Zianna was built on a slope, with the castle at the top. It gave a vantage point over the city that I wasn't used to. I could see across the dividing wall which surrounded the upper city. Beyond it, the lower city was a jumbled mess of buildings, roads and courtyards. I could even see most of the busy harbour. From my perch in Tannix's window, I could see it all.

The windowsill was comfortable to sit on. Sometimes I pushed open the glass and sat with my legs hanging outside. Tannix had an irrational fear that I would fall, but that was silly because I never fell. I liked looking at the city. It was so familiar, and despite the fact that I was sitting in a castle window, I felt at home.

"You've been staring at the lower city for almost a month." Tannix leaned against the window next to me, resting his weight on his forearms and clasping his hands together.

"What else am I supposed to do while you're in meetings?" I asked, glancing at him quickly. The month had done us good. Tannix's cuts and bruises had entirely disappeared, and he looked like himself again in nice clothing. Roland had even brought his rings from West Draulin. My shoulder was healed, and if it wasn't for my new circular scar I could almost pretend I had never been shot.

"I don't know, visit the knights."

"I do that a lot," I said. I drew up one leg and draped my arms around my knee. "I never thought that being at war meant so many meetings and discussions. I thought we were going to go off and meet them with our army."

Tannix shrugged. "In legends, when men are fighting monsters, war is like that. Quick, violent, decisive. But Kalvahi and King Deorun are men, just as capable of talking things out as we are. As long as they move no further than East Draulin I'm happy with this uneasy peace. The less death the better."

"But there will be death."

"There always is, with war."

I turned around to sit with my legs hanging on the inside of the window. Tannix pushed himself up and moved to place a hand on either side of my body, so that we were face to face.

"As long as you don't die," I told him.

"I'll try to avoid it." He leaned forward to kiss me, and for once it wasn't a fleeting moment. He was always being called off to meetings, but now I had him completely to myself.

The absurdity of it all came back to me as I looped my arms around his neck. Me, a thief, kissing Lord West Draulin, in the castle. To make the whole thing even stranger, the king was someone I considered a friend. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined doing this.

But I tried not to think too much, and just enjoy the moment. It really was perfect, until there was a knock at the door. Tannix didn't seem to hear it.

"Tannix, there's—" My talking did nothing to deter him, he just moved to kiss my neck. It was nearly distracting enough to make me forget about the knock. Tannix, for all his passion, tended to be fairly tame. Part of his proper Telt upbringing, I always assumed.

There was a second, firmer knock. Tannix pulled away with a groan. "Who is it?" he called.

"Acen."

"Come in." He leaned in for another kiss, then turned to lean back against the windowsill beside me.

Acen stepped through the door. His brief pause as his eyes darted between the two of us was very telling. Then he cleared his throat. "The king requests your presence."

"Of course he does," Tannix sighed. "Finn, why don't you go out into the city?"

"Really?"

"Yes. If you take a knight."

"Why?" I hopped off of the windowsill. "I don't need a guard in my own city."

"Humour me."

I shrugged dramatically. "Fine."

As if Acen wasn't there, Tannix gave me another quick kiss. "Be careful."

"What do you think is going to happen to me?" I asked, as we walked to the door to join Acen. "This is my city, remember? I survived here on my own for sixteen or so years. I'll be fine."

Tannix smiled. "I know. All right, Acen. Let's go see what Tandrin wants now." He and Acen went in one direction, and I went in the other.

The past month had given me ample time to get to know the castle and the grounds. I still didn't like it when the palace guards eyed me, but in my deep blue tunic, it was quite clear who I belonged to.

It was still fairly early in the day. I stepped out of the castle onto the grassy grounds, probably the only green area in the entire city. Unlike West Draulin's large barracks, which provided the city's soldiers with places to live and places to train, Zianna's barracks were small and attached to the castle. Palace guards lived there in shifts that lasted a few weeks at a time, before having time off at their own homes in the city. They trained in the fields and courtyards around the castle instead of in small, private courtyards. Our knights had been given beds, and there was a certain part of the training grounds they had more or less claimed for themselves. So I knew where to find them.

Before I could get very far, I heard my name and paused. Mayah was walking out of the castle behind me. She reached my side, slipped her arm through mine, and began to pull me down the path.

"You're going to see the knights, I assume? You can be my escort," she said, without giving me a chance to reply.

Her grip on my arm was tight, but I could have pulled away if I felt like it. Instead I let her lead me. Although she was a rich lady, and she certainly looked like one in the fancy red dress the queen had given her, she still felt like the girl in a peasant's dress who had wiped my forehead in Deorun.

"Finn," she said my name like something had just occurred to her, but I already suspected that she had planned this. "I... well, I have something to discuss with you. I would talk to Esmeranda about it but she doesn't know Tandrix and his men as well as you do. So... we've discussed this a bit, already. I've known my whole life that one day I would marry Lord Tandrix of West Draulin. It was an eventual certainty, and that didn't bother me. It meant I didn't need to go through suitor after suitor until my father found the perfect lord for the good of East Draulin, if not the perfect lord for me. Tandrix is my age, and he's very attractive. For an arranged marriage, I was pretty lucky. I think we made the right choice, voiding our engagement. But I've been thinking about it for the past month, and I'll admit that I'm a little bit afraid. I don't know what's going to happen to East Draulin. And if I get it back, I'm not sure I'm ready to rule it by myself. And I'll still need to marry eventually, to give East Draulin a lord."

I sensed she wanted me to say something. "Yes, my lady... but now that you have a choice, you should marry someone who's perfect for you."

She nodded. "That is what I said on the ship, isn't it? But it isn't quite that simple. I've remembered that my duty is to the people of East Draulin. So whoever I marry must be perfect for me, and for East Draulin. And... I think I... well, to put it bluntly, while we were in Deorun I saw each of Tandrix's knights nude at least once. Some of them, more than one." Her cheeks reddened. "They seemed to forget I was around and just started changing. Are they always like that?"

I almost laughed at the thought, but Mayah seemed genuinely distressed. She was a high-class lady, after all. I tried to be helpful. "I think they're just used to living in close quarters. I'm sure they didn't mean to bother you."

"No, of course not," she agreed. She dropped her voice to a whisper, even though there was no one near us. "But... I have to admit. It wasn't entirely an unpleasant experience. They're... they're all very attractive."

"Oh. I see..." I couldn't very well tell her I agreed. I wasn't sure how much, if anything, she knew about me and Tannix. "Any one of them in particular?"

"Well, yes. But you mustn't say anything, Finn," she said, with a sort of friendly sternness. "And this brings us to my original question. Or rather, the thing I was hoping you have would advice about. It's quite clear that Tandrix's men are all very loyal to him. Do you think any of them would be willing to leave him to be Lord East Draulin?"

Even without knowing who she was talking about, I was pretty sure I knew the answer was no. "I'm not sure," I said instead, unwilling to completely crush her. She was being so friendly, making me think of Ninavi and Stria. "I guess it would depend on if he felt like Tannix still needed him."

"So I shouldn't bring it up until after the war? But what if he gets hurt? Or... Goddess forbid, killed?"

That question was slightly more complicated. But then I thought of Tannix, kissing me right before he arrested me, and I thought about how different things might have been if he had explained his feelings earlier. Instead of a year wondering what a single kiss had meant, I could have spent a year confident that the man who loved me was going to free me. Mayah didn't deserve to go through that kind of uncertainty.

"I think you should tell him how you feel," I said. "You're very kind, my lady. The knights all like you, and any man would be honoured to have your affection. If you tell him now, you can find out how he feels. And maybe knowing that you're waiting for him will help him during the war. East Draulin isn't that far from West Draulin, right? He could check on Tannix as often as he wanted."

Mayah nodded thoughtfully. "You're right. And I suppose if he doesn't return my feelings, it'll be better to know now. All of this is assuming there's an East Draulin to go back to, in any case."

"Tannix and his brother want the city back. I'm sure they'll figure something out."

"You have a lot of faith in him, don't you?" Mayah said, but she wasn't really asking. "He's lucky to have such loyal friends."

"We're lucky to have him, too."

"Of course," Mayah agreed. "Oh, look! They're jousting!" she picked up the pace, tugging me along with her.

In the field the knights tended to train in, a long fence had been erected. On either end, a fully dressed knight was getting onto a horse's back. The horses were dressed in a simple sort of leather armour. One of them seemed anxious, side stepping and tossing its head. The other stood quite still. Acen was passing a long wooden lance to the knight on the still horse.

There were plenty of soldiers and guards hovering around to watch the spectacle, but Mayah spotted our knights and led me over to their bench.

"I love jousting," she announced.

The knights all glanced over, somewhat startled. Evrik stood to make room for her on the bench. "My lady, please, take a seat."

"Thank you, Sir Evrik." She let go of my arm to settle down between Mandell and Joen. The two large men towered over her as she clasped her hands in her lap and crossed her legs elegantly. It almost looked funny.

Evrik joined me behind the bench and nodded at me. "Ever seen a joust before?"

I shook my head. A quick glance down the line of knights helped me guess who the knight Acen was helping was. "Jalor jousts? Who's the other knight?"

Evrik shrugged. "Some idiot who challenged Jalor. He's one of the best jousters on New Teltar. He's won tournaments. But I guess jousting isn't really done much in West Draulin, so he may be a bit out of practice. What brings you out of the castle?"

Before I could reply, Mayah looked over her shoulder at us. "I wanted to see how Sir Ender was doing." While that wasn't the whole truth, she said it casually enough to sound real. Unless, I thought, he was the knight she was interested in.

Mayah leaned forward to look past Mandell. "Sir Ender? How are you?"

"Very well, my lady, thank you," Ender replied. "Acen's put me on a very strict training schedule. The lads are being very gentle with me."

"And the rest of you?" Mayah asked.

"Well," Evrik said. "Nothing but cuts and scrapes, really. They healed quickly enough."

Mayah flashed him a smile. "That's good to hear. And how are you, Joen? Have you heard from your wife?"

Joen nodded. "I got a letter just last week. She even wrote it herself. Apparently a woman in the Tandran household has been teaching her. Lalina, I believe?"

"She's the head cook," Evrik said. "And she doesn't much like the twins."

Mandell chuckled. "Because Ender tried to run off with her daughter."

"No, mate, that was Kor," Ender protested.

Beside him, Kor scoffed. "We weren't running off. Anyway, leave it alone. They're ready."

Jalor and his opponent had turned their horses to face each other. Jalor still seemed to have more control over his horse, who patiently waited while the other horse circled and had to be turned back around. Then suddenly both horses shot forward.

Both riders lowered their lances. When they met, the other knight's lance seemed to glance off of the large metal plate on Jalor's left shoulder, but Jalor's lance shattered. Woodchips flew into the air and the other knight recoiled from the blow. For a moment it seemed like he was about to fall from his horse, but he managed to right himself and ride to the end of the line.

The spectators erupted into commentary. Evrik knew me well enough to assume I had no idea what was going on and leaned a little closer so I could hear him. "That's five points for Jalor, one for the other jouster. It would've been ten for Jalor, if the other jouster fell off. Except, did you see how he grabbed his reins to stop himself from falling off? That hurts the horse, a lot of tournaments would dock him five points for that. So that leaves this round at five for Jalor, minus four for the other man."

"Are the lances supposed to break like that?" I asked.

Evrik nodded. "If they didn't, people would get hurt. Well, people do get hurt. But it would happen more often."

The jousters were getting ready for another run. Jalor handed his broken lance off to a man I didn't recognize, and Acen handed him a new one. This time, when the riders met in the middle of the field, both lances snapped and neither man fell off. In the third round, before the men met, the other man fumbled and Jalor raised his lance to miss as they crossed paths.

"That one doesn't count," Evrik explained, as the growing crowd all started to debate what had happened. "No contact, the round has to be repeated. And Jalor did the honorable thing when he saw that his opponent wasn't ready."

In the repeated third round, Jalor's lance broke and the other man fell. In the fourth, Jalor was almost knocked off, but somehow steadied himself on the saddle again without yanking on his horse's reins.

As the jousters were trotting back to their starting positions, Mayah stood up. She was twisting a green ribbon from her hair around her fingers. A hush fell over the crowd when they noticed her—she was the only woman there, and that alone was enough to draw everyone's attention. She didn't seem to care, and waved at Jalor. He tossed his broken lance aside, turned his horse to trot over to us, and pushed up the visor on his helmet.

"My lady."

"Sir Jalor." She stroked his horse's nose before tying her ribbon to the horse's bridle.

When she was done, Jalor inclined his head in a bit of a bow, and rode back over to Acen to take his final lance. Mayah sat back down, apparently unaware of the whispering her action had caused. Or, more likely, she was aware of the whispering and decided it wasn't worth her time to acknowledge it.

The final round went almost exactly like the first one had. Jalor's lance shattered, the other lance bounced harmlessly off of his shoulder. The other jouster fell, and after a moment rolled to get to his feet. The crowd cheered, with the knights cheering loudest of all.

Evrik turned to me again, "So that's—"

"Thirty-one to eight," I said.

"Right," Evrik said, flashing me a smile. "So why did you come out here, anyway?"

"Oh. Tannix said that if I want to visit the lower city I have to take a knight."

"Oh." Evrik shrugged. "I'll go with you. But I somehow doubt you actually need an escort, my friend." He gave Mandell a clap on the shoulder. "Did you hear that? I'm taking Finn to the lower city."

Mandell nodded. Mayah, having also overheard, waved her hand dismissively. "Go ahead, enjoy your trip. One of the knights will escort me back to the castle."

"Right," Evrik said again, this time giving me a hearty clap on the shoulder. He froze when I flinched, his eyes wide. "Oh no, was that your hurt shoulder?"

I laughed, giving my shoulder a rub. "No. That was just harder than I expected."

Evrik chuckled we began to walk away. "You're not nearly as fragile as you pretend to be. Let's go, my friend."