his shoulders filled every seam, muscles contracting visibly across his back as he bent to prop his sword against the wall. She watched his slender, graceful fingers as he folded his uniform and placed it on the table beneath the window, and she marveled that she'd never really paid attention to them before.

Talon turned, and for an instant their eyes met. Shasta started and looked away quickly. With an exaggerated yawn, she climbed into bed and mumbled, as if already half asleep, "Ah, I'm so exhausted. Take care of the rest of the lights, will you, Talon?"

In truth her entire body was tingling, and her mind had never been more awake. She had never been so keenly aware of Talon's presence in the cot beside her, only a handbreadth away from her own bed. Her heart beat so rapidly she was certain sleep would elude her all night. Dismayed, she extinguished the lamp at her bedside and burrowed down beneath the quilts, as far out of sight as she could get. I'll never be able to look at him the same way again. How is it possible for so much to change in a single day?

Talon stared at the Princess's form in the bed. Just now, when she'd caught Shasta watching her, she could have sworn she'd seen something in Shasta's expression that she'd certainly never seen before. It almost looked like...

Talon shook her head. She was imagining things, probably because she'd just spent the entire evening in Erinda's arms. It was the first time they'd been together without feeling the need to rush or to stifle the sounds of their pleasure. A wicked smile curved her lips at the memory. While she and Erinda had no deep emotional connection to one another, they certainly had plenty of chemistry in other ways.

She gazed at the Princess's still figure again and found a lump rising in her throat. As comforting as Erinda's touch was, there was something shallow about it, something that didn't seem completely satisfying no matter how intense the physical sensations were. But even if it was desire that she'd glimpsed in Shasta's face tonight, Talon knew her fevered imagination was just taunting her with impossible hope. She was not a man. She would never be anything more than the Princess's faithful guardian and servant. With a sigh, she pulled the blanket up to her chin and closed her eyes.

Neither young woman slept easy that night.

Chapter Thirteen.

Over the next half-moon it became painfully obvious that Talon had not been imagining things at all. More and more often she would glance up to catch Shasta watching her through half-lidded eyes. At first the Princess seemed embarrassed to be caught staring and looked away quickly, but it didn't take long before she became bolder and began meeting Talon's gaze with little smiles and fluttering lashes.

Talon could scarcely believe it. It was as if Shasta turned eighteen and overnight became as big a flirt as any of the palace serving girls.

Then the love notes began. The first time Talon found one, she'd emerged from the privy chamber in the morning to see a small folded piece of parchment resting on top of her boots. Opening it, she found a snippet of poetry from one of the Princess's books, carefully copied out in curling handwriting and decorated with sketches of flowers and butterflies. When she looked up, Shasta was watching her with a self-satisfied smile. Uncertain what to do, Talon dropped the note into her small wooden chest of belongings. After that, she found such missives on an increasingly regular basis, tucked inside her textbooks and lying on the pillow of her cot at night.

She wasn't sure how to handle this new development. Her common sense told her that the Princess's sudden interest in her was based on a false ideal-the romantic image of the handsome soldier Talon pretended to be-and would likely be short-lived. But there was another part of her that wished, dangerously, that she might pretend it was real, if only for a little while. That little voice terrified her, and privately she resolved to do whatever she could to discourage the Princess's infatuation.

Captain Vaughn found the situation extremely amusing, as almost every day brought some new surprise, inevitably discovered at the most inopportune moment. One morning while lecturing a group of young recruits, Talon drew her sword for a demonstration and found that Shasta had wrapped a note around the blade. It flew across the room and landed in the lap of one of the soldiers. Before she could snatch it back, he opened it and began to read it aloud, much to the entertainment of his classmates. Talon was finally able to take it from him, but in a matter of hours every foot soldier in the barracks had heard of the Princess's crush on her guardian.

Shasta seemed unfazed by the teasing. Talon was sure that in some twisted way the Princess thrived on it. To make matters even more difficult, Shasta had begun a most inconvenient habit of calling for Erinda to brush her hair while Talon was bathing. As there was no other time of day that she could be alone with Erinda, their trysts together became fewer and farther between. Though Talon tried at first to treat the whole situation with a sense of humor, she found herself running out of patience and becoming more and more irritable and snappish with her charge.

She realized that Shasta enjoyed flustering her, and the harder she fought to maintain her nonchalance, the harder Shasta tried to break it down and the more amusing it became to the servants and guards. Even Erinda could not help snickering from time to time at the look on Talon's face upon finding the Princess's handkerchief in the pocket of her uniform or discovering Shasta's red hair ribbons tied in cheerful bows around the hilt of her favorite belt knife.

When it became evident that simply ignoring these gestures was not effective, Talon began to retaliate the only other way she knew how: tearing up the love notes and purposefully shrinking away from the Princess's attempts to touch her. She began flirting more intently with the palace serving girls and even the ladies of court, presenting them with little flowers and compliments for no apparent reason, hoping that Shasta would get the message that she was not interested.

Instead, Shasta continued undaunted. She actually seemed to enjoy the challenge. Talon found herself engaged in an unspoken, bizarre battle of wills with her charge that persisted exhaustingly through nearly every minute of every day. It was a battle she could not afford to lose, for both their sakes.

"You're leaving already?" Bria propped herself up on one elbow and drew the sheet to her chest as she watched her lover's naked back retreating from the bed. Kumire only grunted, picking his trousers up from the floor and stuffing one leg into them at a time. "I don't understand why you always have to run off so fast."

"That's because you don't understand what it means to be a man, with real responsibilities." Kumire buckled his belt and began looking around on the floor for his shirt. "I have lessons with the Princess in a few minutes."

"I know that, silly. I'll be there too, remember?" Bria smiled sweetly and rose from the bed, keeping the sheet wrapped around her. Approaching him from behind, she ran a small hand over his chest. "Princess Shasta won't mind if we're a little late. Besides, I have a funny bit of gossip for you."

"I don't care about gossip." Kumire slapped her hand away as she offered to help with his buttons.

"You'll like this. It's about the Princess. You know how she's been sighing around after my brother recently?"