“They can’t give it away if they don’t know about it,” Amon said. “We’ll pretend she’s the daughter of some Chalk Cliff noble. They already know her as Rebecca Morley. We’ll say her father asked if she could travel with us to study at the Healer’s Hall at Oden’s Ford. She’ll travel in the guise of a plebe, for her own protection.”

“There’s a temple at Oden’s Ford,” Averill said. “The princess could lodge there as a new dedicate. You know, this could be a blessing in disguise. Oden’s Ford is a crossroads of ideas. She could learn a lot while in residence there.”

“She’ll be vulnerable to kidnappers, fortune hunters, and younger sons,” Byrne countered.

“Not if they don’t know who she is,” Averill said. “Besides, the Peace of Oden’s Ford will protect her. Even with the wars going on all around, it’s held for more than a thousand years.”

“She can’t stay away for too long,” Byrne said. “There’s always the risk that Bayar will convince Marianna to name Mellony heir.”

“We can debate all this later,” Raisa said, glancing back toward the castle, still buttoned up tight as a flatland corset. “Once they’ve searched the castle, they’ll be crossing the bridge. Captain Byrne, please tell the other cadets to meet their corporal at Demonai Camp. Corporal Byrne and I will ride on ahead.”

Byrne stared at her a moment, then inclined his head. “Understood, Your Highness,” he said, a faint smile overlaying his worry lines. “Corporal Byrne, a moment, please.” Byrne drew his son aside, and the two joined in a brief intense conversation that ended in an embrace.

While they’d been talking, the stable boy had led the horses out. Byrne sent the boy off to bed.

Raisa chose the smallest horse, a mare, and untied her reins from the rail. She turned to Amon. “Give me a leg up, if you please?”

Amon boosted her into the saddle and adjusted the stirrups to her small stature.

Byrne gripped Amon’s hand in a soldier’s double grip. “Keep her safe,” he said, looking his son in the eyes. “And bring her back to us.”

Amon nodded, then mounted up himself.

“Travel safely, daughter,” Averill said, tears pooling in his eyes, then streaming unmoated down his face.

Byrne clapped him on the back. “Let’s go on to the castle, Lord Demonai,” Byrne said, grinning. “I want to see Gavan Bayar’s face when we arrive alive.”

The two men turned away. Raisa dug her heels into the mare’s sides, and they clattered out of the stable yard and onto the Way, leading their two spare horses. When they passed out of the city gates, Raisa turned and looked back at Fellsmarch Castle glittering in the morning sun. She was leaving it behind again, sooner than she’d thought possible.