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behind me, and the crowd continued to cheer as he followed me down the steps and then up the cramped center aisle that had been roped off.
    When we reached the stairs to the Hall of the Pleiades, all of the nobles in the front row bowed, and I started toward the podium where my aunt was waiting with her white-haired ambassador in the long, silver robes that denoted his status as a wizard.
    “Thank you,” Bavasama said quietly, between gritted teeth, “for coming to tell me good-bye.”
    “I wanted to make sure you actually left,” I said under my breath.
    “You know,” she whispered as we both stood staring at the crowd and waving, fake smiles plastered on our faces. “Everyone says how much braver you are than your mother. What they’re really saying is how much stupider you are. And that’s pretty amazing considering your mother was a nitwit.”
    “My mother—”
    “Let me trap her on the other side of the mirror with barely a fight.”
    “What?” I turned to look at her, completely forgetting about putting on an act for the crowd. “Esmeralda told me—”
    “You think that stupid housecat is the only sorceress in this world?” Bavasama grinned at me. “The only one who can change people’s perceptions of what really happened?”
    “You—”
    “I helped the Fate Maker imprison your mother in her tower, and I took on her face, sat on her throne, and pretended to wear her crown. As it should have been from the very start.”
    I stared at her, wide-eyed.
    “And when people started to question why strong, brave Preethana was letting herself get walked on, I ensorcelled the cat so that she remembered helping your mother through the mirror. When, in reality, I was the one who forced your mother through at the point of a sword.”
    “You—”
    “What are you going to do, darling niece of mine?” Bavasama said under her breath so that only I could hear. “Kill me? Sink your kingdom back into war? Risk the lives of all these people who you love so much?”
    “Get out of Neris,” I said as another carriage, this one black and much shabbier than my own with its paint chipping and its horses on hoof, pulled up. “And don’t ever come back. Because if I see you again, I will kill you.”
    “You can try,” she said before starting toward the carriage. “But I don’t think you’ll succeed.”
    “Watch me,” I said, my jaw clenched. I watched her get in the carriage, smiling and waving all the while so that the crowd wouldn’t notice just how angry I really was.
    “Your Majesty?” John came over to me and gripped my free elbow. “Are you okay?”
    “Fine,” I grit out. “Why?”
    “Because you’re grinding your teeth,” John said.
    “Everything’s fine,” I repeated. “But if I were you, I’d tell the army not to get too comfortable. I suspect we’ll be going to war again very, very soon.”

Chapter Three
    Winston came and found me later that afternoon as I sat in the back garden of the palace, looking over reports from the dryads. Most of the fields that had been damaged last year during the Fate Maker’s and my aunt’s invasions were blooming again, and those that weren’t would be ready for the next planting season. Which was good. Our farmers would be able to provide enough food, not just for our people, but for trade with Bathune as well.
    “Hey,” he said softly.
    I nodded at him without looking up as I scrawled my name across the bottom of the reports. I was afraid to look up. Afraid that he was here to fight with me again. “Hey.”
    “You busy?” He sounded cautious.
    “A bit.” I looked up at him and then glanced over at the pile of reports I still had to go through. I wanted to spend time with him, but I had to be responsible, to be an adult. The running of an entire world fell on my shoulders, after all.
    “Think you could take a break and go for a fly with me?” Winston asked, his voice cautious and unsure.
    “I don’t…” I trailed off and stared up at