Chapter 1

Dove rapped on Aly's door with her knuckles once, and then opened it to let herself in. They knew each other well enough to intrude on one another's privacy. Aly was, of course, seated at her desk and transferring reports from slate to one of her numerous thick notebooks. She looked up when Dove entered and grinned at the Queen, but her smile dropped quickly; something was wrong. Aly abandoned the reports and walked over to the younger girl, motioning for her to sit next to her on the bed. Dove sighed, rubbing her temples, and collapsed next to her friend. When she had entered the room her posture had been stiff, her features uncertain and confused, but as she sat down she seemed to collapse entirely and her features changed from confused to open. She would tell Aly everything.

"I was thinking…Aly, I have to marry soon. I'm eighteen years old and have been Queen for three years. The people love me, but still, I hear them mutter that they need a King. And they're right. If I wait to marry until I fall in love, then I'll be an old maid by the time they have a King. Besides, if I marry out of love, who says my chosen will be a good King or will benefit the Isles? I need to marry someone out of duty. I learned recently that the Emperor of the Yamani Islands' youngest son is looking for a wife, and it would be a wonderful opportunity to make peace with the Yamanis. Besides, he's not that much older; only by five years, which makes him twenty-three. I would do it, and I'm pretty sure the Emperor would accept." Dove, done spilling her heart out, looked at Aly expectantly.

Alianne was rather shocked, to tell the truth. She pondered a moment then replied, slowly, "You're still young, Dove, and marriage is very…very final. Are you sure you want to bind yourself eternally to a man you've never even met just for the good of the Copper Isles?" Aly inquired, gently. She herself had been lucky enough to marry someone she loved three years back. They now had a two year old daughter named Junai who only made their connection deeper. And Aly was pregnant once again.

Dove bit her lip. "'Just for the good of the Copper Isles'?" she asked, at last. "Aly, you alone should understand how devoted I am to my Isles." Yes, she did.

"But devoted enough to marry a complete stranger?" Aly asked, gently once again.

Dove considered, biting her lip again as she was prone to do when she was thinking hard. "I think so," she answered, carefully. "I think I would. I think I would take my chances. Risk it."

Well then I admired you and your devotion, Aly decided, honestly. Out loud she answered, "Bind yourself eternally to a stranger? Are you sure?"

More sure of her self this time, but still hesitant, Dove answered once again, "Yes. I am sure." And then her features twisted from indecision to finality. "Yes, I'm sure," she repeated, rising to her feet with a confident air. "And I'm going to write to the Emperor right now, with my proposal," she announced, reaching the door and pulling it open to step into the hallway. "Thank you, Aly, for helping me decide!" she called back over her shoulder just as the door closed behind her. Aly was left sitting on her bed, shaking her head in amazement, melancholy.

"I'm not sure she just made the right choice," Aly reflected thoughtfully to her darking necklace, Trick. "But I hope it ends up alright in the end."

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Aly was playing on the floor with her two year old girl, Junai, building blocks and creating a tower, when Dove entered the room, waving a letter in her hand, face flushed. "I've done it!" she announced, triumphantly, putting her hands on her hips. "I sent the letter last week and the Emperor answered me. He said yes, he wants to accept my offer of marriage to his youngest son, Aikido, and he also accepts the offer of peace."

"Sho!" Junai cried out in anger as the tower toppled. She scowled at Dove as Aly laughed.

"It's not her fault, Ju," Aly told her little girl, picking the sulking Junai up in her arms and then dumping her on her lap. "And anyway, this is more important than our tower. We can always rebuild that." Junai seemed to understand, as she nodded solemnly and then crawled out of Aly's lap to start again with the blocks. Red on green, then blue on yellow, next purple on white, and lastly orange on brown. She was very organized. Aly noticed Dove gazing wistfully down at Junai and realized she badly wanted a child of her own.

Tearing her eyes away from the little girl and waving the letter around once again, Dove went on. "So anyway, it's final. Aikido will arrive in a month, he will stay a month, and we both have a day to decide against it if we so wish while he is here. If not, then we marry the first of June and he's the new King of the Copper Isles." Dove was putting on a mask of triumph and finality as well as confidence, but Aly could see even she was perplexed by the enormity of what she had done.

"Well, you have that day, at least, if you discover he's a lump," Aly told her cheerily, smiling. Dove laughed out loud and sat beside her, cross-legged like a Yamani, and helped Junai build her little tower. Aly watched her the whole time and was proud of the decision, yet anxious for her Queen. What would become of all this?