Still a trap, but I could hardly refuse to answer. "Because they can't enter Ann-the Tala kingdom. No one can." Amelia had-a secret from our father. She'd refused to tell me much about it. I knew only because she'd slipped up and referenced talking to Andi. As near as I could piece together, she'd snuck out of Ordnung and made the arduous journey to Annfwn, somehow convincing Andi to let her through the magical border. Where little Ami had gotten the courage and fortitude to pull that off, I didn't know.

It also truly impressed me that she had. Though it had been a disobedient, even traitorous, act, I couldn't condemn her for it. If it ever came to light that she had done so, I'd find a way to take the blame. It rightfully belonged to me anyway. If I hadn't killed Hugh, she could have cozily lived with her true love in Windroven, raising their babies and staying out of trouble.

Therefore, I would not be the one to betray her actions-which Uorsin had strictly forbidden-to our father. Not only to protect her. Preserving Uorsin's great affection for his youngest daughter would go a long way toward preserving the peace and stability of Ordnung and the Twelve.

"Because Amelia knows we'd worry-and that her and Astar's extended absence would only heighten political tensions."

"Bah." Uorsin dismissed that idea with a flick of his hand. "Amelia is a beautiful and sweet girl, but not that bright. Thinks of no one but herself. Such things would never occur to her."

I tightened my jaw to hold back my reply to that.

Uorsin tapped his blunt fingers on the desk thoughtfully. "It could be, however, if your tale is true, that the baby was taken as bait to lure her into the Tala's grasp and that she is, in fact, a hostage."

"Why go to the trouble of faking the child's death, then?" I pointed out, knowing I might regret provoking him. Better than insisting on Andi and Rayfe's good intentions. "We were not meant to see through the subterfuge."

"If you think yourself so clever," Uorsin growled, "where do you think she is?"

No good answer to that. "If you agreed to let me go look for her, I would cut through the Wild Lands at a diagonal and attempt to pick up her trail from Ordnung."

"And if you should not return, as she has not?"

"I would return to you and Ordnung as long as I had breath in my body." Hadn't I done that already? I'd come to Ordnung instead of going with Amelia. "My place is by your side."

He eyed me, a glimmer of something in his eye. "I want to believe you're loyal to me. I need to be able to count on that."

I met his gaze with a rush of relief. He praised me rarely, but when he did, all was worth it. Here was the King I knew. We could come through this and all would go back to normal.

"Yes, you'll stay here, and Captain Harlan, you'll take your men, see what you can find."

I took the chance-a final bid-and leaned my hands flat on his desk, holding his gaze as steadily and fearlessly as I could. "But, my King, Captain Harlan and his men have never faced the Tala. They don't know what the demon folk are capable of. The Hawks are experienced. We very nearly won Odfell's Pass-any of them can verify-and would have taken it but for the magical barrier."

"Then you shall advise him."

A sound in the antechamber, a crawling up my neck. The door opened and Illyria, with her dead eyes, entered. Uorsin's gaze went to her, locking on with a ferocity that seemed unnatural, even from a man who'd built an empire out of sheer force of will.

"Leave us now," he commanded.

As I turned to go, Illyria glanced at me, lips curving in a bloodred smile.

14.

Court should have already convened, but indications were that Uorsin would not be arriving anytime soon. He hadn't given official word either way, which wasn't entirely out of the range of his normal behavior. In better days, we'd all welcomed the break. In recent months, the reprieve had given me time and opportunity to do what I could to ease the growing troubles outside Ordnung's white walls. Thus, instead of sitting on my throne, I took a seat in the antechamber, which made me available for consultation and able to quickly take my formal chair, should Uorsin suddenly appear.

It did not surprise me that Ambassador Laurenne pounced upon the opportunity first, Stefan, one of the princes of Duranor, with her. Between them, they'd cooked up a plan to take water from the Danu River and divert it to the farmlands bordering the desert that encroached on both their realms. Never mind that the river ran entirely through Avonlidgh in that area. They clearly expected Old Erich's rebellion to soon end in his demise. Stefan, a cruel-faced man who'd made a halfhearted attempt to court me once, seemed to think I wouldn't see that he cared nothing for the starvation in Aerron and took this opportunity as a way to gain a foothold in Avonlidgh, with an eye to ultimately assimilating it. While I suspected Aerron, along with Elcinea and Nemeth, would throw in with Old Erich if they saw things going his way, it had always been clear that Stefan ran on his own agenda.

As Duranor had started the push to create an empire of the Twelve Kingdoms back when Uorsin was but an Elcinean conscript, it wasn't difficult to guess what that agenda might be.

Still, I sympathized with Aerron's plight, and the aqueduct plans looked as likely as I'd ever seen. Keeping them out of Erich's pocket would also be a benefit. Short of magic, Ordnung could do nothing to alter the drought. Some things were not in a ruler's power. I finally agreed to put it to the High King, when I found the right moment.

By the close of the morning, my head pounded from the parade of bad news and my heart ached at the litany of misfortune. People did not hesitate to share with me the disasters that they'd soft-pedaled for the sake of Uorsin's temper.

I did take the opportunity to inquire after Lady Zevondeth's health but received the same answer from everyone I asked-that she'd been scarce at court since midsummer, at very least. Several people seemed surprised that I'd mentioned her, as if they'd forgotten her very existence.

Captain Harlan would be out with his men, planning their journey, and I wanted to speak to him about it. I doubted that he'd leave before morning, but the chance that they'd set out this afternoon remained. I needed to give him advice, whether he asked for it or not. Uorsin didn't believe in the magical barrier, but I knew it to be very real. They'd never get through unless Andi allowed it. Captain Harlan needed information.

And to take at least Jepp with him.

Though a few of the Hawks hung about the practice yard, none of Harlan's men were in evidence, besides the supplementary guard on the walls. With a pang of dread, I thought they might have already departed. Harlan and his men would be sitting ducks for the Tala's tricks. I understood Uorsin's stubborn determination, but he'd faced the Tala. He knew full well their capabilities. Danu take it, he'd been married to Salena and, if stories ran true, had used every bit of her power and influence to win the Great War and unite the Twelve Kingdoms.

Perhaps that explained his fascination with Illyria. With so many troubles plaguing the Twelve-to an extent he had not confided to me-the King might feel a desperation to take extreme measures. People looked on Uorsin and saw the trappings of power but not the relentless responsibility of it. They didn't understand him as I did.

"Looking for me, Your Highness?" Harlan called out, coming from one of the secondary barracks. He looked terribly pleased with himself.

"Not for the reason you think," I told him in an undertone.

"I thought perhaps our imminent separation had caused you to reconsider your previous decision."

"No. Nothing ever will."

"Nothing at all?" Far from seeming daunted, he grinned. "And yet, you sought me out."

"I need to speak with you before you go on this venture. As you well know."

"You're speaking to me now."

Several of his men emerged from the barracks and went over to swap tales with the group of Hawks. More than one glanced over at us with interest, causing me to wonder what Harlan had said about me. He followed my line of sight and-more uncomfortably-the direction of my thoughts.

"They only wonder about what commands you relay. I've said nothing to cause anyone to speculate. What's between you and me stays between us."

Oh, they speculated, all right. Or, as in Jepp's case, leapt to assumptions. But that was the way of fighters, so absorbed with the physical. Fighting and fucking, two sides of one coin.

"I need to speak with you privately-and don't smile like that. Only to ensure we won't be overheard. There are things you must know before you leave, and not all for everyone to hear. When do you depart?"

"We leave at daybreak. I'll come to your rooms tonight."

I was already shaking my head. Daybreak. It should be me going. They'd be slaughtered and I'd have their blood on my hands. "No. Not there."

He raised his brows. "Weren't you the one to say that's the most private place possible?"

Too damned private, it had turned out. But he had the right of it.

"Don't you trust me to abide by your wishes?" He frowned. "Or is it yourself you don't trust?"

"Believe me, Captain, your offer holds no interest for me." I held his gaze, letting him see the truth of it. "While I appreciate your healing hands, they do nothing more for me than that."

He smiled, slow and certain. "Then spar with me."

I gestured to the dress. "I'm not exactly prepared for that."

"Go change, then. I'll wait. I'm good at waiting."

I ignored that intimate reminder. "Why are you so determined to spar with me?"

"Perhaps I seek a way under your guard-one way or another."

"Be frivolous all you like, Captain. I seek to give you the tools you'll need if you're to succeed and return alive."

He spread his hands, showing open palms. "Our interests there align, Your Highness. Do you prefer the courtyard? Some other location?"

Unfortunately I could think of nowhere else that I could be certain of not being overheard. I would simply have to ask Dafne to stay. She knew all the secrets already. "Fine. Attend me in my chambers after supper."

"I look forward to it." Slowly, with a sparkle in his eyes, he gave me that salute of his, something in it that unsettled me.

Several responses popped to mind, none that promised to daunt the irrepressible merc. So I turned and left him there, ready to put him out of my mind until after I met with Lady Zevondeth.

"Is she unwell?" I demanded of her maid.

The girl blocked the doorway, tacitly refusing me entry. Heat leaked out from behind her, baking like the Aerron desert, and she was flushed with it. "Lady Zevondeth grows frail. She sleeps now, Your Highness. She's really not fit company. Perhaps-"

"I'll see her."

"Your Highness, I-"

I merely raised one eyebrow, and she wilted, knowing full well I could have her bodily removed if I wished. She stood aside, waving me in. If possible, even more braziers burned than before, heating the rooms like one of the sauna huts the Branlites used to ward off the chill winds of the Northern Wastes.

The bedchamber was stifling, but Lady Zevondeth nevertheless lay under a pile of blankets, a slender skeleton of a woman, deeply asleep. For a terrible moment, I thought she might be dead and this goose of a maid not noticing. But there, her chest rose and fell, her head turning slightly on the pillow.

Then her eyes popped open.

Milky white, they usually seemed sightless. Other times, like now, they fixed on one like the gaze of the keenest predator. She grinned, suddenly and unexpectedly. "Ursula! You've been back days without coming to see me."

I sat on the side of her bed, taking the hand she wormed out from under the covers. It shook with the palsy that had overtaken her in recent years. "My apologies, Lady Zevondeth. There has been much to do and I've neglected you terribly."

"What's terrible is that dress. Pink does not suit you, certainly not with your sword disturbing the hip flounce."

"I know. I shall commission new gowns. Will that please you?"

"No." She closed her eyes and turned her face away.

"No?"

"You shall not be here long enough for them to be made. You shouldn't be here at all. Death walks the halls of Ordnung." She opened her eyes again, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. "No one can plan for death."

"Death?" I tried to sound amused and indulgent, but she'd have none of it.

"You know who I mean. Uorsin is a fool to court her. Salena was more than he could control-look where that got him-and now he wades even deeper into the swamp that will drown him. He's not just stupid; he's lost his mind."

"Don't say that." Not only were her words treasonous; I hated that she put voice to my own misgivings. "The King has a great deal to handle at this time."

"Ha!" Zevondeth's hand shook harder in mine. "You, my girl, are no fool. He's barking mad. His obsession has robbed him of the last of his reason. He'll destroy what little he managed to build. Now he seeks to buy what he could not cultivate."

The King might be on edge, but he was hardly mad. Instead I feared that fate had fallen to Lady Zevondeth. "The mercenaries are a temporary solution. Soon gone, you'll see," I soothed her. "Amelia had her baby. A fine boy, as you predicted-Astar."

She smiled, managing to look cagey, even with the few teeth she still possessed. "And the girl?"

"You knew? You never said."

"Eh, I don't tell all I know. Little Ami needed to untie that knot herself. I promised not to interfere."

"Who did you promise?"

Zevondeth sobered, gripping my hand tighter. "Salena. She saw, you know, some of what you girls would face. But not all. She was sorry for what he did to you. I am, too."

Nausea curled in my gut, icy shards of shame. I tried to pull my hand away, but she hung on with surprising ferocity. "It couldn't be stopped, do you understand? When she saw things, it was because they were inevitable."

"I don't think I believe that."

"What you believe is irrelevant. She saw something else, disguised in the shadows of death. So she gave you the Star of Annfwn. To keep it safe, to guide you through. Do you have it still?" She dug in her nails, a frantic light in her eye. "Promise me it's safe!"

I tapped the topaz. "Right where you had it set for me. Why did Salena give it to me-do you know?" I wouldn't tell her Illyria somehow knew about it and sought it.

"You'll know when the time comes."

"The time for what?"

"To kill the King."

15.

The ice penetrated out, freezing my joints in place. "What?" "You should have killed him then. But you were so young. You're not too young anymore. It's your destiny, Ursula. He knows it. He seeks the soldiers you cannot kill, to save himself from your avenging sword. But he won't escape it. It's his destiny and yours."

I dropped her hand and stood. "You're talking nonsense. Hallucinating. I won't stand by and listen to this."

Her gaze glittered, as bright as a bird's. Not entirely sane. "You worship him so. Even when he's tried to crush you under his heel, you crawl back to lick your own blood from his boot."

"The High Throne, the peace of the Twelve-those things are more important than my bruised feelings."