Kris was relieved by her apparent return to normal, and ventured a tentative prompting. She responded immediately with a flood of questions, and that was more like the Talia he knew, but he could not help but note (with a feeling of profound sympathy) her dark-circled eyes. While he was no Empath, he knew her sleep must have been scant.

By the time they reached the Border itself at the end of a week of hard riding, things were back on their old footing between them. They had discussed every contingency that they could think of between them (ranging from the possibility that Ancar should seem to be perfect in every way, to the possibility that he was a worse marital prospect than Selenay’s late consort) and talked over graceful ways to get them all out if the latter should be the case. Kris was fairly sure she was ready to face whatever the fates should throw at her.

As they rounded a curve, late in the afternoon of the fourth day of the journey, Talia got her first sight of the Border. The Border itself, here where two civilized and allied countries touched, was manned by small outposts from each Kingdom.

On the Valdemar side stood a small building, a few feet from the road, and a few feet from the simple bar that marked the Border itself. It served as dwelling and office for the two pairs of Guardsfolk stationed there. The pair on duty were checking the papers of an incoming trader; they looked up at the sound of hoofbeats, and grinned to see the two Heralds. The taller of the two left the trader’s wagon and took down the bar for them, waving them through with an elaborate mock bow.

A few lengths farther on was a proper gate, marking Alessandar’s side of the Border. It was manned by another pair of guards, this time in the black-and-gold uniforms of Alessandar’s army. With them was a young man in a slightly more elaborate uniform; a Captain of Alessandar’s army.

The Captain was young, friendly, and quite handsome; he passed them in without more than a cursory glance at their credentials.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he told them, “but I truly didn’t expect you here this soon. You must have made very good time.”

“Fairly good,” Kris replied, “and we started out a bit sooner than planned. We’ve been out in the field for the last year or so. Field Heralds are used to being ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

“As opposed to folks with soft bunks at Court, hm?” the Captain grinned. “Same with us. That lot stationed at Court couldn’t have a half-day of maneuvers without a full baggage train and enough supplies to feed a town. Well, I do have some basic orders about what to do with you . . .”

“You do?” Talia said, raising her eyebrows in surprise.