Kumire snarled and wrenched her from her captor's grasp, throwing her onto the bed. "You know what your problem is, Princess, you don't understand how the world works."

"Don't touch her!"

Shasta looked up as her guardian brought an elbow up into the chin of the man holding her, knocking his head back and wriggling free of his grasp. Talon ducked beneath a swinging club and lunged at Kumire. But the chancellor snapped his fingers. The three men who had been searching the room converged on Talon. Shasta heard a sickening crunch as one of them landed a fist across her guardian's face. After several more blows, they got her back under control.

"Talon!" Shasta cried. Kumire stalked over and lifted up her guardian's chin, staring into black eyes that were burning with rage. A trickle of blood left Talon's nose and stained her upper lip.

"What's the matter, boy, can't stand the thought of a real man taking what you can only dream of? You're nothing more than a glorified slave, not even worthy of emptying her chamber pot."

Talon's voice was hoarse. "I'll kill you."

"Of course you will." Kumire patted her dark head condescendingly. "Except you'll be dead before you get the chance." The chancellor turned his back and moved toward Shasta again.

"No!" Talon yelled as she struggled against her captor. Without breaking his stride Kumire snorted.

"Hold him."

Shasta shrieked again as one of the burly men again struck her guardian across the face. Talon wouldn't stop fighting to free her arms. She was hit again in the stomach and face until her knees gave out and she dropped to the carpet. Blood streamed from her nose and lip.

Kumire paid no attention, advancing on Shasta, who crawled as far from him as she could get, against the headboard of the bed. He grabbed one of her ankles, and she kicked at him as he yanked her back down the bed. "Stop it! Stop!"

She turned her head to see her guardian, who even on her knees had not yet been defeated. When Talon attempted to stand again she received a hard kick in the abdomen and doubled over, spitting blood onto the thick carpet of the floor. Another kick and she was down completely. One of the brute's booted feet came down to rest on her head. A little more pressure and her skull would crack.

Shasta struggled against Kumire. "No! Stop! Kumire, make them stop, they're killing him! Talon!" She was glad that she'd remembered, albeit barely, to refer to Talon as a man. The chancellor's eyebrow quirked, and he leaned over her on the mattress so that she was forced to lie completely down on the bed.

"Tell you what, Princess. You give me the royal signet, and I'll spare your faithful little puppy's life."

"But I don't have it," she said earnestly.

Kumire shrugged. "Then you leave me no choice." He raised a hand, and Shasta twisted her neck to see Talon's bloodstained face pressed into the floor beneath her attacker's boot and only a fingerbreadth away from being crushed.

"No, wait...wait, please!" Kumire turned to look at her expectantly, and she swallowed. "I don't have it. Really I don't, or I'd give it to you, I swear. I'll do anything, just"-she licked her lips as her gaze flickered between Talon and Kumire-"just don't kill him. Please."

"Anything, you say?" The chancellor's eyes moved over her body greedily.

"Princess...no..." Talon's moan was scarcely audible.

Shasta couldn't stand it. Twice Talon had nearly died saving her life, and here she was ready to do it again. Shasta had no doubt that Talon would let that horrible monster split her head open before she'd allow Kumire to lay a hand on her. But it wasn't Talon's decision. And so Shasta met Kumire's eyes, trying not to let her revulsion show, and nodded. "Anything." She cringed as Kumire brought a hand to her face, trailing it slowly down her neck and chest, slipping a finger beneath the collar of her robe.

Kumire leaned forward so that his lips were next to the Princess's ear. "Then stop fighting me and hold still." His other hand went to the belt of her robe and he pulled it open, revealing the lacy straps and low neckline of her nightdress. He ran his fingers over her collarbone, then lower, squeezing her breast beneath his hand and pinching the nipple so hard so that she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. He grinned and gave a small cruel twist with his fingers that caused her to whimper. "Good girl." He jerked his head at his companions, who were chuckling darkly. "Get the lieutenant on his feet. He gets to watch the show."

The one resting his foot on Talon's head suddenly moved it and seized the back of her shirt. He hauled her up and tilted her face in the lamplight. One of Talon's eyes was already beginning to swell shut, and she didn't seem to have the strength to stand on her own. Kumire gave a satisfied grin and ran his hands down Shasta's sides, tracing the indentation of her waist, the curve of her hips, the sides of her thighs and calves. When he reached the hem of her nightshift he slid his hands beneath it, retracing their way back up beneath the shift to her waist.

Shasta cringed at the feel of his fingers against her skin, still tender from the poison rash, and gave a little gasp as Kumire clawed at the waistband of her undergarments. He pulled, stripping the fabric from her body and leaving her naked beneath the thin cotton shift.

"No, wait..." Talon gave a cry, and Shasta again twisted her head to look at her guardian. She was startled to see a tear fall from one of the dark eyes, trailing over the bruised and bleeding flesh of her cheekbone. Talon's face was swollen and streaked with blood, and she stared at the Princess with a mixture of desperation and excruciating pain. "I have it. The signet. I'll give it to you."

Kumire's head came up. "You expect me to believe that?"

"It's true, just let me-" Talon wiggled to free her arms and received another blow to the face for her efforts. The chancellor gave a hard, cruel little laugh.

"It's rather sweet, the way the two of you would say or do just about anything to protect one another. Disgusting, but sweet. Don't worry, boy, there will be plenty of time to search your pockets when her Highness and I are done here."

Talon thrashed again. "Shasta-"

"Shh. Talon, it's all right," the Princess murmured quietly.

Another tear fell down her guardian's face, and Shasta kept her eyes fastened on Talon while the faint clank of metal told her that Kumire was unfastening his belt. She would not look at him, would not give him the satisfaction of making her cry or scream. Kumire grabbed her behind the knees and pulled her down the bed toward him. As he forced her legs apart, his men began to chuckle raucously.

Shasta gave a deep shuddering breath, and at the same time she and Talon both squeezed their eyes shut, tears sliding across their faces simultaneously. Kumire lifted her legs to surround his hips, and Shasta felt the heat of his body, the hardness of him brushing against her inner thigh, his breath coming in quick, eager spurts. She gritted her teeth, but just as his weight began to descend, a crash and the roar of men's voices made him freeze. Shasta's eyes flew open just as Kumire was wrenched from between her legs. The room suddenly filled with uniformed royal guard, swords flashing, and Shasta felt gentle hands at her shoulders, lifting her into a sitting position.

"Your Highness, are you all right? He didn't..."

"Lyris!" Shasta cried out, clinging to her friend for dear life. Tears streamed down her face, and she no longer tried to hold them back.

The priestess patted her back, but said urgently, "Come, Highness, we must get you out of here."

Another hand touched her shoulder, and Shasta turned with indescribable relief to see Captain Vaughn surveying her worriedly. "Princess Shasta, I'm so sorry we couldn't get here sooner." The room rang with the sound of clashing swords. Shasta saw Chancellor Kumire sidling out the door and pointed. Vaughn grunted and moved to intercept the chancellor but was turned aside by a huge, grizzled ruffian wielding an axe. With a few quick flicks of the sword Vaughn managed to slit the enormous man's throat. A spray of blood fell over them all as the thug slumped to the floor and Kumire fled from the chamber.

Shasta thought she might be sick, but Captain Vaughn caught hold of her. "The palace is overrun with barbarians, Highness, and many of the royal guard have turned against us. I don't know how long we'll be able to hold them off. You must escape the castle, now."

Shasta rushed toward her guardian, crumpled on the floor. "Talon..."

"I'll get her, come on." Vaughn cleared a path through the flailing blades and lifted Talon from the carpet, supporting her as they made their way out the door. Once they were in the hall, the fighting was not in such close quarters, but there was a roar from beneath their feet. More of the barbarian army was filling the lower corridors, making their way to the upper levels.

Lyris reared back as a loud clang sounded to their left and one of the smelly intruders fell to the stone floor. Erinda stood over him with a metal washbasin in her arms. The chambermaid gasped as she caught sight of Talon on Vaughn's shoulders. "Captain Vaughn, what's happening? Who are all these men?"

Vaughn regarded her grimly. "Kumire is a traitor and this barbarian army of his is taking over the palace. You need to come with us." His gaze moved to Shasta. "Highness, where's King Soltran? We have to get him out of here as well."

Shasta's eyes spilled over again and she shook her head.

Talon gave a weak grunt. "The King is dead. Kumire killed him."

Vaughn's eyes grew the size of saucers, but it took less than a second for him to regain composure. "Then it's even more important to get the Princess away from here now. Erinda, Your Grace, take Princess Shasta into Ardrenn and find the cabinetmaker known as Roald. He's a friend of mine and will hide you until we can arrange for transport out of the city."

"But what about Talon?" Shasta protested.

Vaughn and Talon exchanged looks.

"With these wounds I would only slow you down," Talon said. "Besides, I can't leave without Bria. I have to go after her and get her away from Kumire before it's too late."

Shasta shook her head adamantly. "Then I'm coming with you."

Vaughn put his free hand on Shasta's shoulder. "Your Highness, when it's safe we will both join you at Roald's. I will take responsibility for Talon myself, you have my word."

Shasta scarcely had the chance to look back over her shoulder before Lyris and Erinda steered her to an indentation in the wall.

"The dumbwaiter?" she said incredulously as Erinda climbed into the cubbyhole, onto the wooden platform that was raised and lowered by pulleys to allow the quick transport of food and bedchamber supplies between floors.

"The stairwells are too dangerous, Highness, come on." She held a hand out and Shasta took it. She climbed onto the platform as well.

"What about you?" Shasta said to the priestess.

Lyris shook her head. "There isn't enough room, or enough time. Take this." She pulled a small knife from her belt and pressed it into Shasta's hand. "Just in case. I'm going to take the stairs. These men may be barbarians, but few would dare lay a hand on an Ithyrian priestess while in the Goddess's own lands. I'll meet you on the grounds, by the servant's stables."

"Hang on, Highness." Erinda gave her an encouraging smile. "This may be a bumpy ride."

She tugged at the rope of the dumbwaiter and they were slowly lowered down into the cold stone shaft between floors. Shasta huddled close to the chambermaid. She felt claustrophobic as the damp walls surrounded them. Darkness consumed the warm torchlight of the corridor as they sank farther downward.

The royal chambers were on the third level of the palace, and so they passed another similar cubbyhole on the second floor. Shasta froze with fear as she saw the number of barbarian warriors filling the corridor-hundreds of them, swarthy and tattooed in their leathers and furs, snarling as they swarmed against the palace walls. Shasta clapped a hand over her mouth.

One of the men gave a harsh grunt as her movement caught his eye. Shasta gasped and Erinda gave a mighty yank on the rope pulley. The wooden platform lowered just as a heavy, crude knife sailed into the shaft and embedded itself between two stones above them. Erinda grabbed Lyris's dagger from Shasta's hands and sawed at the rope. They had no more time to waste struggling with the pulley. "Hold on!" she shouted as the rope severed and the dumbwaiter dropped into free fall beneath them. They crashed with dizzying speed to the bottom of the shaft.

The landing was hard and the shock tingled through Shasta's body. She felt a little shove at her back and quickly scurried off the platform into the room. Erinda followed suit, just in time to avoid a hail of knives and one long spear that the barbarians dropped from above them. The sharp points dug into the wooden platform. Shasta eyed them with shock but Erinda paid no attention. She moved to one of the baskets near the wall and rummaged through it. Shasta surveyed the room with some confusion.

"Where are we?"

"The palace's main laundry, Highness," came the reply, and Erinda thrust something at her. "Put this on, and hurry."

Shasta held it out. It was a simple cloak of brown linen with a deep hood, like the ones the kitchen girls wore to tend the garden in cool weather. She swung it around her shoulders and fastened the ties at her neck, then thought of something and spoke up shyly. "Erinda, are there any clean undergarments in here?"

The chambermaid evidently decided not to ask for an explanation. She went to a shelf on the other side of the room and returned with a pair of neatly folded bloomers that Shasta wiggled into gratefully. "Ready?"

Shasta nodded. They crept to the door and opened it slightly. This particular corridor seemed fairly quiet. They could hear the sounds of fighting from above them, but the hall leading past the kitchens to the servants' gardens was clear. Shasta pulled the hood of the cloak over her head, and together they darted into the corridor. They ran as fast as their legs would carry them, out through the servants' gardens.

Shasta knew where they were headed. As children she and her brother had discovered a small door in the garden wall, now overgrown with ivy, that led out onto the castle grounds directly facing the stables. The gardens were empty. Apparently the barbarians were more interested in looting the wealthy guests in their chambers than in the vegetable and herb beds. The iron hinges squeaked loudly as Erinda hauled the door open, and Shasta gasped when she caught sight of the grounds. Bodies covered in blood littered the dirt, some wearing the scarlet jackets of the royal guard and others the scraggly beards and furs of the barbarian army.

Erinda grabbed the Princess's hand. "Come on, Highness. Try not to look at them. We have to get to the stables."

They ran, slinking close to the garden wall. In her hood and Erinda's plain dress, Shasta hoped they would not look interesting or profitable to the barbarians still fighting here and there along the grounds. She made the mistake once of actually meeting the eyes of a dying man as they passed. He had suffered an axe blow to the midsection that had nearly severed him in half, and his bowels spilled onto the hard-packed earth in a glistening mass of blood. Yet he was not quite dead yet, and Shasta put a hand to her mouth, gagging. She'd read books of war, even books of torture, but never before had she seen such graphic violence with her own eyes. The air reeked of death. Shasta might have fainted save for Erinda's sharp pinch at her arm.

"Don't look down, Princess. We don't have time for you to get sick."

Shasta met the chambermaid's eyes and kept running. At one point Erinda bent and grabbed a fallen sword from the dust, the blade streaked with crimson, but she did not slow her pace. They reached the big doors of the servants' stables to find Lyris waiting for them. She was seated on a small cinnamon-colored gelding, and she had a big brown mare's reins in the other hand.

Shasta was unaccustomed to riding a horse in her nightshift, of all things, and the mare was far too tall for her to mount herself. Erinda dropped to one knee and interlaced her fingers. With her help Shasta was able to climb up into the saddle. Erinda stood and leapt up behind her. Shasta was surprised that the plump little chambermaid seemed so uncharacteristically athletic all of a sudden. She kept the hood pulled low over her face as Erinda kicked her heels, and the Princess, the priestess, and the chambermaid raced off through the palace's back gates onto the southern moors.

Their frantic ride was a blur for Shasta. Under the combination of physical exhaustion and emotional trauma, she could hardly think coherently anymore. In one day she'd nearly been poisoned to death, had been awakened in the middle of the night to watch her father killed in front of her very eyes, had almost been raped, and then was forced to flee the only home she'd ever known in fear of her life.

She felt numb, like she was floating inside herself, surrounded by a comforting darkness that promised to protect her from any further shock. The horse beneath her was galloping hard, and the rhythm of its movement lulled her into a strange, hypnotic daze. Vaguely she was aware that they were galloping around the castle, clear of the palace walls, toward Ardrenn. She felt it when the horses finally slowed to a more dignified and less suspicious walking gait. They wound through the dusty streets, and a few times they stopped so that Erinda could inquire directions of one of the night watchmen. No one in Ardrenn seemed to be aware yet of the terrible battle that was being fought right this moment beneath their very noses.

They came to a stop in front of what looked like a shabby little furniture shop. The windows were dark, the owners having long since gone to bed. Erinda helped Shasta from the big mare, and they made their way around the side of the shop to a small door in the back. Erinda pounded on it until a light appeared in the window above them and a man's voice called down to them.

Erinda tipped her head back. "Are you Roald?" The man gave an affirmative grunt. "Captain Vaughn sent us."

There was a thumping as the cabinetmaker made his way down the stairs at breakneck speed, throwing the door open. His round-faced wife peered curiously over his shoulder at the bizarre sight of an Ithyrian priestess, a servant girl, and a hooded stranger at their door in the middle of the night.

Erinda pulled Shasta's hood back, and Shasta met the cabinetmaker's eyes, licking her swollen lip. She heard his sharp gasp and his wife's cry of amazement. Then the darkness that had been pounding through her head all night finally overwhelmed her, and she lost consciousness completely.

Chapter Twenty.

It wasn't the pain that drew Talon out of slumber, it was something else-a light, gentle touch on her side that somehow felt even more vivid than the throbbing pain that besieged her body. She opened her eyes and blinked against the dim lamplight, then quickly closed them again when she realized what had awakened her. Shasta was sitting by her bed, running several fingers along the white scar above Talon's hip. Talon did the best she could to maintain the evenness of her breathing, knowing that if the Princess thought she was awake she'd probably withdraw her hand. And Talon didn't want her to stop.

With her eyes still closed Talon tried to ascertain where they were, or at the very least what condition she was in. She vaguely remembered flashes from the battle at the palace, Kumire's betrayal, the murder of the King. What plagued her mind more than every other terrible fragment of memory was Bria's stubborn refusal to leave her traitorous husband and escape with Talon and the Captain. Instead, she had called Kumire's men. She had been willing to see Talon killed.

Even now, Talon could hear the snarling grunts and smell the overwhelming stench of the barbarians who had converged on her at her sister's command. Her entire body ached with the consequences of that night. A deep pain pulsed through her lower left leg, and she was aware of a sharp sting across her right thigh and right arm. Her face felt strangely tight. One of her eyes was almost impossible to open. She could feel cool air on her stomach and shoulders, but there was a soft weight across her chest and lower hips that let her know she was probably wrapped in a sheet of some sort.

Still, all the pain was overwhelmed by that small, delicate sensation of Shasta's hand on her skin, and for the moment that commanded Talon's complete concentration.

The Princess's fingers traced the scar above her hip several times, then trailed across her abdomen to the small round indentation left by the outlaw's arrow. Her skin tingled lightly everywhere Shasta touched it, leaving a soft fiery trail that made it difficult for Talon to control her breathing.

She heard a quiet sob, and it was almost enough to make her open her eyes, but then she felt Shasta's breath tickling her hip and the warm press of lips against her scar, followed by a sudden hot liquid sensation that Talon recognized as tear droplets striking her skin. She couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through her body, so she tried to hide it by inhaling deeply and fluttering her one good eye as if she were just waking up.

Shasta straightened quickly and enfolded one of her guardian's hands in her own. "Talon?"

Talon tried to smile, but it hurt too much and instead she ended up grunting. Shasta didn't seem to care. Her amber eyes widened with a look of intense relief.

"Oh, Talon. At last. I was so afraid you might never wake up."

"Princess..." She could barely get the words past her lips. Her throat was parched and rough from disuse.

"Shh, don't try to talk." Shasta took a cup from the table by the bed. "Here, open your mouth."

Talon obeyed, although even that small motion stretched her swollen face uncomfortably, and Shasta poured water into her mouth, pausing to let her swallow. "Good. The healer said you needed as much water as we could get into you, and that's been hard with you unconscious this whole time."

Talon lifted her head from the pillow and tried to sit up. The pain coursing through her sides and chest was just as much a deterrent to that idea, however, as Shasta's hands at her shoulders pushing her back down.

"Don't you dare. You can't get up yet, you're still practically in pieces."

Talon didn't have the strength to argue. She scanned Shasta's face with her one good eye. The split lip she remembered had healed. She gave a little gasp as memories washed over her. The chancellor bending over Shasta's helpless form on the bed, stripping away her clothes, forcing her legs apart...

"Kumire," she choked out. "Princess, did he...?"

"No. No, Talon, it's all right. Captain Vaughn got there in time."

Talon sagged against the pillows in relief. She flexed the fingers that Shasta was holding, lifting them up to stroke the Princess's cheek. "I'm so sorry."

"Whatever for?"

"I should have stopped him. I failed you."

Shasta shook her head vehemently. "Don't you say that. You did everything you could, Talon. Kumire was going to kill you."