Eleven-year-old Alvo listened to the crickets sing. It was late; he didn't know how late, but the sky was black and crammed with stars, and it was finally cool after the hot, hot day. The air in the field where he lay with his best friend smelled clean if dusty, the scent of hay mingling with the honeysuckle climbing the stable walls in the nearby yards.

He shifted on his bedroll and tried to see the face of the boy lying next to him. "Temmy? Are you asleep?"

"Hm?" said Temmin, turning over. "No, are you?"

"No, stupid, how could I be asleep and talking to you?"

"I dunno, Alvo, maybe you talk in your sleep." Temmin stretched his arms and then settled them under his head. "Besides, you shouldn't call a prince 'stupid.'"

"If a prince says something stupid, I'm going to call him stupid. Stupid."

"Feh," said Temmin. "Look," he said, pointing. "You can see the Diamond especially well tonight, it's twinkling."

Alvo looked up into the sky; Temmin was right, the brightest star in the King's Crown was sparkling like a real diamond. "When do you go to court to live with your father?"

"Lessee--five more years."

"Are you excited?"

Temmin snorted. "Whyever would I want to go to court? Seddy and Elly want to go. Seddy says--" and here he broke into a very accurate impression of his oldest sister "--it is only in the more cosmopolitan air of the capital that she shall ever be able to find discourse worthy of the name." Alvo giggled. "Elly just wants to go to parties, I think. Parties are stupid."

"So you don't want to go," said Alvo softly, still looking up at the sky.

"I never want to leave Whithorse, ever, Alvo," said Temmin decidedly. His voice was tinged with sleepiness for all its decision. "Ever, ever, ever."

The two boys lay side by side in the dark. Temmin's eyes eventually slid shut, but Alvo turned over and watched as Temmin's breathing became even. "Temmy?" he whispered.

"Hm?" mumbled Temmin, very nearly asleep.

"I never want you to leave Whithorse either."

"Ha'right," said Temmin. He smacked his lips once, and fell fast asleep. Alvo listened to his soft snoring for a long time before he too fell asleep on their bed of grass.