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it across her hand. She began to roll the jewels about, smiling in delight as rays of azure light danced over her palm.
    “They’re cold and warm at once!”
    Arlien smiled. “We call them ice diamonds. Our miners dig them from the heart of the Endless Ice Sea itself,” he reported. “It’s said that as long as you wear these, you’ll never cry.”
    Tavis was beginning to wish he had left Arlien in High Meadow. “It’s healthy for humans to cry.”
    “Not for queens, Tavis.” Brianna arched her eyebrows at the scout, as if to ask his forbearance, then held the necklace out to Arlien. “You are completely forgiven, dear prince. Won’t you be kind enough to help me put this on?”
    Arlien took the necklace. “Ice diamonds are but one of the many treasures Gilthwit has to offer,” he said, undoing the clasp. “My caravan had samples of all our riches, but this was all I could save when the frost giants attacked.”
    “Whatever you lost, I’m happy you saved this.”
    Brianna lifted her silky hair and spun around, inviting Arlien to slip the necklace around her throat. Because the queen stood so much taller than he did, the prince had to raise his arms above his head. As he reached forward, he suddenly let out a deep groan and stumbled back in pain. A trickle of blood seeped from beneath his cloak and ran down his armored leg. Brianna turned around and took the necklace from the prince’s hands, returning it to its silver case.
    “Perhaps well put it on later.” The queen took Arlien’s arm and led him toward the trapdoor. “Now you should rest Well speak more of alliances as we ride back to my castle tomorrow.”
    Tavis moved to help, happy to be rid of the prince. As the trio approached the trapdoor, the scout heard urgent voices coming from the chamber below. By the time the three reached the opening, Earl Cuthber’s barrel-chested form was clambering up the ladder. He was a round-I faced man of fifty, with a balding head, squinting eyes, and a pair of crossed shepherd’s staves emblazoned on I his leather jerkin.
    The earl pulled himself onto the roof and gave the queen a perfunctory bow. “Have you seen them, Majesty?”
    “Seen whom?” Brianna demanded, still supporting Prince Arlien’s frail form.
    “Giants!” the earl reported. “Serfs have been coming in from all corners of the fief, and some claim the brutes have already surrounded us!”
    I Without waiting for a reply, Cuthbert scurried to the battlements. Brianna followed close behind, with Arlien limping along at her side. Knowing that it was already I too dark to see any giants lurking on the distant hills, Tavis stayed behind and peered into the chamber below to see whom the earl had been speaking with earlier.
    The scout found his friends Avner and Basil standing at the base of the ladder, a large oval mirror resting on the floor between them. “What have you there?” the scout asked. Avner looked up and smiled proudly. He was a sandy-haired youth of sixteen, with the fuzz of his first beard clinging to his chin.
    “You’ll see soon enough.” As nimble as a mountain goat, the boy scrambled up the ladder, then immediately swung around and stuck his arms back through the portal. “Go ahead and pass it up.” “It’s heavy,” Basil warned.
    Without waiting for an invitation, the scout lay down next to the boy and stretched his own arms into the hole. Basil pushed the mirror up, then Tavis and Avner lifted the heavy thing through the portal. A pair of hinge pins mounted on the sides suggested it had come off some piece of precious furniture, such as Lady Cuthbert’s dressing table. The looking glass’s wooden frame was thoroughly covered with the familiar carved lines of Basil’s rune magic.
    “I hope Cuthbert gave you permission to do this,” Tavis groaned, guessing that such a mirror was worth about a year of his salary.
    “The earl knows about it, anyway,” Avner replied. “And when he sees what it can do, he won’t