Culin began whining bare minutes after the two left the kitchen. Sasi glowered at her younger brother.

“I don’t know! Go find something else to do if you’re bored!”

“Like what?”

He was helpless. He often followed Sasi around; there was little else to do in a keep this small, and fewer children he and Sasi could play with.

There were a good number of kids in town who were Sasi or Culin’s age, but they had never left Afiele’s borders, so they couldn’t talk about Menorome and how much they missed it with Sasi or Culin. And their parents were afraid of offending the two young nobles’ mother and father, so the children never played properly.

“I miss the capital.”

The young [Lord] gave voice to Sasi’s feelings. Since she didn’t want to dwell on that fact herself, she glowered and slapped at his shoulder.

“Well, we can’t go back! So stop saying it!”

“Can we play hide-and-seek? Maybe with some of the others?”

Culin suggested hopefully. He was good at hide-and-seek. So was Sasi. They loved to play all over town, sometimes to the agony of Meltain who never found them. She shook her head.

“Can’t. The [Princess] is staying here.”

Both of them scowled. They hated the Princess. Her chance meeting with them had meant no going outside, no fun games in the keep, and less time with their mother and father who were always entertaining her or getting her something. Her servants were also rude and took up too much space.

Even the fantastic [Knights] had lost their glamor after Culin and Sasi discovered they didn’t do much.

“We can’t stay in the keep. We might run into her. So…let’s go to town.”

Sasi’s conclusion was almost inevitable. There was more to do in town, even if it was just staring at a

[Trader]’s goods, or watching someone work or seeing if they could play a ‘safe’ game, even if they always won. Culin nodded.

“Where’s Meltain?”

“Probably sleeping. Let’s not wake him.”

There, at least, the two children of House Afiele refused to follow their mother’s orders. They could slip out to town and be back by supper. Lady Risel would never know—so long as she was caught up with Princess Seraphel.

It was easy. To make their escape, the brother and sister went down into the tiny courtyard. The keep had a very low, ten-foot wall in one of the few expansions to the building, and here the house’s guard trained.

Today, it was occupied by the Thronebearers of Calanfer, who were training in one-on-one bouts while the others watched. Not the sparring pairs or organized training Sasi was used to.