"I cannot answer for my sisters, but I voted for you because I thought you deserved a chance of
happiness. You struggle--we all struggle--with the role the Mother has given us. My life has only
been bearable because of my husband. I wish that for you too."
Crown Princesses never, ever mentioned their private life. Another custom shattered.
"But if I marry, I want someone from our own
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people--someone who loves me. Not an uncouth prince marrying me
because his father says so!" Tashi blurted out.
The Second Princess's eyes twinkled. "Uncouth sounds . . . amusing. And besides, we could not
send the Third Princess, could we?" She nodded over to the grim face of their co-ruler, whose
forehead was pinched in a frown.
"What life for a poor eighteen-year-old boy would that be?"
Tashi lifted her sleeve to hide her gaping mouth. A joke from the Second Princess? That was
definitely not in the Etiquette Book either.
Tashi spent the slow voyage to the naval port thinking over the Second Princess's words. Her
body sat in the Throne of Nature on the open deck so that all her subjects could see her, but her
mind was far away, speculating about the motives behind her co-ruler's kindness. The Second
Princess was from Lir-Salu, the second smallest island. In many ways, Lir-Salu had the most to
gain from Kai's decrease in influence, but Tashi could not shake off the impression that Safilen
had been sincere in the wish for her happiness.
Am I going to distrust everyone or believe that, sometimes, I will meet friends? Tashi asked
herself. Do I want to end up like Korbin, frowning at all I see, or like Safilen, content and still
human?
She had to take the risk for her own sake, and for Kai.
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Tashi signalled to a scribe.
"Please send the following to my sisters. 1, Fourth Crown Princess, hereby delegate in my
absence my voting powers to Second Crown Princess. I trust she will think as I would have of the
beloved people of Kai in all matters concerning the rule of our Islands.'"
The message was despatched by carrier pigeon. Tashi watched the bird soar over the canal locks
that the barge had already passed through on its journey to the sea. She wondered if she was
being a fool. Had Second Princess merely calculated that inexperienced Tashi would react
gratefully to her show of concern? As representative of both Kai and Lir-Salu, Safilen would
augment her influence at court as rival to both her co-rulers.
Be quiet, Tashi snapped at her cynical side. Let me at least think that I have one friend at court.
Don't spoil it for me! Sometimes the heart has to rule over the head.
Tashi had seen maps of the Known World but never comprehended its
vastness until this voyage across the Northern Ocean. Gerfal lay over a thousand miles away,
beyond the Empire of Holt, beyond anything that Tashi found familiar. The Blue Crescent navy
could not land at any Holtish port, of course, so had to sail far to the north to the islands of the
Ice Archipelago for supplies midway through the journey. Fortunately, the winter had not yet
frozen the seas, but Tashi woke to darkness each morning in her state cabin and had to say the
Four Blessings well before the sun rose. Ice covered
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the inside of her windows, froze her breath and made icicles on the rigging, which crashed to the
ground each day when the sun, feeble and low on the horizon, nudged away the darkness for a
few hours. The people of the Archipelago were suspicious but not hostile, providing furs, meat,
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and fresh water to the twenty ships in Tashi's escort. They encountered no challenge from the
Pirate Fleet. Any scout ships soon disappeared back to Holt when they counted the strength of
the Crescent navy.
By late November, just as the seas further north were locking the
Archipelago away for the winter and the sun no longer rose, the fleet turned south for Gerfal.
They arrived to be greeted by a flotilla of the much inferior Gerfalian navy and were escorted to
the port of the capital, Falburg. The Gerfalian sailors could only whistle with amazement at the
size and firepower of the Crescent ships with their white square sails and ferocious figureheads
of dragons and bul s embel ished with gold paint. The Islands alone knew how to manufacture
gunpowder, and the smallest of the
Crescent ships had at least twenty cannon, the largest over a hundred. The marines were armed
with long rifles, a technology unknown on the
mainland. There, the crossbow was the main long-distance assault weapon.
The flagship of the fleet moored at the dockside to receive the
representatives of King Lagan. Tashi sat once more on the Throne of Nature, brought out on
deck for the purpose. She was dressed in her most elaborate gown, figured with leaves and wild
animals
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in honor of the forested land of Gerfal. Her face was painted white, her eyes outlined in kohl,
her hair hidden under a veil of green silk. An orange sash clinched her waist and fell to the deck
in a swirl of color.
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Lord Taris, Prime Minister of Gerfal, knelt before her. Behind him knelt a stocky young man with
red hair, introduced as his son, Lord Usk.
"Your Royal Highness, on behalf of the King and al his people, I welcome you to Gerfal," Lord Taris said in Common Tongue, the shared language of the Known World.
"Thank you, Prime Minister," said Tashi, following the script written for her by the Etiquette Mistress. Though she was fluent, she felt awkward speaking Common. "I bring greetings from
my sisters, the Crown Princesses of the Blue Crescent Islands, and I bring gifts." She nodded to a line of servants waiting with the appropriate presents--wine, silk, parchment, and salt. She took
the topmost sheaf of paper and quickly folded it into the dragonfly, her personal symbol, and
handed it to the Prime Minister. "A gift for Prince Ramil ac Burinholt." A person from the Blue Crescent would understand this as a sign of great favor and trust, equivalent to saying that you
place your life in their hands, but the Prime Minister had obviously not been briefed correctly on
this aspect of her culture for he fingered it nervously. The Crescent sailors stirred, wondering if
he meant to show disrespect.
"Er . . . thank you, Your Highness," the Prime Minister said, passing it to his son. "We will make sure
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he receives it." He did not like to add that the Prince should have been here in person to greet
her, but had gotten so drunk the night before on hearing that the fleet had been sighted, that he
was incapable of standing. "If you would care to alight from your vessel, I have a carriage waiting for you."
Tashi drew in a breath. A carriage? No doubt pulled by one of the famous Gerfalian horses she
had read about. She couldn't wait to see it.
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"Thank you, Prime Minister." Her excitement entirely hidden from her hosts, she nodded and
her attendants hurried forward to pick up her chair.
According to the Etiquette Mistress, a crown princess's feet were not to touch Gerfalian soil until
she had had a chance to say the prayers suitable for arriving in a foreign country. Four burly
attendants carried her down the gangplank and stopped in front of the carriage. Tashi saw with