Three hours later found us traveling toward the warring kingdom. I was on Ko, and the girl was flying next to me, proving that the wings that marked her as Lora were also fully functional. We were making very good time, having picked up a nice tailwind, and we were most likely going to reach the kingdom before the sun rose.

I had already explained the situation to Ko. He had listened quietly, and then expressed his confusion and wonder at how humans could get themselves in situations like this one. It was something he did whenever I had to go stop a war or something like that. He just didn't understand the way humans' minds worked.

As we sped toward the kingdom, which was called Zernin, Ko sent a questioning thought to me. He wondered where the girl's beast was, since she was flying next to me. He was hoping for someone to spend time with while the girl and I were busy, and from the looks of things, she wasn't taking her beast with her. I looked over at her, and she flew closer, assuming that I was looking at her because I wanted to talk to her. It annoyed me, but since I did have something to ask her I ignored it.

"Where's your beast, girl?" I asked.

"Fess can't fly," she said. "So he's following behind us. He should catch up with us sometime tomorrow night."

"And your luggage is with him?" I asked. She nodded. "Good."

"Ask what," Ko prompted. He wanted to know what her beast was. He was still hoping it would be something he could associate with easily.

"What kind of beast is he?" I asked.

"Unicorn," she said, and she started to turn red. I assumed it was because of the conditions that are prerequisites for having a unicorn beast in the first place.

Unicorns aren't very uncommon as beasts for us. About one third of the Lora in existence have unicorns as their beast. It's always been said that unicorns won't go near someone who isn't a virgin, and to an extent that is true. Unicorns who aren't pledged don't go near anyone except new Lora who are virgins. And then they only do that to pledge themselves. However, pledged unicorns have no qualms about going near non-virgins, and Lora who have unicorns pledged to them don't have to stay virgins.

Shara was most likely blushing because she figured I knew about the nature of unicorns. She was obviously a virgin still. She also obviously thought there was something embarrassing about that. It wasn't like I cared.

"Oh," I said, and Ko made a noise of disappointment in my head.

Unicorns in general didn't seem to like Ko's company. Ko didn't like them much either; he said they were mean and arrogant as all hell. I agreed with him on the arrogant part, though I'd never met a mean unicorn before. As for why they didn't like Ko, I figured that was because he was a predator, and that he could eat one of them with no trouble. That tended to make non-predators like unicorns quite edgy.

Luckily, she was silent for the rest of the trip. She had figured out at the beginning that I didn't particularly care for her company, and that I would be much more pleasant if she didn't try to talk to me. She had decided that it would be in her best interest to not bother me, which made me quite happy.

My estimation had been correct, and we arrived over the capital city of the kingdom about fifteen minutes before sunrise. It was too early in the morning to be interrupting people's sleep with our arrival, though I wouldn't have cared about that. Unfortunately, Shara stopped me from letting Ko land in the middle of the city, and we both landed just outside of the city gates.

We then tried to enter the city and find somewhere to stay the night until a later hour, when we would go to the palace. We were stopped at the gates by a couple of overzealous city guards with instructions not to let anyone in who didn't side with Prince Teth. Teth was the eldest of the dead king's brothers, the one with the peasant army, and the guards, after I looked a second time, were just peasants dressed up in uniforms.

They certainly hadn't been trained very well. They didn't even recognize Shara and I as Lora, even with Ko and Shara's wings as pretty obvious proof. They insisted that they couldn't let us in unless we pledged loyalty to Prince Teth. This made me angry.

"Listen, boys," I growled. "I am not going to wait out here all night arguing with you about whether I support this Teth guy or not. I am, instead, going to go into the city where I can find a nice, warm bed to sleep in. And you are going to help me by getting out of my way and letting me into the city before I gut you. Understand?"

To illustrate the fact that I was quite serious about my threat, I pulled out my knife, a wonderful thing I'd picked up from a Calanni weapon smith about three hundred years before. In that whole time it hadn't dulled at all and was in just as good condition as it had been when I'd bought it. It was my favorite weapon, with the exception of my magic. Of course, it was also a good three quarters of a foot long, which helped in the intimidation factor.

The guards blanched when I pointed the knife at the younger one's belly. The other one tried to stammer out something about them really not being able to let us in, but luckily the one being threatened shut him up. He threw one last panicked look at the knife before looking back to me and smiling weakly.

"Of course you may go through, Milady," he stammered out. "After all, I wouldn't be the type of person to deprive someone of sleep. Never!"

"Hn," I grunted, sheathing my knife with one swift, fluid motion, just barely missing grazing his belly as I did so. He blanched whiter (something I didn't think was possible until I saw it), then sagged in relief as I swept past him and through the gates. I could smell the urine from him pissing himself.

"I'm very sorry about my companion," I heard Shara saying to the two men behind me. She sounded quite shocked. I turned around to call her.

"We don't have all day," I called, and she hurried to follow me.

Later that morning we went to the castle in the center of the city. It dominated the city, a massive building in the middle of the tiny hovels and houses of the city. It was the closest I'd seen to the Home in human lands, and it was oddly familiar. But then, so was every other human palace in existence at the time, since I had most likely been in all of them at least once.

Shara and I approached the castle cautiously, since we were quite aware of the hordes of guards thronging around the castle. I could count at least four distinct groups among the guards, each of them glaring at the others. The group closest to the actual building was one of trained, professional guards, most likely the official ones. The other groups were too busy watching each other to try and break through them. They would have been able to overpower the official guards easily had they worked together, but they obviously didn't trust each other anywhere near enough to do that.

One of the other three groups was made up of untrained peasants, much like the guards at the gate. They looked decidedly uncomfortable around the others. The second group was made up of more trained, professional soldiers, but these ones were wearing the livery of a different kingdom. I assumed they were working for the one who was sleeping with a queen.

The last group didn't look like guards, or soldiers, but I could tell they were watching the official guards and the other two groups very carefully. They reeked of magic, powerful enough (for humans) that they were starting to give me a headache. They were also noisy, enough that I could see Shara wincing as well.

"I'm sorry, we can't let you in," the head official guard said when we approached the castle gates themselves. I moved to argue with the fool. After all, if he was one of the ones loyal to the prince (as opposed to the king's brothers), which is what I was assuming, he should be happy to have us there. Anyway, humans should know better than to refuse us entry. But before I could step forward Shara stopped me, bowing low to the damned idiot guard.

"Excuse us," she said. "We are Lora sent from the Home to settle this issue. We are here to talk to the prince. We were sent for, may we please enter?"

"I, uhhh," he said vaguely. I directed a glare at him, and he shifted uneasily. "I guess so, Your Eminences. Please, go on in."

A servant met us inside, obviously sent to lead us to the prince. He looked quite uncomfortable as he walked stiffly in front of us, and I could tell that he was less in awe of Lora and more terrified of us. To his credit, he didn't say or do anything to offend me, which he could have done quite easily, especially with the distraction and stress of his fear.

The prince was hidden deep in the castle, but not in the throne room, which was a good move on his part. He would be expected to stay in the throne room by the other sides, so hiding somewhere else would keep him safe longer if they had managed to get spies or assassins in, which I'm sure at least one of the sides would think of. But, just because the prince was nicely hidden didn't mean he was all that clever, it could have been a good aide who suggested it.

The feeling of a human's magical aura was the first thing that greeted me as we approached the room where the prince was hidden. It was strong, strong enough that I felt it without concentrating, and I got a feeling of deja vu when I felt it. I assumed it was the prince with no hesitation, since I already knew that one of his uncles had quite a bit of magical ability himself, being a magician. Magical talent like that always tends to run in families.

Intense, but quite human, blue eyes met me when the door was opened. There should have been guards standing between the fool prince and the door, for safety. After all, Shara and I could possibly have been assassins sent to kill the damned boy. But instead, the boy was pressing his way through the guards trying to block a direct line of sight, and I could see the intense blue of his eyes quite easily as he stared at us.

The boy seemed familiar, though I couldn't place where I'd seen him before. After all, I met so many humans every year that I lived that it was near impossible to remember all of them. And I'd lived so long that I had given up trying to remember most of the short-lived humans anyway. It just wasn't worth it, and my memory wasn't that good.

He stared at the two of us, and specifically at me, for quite a while. It would have been unnerving to most people, and seemed to be to Shara, seeing him just stare like that with his intense eyes, but it didn't bother me. What bothered me was the smoldering anger I saw in his gaze as he stared at me. I wouldn't have cared, except that I was expected to help the damned boy, and having him angry at me, for whatever reason, would hinder that.

"Welcome," he said stiffly after a minute or two of silent staring. "I assume you have been sent because I requested it?"

"Yes, Highness," Shara replied. I kept my mouth shut, letting the girl do what Geth had sent her to do. "We have orders to see you on the throne. The High Ones feel your claim is best."

I shot an angry glance at her for that. We didn't need to explain the thoughts of our High Ones to humans in general. It was considered quite bad practice to bring them up at all when out on business. All the humans needed to know was that we had been sent to deal with the problem. Shara blushed a little as she realized what she'd done.

"And your companion?" he asked, and I could tell that he was going somewhere asking about me. "Does the famous Ice Queen have nothing to say to me?"

I knew I should stay quiet, to keep the peace for our mission. Anything I said in return to the arrogant boy would end up having a bad effect. But he already was angry at me, for reasons that I couldn't remember but probably had something to do with whenever I'd met him before, and he was being downright rude to me. That would not do.

"Not particularly," I replied, in my coldest tone. "I find it a waste of time to talk to arrogant little boys such as you."

"Arnen!" Shara hissed at me angrily, but I ignored her.

"I hardly think I deserve the term boy," the boy replied. "After all, even by the highest standards I am considered an adult."

"I have met few "adult" human men who truly deserved to be called adult," I said. "And I can assure you, you are not one of them, little princeling."

"How dare you speak to his Highness like that!" one of the random guards spluttered angrily. He tried to draw his sword and rush at me, which would have ended up in him either severely injured, or possibly dead, but before he could the prince stopped him with an outstretched arm.

"Calm down," he said. "Or do you want to get yourself hurt? Remember who she is."

"You would be wise to remember that as well, boy," I said to the prince, and I felt his sullen anger flare to life. Then I turned to Shara. "I am going to leave this place. You were supposed to be dealing with the humans, so I will leave you with this arrogant princeling to do so. Come find me when there's something worthwhile for me to do."

Shara stammered out a protest at my leaving her alone, but I ignored it and moved out the door, past a few stunned guards who quickly made way for me. I found my way out of the palace easily and returned to the inn we had stayed in for a few hours, which was where Ko was waiting for me.

He questioned me briefly, wondering why I had returned without Shara. He, of course, didn't find it particularly surprising that I had left Shara alone to talk with the prince, since it was something I did quite often. I had better things to do, such as fly around the area on Ko and look for signs, magical or physical, of where the other princes might be hiding.