"We were told Ozorne wants Kaddar to marry Kalasin in the spring and bring her here to live. No marriage agreement means no treaty, in spite of the fact that he never mentioned a wedding when he and the king arranged these talks."

-162, Emperor Mage

Prologue

The letters were sent. Alanna was not the only one who was furious, but she was the only one with so little self-control as to show it. It was said that Duke Gareth had forbidden her from attending the peace talks for three days afterward. And then for another three days, when the letters were returned, and the response, though reluctant, was affirmative. "No one," she told Numair, furious, sometime in between these two events, "wants this marriage. Even Ozorne doesn't want it. It was only a bluff, a… something intended to start a war. And I'd rather go to war a hundred times over than just… give in, and give him what he wants. What he's pretending to want."

Neither Numair nor Daine, who was also in the room at the time, said anything. Daine was at least as angry as Alanna, although she was able to hide it better. She remembered the Kalasin she'd met two years ago, a girl who had followed her around and insisted that she was going to be a knight and that Daine call her 'Kally'. Only ten, now. And there was no way she'd be able to become a knight in Carthak, where they'd laughed at Daine when she said she knew how to use a bow. And there was no way that the wife of Prince Kaddar, the future Empress of Carthak, could become a knight even if they had accepted the idea of females carrying swords. They needed the peace, she knew, and she wouldn't go so far as to say, the way the Lioness had, that she'd rather have war than a marriage. But it was an unfair thing, something that should not be happening. No marriage, no peace, the Emperor had said. Although he hadn't mentioned that until recently, after the peace talks had already been going on for quite some time.

Kalasin would arrive in the spring. Daine would be long gone by then, as would Alanna and Numair. No familiar faces to help her adjust to her new home. Which made Daine think again of Ozorne's offer, the offer that had never been officially made, the offer she had refused to consider when she'd first heard of it. Lands and a title and a home in the Imperial Palace of Carthak. No one else would be able to stay behind. She had a life back home, and friends, but she was not Alanna or Numair or Duke Gareth, not so important that they would be at such a loss if she was gone. They might miss her; that was all.

Later, she said to Numair, "I want to stay here."

"Here?" he said. "In Carthak?" When she nodded, he explained to her why that was a mistake, and why she absolutely must not do it. Then he asked, "Why?"

And she explained to him about Kalasin, and how she wasn't really needed in Tortall.

"You," he said, "are an idiot." There was more explaining.

"I could visit," said Daine. And Numair told her that he wouldn't stop her from visiting, but that it was probably a bad idea and that she should be very, very careful if she did so. He told her that she wouldn't be the only one visiting, either, or did she think the Queen would just abandon her daughter like that? Daine told him that Thayet wouldn't be able to visit very often, and he admitted that this was true. But still, he said, she should be careful. Carthak was dangerous, especially at this particular time, with this particular Emperor. And that was that.

Alanna was still furious, and wrote letters to the King and Queen and any nobles she knew who had any influence at all. Others, in Tortall and Carthak both, protested in their own way, or were simply angry, or sad, and did nothing. Most said that they felt sorry for Kalasin, yes, ten years old and spending the rest of her life in a foreign country and married to a man so much older, but wasn't it a small sacrifice to avoid war? Kaddar was one who felt sorry for the princess, and angry as well. He realized, and had realized before the decision was made, that he wouldn't have any say in the matter. Although he'd never really looked forward to his marriage, with a bride chosen by the Emperor, he had known it was inevitable. But the reasons for this choice, this bride, and the way it had been made… Both made him very angry with his uncle. He'd been angry with his uncle far too often, recently, more often than was really healthy. He decided he'd stop thinking about certain things for a while.

Ozorne sat through the peace talks and pretended to be satisfied and knew that he didn't really have an excuse for war, now. It left him frustrated and annoyed. He'd been almost sure the Tortallan queen wouldn't allow her daughter to marry, almost sure, and he'd had another plan, should the first fail. But that hadn't worked out, either. So here he was, without a real excuse for war and left with an heir he didn't particularly want. Idiot, he told himself. Idiot. The Tortallan delegation was leaving in less than a week.

Similar thoughts to those of the Queen of Tortall, and at almost the same time. I've been an idiot… "Why did we agree to it?" she asked her husband aloud. "Why did I agree to it? No one wants this marriage."

"No one wants war, either," King Jonathan replied, "with the probable exception of Ozorne."

"Mithros," she muttered, and then something after that which was inaudible but sounded vaguely like an expletive. "No one wants this marriage. Is there no other way to avoid war?"

"No." He said it sadly. "Especially not now that we've agreed, now that the letters have been sent." Thayet cursed, this time loudly, and the King smiled a little and was glad that they were in the privacy of their bedroom. He wondered what the court would think, hearing such language from a Queen.

Notes: Constructive criticism, of any kind, is very welcome. (This hasn't been beta'd, and has only been read over by the author once.) It's also nice when reviews aren't written in chatspeak. That's all I have to say on that subject.