Dedicated to Bam for designing 
adorable portraits for Aster and Sean

A guard tower sits on either side of the great, silver-plated gate. A wooden blockade has been moved to cover the gate, another layer of protection against the savages on the other side. Stone crenellations the soldiers and wizards use for cover top the gate, along with a stone walkway about ten feet wide. Walking toward the towers, over the empty cobblestone, leaves me chilled for more reason than the late autumn air. This place should be bustling with activity. There should be a few honored stalls near the entryway, encouraging castle visitors to buy their wares. There should be nobles coming and going. There should be life. Instead, the emptiness smells like death.

I pause at the door to one of the guard towers. It smells like death and smoke. I look up.

The sky is so overcast with thick, grey clouds that I hadn't noticed the faint motion in the air above the wall. The stone can't be on fire. Confused, I hurry into the tower and stop the first wizard I see. She gapes, but I wave away her shock. "Where is the smoke coming from?"

Her hands fidget in front of her. "The others saw no reason to leave the Kadranian bodies at the base of the wall, my lord. They set them alight."

Relieved, I nod.

"It's good to see you back, sire." Her tone tips up at the end, inviting me to explain how I'm here.

I only smile. "It's good to be back. I won't be going anywhere for a long time to come."

She gives a light curtsy, and I continue through the tower.

Burning the Kadranian bodies. That must be a double-blow to the savages—that there are bodies to burn at all, and that we're disposing of them in the Morineause manner rather than their disgusting burial. It's not as if the Kadranians would be able to retrieve them, though. Anyone that came into range of our archers would just as soon be another body to collect.

I make my greetings to those who recognize me, but most of the people in the tower are either resting or eating with their fellow fighters, pretending chaos can't break loose over their heads at any moment. I push out onto the wide walkway. Soldiers sit with their backs to the crenellations, and wizards sit against the back of the wall, facing the places the Kadranians come through. Facing the Kadranians, to watch them.

The wind is worse up here, but blankets would be hazardous once discarded for battle. At least the moving air helps keep the wall clear of the smoke below. A few of the soldiers engage in a hushed game of bones, the faint clatter of the pieces one of the only sounds here above a whisper. I planned on moving among them and talking to them, but something occurs to me, and I go back down.

When I return, some off-duty wizards accompany me, and together, we distribute hot tea in wooden mugs to the soldiers and casters. I make a point to speak with each wizard up here. I'll talk more to the ones down below when I'm done, if they're not sleeping.

I can't imagine how draining this must be—not only the physical strain, but the constant knowledge that an attack could begin at any moment. Most of the casters play it down, but there's a certain tension in their shoulders, a guardedness in their eyes, that I've never seen before.

I wonder how many of their friends they've already watched die.

When I finally leave, I head for the meeting with my siblings. The castle is cold but strangely comforting. Even though the world is upside-down, my home stands.

"Let's just try to keep it that way," I mutter. I reach the second floor and turn onto the next hall.

At the other end, Solus greets me. "Prince, there you are. I had thought you would surely be back by now. Prince Reyan asked me to collect you."

My smile is tight. "Rest assured; I was headed there now."

"I'm sure he expects me to walk back with you."

The distaste that has been growing for my brother since I was young builds in my stomach. Reyan has no reason to have gotten Solus involved. All that accomplishes is to further embitter us and undermine my position in the Wizard Corps. I am the Second Son of the Court, if not yet in name, at least in position and right. Foolish disappearance or not, I don't need Solus to come collect me as if I'm a child. If my brother was worried I wouldn't arrive on time, then he should have sent a page.

"Of course." I walk. When we reach the strategy room, I step to the side of the door. Solus's expression pinches, but he opens it for me, and I enter. Inside, Sela and Reyan stand around a waist-high table. No chairs adorn this room. Instead, a single bookshelf of information on strategy and other countries lines one wall, and against the others are shelves of small battle statues and large, rolled maps. The circular table currently has the N'veauvian map covering it, along with Morineause-blue and Kadranian-red statues engaged in miniature siege.

"Brother, Princesse." I approach the table.

Sela inclines her head at me but then looks to Solus. "You may leave us now."

He pauses. "I would be glad to advise the three of you, should you want, Your Grace."

"You may leave us." She smiles politely.

His lips are so tight as to be invisible. "Of course." He bows and exits.

I start to ask what's going on, but Reyan cuts me off.

"You failed to heal Mother?"

"Pardon?"

"Reyan, hush. It is not of import right now."

He turns to Sela, a sarcastic query on his face. "Mother's health is not of import?"

"Of course it is, but it is not the matter at hand. She is no worse off currently than she was prior to him casting. The spell was simply too strong for Aster." She turns back, apparently ready to return to whatever is the matter at hand, but I will not allow that lie to stain the air and my name.

"The spell was not too strong. I told you, the only reason it would have acted that way is if Mother is not suffering from a natural illness."

"Then what are you implying?" Reyan demands.

I turn to him. "Mother was poisoned. That is the only way the spell would have failed like that."

Sela crosses her arms. "Aster, we've already discussed this. It isn't possible."

"You agreed I could look into it."

Her lips tighten, and our gazes lock.

Reyan cuts the silence. "You'll find time for this when?"

"If you're worried about wasting time, then maybe we should discuss what we came to. If you later decide I'm misusing my time, you can reprimand me then."

"You just don't want to admit that you couldn't perform the spell, Aster. Concede it and we can move on."

My voice drops. "I am not lying," I say slowly, "and if you refuse to believe me, you're only allowing a traitor to remain in our midst, none of us knowing who their next target will be."

Silence hangs in the air.

"Reyan," Sela says. "Why don't you explain what all has already happened?"

Mine and Reyan's eyes remain locked.

"Brothers," she says.

I raise an eyebrow to him, waiting for him to agree.

He faces the table. "The outermost wall and the center wall were breached within a week of the army's arrival. We barely got word of them before they hit the walls. We were unprepared. That unpreparedness likely saved soldier lives but cost civilian ones. Fewer than a hundred soldiers killed or injured in that battle." He points at the middle wall. "Once they were at the second wall, we held them off long enough to pull most of the higher class citizens behind castle gates. Then we fell back to this wall." He points again. "Somehow, when we pulled back, the Kadranians slipped some soldiers past our defenses. These are the soldiers that invaded the castle."

That must have been the battle Sela was injured in when Agraund cast to send the two of them to the Meadow. It would have been the same battle Father died in.

"We only managed to take one of the invaders prisoner—the rest were killed. That one died yesterday from his injuries. He only spoke Kadranian; we got nothing from him. There has only been one skirmish at this wall, the one as soon as they caught up with us." He turns back to me. "Out of the thousand soldiers at this wall, seventy-two have died, including ones that have died post-battle, and we have forty-six still injured. Of those forty-six, last update from Illesiarr estimates that seventeen won't be able to return to battle-readiness, at least not within the next couple months." His arms cross. "I hope you've already found the stats on the wizard casualties?"

A stone forms in my throat at the numbers, but I swallow and forge on. "Yes. I actually have suggestions for repositioning the wizards, but I wanted to run them by the two of you before I did anything."

"You're not the head of your branch anyway," Reyan quips.

I stare at him, trying to figure out what that has to do with anything.

"You can't technically order something like that without approval from me or the Princesse."

"Right, and my other point." I turn toward Sela. "The sooner I'm coronated, the better. There are wall defenses that I can enact with the help of the Second's staff, but no one can do it uncrowned. The staff only works for a coronated wizard of Jacquelinian blood."

"What defenses?" she asks.

"There's a small one that will make it difficult for the Kadranians to climb the wall. That's the one we really need. But if things start to go poorly, there's another measure I can put in place: a domed field that would make it impossible for them to pass the wall for a full three days. The only downside is that our men can't be on the wall, either, during that time, including when it goes up."

"So we'd have to abandon it to use this?" Reyan says.

"Only to use the second defense. Ideally, the first one should have been enacted the moment wall warfare seemed imminent."

Reyan turns to Sela. "Are we working on this already?"

She twists Mother's signet ring on her finger. "I'll start talking to the Ladies."

"What is there to talk about? Crowning the successor is the law, isn't it?"

"They'll be the ones arranging things. Besides, it's more complicated than that."

He crosses his arms. "How can it be more complicated than following or not following the law, Sela?"

She frowns at him. "Politics exists on many levels, brother. I'll deal with the Ladies. You focus on your soldiers."

Their gazes hold for a moment, but then Ren turns back to me, asking about my suggestions. I explain to the two of them the same things I said to Solus. "The wizards on the wall are working twelve-hour shifts, and are expected to continue that pattern during battle, excluding injury. That's not feasible. They need better rest than that, and if we bring out more from the castle, we can give it to them." I watch them, hoping my words hold more weight than my reputation.

"I trust Reyan's judgment," Sela says, turning toward him expectantly.

He laughs. "You didn't ask my judgement when Solus suggested the current setup."

"Solus isn't here right now, and you weren't there then."

"Right, because if I had been, I would quickly have said to send as many to the wall as we can spare."

"Then it sounds like you and Aster are agreed. Wonderful." She turns to me. "You have our blessing to go forward with it."

When did she turn into Mother? "Thank you."

"Why don't you tell us what happened while you were gone?"