It was the night before my wedding day. The grand hall was filled to the brim with people. The castle had been bustling with activity the entire day. All the members of the Medoran court that had been situated elsewhere had travelled to Medolina to attend the wedding that would begin early the day after and st far into the night.

  I wondered how some of these people intended to wake up fresh and early the next morning, since they already seemed to be very drunk. I sat at the table on the dais as usual. This time I was between Reena and Plinius, with Virtus at the other side. We were not supposed to speak to each other the day before the wedding.

  Alvar was one of the guards in the hall that night. He was wearing the golden armour of the court of Medora, and he looked so more beautiful than I had ever seen him before. I tried my best to pretend he wasn't even there. Plinius was as drunk as anyone, and with every cup of wine filled he became more forward.

  "You must have been the most beautiful maiden in Havermark right?"

  "You must know," I replied coolly, "your brother says you were there during the war."

  "During the war most girls hid when they heard soldiers were coming. The ones I did come across were nothing special. But I hope you're not still mad about that whole affair. After all, now is a time of peace."

  "Yes, I'm very happy the war has ended."

  "And soon you'll be a maiden no more. Tell me, Talia, are you nervous about your wedding night?"

  With every word he spoke I could smell a gust of alcoholic breath coming out of his mouth. I

  didn't know what to say. It was strange to think that the evening after this one I would have to go to bed with a man who was not Alvar. I would have to pretend it was my first time.

  It was a woman's sacred duty to sleep with her husband on their wedding night, and be a virgin. For crown princesses this duty was vitally important. Producing a legitimate heir could mean peace and prosperity for their country rather than a war of succession. Still, it was inappropriate for a man to speak about such things with his brothers future wife. I was disgusted that Plinius would ask me this.

  "I don't know what you mean."

  I tried to sound friendly, but distant. I turned to Queen Reena.

  "I'm getting tired of sitting, can we take a turn about the room."

  "Of course!"

  I thought she would be gd as well, to get away from her husband who was simirly inebriated, and was bellowing with his friend who had come to sit on the other side of Virtus. We stood up and walked to the centre of the great hall, where some people had gathered in the middle to chat. There I saw that woman, the one with the icy eyes with whom Virtus had seemed so familiar on my first night.

  "Who is that?" I asked Reena.

  "That's Karina, the Duchess of Aloria, I'll introduce you!"

  I did not want to meet her! The queen took my arm and walked towards her. She was tipsier than I had thought her to be at the table. As we approached she looked towards us. She was one of the most beautiful women I had seen in my life. Her nose was slender and straight, but her lips were full and soft. Her chin was small and pointed and her eyebrows thin and arched.

  "Your Majesty, Your Highness," she said and bowed to us both.

  "Duchess Karina, this is Princess Talia. Princess Talia, Duchess Karina."

  I curtsied to her and she bowed to me.

  "So I hear you are duchess of Aloria. I passed through it on my way here, beautiful countryside."

  "Yes," the duchess said politely, "Aloria is known for it's fine wines. We say that Mera is the breadbasket of Medora, and Aloria is the wine cask."

  "How lovely. Prince Virtus and I will also pass through there on our honeymoon. I hope to stop longer then."

  "Yes," the duchess looked at Virtus with an emotion I could not decipher, "you will be most welcome."

  "Are you excited for the wedding tomorrow?" Reena asked.

  "Sadly, I must leave for home early tomorrow morning. I just got news that my son is sick."

  "Oh, that's terrible. Will he be all right?"

  "I do hope so, as you know he is the light of my life."

  "Well we won't keep you, I will pray to the gods for you."

  Duchess Karina bowed and exited the conversation.

  "Her husband died only a year into their marriage," Reena told me a little too loudly. "Since then she has been all alone with their young son, poor thing. He's actually the duke, she is his regent until he turns eighteen. But she is lucky the Prince Virtus goes to visit her and help her fairly often. They were quite close when they were younger."

  I could not tell if she was hinting at something or not. Her tone remained steady and innocent, not at all as if she was revealing some secret. I did decided to not dig too far into it. Who among us was not hiding a secret?

  "Oh, there is doctor Wulun! I must introduce you, he is the best doctor in all the kingdom. He delivered all of my children and you should ask him to deliver all the children you will have with Prince Virtus."

  The doctor bowed to us and we went through all the formalities. He was a strongly built man, with a kind face. His body was angur and imposing, but his face was round. On it there was a friendly smile, which I could tell he wore more often than not. He was also from the East, like Adora.

  "May I ask doctor," I said. "Are you from Vesha?"

  "No, I am from Paraia south of Vesha, Your Higness."

  "Talia, you must know that there is more than one country in the east," the queen teased me.

  She was right. What a silly mistake I had made.

  "Many people don't know this," Wulun came to my defence. "I am sure many people in the East do not know of Havermark either."

  I smiled gratefully.

  "So why did you come to Medora?"

  "A thirst for knowledge, I suppose. A travelling doctor came from Medora to Paraia to learn about our medicine, and what he told me was so fascinating that I decided I must learn about the Medoran traditions as well."

  "That's fascinating. Are the two medical traditions very different?"

  "Well..."

  "Here she is myyy sister!" Plinius interrupted, his arm locked around the neck of an equally drunk red-headed man with a huge scar on his left cheek, which led all the way into his mouth.

  I curtsied politely to them.

  "This is Titius, don't mind the face, after all, one of yours did this to him."

  "I'm terribly sorry to hear that. Happily the war is over now."

  "Well it wasn't exactly a soldier that did it," Titius said with a cruel cheerfulness.

  "More like the spoils of war," Plinius chimed in.

  I shuddered at the implication, but couldn't say anything in the current company. I had heard stories of the enemy soldiers doing unspeakable things to the women and girls in the countryside where they fought. Perhaps Plinius was just making a tasteless joke.

  The rest of the night progressed more smoothly. I avoided Plinius and his scarred friend at every opportunity. I tried not to look at Alvar as he stood stone faced at the edge of the room all evening.

  As we passed further into the night, I decided to head to bed. I needed to wake up early the next morning. Also vanity compelled me to not want to look too tired on my wedding day.

  I headed back to my room alone. I walked along the hallway wondering about my future in Medora. Virtus seemed nice enough, and maybe one day I could love him. But what if I couldn't? What if I wouldn't? I didn't want to let go of Alvar. How did he feel about the fact that I was about to marry another man the very next day?

  Something grabbed my dress from behind. I spun around, it was Plinius.

  "What are you doing here?" I could not hide the fear in my voice.

  "I just wanted to see my sister in w one more time before her wedding."

  "I'm just going to bed, I'm tired."

  "And tomorrow night you'll be going to bed with my brother," he chuckled.

  "Yes, now let me go."

  "You know, if you're bad at it he won't like you. Do you want me to teach you how to do it?"

  "No, let me go!"

  I thought about the guard that was supposed to wait outside my room at night. I shouted:

  "Guards! Help!"

  "I paid him to take the night off. I'll keep you safe tonight sweetheart."

  He grabbed me tight, holding my body up against his. Before I knew it, he was kissing me with sloppy wet lips. I shuddered.

  Suddenly he was pulled away. Alvar was here! He rougly held Plinius by his shirt and threw him away from me. Plinius stumbled away, surprised.

  "Your Higness, are you all right?"

  His golden eyes shimmered in the candlelight.

  "Yes, thank you Sir Alvar."

  "You're not supposed to leave the hall!" Plinius was enraged.

  Alvar didn't even turn around to look at him. He just held my shoulder and led me back to my room.

  It was the first time he had come in to my room here in Medolina castle. Just having him in there with me made me tense.

  "Thank you."

  He cupped my face in his hand.

  "Sorry I couldn't help you sooner," he shuddered with anger. "I should kill him!"

  "You can't, the diplomatic retions..."

  "I know, I know."

  "We could tell the others what he tried to do to me, I know Queen Reena would believe me. Prince Virtus maybe as well."

  "The prince would believe you?"

  "Yes maybe, although we would have to expin why you followed me."

  "Yes, I was not really allowed to leave the hall."

  "And it would also be very bad for the retionship between our countries..."

  In the half darkness of the room I couldn't really read his face. We stood still for a minute, then he let me go and turned to leave.

  "Wait, where are you going?"

  "Back to my duties. You should lock the door so that the prince doesn't get in."

  "Stay with me," I held his arm lightly.

  "You're getting married tomorrow."

  "Stay with me tonight."

  He turned back towards me, hesitated and then slowly said:

  "Would you... Would you leave with me? We could go south to the Midway Isles. There are all sorts of people there, no-one would even notice us. We could take a ship tonight. We could make it seem like you got kidnapped or something, then the diplomatic retions wouldn't be hurt."

  There was a desperate longing in his voice that betrayed the fact that he already knew this was impossible. They would hunt us down. They would find us. Then there would be no telling what they would do to us for our betrayal. In the worst case another war could break out.

  "Alvar, you know that's not possible. That sort of trick is too hard to pull off, we would have needed months to pn it."

  He sighed, and I moved my hand to his face under the big golden helmet. There was a single tear rolling down his cheek.

  "But stay with me tonight."

  He kissed me softly. This time I could take off his armour quickly. He was wearing new clothes under it, Medoran clothes. He struggled a bit with the complex dress I had worn to the dinner that night, it was one of Queen Reena's.

  He cupped my face gently with his rge rough hands. My chemise was silken and glided gently across my skin as he stroked my body. I took his new white shirt off revealing the scar above his heart. I ran my fingers over it. He took my hand.

  "What happened?"

  "It was during the war. Not during battle, but a visit home to my family. I was riding into our vilge, without any protection when I came across total ruin. Our farm was burning, my sisters corpse was lying on the road. Before I could do anything I was skewered through my chest and fell off my horse. I woke up a week ter. After that I was fearless in battle, and full of rage too. I had nothing to lose, so I could take any chance. That's how I became such a good soldier."

  I kissed the scar gently, then his chest. He ran his hands through my hair and together we moved towards my bed. It was rger and more luxurious than any other bed I had had before. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled me onto his p. I could feel that he was already hard as I straddled him.

  We kissed more and more intensely as I started moving on his p, grinding his hardness against me in a way that felt frustratingly good. His hands searched in under my chemise and stroked my waist and back. He opened his pants and guided himself inside me.

  He filled me and my mind emptied. All I could think about was how good it felt. I moved slowly at first, getting used to the movements and rhythm I needed to make it feel good. He guided me up and down with his hands on my hips.

  I embraced him and he held me back, we moved closely together, not wanting to let the other one go even a little bit. I kissed his cheeks and hair, and he mine.

  He removed my chemise and slowly moved me from being on top of him to lying on my back on the bed. He crawled on top of me and pushed in.

  He thrust in again and again, and every time it felt just a little bit better. I let my hands wander over his back, grabbing him tighter and tighter as my urgency increased.

  We came together, moaning into each other's mouths in exquisite pleasure. In that moment I felt like our souls were entwined, feeling the same ecstasy in the same moment.

  He y on top of me, heavy and warm. I wished this moment could st forever. Then he had to get up and leave. I helped him screw his armour on and then he left the room, giving me one final kiss.