Lacurnia was in the living room, a very small, sparsely furnished room compared to the kind of residences they were accustomed to. She had Prince Bowen on her lap and was tickling him absent mindedly behind one ear while he purred contentedly. His eyes were closed in an expression of pure bliss and he was plucking at her dress with his claws, the Queen ignoring the fact that he was pulling out small threads of the expensive material.

     Princess Stephanie, meanwhile, sat in another chair on the other side of the room, looking at herself in a mirror and touching her newly formed lips with stubby, half formed fingers. She was barefoot, not yet being human enough for shoes to fit her, and the four original toes of each foot, still bearing long yellow claws, had been joined by a small, pink human toe bearing a tiny, perfect toenail. The Queen smiled as she remembered how proud and overjoyed the Princess had been when those toes had first appeared, and how she'd showed them off excitedly to every maid and servant in the palace.

     “Daddy!” she croaked with relief through vocal cords that had only recently become human enough for speech. “You're back!”

     It should have been a normal, happy family scene, the kind of scene that was being repeated in thousands of homes across the human world, but when the Queen turned her head to look at him she saw the concern on his face as he saw how her eyes were red with recently shed tears. She'd taken Lady Dwen's death hard, it was true. It had only been a few weeks since the nightmare of Princess Ardria's ordeal had come to an end. A few precious weeks of heartfelt relief, normality and happiness in which the friendship of the Gildon ambassador had been invaluable. Leothan tried his best to fill that role, but his duties required him to be away from her for most of the day, leaving her alone with the children and her anxiety at the new danger into which her eldest daughter had ridden.

     Leothan sat next to her on the sofa, took the Prince from her lap and sat him on his own lap, where he stood uncertainly for a few moments before sitting. “I'm sorry I've been so long,” he said, putting an arm around her and pulling her close. “There's so many things that need my personal attention...”

     “I know that. You're the King. I knew what it would be like when I married you. The Kingdom comes first, and that's how it should be.”

     “But you've got no-one to talk to any more. First Dwen, then Ardria...”

     She forced a smile. “I'm not going to curl up and die just for lack of gossip. Besides, I've got the servants to manage and the children to look after. If I lived in some other country I might have my own circle of spies keeping me informed of all the palace intrigues. Who's doing what to whom, who’s plotting against us, but everyone here is so damned loyal!” She felt a sudden spike of guilt. “Except for Darniss, of course. If I‘d had my circle of spies, maybe I'd have spotted her for what she was before she... Before she did what she did.”

     “If Balhern didn't spot her, how were you supposed to? She was good. Very good.”

     “And now Ardria's with her. Alone with that monster!”

     “Hardly alone. She's got twenty four armed men to look after her. If Darniss does one thing they don’t like, well, they have their orders.”

     “What good will twenty four men do if Nilon decided to take her hostage? I still can't believe we agreed to this.”

     “The good of the Kingdom...”

     “I'm sick of hearing about the good of the Kingdom! We're talking about our daughter!” She ran a trembling hand through her hair. “I'm sorry...”

     Leothan squeezed her against him. “I know you’re scared. I'm scared too, but she’s not just our daughter. She's a princess and the heir to the Kingdom. People tend to think that that just means dressing in ball gowns and going to state ceremonies. People bowing and waving. In some countries that might even be true, but here, in Helberion, it means duties and responsibilities. Her duty now is to go to Carrow, and my duty is to let her.”

     For just a moment the Queen felt the slightest tremble of the King's body against her own, and she put her hand over his. “Stephanie,” she said, “Take Bowen into the bedroom, he needs a nap. Stay with him until he's asleep.”

     Stephanie looked at her suspiciously, as if guessing she just wanted her out of the room for a while. For a moment it looked as thought she might protest, but then she looked at her father and nodded. She stood on her half transformed feet, took the Prince in her arms, using her forearms to take most of his weight because her fingers weren’t yet long or strong enough, and carried him into the next room, pushing the door closed with her shoulder.

     “Bill,” said Lacurnia gently. “We're alone here now. There’s no-one to see you except me, your wife. The one you can say anything to. The one person in all the world you don’t have to be strong in front of. If I'm feeling alone, you must feel a thousand times more alone. Take this opportunity to lay down the burden, just for a moment. When you’re alone with me, you can stop being the King and just be a husband and a father. Then, when you leave here and take up the burden again, you'll be able to bear it, because I've taken some of the weight from you.”

     Leothan hesitated. She saw him wanting to be strong for her, wanting to be reassuring and positive, but she knew him better than anyone else in the world and would see through it in a moment. Also, he did need to stop being the King for a moment. Just for a moment. All of a sudden he looked tired. More tired than she had ever seen him look before, and he looked scared. I am Katherine, your wife, she thought, as if trying to communicate it by some kind of telepathy. With me, you're not Leothan, the King. With me, you can just be William Regus, a normal man, and you need that! You need it so much, even if just for a moment!

     He gave a heavy sigh as if he had indeed received her thoughts, and the Queen felt a great wash of relief. He trembled again, and this time he did nothing to stop it. “I love her so much,” he said, “and she’s going into such danger. I'm so scared, Kat. I’m so scared of what might happen to her. I should never have let her go. I thought the War Council would advise against it. I was so hoping they would! It would have given me an excuse to forbid her from going. When they agreed that it was a good idea...”

     The Queen felt his arm tightening painfully against her, felt his fingers digging deep into her arm, and she welcomed it. Welcomed the stress that was flowing out of his body like water from a bursting dam, or like pus from an infected wound.

     “I was so angry with them!” he said. “I was furious! More furious than I've ever been! I wanted to lash out with my fists, just hurt them in the simplest, most basic way possible. Punish them for being so willing to send my daughter into harm's way. My daughter!” He realised he was hurting his wife and removed his hand hurriedly. “Sorry! I'm sorry!”

     “It's okay,” She rubbed her arm, then took his hand and put it back where it was. “You were scared for Ardria.”

     “I was terrified! And I hated myself for setting that kind of example in the first place. All that talk about duty, responsibility, about putting the Kingdom first... When she echoed those words back to me, down in the dungeons...”

     “She would not have been your daughter if she hadn't.”

     He nodded. “I could have forbidden her from going,” he said. “I didn't need the War Council to gives me permission. I'm the King! I can literally do anything! I can have anyone I want executed on a whim. I could order Amberley to tapdance naked in front of the War Council. I could have ordered her not to go.”

     “Then why didn't you?”

     “Because I'm the King, she’s the Princess and the good of the Kingdom comes first.” He ran a trembling hand through his hair. “If there's any chance that she and Darniss really can convince Nilon that the Radiants are his enemies as well as ours, then we have to take it. But it’s hard. So hard!”

     “Those men would lay down their lives for her,” said the Queen. “If Nilon does decide to take her hostage, there won't be a single one of those men still alive when he does so.”

     Leothan nodded. “There’s no point in any of them surrendering in the hope of escaping and carrying out a rescue later. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in real life. If Nilon betrays them, counting on Kelvon being in no condition to carry out its threat of war, they’ll try to sell their lives as dearly as possible.”

     “And then she'll be alone. All alone among enemies.” Lacurnia shuddered and a tear ran down her cheek. “Will they keep her in the dungeons, do you think?”

     “It won't come to that. Even with its present troubles, Kelvon is immeasurably powerful. Nilon won't risk war with them. She'll be safe. And even if... Even if the worst happens, they won't put her in a dungeon.”

     “Why not?” The Queens voice was almost a wail of despair. “We did! We put Darniss in a cell!”

     “Darniss was a treacherous palace servant. Ardria is a royal princess. There is a certain...” He paused while he searched for the right word. “Protocol. There is a certain protocol to be observed. If the worst happens, which it won't, they'll give her quarters in the palace where he can show her off to the noble families of Carrow. There'll be guards at every door, of course, but there’ll also be servants to look after her. Servants loyal to Nilon, but servants nonetheless. They may even let her keep Teena.” Teena was Ardria’s personal handmaid and was accompanying her to Carrow. “She'll be treated well. She’ll eat at the King's table, and they'll make absolutely sure that no harm comes to her. She'll be far too valuable to them as a hostage to risk her coming to harm.”

     “And if they threaten to kill her unless you surrender?”

     “They won't harm her. Killing her is something they can only do once. Once she’s dead, they don't have a hostage any more.”

     “But if they do? If they do threaten to kill her?”

     “I can't surrender, you know that. I'm the King, and the Kingdom comes first.”

     Only Lacurnia could tell what it cost him to say those words. Part of her wanted to cry out in protest, to say he would get her back no matter what, that he'd send the whole army on a rescue mission if that's what it took, but the rest of her, the greater part, knew how foolish that was. “The kingdom comes first,” she said, in a very small, very quiet voice.

     “It won't come to that,” said Leothan, stroking her arm gently. “Her mission will be a success. She and Darniss will convince Nilon. Carrow and Helberion will join forces to fight the Radiants, and she’ll come home in triumph. We'll have the greatest party this country's ever had to celebrate.”

     “Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?”

     “She'll be okay. I promise. I promise!”

     He said it over and over again, as if it was a magic spell that would make it come true, while the two of them held tightly to each other and cried together, alone together, where neither of them had to pretend to be strong.