“Connall’s busy,” said Cordelia. She curled her legs on the grass beside Alys and propped herself on one arm with her hand buried in the rich, warm soil of the herb bed. She could almost feel the worms burrowing busily underneath—but she forced herself to cut off that thought immediately.

She could wriggle in worm shape almost any time she wanted. The moment that Mother swept back into the castle, though, her chance to trick anything useful out of Alys would be gone.

“I was just wondering, for no particular reason …” Cordelia tilted her head back and gazed up into the blue sky, as if she had nothing more important to do with her life than stay trapped in one place, only following those shifting white clouds with her eyes. “Do you happen to remember which of us was born first?”

“Connall,” said Alys. “Obviously.”

“I meant …” She broke off as Alys sat back, lowering dirt-covered hands to her aproned lap and regarding Cordelia with a knowing glint in her green eyes. “I meant,” Cordelia continued more quietly, “out of me and Giles and Rosalind.”

“I know.” Alys sighed heavily and scraped a fine strand of red hair back underneath her white cotton coif, leaving a wide stripe of dirt across her pale cheek. “So. You’ve been eavesdropping out front, I take it?”

Cordelia frowned mutinously at her. “How would you know what’s been happening out there? It’s much too far away to hear any details from here.”

“Trust me,” said Alys, “I know exactly who’s standing at the gate right now, trying to break their way in with sweet words or sharp axes. Your mother and I have been waiting for them for the past twelve years.”

Ever since we were born. Cordelia slid her a sidelong look. “… Because Giles is next in line to be king?”

“Sly one.” Alys’s voice was dry. “You won’t catch me out that easily. If you have any questions about your birth, ask your mother.”

“But she never tells me anything!” Cordelia’s words turned into a muffled yell of frustration as the massive wooden door at the front of the castle slammed shut with an unmistakable thud. The portcullis came crashing down after it.

“There she is, safely back!” Alys’s whole body sagged with relief.

Had she actually been worried? About Mother?

A smile tugged at Alys’s thin lips as she rolled out her shoulders. “Let’s hope Kathryn saw them off properly.”

“Of course she did.” As if that had ever been in question! “But now they’ll all slink away—however many of them are left—and then we’ll never have any interesting visitors again!”

For one wonderful moment, the world outside their forest had seemed so wide and full of possibilities—as if she could finally explode out into it and be free.

Cordelia should have known better than to imagine it could ever really happen.