Contents

Chapter 1    Cazaril heard the mounted horsemen on the road...

Chapter 2    As he climbed the last slope to the main castle gate...

Chapter 3    The sounds of the household stirring—calls from the courtyard...

Chapter 4    So it was Cazaril found himself, the next morning...

Chapter 5    The Royesse Iselle's sixteenth birthday fell at the midpoint of spring...

Chapter 6    At the Temple pageant celebrating the advent of summer...

Chapter 7    The royse and royesse's caravan approached Cardegoss from the south...

Chapter 8    The first night's welcoming banquet was followed all too soon...

Chapter 9    Cazaril spent the following day in smiling anticipation...

Chapter 10    Cazaril sat in his bedchamber with a profligacy of candles...

Chapter 11    Cazaril was just exiting his bedchamber on the way to breakfast...

Chapter 12    Cazaril's eyes pulled open against the glue that rimmed their lids.

Chapter 13    The royesse was so drained by the ordeal of Lord Dondo's odd funeral...

Chapter 14    Cazaril had to allow Umegat's wine this much merit...

Chapter 15    After some time casting about the Zangre they ran Orico to earth...

Chapter 16    Two afternoons later, Cazaril was sitting unguardedly at his worktable...

Chapter 17    It was by chance, late the following morning, that Cazaril spied Orico...

Chapter 18    As he turned onto the end stairs, Cazaril heard a woman's slippers scuffing...

Chapter 19    Cazaril found the Zangre eerily quiet the following day.

Chapter 20    Iselle's eyes, though reddened with fatigue and grief, were dry.

Chapter 21    They came to Valenda at dusk on the following day.

Chapter 22    Cazaril regretfully gave up use of the Chancellery's courier remounts...

Chapter 23    At the last moment, with principles agreed upon...

Chapter 24    They retraced Cazaril's outbound route across western Chalion...

Chapter 25    In a palace frantic with preparations, Cazaril found himself the next day...

Chapter 26    Distraught, Cazaril kept to his chamber all morning.

Chapter 27    Cazaril put a hand to the pavement, shoving himself to his feet...

Chapter 28    A tapping and low voices at his chamber door drew Cazaril from his doze.

Chapter 29    Palli had sent Ferda galloping ahead while Cazaril lingered...

 

About the Author

Credits

About the Publisher

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Author would like to thank Professor William D. Phillips, Jr., for History 3714, the most useful four hundred dollars and ten weeks I ever spent in school; Pat “Oh, c’mon, it’ll be fun” Wrede for the letter game that first drew the proto-Cazaril, blinking and stumbling, from my back-brain into the light of day; and, I suppose, the utility companies of Minneapolis for that hot shower one cold February, where the first two items collided unexpectedly in my head to create a new world and all the people in it.