The Grey Palace, Rajmuat
Kypriang, the Copper Isles
21 December, 475 HE

Every citizen of Rajmuat, it seemed, had turned out in their best clothes to watch the royal procession. Queen Dovasary Haiming Temaida Balitang, her husband of eleven years, their four children, several other family members and an innumerable number of guards were newly returned from the queen's annual tour of the Isles, but nobody could have predicted the sheer volume of people that would line the city streets to welcome them home. It had taken them the better part of a day to make the journey from Rajmuat Harbour to the Grey Palace, and Alianne Crow, Spymistress of the Copper Isles, had been waiting at the Gate of Victories since noon for her return.

Unfortunately for them, her children had had to wait with her.

"Are they here yet?" Junim asked for the third time in an hour, fidgeting with the hem of his tunic and shifting his weight from one foot onto the other with the impatience and energy that only a ten-year-old boy could have. Squinting down the road, he sharpened his Sight; he'd been the only one out of all the Crow triplets to inherit it from his mother.

"They'll get here when they get here, stupid," his sister said, reaching up to smack him across the back of the head. Ochobai Crow was smaller than both of her siblings and always would be, but she had the fiery temper of her elder namesake to make up for it, and she had learned how to hit. Junim yelped and rubbed at the back of his head, glaring at Ochobai. Their other sister, Ulasu, looked on calmly, her hands linked behind her back.

"Soon, my chicks," Aly hummed, stroking the darking she wore as a band around her neck. "Trick says they're almost at the Grain Gate now."

"Can we go play?" Junim asked, bouncing up and down. "I want to play. Please, Mama, we've been waiting here for hours. Her Majesty just has to stop and talk to everyone about everything, all the time."

"That's because she's the queen," Ulasu said. "It's her job to talk to everyone."

"It's boring." Junim folded his arms and scowled.

"Maybe for you," Ulasu replied, her voice and face still calm. The youngest of Aly's triplets was possessed of a preternaturally quiet air that went beyond the ability to keep her emotions hidden. She didn't speak often, unless she had something she felt important enough to say – unlike her sister, who had an opinion on just about everything.

"Junim's just jealous because he thinks Princess Amiera is pretty and he wants to see her," Ochobai said wickedly.

"I do not."

Ochobai snickered. "Sure you don't. That explains why your feathers get so ruffled every time she walks by. You like her."

"I do not!"

"You want to preen her and mate-feed her and –"

The rest of Ochobai's mockery was lost as Junim leapt at his sister, tackling her to the ground. In seconds the two Crow children were covered in dirt and screeching at one another, rolling back and forth and trading slaps and kicks. Ulasu simply looked on, one raised eyebrow the only sign of her amusement. Aly rolled her eyes and crouched beside her children, pulling the two ten-year-olds apart with little difficulty.

"Enough," she said in her Mama Means Business voice. "Ochobai, you should know better than to tease your brother. Junim, you should definitely know better than to attack your sister. Not only is it most improper, but she can hit much harder than you."

Ochobai folded her arms and stuck her tongue out at her brother. Junim turned away and proceeded to sulk.

"Look at you both," Aly continued ruefully. "I'd hardly present you to your own father looking like that, much less the queen. You'll both have to get changed before Their Majesties return. Go on, both of you. Now."

"But Mama –" Junim began. The only thing worse than having to wait for the royal party was not being allowed to wait for the royal party.

"No buts," Aly said firmly. "Could you imagine Princess Amiera's face if she saw you now?"

Junim glanced down at his soiled clothes and gulped. Without another word, he turned and ran towards the palace, his sister following after him as fast as her short legs would carry her, teasing him all the way.

"Shall I go with them, Mama?" Ulasu asked.

Aly shook her head. "No, sweet. I'd like to have at least one of my children on hand to welcome Their Majesties home. Trick says Dove will be here any minute."

"I know she will," Ulasu said with a small nod.

Much later, when Dove and her family had changed, fed, and heard Aly's reports of what had occurred in their absence, three thoroughly exhausted ten-year-olds prepared for bed in the room in the palace they shared. Ulasu brushed out her long black hair until it shone; Ochobai's dark curls were cropped close to her head, or else they were impossible to tame. Junim kept trailing off in the middle of sentences, remembering the shy glance Princess Amiera had afforded him at the dining table, and then thoroughly denying doing so whenever Ochobai teased him about it. When their parents had kissed them goodnight and tucked them into their separate beds, they fell quickly into sleep. It had been a long day.

Ulasu woke in the early hours of the morning from a dream that had left her bathed in sweat.

It had been one of the dreams that she had come to accept as meaning more than the simple night-visions other people experienced. These dreams were always clear and sharp, the colours brighter than in the waking world. In the dream Ulasu and her siblings were climbing one of the palace's many grand staircases; this particular one led to the rooftop, though the door that led to the roof was always locked and barred. In her dream, it was not, and she passed through it as though it were air in any case.

On the rooftop were a hundred men and women, neither raka nor luarin nor crow, all dressed for battle. When they saw her and her siblings, they raised their weapons to kill. Their swords and arrows passed through the children, though, and whenever Ulasu reached out to touch one of the warriors, they disappeared into smoke and ash. Soon the rooftop was clear, but the stones were spattered with blood. A man's voice was whispering to her on the breeze, but she couldn't quite make out his words. Just as the dream began to fade, she saw her sister Ochobai standing on the very edge of the roof. Ulasu tried to call out to her, to grab the back of her tunic, but she moved as though through thick honey, and Ochobai jumped.

Now awake, Ulasu did her best to control her frantic breathing and the rapid pulse of her heart. Moving as quietly as she could – she didn't want to wake her siblings – she crept into Ochobai's bed and snuggled up against her sister's snoring form. She saw Junim wake and raise his head, watched as he squinted over towards the bed where his sisters lay, sharpening his Sight. A moment later he was curled up on Ochobai's other side.

"Did you dream?" he whispered to Ulasu.

She nodded. He reached out and grasped her hand under the blankets, and they remained that way until dawn.