Given my conversation with her, I sort of expected the Queen to do something horrible to me and Dain, but at the formal dinner that night, she announced that the Vicereine of Lyraniorn, in the west of Stag Court, had invited her to visit for the Feast of Omaxion, and she would be leaving the next morning. She directed a gleaming smile at Dain, and named him the Regent in her absence.

I had never expected such a thing. Dain had never expected such a thing, either. But there it was, spoken in front of the entire High Court: for the next fortnight, the Queen would be merely Nephinae Ronelis, and the rulership of Stag Court belonged to Regent Sundamar. He accepted with a brief speech that would have been more at home on a battlefield, about his desire to protect and safeguard the people of Stag Court, and to stand ever between them and danger of all kinds.

Watching him after, talking to wary courtiers alongside me, I was intensely proud of him. Dain hated the sideways talk of political double-speak, but he knew how to read it and his direct countering of such things left people sort of staggering in his wake. Even the courtiers are starting to rethink their opinions of him, I thought, observing some of them as they kept an eye on him. The Beast Prince many of them no doubt remembered, a boy who had finally snapped under his mistreatment and carved a place for himself among them with blood and steel, had grown up, and they were finally seeing it. Crown Prince Sundamar, the Stag Regent, was a different creature altogether.

I sent him off to his new duties in the morning with a kiss, and set about entertaining myself by stacking his rather large antler collection into a pointy tower atop the coffee table.

A little before noon, someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find no one, only my guards Axily and Ciradyl. I made some sort of questioning noise, peering down the hall.

"I knocked, your highness," Axily said in an apologetic tone. "I have a personal request."

"Ask," said, surprised. None of my guards had ever asked me for anything, though some of us had hung out casually in the garrison. Axily and Ciradyl I knew better than most of them; Ciradyl often sparred with Dain and she had a great sense of humor, while Axily was gregarious and spectacular to watch in glamor-fights.

"I was supposed to have lunch with Lord Miaquen today, but I'm on-duty, as you can see." He sounded embarrassed, and I could see him flushing. "Would you be willing to dine with him? Then Ciradyl could take the door and I could take your shoulder, and still be able to see him before he leaves for his estates in the south again."