• Shyasha, Valin, and Faug strode across the barren courtyard. Even though it was nearly dusk and the day was cloudy, there was only one light on in an upper window. When they were about halfway across, Dalar came storming out, flanked on either side by the two companions he had had on the road. Shyasha paused and indicated to the two humans to wait for Dalar and his companions to reach them. The younger one had olive skin and wide, curious, dark brown eyes. The older man was pale with amber eyes and a very stoic expression.
    “You’re late,” Dalar snapped when he reached Shyasha.
    “You’re early,” Shyasha replied smoothly, using that same melodic voice that she had used on the first day that Faug and Valin had met her. “We agreed that the latest we should have gotten here was tomorrow. We saw you on the road the first day out of Ciliar. You were traveling fast. What was wrong?”
    “You weren’t there.”
    “Neither were you.”
    “I told you to protect them when you found them, and then to wait until I arrived before leaving.”
    “But you also said that, in the instance that you didn’t show up after 24 hours, I should take them on the road. We left after 24 hours.”
    “Why didn’t you stop us on the road?”
    “I would have rather flung myself in front of a speeding rhino. It would have had the same effect. Is Tiba here?”
    “Yes, she is here. And we were pressed for time. And some of us were more worried than others to get back.” Dalar said this with a glance at the man on his right-the older of the two companions.
    Under her hood, Shyasha glanced at him, too, and her eyes lingered there for a moment. Even if he saw it, and she wasn’t sure he did, he gave no hint that he felt her gaze or could interpret its meaning.
    “People need to be introduced,” the darker-skinned man said politely.
    “Yes,” Dalar agreed. “Hyan, this is Shyasha Rinkari. She goes by Shyasha most of the time and is Shya to her close friends. She won’t take off her hood unless she needs to prove a point. You three, Hyan is a sorcerer. You’ll meet Tiba, who is inside. Hyan, the short human is Faug and the taller one is Valin. And Shyasha, Telsiel says that you’ve met before.” Dalar continued, indicating the man on his right.
    “We’ve met,” Shyasha agreed, inclining her head slightly at Telsiel, half in greeting, and half in warning. Telsiel nodded. “Nothing more.” There was something in her voice that made it absolutely clear to Telsiel that if he mentioned any reference to any prior contact whatsoever, Shyasha personally would find out about it, hunt him down, and kill him to death until he died and then strangle him.
    “Yes, anyway,” Dalar said. He knew, or rather sensed, what Shyasha was getting at, and he didn’t want Telsiel to die just yet. “We’re going to leave at dawn, day after tomorrow. Be ready to move. Pack light and don’t pack more than two changes of clothes. There’s a council meeting tomorrow. All of you have to attend. When and where the council will meet will be discussed at dinner. Till then.” He jerked his head, beckoning them inside, before turning and striding back across the courtyard to the castle. Hyan gave Shyasha a curious glance before turning and following Dalar into the castle. Faug started to follow, but Valin stopped him and murmured, “Wait for her.”
    “No, it’s okay,” Shyasha said. “Follow Dalar and Hyan and don’t touch anything unless they say you can. Got it?”
    “Yes,” the two boys agreed and strode off, following the two mages inside. Faug picked up his pace and caught up with Hyan. Shyasha heard Faug start babbling away and asking Hyan questions. Hyan smiled and answered the questions easily. Valin was slower to enter the castle, and hesitated at the door to wait for Shyasha. He was more of an introvert than Faug, so he couldn’t randomly go up to people and start charming them as easily as Faug. He was too shy to talk to Hyan just yet, and he trusted Shyasha more anyway.
    Telsiel and Shyasha stood facing each other in the middle of the courtyard. Shyasha glared from under her hood. Telsiel stood back and inclined his head, letting Shyasha go first, but she gestured to let him pass.
    “You’re the princess,” he said, as if explaining why he was letting her go first.
    “You’re the king,” Shyasha countered, no trace of a joke in neither her voice nor the small bit of mouth that Telsiel could see. She, too, seemed to be providing a reason for why Telsiel could go first. She may have been a rebel, but she had also lived at the palace for a while, so she knew the basic code of who walked in a room in what order.
    “You’re the female.”
    “You’re the one in charge.”
    “You’re the guest.”
    “You’re the one who knows what’s going on.”
    “You’re the one who needs to be shown around.”
    “That’s why you go first.”
    Watching from the drawbridge, Valin realized just how strange the two looked together, looking at each other, but also how different Telsiel seemed from a few moments ago. Telsiel was tall, middle aged, a king, and a very, very stoic one at that, from Valin’s limited knowledge of him. But now he was more open than he had been before. Instead of being very, very stoic, he was now just plain stoic. He didn’t look like a carved statue anymore, but he definitely didn’t look like he was about to burst out laughing or singing. Something similar could have been said for Shyasha.
    Eventually, the two turned and moved towards the castle side by side, not exactly best pals, but accepting the fact that they were stuck with each other.
    “What was that about?” Valin asked when Shyasha passed him in the door.
    “Nothing,” Shyasha said shortly, and Valin knew that, however much he didn’t like it, that was all he was going to get out of her for now.
    Seeing the put out look on Valin’s face, Telsiel said, “We had this thing going a while ago. Running joke type thing.”
    “Right,” Valin said, not entirely sure whether Telsiel’s tone was actually causal or not. He was curious about the relationship between the two of them, but didn’t want to press the subject, consenting to watch Telsiel’s face as Telsiel’s gaze followed Shyasha down the hall. There was a small flicker of something in his dark eyes, but then the flicker went out.
    “You’re Valin.” Telsiel said abruptly, as if almost shaking himself out of a trance. Still, the words were more of a statement than a query of his identity.
    “Yeah. Nice to meet you, officially.” They shook hands. “So…you’re the king? I think Shyasha said something about something like that.”
    “Yes, I guess you could call me King. How’s Shya been treating you guys? Nothing absolutely horrid, I hope?”
    “No, not really. She’s pretty nice, and can be a real laugh at times, but she’d get kind of edgy when Faug got on her nerves. But with Faug, either something’s a joke or it’s not worth his time, so he somehow gets some sort of humor out of it. She never really liked it when he did that, especially when she was in a bad mood, but she was all right, most of the time.” Valin was amazed that he had said all that. He was blabbering, he knew it. He was a tentative introvert who was confronted by a king. This wasn’t his kind of situation.
    “Yeah, she has a tendency to be like that,” Telsiel agreed, smiling slightly. Maybe this guy wasn’t so bad, Valin thought.
    “But she wasn’t horrid,” Valin said quickly. “Very sarcastic, but not horrible. But she’s kind of unpredictable.”
    “I know,” Telsiel agreed. “She can be rather weird. She’s the kind of person that only needs a few days for you to think you know her really well, and then the next month she’ll completely surprise you with some new idea. And it’s really hard to know one thing about her without wanting to know something else.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah.”
    “How do you know her?”
    “We were friends when we were kids. I was the tailor’s son. She was the princess. She was sick of the conformity of being a princess so she stole clothes from the stable boy and roamed the streets of town. She sometimes came into my father’s shop, and once I was done with my chores we’d play Rangers and Outlaws with all the other kids or go into the forest and roam around with another girl she’d met-Tiba, the sorceress. Whenever we’d do Rangers and Outlaws, Shya would always be the captain of the boy’s side, because she called herself ‘Rinko’ and claimed she was male. Since her hair was short everyone believed her. It suited her personality-she’s not one to confine herself to the norm.”
    “When did you find out she was a girl?” Valin wondered as they walked down a hall. “And when did you learn she was the princess?”
    “Oh, that was a really funny day,” Telsiel laughed. “We were playing our most aggressive game of Rangers and Outlaws ever, and Shya was captain of the boys’ Ranger crew, because she’d been dubbed ‘Best Ranger’. It was crazy-we were all flinging mud at each other and screaming our heads off and running around, being absolutely crazy and having a whole load of fun. Then her governess comes out of the castle and starts looking for Shya in town, apparently. I didn’t see that part; I was busy creating a huge mud ball to fling at Joen Frump. But then the governess sees the fight and stands there for a while, glaring at all of us, and it sort of gradually died down and everyone stood looking at her. She was in this really fancy dress-it was insane. Then she spotted Shya and hollered, ‘PRINCESS SHYASHA RINKARI!!! GET YOUR LITTLE REAR END OVER HERE RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!!! I DON’T WANT TO EVER SEE YOU LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!!!’ That was a surprise to all of us, and what was more surprising was when ‘Rinko’ strode forward with his head bowed. We were only ten, and none of us had entered puberty yet, so the difference between boys and girls wasn’t as obvious. But still, most of the guys thought girls-especially girls in the palace and especially the seven princesses-were complete wimps. Most of them were, but not the youngest princess.”
    “Did she ever come down to town again?”
    “Yes, but not as often. She came down as often as she could, but she wasn’t as willing to hurl mud at Joen Frump or anyone else anymore-she said it was because she had been forced to swear over pain of death and destruction not to. She didn’t really come around the shop until we were in our teens-I think that was when her governess left-and by then she had become more refined. She wore a dress, at least. But after the governess found her out, it was never really the same between us. We were still best friends, and we still had adventures, but we weren’t quite as crazy.”
    “So how did you become King?”
    “Shya only had sisters, no brothers. We had this policy that, if that happened, the youngest girl’s husband would have to rule. The average marrying age was fifteen, but Shya didn’t want to, nor did she show any prospect of being interested before she’d be dubbed a spinster. Her father knew we were friends-he saw her walk to our shop and saw us walk around town too many times to think differently-and he thought I was worth it, so he named me his heir. Shyasha didn’t take it too well, and somehow, a short time later, went clinically blind and ran off into the forest and stayed there. I don’t know how she got those scars, though. That’s all there really is to the story, and there’s your room.”
    They had paused by a door halfway down a corridor on the East Wing.
    “One last question,” Valin said.
    “Sure.”
    “Cerob said the city was attacked by Wylds, and the survivors took refuge in the castle. Where are they?”
    “They’re in the West Wing,” Telsiel said shortly. He said this too fast and strongly for Valin to be entirely convinced of the truth of his words.
    “Okay. Just wondering.”
    “Dinner’s in about an hour. Someone will be around to show you where to go when it’s time.”
    “Do I have to dress up?”
    “No, but I must warn you that Shyasha might actually be wearing a dress, for a change, so she won’t look entirely the same as you’ve probably grown accustomed to.”
    “All right. See you then, I guess.”
    “Good bye.”
    Telsiel turned and strode back up the corridor to the main entrance. Valin stood and watched him go. He wasn’t entirely sure he believed the story, for some reason. There seemed to be something missing, some major part.
    A waiter’s voice suddenly echoed in his head. “Rumor has it that she was betrayed by a man when she was younger…Rumor has it the pain of it nearly killed her.” Telsiel was a man; there was no doubt about that. Technically he was an elf, but that didn’t matter. He seemed to know Shyasha very well. And he’d been named the King’s heir, which meant that they might have, at one point, had everyone convinced that they were going to get together, so the king went ahead and made everything legal.
    Valin went into his room, still thinking hard. Faug was already there.
    “Where were you?” Faug demanded.
    “I was talking to Telsiel,” Valin told him. “Where were you? And how did you get in here?”
    “I was talking to Hyan, who said that Shyasha might be forced to dress up, and that we’re supposed to share a room,” Faug replied.
    “Telsiel said that she might wear a dress as well,” Valin said. “It would be kind of weird, seeing Shyasha in a dress, wouldn’t it?”
    “Yeah, I guess,” Faug said in a bored tone.
    “Well, guess what I found out about Shyasha from Telsiel?” Valin said. He was glad of this new insight into Shyasha’s life-he knew it wasn’t right to pry into other people’s relationships, but Shyasha’s past was somehow more interesting the more he heard about it. Like Telsiel had said, you couldn’t know just one thing about her.
    “What?” Faug asked eagerly. Apparently he, too, was eager to figure out what exactly happened to her.
    Valin spent the next three quarters of an hour telling Faug everything that he could remember from what Telsiel had told him and his theory about the Telsiel and Shyasha.
    “It’s him,” Faug agreed when Valin was finished talking. “Telsiel was the guy who Shyasha was in love with.”
    “What makes you think that?” Vain asked.
    “Well, number one,” Faug began. “She acts all solemn and annoyed around him.”
    “She was all solemn and annoyed when she first met us,” Valin reminded him.
    “Good point,” Faug said. “Anyway, number two. If Shyasha’s dad was willing to name Telsiel his heir, Telsiel must have been up to the court at least once, which means they must have had something going on well enough for Shyasha to take him up to the castle in the first place. Am I right?”
    “You’ve got a point,” Valin agreed.
    “Number three,” Faug continued. “Telsiel said that when they were teenagers they still hung out and went on adventures, but they weren’t quite as crazy.”
    “So what’s your point?” Valin wondered.
    “My point,” Faug said. “Is that the adventures could have been of a different kind.”
    “Faug, I can’t believe you’re nine years old,” Valin said. “You have a very strange mind, my friend.”
    “But am I right?” Faug insisted. “They could have seriously been trying to figure out how to capture the magical energy of a unicorn or something, couldn’t they?”
    “I don’t think that they’d be trying to do exactly that, but it’s a thought,” Valin said, glad that Faug wasn’t thinking about what Valin thought he was thinking about.

    A few minutes later, a servant showed up at Faug and Valin’s door to show them to the dining hall. It was a massive room that was bathed in a soft, golden light that was supplied by hundreds of candles that somehow hovered from the ceiling unsupported. The table went the length of the entire room, even though there were only a few places set at the far end. Faug wondered why they didn’t just use a different room, or even a different table. It seemed kind of a waste of space to use the massive table when there were only a few people there. Telsiel was sitting at the far end of the room, at the head of the table. He glanced up when the two boys entered, smiled slightly, and beckoned them forward. The brothers approached apprehensively. Even though they technically knew everyone except for the dark-haired girl by Hyan who was most assuredly NOT Shyasha, and the small girl near Dalar who was most definitely NOT Shyasha, it was still kind of intimidating. Every one of the eight or so people present seemed both older than them-except for the girl near Dalar-and had some sort of magic about them.
    Vain lanced around the table, seeing how many people he could name. That was Telsiel at the end, and on Telsiel’s right was Dalar. Next to Dalar was a small girl with very dark skin who looked no older than eight. Next to this girl was Hyan, and on Hyan’s right was a slender young woman who could pass for his sister. This was probably Tiba, Valin thought. Next to the maybe-Tiba was a male dwarf. Across from Tiba and Hyan were three more people who looked like elves-one female, two males. By the female elf and the dwarf there were two empty places that had plates but no people in the chairs. Telsiel motioned for Valin and Faug to sit there. As he sat down, Faug noticed there was also a spare seat on Telsiel’s left. He also noticed, with a pang in his stomach, that Shyasha wasn’t there. This made him kind of uncomfortable and very nervous. At least he knew Shyasha. Now all he had to talk to was Valin. And suddenly he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to talk to Valin. In fact, Faug wasn’t quite sure whether he was physically capable of opening his mouth anymore.
    Finally, Telsiel spoke. “Quick introduction, just so everyone knows everyone. Just go around the table and say your name. I’m Telsiel.”
    “Dalar.”
    “Liea.” The small girl’s voice was barely above a whisper.
    “Hyan.”
    “Tiba.”
    “Shangru.” The dwarf had a very gruff, deep voice.
    “Valin.”
    “Faug.”
    “Tayana.” The female elf next to Faug sounded like she could be a singer. “Shya’s mother.”
    “Akalu,” said the male elf by Shyasha’s mother. “Shya’s dad.”
    “Iluri. Shya’s brother-in-law.”
    “Where is Shya, Telsiel?” Tayana asked in her calm, slow voice.
    “She’s coming,” Telsiel said. He glanced up again, noticing movement at the top of the staircase to the dining hall. There Shya was. She was the closest thing to beautiful that he could remember.

    Faug and Valin hadn’t thought Shyasha was the kind of girl who would willingly put on a dress and let people catch her in it while she was still breathing. They had thought that she was the kind of girl who would roam the forest in male clothing, never showing her face to anyone and remaining a mystery for the rest of her life. She was a tomboy and was always willing to fight, both humans knew that. She would never be fully contained by anything. However, the intricate braiding of her hair and the pastel dress she was wearing were coming frightfully close to be the thing that contained her. However, they noticed she was still barefoot. It had been pushing it for Shyasha to wear the dress, but she had been forced into the dress by the combined authority of both her parents. Nonetheless, Shyasha was NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ever going to put on another pair of formal shoes EVER AGAIN.
    “Why is she wearing a dress?” Faug wondered quietly.
    “Because this is how life is when you’re royal,” Valin muttered back.
    “She look tired,” Tayana murmured to her husband.
    “She hasn’t slept for four days,” Akalu replied. “She told me-she was the night watch on the road.”
    “Couldn’t that older human do it?” Tayana whispered, glancing at Valin. “He looks strong enough.”
    “She was the one who was supposed to be protecting them; they weren’t supposed to be protecting her,” Akalu said.
    “She’s the princess. She’s the one that’s SUPPOSED to be protected.”
    “She never cared about that.”
    “She never cared about anything.”
    “She cared about staying alive. And she’s named ‘the shadow warrior’ for a reason. She wasn’t going to be like our other daughters, sitting in a tower or going to balls or whatever in order to get married.” Akalu was secretly very proud of his daughter for having something in her brain other than butterflies and fairies. True, he had been kind of disappointed when she fell in love with that boy when she was younger, but, on the other hand, he was a pretty decent boy.
    “Only because you wouldn’t let her.” Tayana was not quite as happy that Shyasha hadn’t been as successful as her sisters in finding a permanent mate. She knew that Shyasha cared about mutual love, but Tayana, personally, was indifferent. Just as long as the male was attracted to the female, the female’s job was done.
    “And because I wanted one daughter who could think for herself.”
    “Maybe she thinks for herself a little too much.” Tayana was not necessarily against her youngest daughter’s independence, but she didn’t think that someone, a princess in particular, should not go around the forest alone, even one who had excelled in three-year ranger training without being able to see anything, most of the time.
    “No, she doesn’t.”
    “But after what happened-”
    “There’s a difference between mistrust of people because you’ve been hurt and independence because you don’t want to be treated like an idiot.” It was true, he thought. Akalu had quite liked the boy, actually, before he decided to cut off something that was good for him. It was a rare thing to find that kind of love in that measure anymore, and that boy had completely killed the chance that he had.
    The meal was very quiet at the beginning, and the only really productive thing that happened was that they agreed that the council would be at noon the next day.
    “Walk with me,” Telsiel said to Shyasha when they both were done.
    Shyasha glared at him for a moment and then rose.
    “What?” she demanded as soon as they were out of the hall.
    “I have something to tell you,” he began. “And it’s rather important.”
    “Spit it out,” Shyasha ordered, with all the authority of a princess, even one who has tried to live it down for four and a half thousand years.
    “This way,” Telsiel said.
    “Why?” Shyasha demanded.
    “I want it to be private,” Telsiel told her shortly.
    “If this is about what happened-” Shyasha threatened.
    “No, it’s not that,” Telsiel said hurriedly. “I just don’t want people to hear.”
    “Why?” Shyasha repeated.
    “Just because.”
    Shyasha gave him a doubtful scowl and then consented to follow him down the hall, not entirely trusting him. When they had reached a place where Telsiel was certain that they wouldn’t be overheard (having taken several turns and gone down two staircases), he finally turned and said, “I have part of it.”
    “Part of the Crystal?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why is this supposed to be private?”
    “Because I didn’t want anybody to know about it.”
    “And yet you’re telling me.”
    “Yes.”
    “Where is it?” Shyasha posed the question as abruptly as possible, keeping her face and voice as impassive and expressionless as possible.
    “Why do you want to know?” Telsiel’s voice was suspicious all of a sudden.
    “This is something really, really serious. And after what happened, do you honestly expect me to just trust you right off the bat?”
    “Yes.”
    “What gives you the impression that I would just trust you without verification?”
    “Because you’re a girl.”
    “I’m a girl, yes, but I’m not an idiot. If you have it, where is it?”
    “Promise you won’t tell.”
    “I can’t promise that. This entire mission is supposed to be about getting the pieces and destroying them, not keeping secrets and telling lies and getting power. You either have it or you don’t, and if you do, I’d like to see it.”
    “Why? So you can have it for yourself?”
    “No, so I can take it to the council tomorrow so we can decide what to do with it. Now, give it.”
    “Why should I?”
    “Telsiel, do you WANT me to hurt you?”
    “No.”
    “You have it. I can tell. It’s powerful, and it’s got dark magic in it. Sonru wants it back, and he wants to gain power and followers. That’s why he made the Crystal. And he gave part to you, and it’s gotten a hold of you, I can tell.”
    “How can you tell?” They began circling each other, like two lions about to kill each other.
    “You’re acting really weird. You’re darker. You’re expressionless at best. Ad your eyes aren’t the color they’re supposed to be.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Your eyes used to be light blue, not black. And you’re more secretive and forcibly polite. It’s disturbing.”
    “Very good.”
    “Give it.”
    “No. It’s mine. Sonru gave it to me. He told me not to give it to anyone else.”
    “What else did he tell you?”
    “He said I was one of the most powerful rulers in the world and I was going to be more powerful with the Crystal. He said I was the strongest person out there, that I would be utterly invincible with the Crystal.”
    “Telsiel, you jerkface. Can’t you see he was lying? Couldn’t you tell he was just flattering you into accepting it? He was actually saying how powerful you are, so therefore he wanted you under his control so he could gain control the Three Cities.”
    “No, he wasn’t.”
    “Telsiel, where are the refugees?”
    “Gone,” Telsiel laughed.
    “Sonru has got them, hasn’t he?”
    “Yes, he has. And they’re not coming back.”
    “Yes, they are. You’re an idiot if I ever saw one, Telsiel. Now, give over the crystal, or else I’m going to have to hurt you.”
    “You can’t hurt me.”
    “What makes you say that? I was a top student in Ranger training while blind. I was taught by the top Ranger master, too. I’m better than you think.”
    “Stop bragging.”
    “I will if you hand the freaking crystal bit.”
    “NO!”