Hildin stared into the fire in the king's chambers, drinking wine while his father slept on. The old man lay in a bed wrapped in furs. His time was quite short now, and everyone knew it. "Warin?" the king whispered in his sleep. Hildin curled his lip and rolled his eyes.

Just then, the Teacher came into the room with a messenger following behind. The Teacher beckoned the messenger forward. "We have important news from Leutefloss."

The messenger bowed deeply and pulled a parchment from a pouch at his hip, handing it to the prince with an even deeper bow. Hildin took the parchment and unrolled it. Drawn on the parchment was the face of a handsome older man with an aquiline nose, crowned and grave. "My master, King Fredrik," said the messenger. "The message, I'm afraid, is keyed to the king your father, your highness," he added apologetically.

"As you can see, the king is indisposed," said the Teacher coldly. "It should work for the Regent."

"Speak! I listen," said Hildin formally to the parchment drawing.

The drawing blinked rapidly and began to speak. "King Gethin? Oh--Prince Hildin! Where is your father? How are you able to see this?"

"My father is on his deathbed," said Hildin. "I am the Prince Regent."

"Your brother?"

"Is still missing and is not returning. I am the Heir."

"I see," nodded the drawing. "I grieve already for your father, a good and pious man. My messenger has reached you in a late hour, but my need is urgent. I seek news of my only child and heir, the Princess Edmerka. She disappeared in the forest near our border some months ago, and I fear bandits though I have received no request for ransom. We have searched everywhere to no avail. I beg for your assistance, since you can see with your magicks into every corner of your lawful realm and as you know, my sight stops at our mutual border."

Prince Hildin's ears pricked up. He gave the Teacher a long, hard look, and the Teacher scowled back.

"I share your deep concern," said Hildin solicitously."How could she have been missing for so long without a trace?"

The drawing of Fredrik shook its head. "We thought she was safe at the home of my wife's family for the first two months, until the captain of her guards was found raving in a village many miles from there. He didn't know who he was or what had happened to my daughter. When I contacted my wife's family, they were completely unconcerned. Her father said he'd just assumed we'd changed our minds. Needless to say, we are very displeased." The drawing drew its eyebrows together. " Very displeased indeed. The last four months we have spent searching, with no luck. We've found many of her retinue, and her useless nurse, but all of them are witless. And we found them spread all over the kingdom! Not a clue as to my daughter's whereabouts. I am frantic.

"If you find her, Prince Hildin, I shall give her to you in gratitude. Your father and I have spoken of this before. It is high time she was married, and if I die without a male heir, our kingdoms would then be joined. After the way your father and brother led us against the Northern Incursions--"

Prince Hildin rose from his chair. "King Fredrik, I shall undertake the search starting this very night. I shall find her for you and happily take her to wife. I take my leave now and will be back in touch through this parchment as soon as I have any word." Hildin bowed deeply to the parchment and strode from the king's chambers to his own. Behind him, he heard the Teacher following after.

"Gill, quickly. Bring two mirrors upstairs to our guest's room." The startled page jumped up and retrieved two scrying mirrors from the cabinet and followed the prince and the Teacher up the stairs to Emmae's room.

Prince Hildin set one mirror at the bedside table and one before him. "If the Princess Edmerka is within the borders of our realm, show her to me." Gill watched as his master's reflection rippled and faded, and a new picture appeared in the mirror: That of the sleeping Emmae just across the room.

Hildin grinned in triumph. "I have the Princess! Soon I shall have the throne, and in time hers as well. And when my brother returns, it will be too late. I will be king, and she will be my wife!" His gloating laughter intruded into Emmae's dreams and she whimpered softly in her sleep. "We will need to tie up some loose ends, beginning with you, Teacher. The last thing I need is you flapping about. Go to your library and stay there. You are forbidden to help my brother. You must obey me, and you know it. Gill, set a guard on the room and let no one enter or leave. Search the room and the Teacher's person for mirrors or anything reflective. You know what to do." The Teacher stalked out of the room, white with anger, followed by Gill.

Hildin waited a day before unfurling the magical parchment again in his rooms. "King Fredrik, hear me!" he shouted.

The drawing blinked. "Speak, I listen. Oh, Prince Hildin. News, so soon?"

"I have found your daughter and have her here at Tremont Keep. Are you near the border?"

"Quite near, within a few hours' ride" said the drawing.

"Then bring a mirror across the border into Tremont. I will bring you the rest of the way by reflection as soon as you're across the border. I will look for you in three hours, and again at the beginning of each hour."

"Thank you! That saves me two weeks' travel," said the drawing. "I'll be off right away." And the drawing stopped moving and became just a piece of paper again.

Emmae awoke the next morning to find Meg bustling about the room. "Child, it's time to get up! See here, my prince has given you new dresses!" Meg lovingly spread out a blue silk gown. "I am to help you with your toilet and bring you to the great hall as soon as you're ready."

"What?" asked Emmae in sleepy confusion as she sat up. "Why?"

"I'm sure I don't know, miss," answered the old woman. "But I'm to get you ready as fast as ever I can." Emmae let Meg wash her, dress her in the blue gown, and brush out her lustrous chestnut hair, settling a soft blue veil over her head and fastening it with a circlet. "Ah! That blue sets off your skin and eyes just so! My Hildin will be so pleased, as pretty as a princess, you are, miss!" cried Meg, stepping back in satisfaction.

"No princess," murmured Emmae, "only a woodsman's woman. Or was." Tears pricked at her eyes, but she had cried so much in this place that no drops formed.

Meg shooed her out the door and down the long stairs to the great hall, where Prince Hildin and Gill waited outside the massive doors. "Meg," said the page, "I have need of you. Come with me." Meg looked perplexed, but trotted obediently after Gill down the hall.

"Why, Emmae," smiled Hildin, "you are as regal as a queen. Which is fitting, since you shall be one very shortly." Emmae looked up at him in confusion. "My father is dying, in fact, I would venture to say he may not last the night. My brother has renounced his throne and abandoned you. And while I'm not usually one for discards, in both of these cases I have no qualms. I shall be king, and you shall be my queen."

"You suppose I will marry you," she replied, blue eyes flashing. "And you also suppose that your kingdom will accept a commoner as your consort."

"But you are not a commoner." He smiled at her almost comically horror-struck face. "You, my dear, are the daughter of King Fredrik of Leutefloss. Your real name is Edmerka, styled Princess of Leutefloss. Which is an unfortunate name, I think you'll agree," he snickered. "I shall continue to call you Emmae."

Emmae put one hand on her pounding heart. "A princess?" she cried. "Worse and worse! I don't want to be a princess, I just want to go home to Warin. And even if I am this princess, I will not marry you, sir!"

"Ah," said Hildin, "but I know you will." He pressed her into the wall, slipping one hand around her waist and cradling a breast with the other. "Because I know that underneath this fine gown you are wet for me, Emmae," he whispered in her ear. His fingers found a hard nipple through her bodice and pinched it. She gasped and closed her eyes in pain and arousal. "I know you are burning and wet for me, and that if I wanted to, I could take you right here in the hallway and you'd let me. I could take you in the middle of the entire court, on the dais before the throne, all of them knowing that you are the Princess Edmerka. And you would not only let me, you'd scream out your pleasure before them."

He ground his hardness into her, his knee pressing her legs apart. "And I would, Emmae. I would fuck you--yes, fuck you," he hissed at her shocked intake of breath, "in front of the whole court, in front of your father, and then afterward offer you to whoever wants you and let him have you right there. I would watch you writhe in thrall to your enchantment in the arms of my lords. Your father would disown you, and after I have thoroughly shamed you I would then give you to the chief of the horse brigades to entertain his men. And that, my princess, is how I know you will marry me." She choked.

Hildin released her, but she stayed pressed against the wall, hands over her mouth, swallowing hard. "Now. We are going before your father, King Fredrik. Yes, he is in the great hall waiting for us, I brought him here through a reflection. I shall explain your intense emotion as relief at your rescue from the scoundrel who'd kidnapped you. And you will do your best to be charming and sweet and grateful to your rescuer. Won't you?" Emmae nodded wordlessly, and followed him into the great hall.

Meanwhile, old Meg had followed Gill into an unused room in a different section of the castle. He lit a candle, and the poor woman let out a small shriek. There in the middle of the floor lay Jessa, her eyes open and lifeless. Around her neck were the ugly marks of a ligature. "I'm so very sorry, Meg," said Gill, choking back tears as he slipped the garrotte around her fat neck. "But we can't let anyone live who knows Emmae has been here all this time." He throttled her until she was dead. He cried as he threw her body on top of Jessa's, snuffed out the candle, and closed the door.