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princess and proud of it. Physical discomfort was nothing. Emotions were to be hidden. Ice cold
and strong, she told herself, that was what she had to be for her people.
All who had gathered there--farriers, servants, soldiers--stopped what they were doing when
the foreign Princess appeared among them. Their eyes were fearful; many reached for the hilts
of their weapons. Tashi almost laughed at the irony: they were scared of her! A girl of sixteen
with no weapons or special powers, a prisoner in the land of her enemies far from home, and
yet they still trembled as she passed.
Mergot led her to the threshold of the great hall of the castle and stopped.
"You are to go in there," she said, pointing.
Tashi bowed her head in acknowledgement and pushed the door open. It swung back to reveal
the great hall of the castle, decked in imperial banners.
Fergox sat on a throne at the far end, surrounded by his senior officers and nobles. Soldiers
stood to attention on both sides of the room. A group of red-robed priests, heads shaved leaving
only a topknot on the crown, waited about halfway down, holding an icon of the Spearthrower's
war god.
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Standing at Fergox's right hand, looking very uncomfortable, was Prince Ramil. He gazed at her
and shook his head slightly, a gesture that was both a warning and regret.
Tashi had no choice but to enter. She took a breath and began the long lonely walk down the
chamber. The paving stones were worn, as if many supplicants
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had passed this way over the centuries. Her robes swished softly, almost the only sound in the
room. She reached the foot of the throne and stood without bowing, waiting to see what Fergox
would do.
"Princess Taoshira," announced the warlord, "Holin, the Warmonger, has smiled on you. He sees the purity of your heart and knows that you are not beyond redemption. Renounce your old
faith and kneel to his image, and you shall go free."
Tashi swayed as if he had struck her: this was the last thing she had been expecting. A demand
for a ransom or treaty, threats and bargains: she had been prepared for all these, but an order
that she recant was startling and offensive. Seeing her surprise, Fergox smiled and beckoned the
priests.
They moved in behind Tashi, pacing forward to the beat of a solemn low chant. Unnerved, she
turned to find the icon elevated in front of her, the frowning god with his spear and axe looking
down on her like Fergox's angry twin. The chief priest struck his staff on the ground.
"Pay homage to Holin!"
Tashi faced Fergox and clasped her hands in an appeal. "Lord Fergox, I am a ruler of my country
and should be treated with the respect due to my rank. I stand here as a helpless prisoner. You
should not abuse your power over me with insults to my faith."
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Fergox descended the step and took her shoulders. He pulled her round to face the priests
again.
"Come now, my little princess, all you need do is kneel and this will all be over," he said in her ear.
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Tashi shook her head. "I cannot do what you ask, sir."
He frowned. "I feared as much." He nodded to the priest and raised his voice. "The delusion remains. The girl must be cleansed before she can accept the truth. I entrust her to you and your
brethren." He gave Tashi a little shove between the shoulder blades.
"But, sir!" Tashi cried. "I am a state prisoner! You cannot treat me like this!"
Fergox continued to walk back to the throne, not even paying her the courtesy of looking at her
as he spoke. "You are an infidel in need of salvation. I can treat you as I see fit." He sat down.
"It's for your own good."
Two acolytes seized Tashi's arms. The chanting grew louder, swelling around her so that her
protests could no longer be heard. The chief priest snatched off her veil and orange sash and
cast them into the fireplace. He then ripped off her dragonfly gown and orange tunic, tearing the
priceless fabric as he did so. When Tashi was clad only in white, he put round her shoulders a
long black robe.
"The mark of the penitent," intoned the chief priest to his audience.
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He held up a cloth to be blessed by sacred water sprinkled from a gold cup.
"The falsehoods of the demon goddess will be wiped from your heart as we wipe the mark of
her from your face." Tashi tried to duck but the two acolytes pinned her arms to her sides. With
rough movements of the cloth, the chief priest removed the white paint from
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her face. "You return to us as a humble petitioner for the mercy of the all-powerful
Warmonger."
"No!" Tashi shouted. She wanted everyone to hear that she resisted this and would until her last breath. "No, no! I am the Mother's servant. I am--"
The chanting grew louder.
"You will come to our temple to seek enlightenment," announced the chief priest. "You will dwell there to be schooled out of your errors until you are ready to avow publicly your
repentance."
"I won't!" Tashi sobbed. "I won't! You can't make me!"
The body of priests bowed to Fergox and filed out of the chamber, forcing Tashi along in their
midst. Silence fell as the doors closed on them.
"Well," said Fergox, jumping to his feet and rubbing his hands as the dragonfly robe smoldered in the fire, "I thought that went very well." He clapped Ramil on the back. "She'll make an excellent penitent. I am looking forward to forgiving her."
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The priests placed Tashi in a cell in the temple crypt. It was freezing cold but they appeared to
think that earthly comforts would impede her conversion.
She curled up in the corner, hiding her face under the sleeve of the robe, aware that many
people were coming and going by the grating in her cell door to stare at the foreigner. Her heart
was filled with bitterness and shame.
She realized now that she had only been allowed her robes so she could be ceremonially
stripped of them before
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the eyes of Fergox's court. She had unwittingly played into his hands by coming dressed as the
Fourth Crown Princess.
I should have gone as barefoot Tashi in rags, then perhaps they would have spared me, she
thought miserably.
But no, that seemed unlikely. Fergox was set on defeating her, forcing her to submit to his
bloodthirsty god. There was no question of sparing her.
And would she bow to this god eventually? The Mother seemed to have abandoned her; did it
matter whom she worshipped now?
She groaned softly, then bit her lip to stop any further betraying noises. Yes, it did matter. Not
for the Fourth Crown Princess, not even for the Blue Crescent Islands, but for Tashi. Fergox had
taken away everything she'd had since she was twelve--respect, power, position--but she would
not let him take away the girl who had said her prayers to the sun each morning, accompanied
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only by her goats.
Tashi shivered, hearing sniggering at the door. It was easy to make such proud statements; so
much harder to live by them. She rubbed her cold feet, trying to bolster her resolve.
I have known a mother's love and so surely the great Mother of us all is worth serving even
when she appears to have turned her favor away?