The servants filled the courtyard with jeers and yelling. Idelle barely stepped off the stairs when the crowd rushed forward, wanting a piece of the queen responsible for the death of so many of their loved ones. Idelle mumbled a few orders to some of General Ainslow's remaining men, and almost to her surprise, they obeyed immediately. In a fan, they spread out and pushed back the crowd, clearing a path to the west tower where more soldiers spilled down from the barracks and lookouts to help control the crowd and provide an escort for the enemy queen.

As soon as Idelle stepped into the tower, all she saw was armored men and arrow-slit windows and barricades to hide behind should enemies invade the tower. Up above would be the armory and the lookout stations to help protect the castle walls. Below was the dungeons, which was where Idelle aimed her feet. A heavy iron door divided the ground floor from the stairs leading down, and Idelle had to wait while a soldier fetched the key and unlocked it for them. Then, she took Yseult's arm and led her down into the torchlight.

The smell of underground damp met her nose, almost making her sneeze. Dust swirled in the flickering light of the sconces on the wall, and the wood creaked beneath their feet as they trudged down to a layout of iron-bar cells in a circular pattern around a central guard station. The cells were not badly furnished, and could even be said to look better than some poorer homes Idelle had witnessed out on the battlefields. Each had a spacious dry floor with flagstones swept clean, a pile of straw in the corner, a roughhewn cot with a dingy but warm looking blanket and pillow, a low table and chair, and some shelves. Many torches brightly lit the room, and the guards looked pleasant enough as they got up from their seats and saluted Idelle as she walked in. They didn't understand who she was, but the mere fact that she was escorting the enemy queen was enough to let them know she was of higher rank than they.

One guard split off and led her to an empty cell, which he opened with an iron key. As he stepped back, Idelle pushed Yseult in and then gestured for Thellamy to follow. Prisoners already occupied three of the four cells, so he would share the space with his sovereign whether or not she wanted him to.

After the cell door swung shut and the lock thunked into place, Yseult turned to face Idelle with a crooked smile on her pink lips. Her golden hair shone in the firelight, reminding Idelle of the haze of a summer sun on a wheat field. It didn't suit her icy eyes as she stared Idelle down, her gown swishing as she sidled up to the iron bars and wrapped her hands around them.

"Once the peace treaty goes through, it will be a real shame how many soldiers will find themselves out on the streets," she said, sighing as if this was the worst news she'd heard. "I'm sure Aelga will be too busy to notice any change in the staff, so I'll probably have to be the one to find a group more in tune with the proper treatment of royalty."

Idelle laughed. "What do you want us to do? Ignore our queen's orders to have you locked up and instead put you in a pleasant room in the best part of the castle?"

Yseult smiled. "Exactly!" She played it as if she was too dumb to know this was impossible, but Idelle knew that it was all an act. No one fought a war for years and years if they were not dangerously smart.

"Queen Aelga won't let any of us go without first giving us fair compensation. However busy you get, Queen Aelga is never too busy to notice when a foreigner fires her soldiers." Idelle was uncertain how busy Aelga ever got, but she knew there were many people monitoring Yseult, and peace treaty or not, they'd never let her dismiss soldiers without wanting to know a reason.

Yseult shrugged and walked back to the cot where she sat with a puff of her skirts. Thellamy hovered around her, his shoulders pressed up toward his ears and his eyes on the ground. For a second, Idelle almost felt sorry for him, he looked so miserable.

Idelle turned to the guards who normally worked the dungeons. "Make sure neither of them leaves this cell for any reason," she said. "No one is to visit them unless sanctioned by the queen, either. No one." Visions of disguised fire mages pretending to be taking the queen for some exercise popped into her head. Best to limit visitors to just the essential, just in case.

After the dungeon guards saluted, and she was sure they understood the importance of their job, Idelle turned to leave. She had to wade through the other soldiers who had followed her from the feasting hall, and when she reached the ground floor of the tower, only a few split off to go back to their normal tasks. The others followed her out into the air, awkwardly milling around her as she waited for a cart to pass. She sighed and turned to them.

"You're all dismissed. Thank you," she said, her voice sounding uncertain and high even to her own ears. She cringed as she quickly turned away, hoping to hide her burning cheeks from them. She still wasn't used to being in charge of anyone and it felt like trying on a pair of boots far too large for her feet and then trying to run.

The cart was lumbering on when she heard someone call her name. Turning, she saw Torran running to catch up with her. He slapped her back when he came to her side and smiled. "First mission as Queen's Guard, eh?" he said.

Idelle frowned at him. "Not by my choice," she said.

"Here, I'll walk you back to your room," Torran said, taking her arm and steering her away from the direction she'd been going. She wasn't sure of the castle layout yet, but she had a feeling this was not the direction of the tower she'd been staying in.

As they walked, it became clearer and clearer that they were going the opposite direction of her room. The courtyard fell away behind them, replaced by gardens and trees that separated the castle from the wall. Here it was quiet, with almost no people walking by, and Torran settled into an easy gait.

"Call me crazy, but this doesn't look like my rooms at all," Idelle said, suddenly annoyed that he was forcing her to walk with him when she felt so bone weary. All she wanted was to fall into bed and sleep for an entire day, forgetting about Queen Yseult and the duties now falling on her shoulders.

"It's the back way to the tower," Torran said. "Much longer, but also a place not easily spied on."

"Ah," Idelle said, realization dawning. "I see."

Torran nodded as he glanced around them. Idelle followed his gaze, seeing only trees and shrubs and the blank castle wall. The nearest people were hundreds of yards away and up on a battlement, too far to hear any quiet talk down on the ground. Torran took Idelle's elbow, steering her toward a little clump of shrubs that grew up on trellises above their heads. Inside their leafy confines, the world seemed small and silent, reducing to just Torran's arm so close to hers and the fact that she couldn't stop staring at the way his hair stood up at odd angles.

Torran, unaware of their closeness, sighed and rubbed the heels of his palms across his eyes. "Tell me what you think about this peace offering from Queen Yseult," he said. "You've fought her men for longer than I have, and I feel you might have some insight that the 'loftier' folk on Aelga's advisory panel may miss."

Idelle bit her lip, wondering what she should say. She wasn't used to anyone asking her opinions about the war, and especially not someone whose own opinion literally fell upon the ear of the country's sovereign. Despite his casual manner, Torran was the queen's cousin, himself in line for the throne, and a powerful man who could change the fate of the country. Talking to him should feel dangerous and fraught with risk, but yet she still couldn't bring herself to put up the hesitant walls she needed.

"It seems like a trap," she said. "I don't know exactly what Yseult is planning, but I don't think peace is part of it."

"That was my stance," Torran replied. "She's not a person to suddenly grow a conscience and want to stop a war she's been maintaining for years."

"Her father started the war, and if the rumors are true that she killed him and her sisters to claim the throne, she wouldn't want to essentially surrender."

"Why do you think that?"

"She ascended the throne while it was unstable, which means she will never have a sturdy reign. Her entire identity is wrapped up in the war, because that's what her people know her for. When they think of their queen, they feel pride that she is advancing their country and the rule of magic. If she gives up the war, the one thing she's been promising her people, they may find that she is just as disposable as the rest of her family."

Torran looked up at the sky, his face tight with anxiety. "You're right. We can forget any hope we had of this peace offer being even a fraction of the truth. She's plotting something, and we need to figure out what it is before Reynard and his supporters convince Aelga that peace is the only way to end this war and restart the lives of the Wynherst people."

Reynard. Idelle opened her mouth, wanting to express the concerns that were growing about the old man, but she wasn't sure of the ramifications of doing so. Torran had wanted her advice about the peace treaty, but would he want her advice about a man only outranked by royalty?

"You look like you have something to say," Torran said, squinting at her and smiling. "I think I should ask what it is, or risk losing an opinion I'd very much like to hear."

"It's just that..." Idelle exhaled in frustration. "Do you... trust High Lord Reynard very much?"

Torran laughed. "I trust him about as much as I can talk to the kitchen chickens, which is to say not at all."

Relief flooded Idelle, and her shoulders sagged. "I thought perhaps... well, you have to admit he's very suspicious. The way he seemed to guard Aelga from you when we first arrived, and how he's pushing her to accept Yseult's proposal." Idelle chewed on the inside of her lip before working up the courage to say what she said next. "Do you think he could be the one who caused King Aengus' death?"