A small smile turned her mouth up at the corners. "I fought beside him in the war against Raven Court," she said, by way of explanation. "He was never reckless with our lives, and he was willing to do whatever it took to end the bloodshed. Prince Dain earned my loyalty on the field of battle, and will have it until I shed my memories and pass into a new life."

"What's your name, Dain's loyal soldier?" I asked, hoping that wasn't a huge faux pas.

She looked over at me for a moment, with an assessing light in her rich brown eyes. "Ciradyl Kelris, at your service, your highness," she said.

I inclined my head to her, and she looked ahead again, her ears in that constant slight motion that all the guards did, keeping track of the world around us.

"He's here," murmured one of the men behind me.

I turned, hunting for him, and found him striding down the path I'd come down. Dain must have possessed a majority-monochromatic wardrobe, because he was almost all in black again, save for stormcloud gray accents and the edge of a dark gray shirt underneath his clothing. The man had to be warm under all of that; it wasn't high summer, but it was sure warm enough that I was grateful for the short sleeves and breeziness of the blouse.

I gave him my best, brightest smile as he approached, his glare indeed thunderous.

"What are you doing here?" Dain growled as he came up to me. "There's nothing for you to attend until tomorrow night."

"I'm bored," I said, putting as much perk into my voice as I could muster, pretending I was someone cheerful who'd just had espresso for the first time. "We're going riding together."

He went still. "You're going riding with me," he said, as if he couldn't comprehend the words.

"Gold star," I said. "They're getting me a deer ready."

"You're... riding a deer," Dain repeated.

"Yep! First time on a deer, so if I get dumped and break something, I would like to make a special request that you neither leave me in the woods to die nor drop me facedown over your stag like a sack of grain to haul me home."

His lip twitched upwards, and his ears started doing a weird thing where they couldn't seem to decide whether to flatten against his skull or flick downwards, and were almost vibrating with indecision. Dain blinked several times, looking so discombobulated that I had to struggle not to start giggling. It wasn't quite bluescreening, but I was getting close to figuring out how to break him.

"And what," he said, with great care, "Do you want me to do instead?"

"Put me on your lap and carry me like you like me, obviously," I said.

"That," Dain replied, "is not going to happen."