Shasta had to smile. "Well, I know they're your favorite. There's a jar of honeyed plums in there too, and I had Erinda bring me most of Cook's sweet breads from yesterday's baking." She watched Lainen take another gleeful bite while inspecting the contents of the other packages. "And...that little one on the bottom has coins in it, for your mother. I would have put in more but it was all I had left from my quarterly allowance. Please tell her I'm sorry."

Lainen grinned, exposing teeth coated in gooey red pulp. "Aw, Your Highness, you really don't have to do this. Not that I'm complaining."

Shasta laughed and sat down next to him on the cold stone of the terrace. "Well, it was my fault. I hate it when they do this to you. It's not fair."

Lainen regarded her seriously for a moment. "I really don't mind that much, you know. We've been friends since we were kids, you and Daric and me." He sighed. "I still can't believe he's gone."

"Me either." Shasta blinked back tears. "You should probably go back to bed before your mother realizes you're gone."

"Yeah, and I want to hide the sweets. If she finds them, she'll eat them all!" He gathered up his packages and winked at her. "Hey, thanks, Princess."

Shasta watched as the boy trotted off through the foliage. She should be thanking him. A few smuggled treats were hardly sufficient compensation for the pain she knew he'd gone through on her behalf. If she were in his place, she would not be so forgiving. She stood and turned to go, but a rustling sound froze her in her tracks.

"Is someone there?" she called, and her heart leapt into her throat as a tall shadow moved out from behind the garden entrance. She let out a deep breath of relief when she recognized who it was.

"Talon. Don't scare me like that." She took a few steps toward him and frowned. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

"I could ask you the same question." Her guardian's dark eyes looked pointedly off in the direction that Lainen had gone, then slid back to her.

Shasta sighed sadly and brushed past him, but then paused. "You know, I'm not as heartless as you think I am. I just-I can't let them see that I care." She kept walking, knowing he would follow.

When they reached her room, she stepped back so that Talon could open the door for her, and he set the lamp on the table beside her bed. Shasta touched the collar of her dressing robe and shyly cast a glance at her guardian. His dark eyebrows lifted, and he turned his back to allow her to remove her robe and climb into bed. When the rustling of the bedcovers had quieted, he turned around once more and sat on the edge of his cot to remove his boots.

Shasta leaned against the pile of pillows, pulling the blue feather from her sleeve and holding it to the light. "When my brother and I were young...right after we'd celebrated our seventh winter...we snuck off one afternoon while Nurse was napping and ran out onto the moor." She spoke softly, hardly above a whisper, and her guardian looked up. The surprise in his dark eyes made her grin. No doubt that was the longest sentence he'd ever heard her speak.

"We were running among the grasses, shouting and chasing one another. Hardly behavior befitting a proper prince and princess, and that was the whole point...And we saw this amazing bird. It was bright blue. I'd never seen anything like it." She twirled the feather in her fingers. "Daric got this crazy idea to try and catch it and take it back to the castle with us. We followed that bird for...oh, it must have been hours. It just hopped from here to there across the moor, but it never flew away."

Shasta wasn't sure why she was going on like this. She hadn't wanted to speak of her brother at all in the moons since his death, but suddenly she needed to talk about him, to say his name.

"Finally the bird stopped, and Daric took his hat off and crept up on it so slowly. I ran out of patience a hundred times before he even got within arm's reach of it. He held his hat out, over the bird, and brought it down fast. I thought for sure he'd gotten it, but when he lifted it up just a little to check, the bird was gone and there was only a little blue feather. He was so disappointed." The memory made her smile.

"By then, it was fairly dark and we couldn't see the castle anymore. We were completely lost. I became very frightened...it was getting colder, and darker, and I was hungry. I started crying. But Daric, he patted me on the shoulder and said 'It's okay, sis, see? We were following the bird, and it was facing away from the castle when I tried to catch it, so if we just follow the direction that the feather's pointing, we'll get home.'"

She shook her head. "He knew as well as I that it was nonsense, but his confidence made me feel better, and we started walking. We walked and walked until I felt like my legs were going to fall off. I was ready to just lie down in the grass and cry myself to sleep when we heard voices and saw lights coming toward us. Father had formed a search party to look for us, and we'd walked right into them."

Shasta stroked the edge of the feather thoughtfully. "The next day we met Lainen for the first time. Father ordered ten strokes for each of us, but we were the Prince and Princess of Ithyria...so of course they wouldn't actually beat us. They found the only child in the castle who was close to our age, and he received the whipping for both of us. Nurse counted out the strokes and said our names after each one. 'One, Daric. One, Shasta. Two, Daric. Two, Shasta.' Twenty strokes. It was awful. But Daric kept whispering in my ear, saying 'Don't cry, Shasta, you can't let them see you cry. If they know it bothers you they'll beat him every time you misbehave.' So I just stood there trying to look like I didn't care.

"When it was over, Daric and I combined our stashes of Solstice sweets, and when everyone else in the castle had gone to sleep, we snuck down to the servant's quarters and found Lainen. We gave him all our treats and told him over and over again that we were so sorry. From that day on the three of us were fast friends."

"Yet you still hide that fact and allow him to be treated badly," Talon commented softly, his husky voice melodic in the semidarkness. "Why?"

"If Father or Nurse knew how much I like Lainen, they'd only beat him more often to try to control me. Whippings have always been their last resort, when they can't think of anything else."

Talon was silent for a moment, then to Shasta's surprise, he reached out and took the feather from her fingers with a slight smile. "We used to see birds this color every spring. My mother used to say they brought good luck."

"Your mother?" Shasta rolled on her side to look at him.

Talon sighed. "I don't remember a lot about my childhood. My people were Outlanders. Our tribe used to travel to the plains in the colder seasons, then return to our hunting grounds in the mountains for the summer. Our village was attacked by raiders when I was about nine winters." A muscle along his jaw tightened. "They came sweeping down on us out of nowhere. Killed my father, and..." He paused uncomfortably. "And my mother too. Burned our house to the ground. Burned the whole village." There was anger in his voice, and he was silent for a moment, turning the blue feather in his fingers. He lifted his eyes to hers. "I guess we've both lost people we love to murderers."

Shasta reached out and touched the feather in his hand with a fingertip, and suddenly realized she was crying. Tears poured down her cheeks, and without thinking, she wrapped her arms around her guardian's neck, sliding out of her own bed and down onto his cot. "I...I miss Daric, Talon, I miss him so much."

Talon stiffened with shock, uncertain how she should respond as the sobbing Princess climbed into her lap and clung to her. When it became clear her charge wasn't leaving any time soon, Talon sighed and leaned back against the bed, bending one knee for balance, and placed an arm around Shasta's shoulders. She held the girl until her sobs abated and her body grew heavy with sleep, then carefully slid her free arm under the Princess's knees and stood up. Carrying her to the other side of the bed, she laid her gently on the soft mattress and tucked the satin quilt beneath Shasta's chin.

For a long moment, Talon stared down at the Princess's tear-streaked face, then she realized she was still holding the blue feather. She studied the precious keepsake and had an idea. Lifting the oil lamp from the table, she moved to the window and rummaged through her own small chest of belongings. After finding what she was looking for, she positioned the lamp on the window seat, settled herself on the floor beside the chest, and began to work.

Chapter Three.

Shasta awoke the next morning and gave an unhappy groan as a beam of sunlight blinded her with its brightness. Her eyes felt grainy and hot from her crying episode the night before, and a flush crept across her face as she remembered. Sitting up, she was relieved to see Talon's cot was empty. He must be in the privy chamber already.

As if on cue, a cheerful whistling emerged from behind the privy door, and Shasta smiled wryly. Their living situation was awkward, to say the least, but they were learning to adjust. After several uncomfortable morning encounters, Talon had begun a habit of whistling just before he stepped out of the privy, giving Shasta time to don her dressing robe before he appeared.

She slid from the bed and soon after she'd wrapped the robe around her shoulders, Talon appeared carrying a lidded chamber pot, which he set outside the door of Shasta's rooms for collection.

He gave a small bow. "Your chamber awaits, my Princess."

"Thank you, oh great Master of the Privy." She grinned at him as she retreated into the anteroom.

Nurse had already laid out her black silk breakfast gown and mourning veil, ready to be worn for the morning meal. A splash of blue caught Shasta's attention, and she reached out and picked up her feather, which was lying on top of the gown. A thin gold wire encircled its base, strung between tiny holes bored in the shaft to hold it securely. The wire formed a loop through which was threaded a delicate gold chain. In wonder, Shasta held the feather pendant up for a moment, then turned and ran out of the chamber.

"Did you do this?" she demanded.

Talon finished buckling his sword belt and looked up. "I thought it might keep that thing from taking off into any more tree branches."

She felt like crying, but instead met her guardian's eyes earnestly. "Thank you."

He nodded, and Shasta returned to her chamber to dress. As she approached the black gown from the chair, however, her hand drifted to the feather around her neck, and she made a decision. Leaving the somber dress and veil where they were, she went to the door of her rooms and called for her ladies-in-waiting.

Lyris and Bria appeared in the doorway almost immediately from their room down the hall. "Your Highness?"

"Lyris, please put those black clothes back and fetch my yellow dress."

Lyris's eyes widened, but she curtsied. "Yes, Highness, at once." She carried the black dress and veil to the wardrobe and exchanged them for a soft yellow satin breakfast gown embroidered with small blue flowers. "Is this what Your Highness wanted?"

Shasta smiled. "Yes, thank you. Come, both of you may help me dress. Bria, will you arrange my hair?"

The two dark-haired girls curtsied again and followed Shasta into the privy chamber, closing the door behind them.

When they emerged, Talon nearly dropped the small knife she was sharpening at the sight. Bria had obviously been paying attention to her hairdressing lessons, for Shasta's waist-length, light brown hair was drawn into an elaborate twist of smooth braids and loops, fastened with sparkling pins here and there that glittered in the morning light. The cheerful yellow gown brought out the warmth in the Princess's eyes, turning them a rich shade of amber. And the little blue flowers scattered across the dress accented the blue feather at her throat.

But it wasn't just the change in clothes that startled Talon. There was life in the Princess's face that Talon had never seen before. Shasta was strikingly beautiful. In fact, Talon was startled by a sudden irrational desire to touch her, wondering if that flawless skin was as soft as it looked. She checked the impulse quickly, though a flush crept into her cheeks for even thinking such an impertinent thing.

Shasta giggled. "You look so shocked, Talon. Was I that much of a fright before?"

Talon gulped. "No, of course not, Highness." She hoped her face was not as red as it felt.

The Princess did not seem to notice. She giggled again. "Well, come on, we'll be late to breakfast."

The guards in the corridors bowed a little lower that morning and looked surprised as Shasta greeted them. When she and her entourage reached the dining hall, King Soltran stood up from the table. His face lit when he saw her unveiled for the first time in several moons.

"Shasta. You look so well this morning."

"Thank you, Father." She took the chair Talon held for her, and grinned across the table at Lyris and Bria. "I have excellent assistants." Both girls beamed at the praise.

As the servants began to distribute plates of food, King Soltran waved a hand at the tall young man at the opposite end of the table. He had risen to his feet when they first entered, and remained standing as the King introduced him.

"Shasta, you remember his Excellency Duke Kumire Fickettis, the chancellor from Mondera province. I have invited him to breakfast with us this morning."

The chancellor bowed and his eyes traveled over her face and figure with scarcely adequate respect. "Your Highness."

Shasta had seen the chancellor around the palace of late. His father, Archduke Fickett Anwulfis, had been her mother's uncle, which made Kumire a distant cousin. Fickett was the current viceroy of Mondera, and it came as no surprise to anyone when he appointed his own son to the position of chancellor, second in command of the provincial senate.

Shasta had never much cared for either of them. The noble traits that characterized the Ithyrian royal family seemed to have bypassed Archduke Fickett and his son. They were both intolerably arrogant and dull and, after greeting Kumire with what she hoped was a sufficient display of good manners, Shasta ignored him entirely.

"Father, I have a request."

Soltran looked up from his breakfast. "What is it, my child?"

"I want to join Talon's fencing lesson with Captain Vaughn."

Chancellor Kumire made a disbelieving noise. Nearly choking on a mouthful of eggs, the King shook his head, reaching for his goblet.

"I know we've argued about this before, Father, and you've always said no. But things are different now." Unconsciously she reached up to touch the feather at her throat. "If I am to inherit the throne of Ithyria one day, I should know how to defend it. At the very least, I should know how to defend myself. I want to learn the sword."

King Soltran regarded her gravely. "I suppose now is as good a time as any...I brought the chancellor here this morning, hoping to speak with you. He and I have had several discussions in regard to, well..." He took a deep breath. "With Daric gone, we must reconsider our plans for the future. The chancellor has suggested, and I agree, that we should begin to think about your betrothal."

Shasta stared at him. "My betrothal? To whom, may I ask?"

"To Chancellor Kumire."

"That's ridiculous. Father, I'm not ready to marry."

"Kumire is your cousin, my dear, the only other possible heir to the Ithyrian royal bloodline. This marriage would mean-"

"He would rule after your death and I wouldn't need to worry about anything but filling the palace nurseries with blue-blooded children and being a pretty arm decoration. I understand perfectly." Angrily, she pushed her plate away. "Daric loved Ithyria, and as his sister I refuse to sit back playing with my hair and jewels while someone else rules his kingdom-our kingdom. I am not going to hide from my birthright by marrying the chancellor or anyone else."

Her father flinched, and Shasta knew she'd struck a sore spot. It was no secret that many in the kingdom questioned his right to wear the crown. Shasta felt a twinge of guilt and softened her tone. "Father, the law of the Goddess says I may choose my own husband, and I'm sure that in time I will. But with all due respect to His Excellency," she cast a brief nod in Kumire's direction, "I have yet to meet anyone I could endure to live with the rest of my life."

"You do not understand." Frustration entered King Soltran's tone. "Ithyria must have a strong heir to the throne. With Daric gone the wait will be longer than we'd expected, I'm afraid, but the sooner you marry and produce a son-"

"You really believe I can't rule on my own, don't you?" Shasta could hear the incredulity in her own voice. "I will admit, up to this point I haven't taken as close an interest as I should have in the politics and troubles facing our country-"

"That's not the only concern, and you know it." Her father rubbed his forehead wearily. "The healers have always said your blood is weak. I worry that your fragile constitution..."

Shasta leapt to her feet, so quickly her guardian had to take a step back to avoid being hit with her chair. "Fragile constitution be damned! I am still my mother's daughter, every bit as much as Daric was her son. There have been queens before, Father, who ruled Ithyria alone just as well as any man."

Talon was astonished. She had come to think of the Princess as a rather quiet, somber girl, far too wrapped up in herself to summon such passion. Shasta's startling forcefulness gave Talon her first glimpse of the legendary Rane charisma.

"Sit down," the King ordered, though even he seemed slightly daunted by his daughter's bout of royal temper.

"Father, I can do this."

"Please, Shasta." He sounded tired, and Shasta sat, though defiance was clearly written all over her face.

King Soltran sighed. "I did not mean to imply that you have no choice in the matter. Of course I will not force you to marry against your will, but I worry that you may find the responsibility of the crown far too heavy a burden to bear alone. However, you are still young and we have time, which is why I am going to propose a compromise. I will agree to allow you to study fencing under Captain Vaughn, but you will also study economics and politics under the chancellor's tutelage. In doing so you will learn many of the things you will need should you decide to take the throne yourself, and perhaps it will afford you the chance to get better acquainted with Chancellor Kumire. You might find that you enjoy his company."

Shasta rolled her eyes, but at the King's frown she sighed, "Very well. But I'm not making any promises." She rose and swept from the room, leaving all who remained to exchange surprised glances.

Soltran rubbed his beard and chuckled. "Well, she's right about one thing-she certainly is her mother's daughter." He eyed Talon, who was still stunned by the entire exchange. "Well, go on after her, boy. Who knows what trouble she's going to stir up between the dining hall and her own chambers."

"You don't think he's handsome?" Bria goaded, poking the Princess with the tip of her fan.

Shasta shook her head. "Goddess, no. He's got a pointy nose. And a weak chin. I've seen horses more handsome than Chancellor Kumire."

Bria fluttered her lashes. "Well, I think you do him a disservice, Princess. I find him absolutely lovely."

"He's coming back," Lyris warned as their tutor approached the table to check their work.

"I think that's enough for today, ladies. Tomorrow we'll go over the various currencies of the Ithyrian provinces and the effect the exchange rate has on our economy." The chancellor smiled down at them, and Shasta thought to herself that he looked rather like a grasshopper, with his large forehead and narrow face.

"Thank you, Chancellor," Bria replied sweetly.

Shasta rolled her eyes at her companion and stood up, closing the book on the table and rolling up her parchment. "Yes, well, if that's all..." She marched to the other end of the hall, where Talon was bent over a map with Captain Vaughn. Her guardian was tracing a line on the map with his finger, engrossed in conversation with the captain. Shasta cleared her throat and they both looked up at her.

"My lessons are done for the day. I want to go riding."

The captain sighed. "Your Highness, Talon still needs several hours of exercise and sword practice this afternoon."

Shasta waved a hand. "I give you my word, he will receive all the exercise and practice he needs. Tomorrow." She walked away, knowing Talon had no choice but to accompany her.

Lyris and Bria hastened after them, Bria insisting she wished to ride as well.

"Oh..." Shasta paused. "But I thought you wanted to practice your dancing this afternoon. The Goddess's harvest benediction festival is only a half-moon from now."

Lyris curtsied. "Of course, Your Highness." She gave Bria a warning glare as her sister began to protest. "Enjoy your ride. We will see you this evening." She took Bria's arm and led her away before the younger girl could say anything else.

"They know you're up to something," Talon commented suspiciously. "Why don't you want them coming with us?"