'This should fit you,' said Taki, holding up a long leather coat. Its skirts had been decorated with metal rings, securely sewn on, and there was a dull brown stain on the right sleeve that looked suspiciously like blood. Old and dried, probably years old, but still blood. Meliande wondered whose it was.

'Karoni slaver,' said Taki, noticing the princess' grimace. 'Don't know about the blood. Could be anyone's. Could just be an animal. Plenty hunters come through Tarnbreck, not just us.'

'Poachers,' said Meliande automatically. Taki laughed.

'If you say so. This part of Tarnbreck's been disputed for years, Meliande. Neither side really cares anymore about who actually owns it.'

'We still hang any poachers we catch,' retorted Meliande. She took the coat and put it on. The sleeves were a little too long, and the skirts hung to her ankles, but otherwise it was a good fit. Taki added a long belt and a baldrick, and two long knives, their sheaths old and cracked.

'No-one gets up this far without Alexander noticing,' she said, 'but better safe than sorry. You never know when you might need those knives.'

'And my bow?'

'Felix will see to it, and Flavian's fletching arrows now.'

Meliande wrinkled her forehead. She had barely spoken to Felix and Flavian, and they'd kept themselves to themselves. Neither seemed much older than boys. Boys who had magic, or so she assumed. They were Limean, and that was enough for her to view them with suspicion and fear. Larentius had been marginally more friendly, and Alexander...she didn't know what to make of Alexander. He seemed hard to her, a man without scruples or principles. Yet the men and women he'd gathered about him seemed to like him, and trust him. She thought that if even the sunny Larentius and the quiet, grave Flavian could love Alexander, then he couldn't be that bad.

'Get her out of here,' he said from the cavern entrance. 'I don't want Jailli gallows-whores hanging around these caves, you hear?'

Taki scrambled up, gathering Meliande's new things into her arms. 'She needed better gear than she had,' she protested. 'Or would you rather she swanned about in those silly things she brought from Jaille?'

Silly things? Meliande looked down at herself. Loose linen trews, a thin shirt and a brocade jacket. She'd thought they quite suited her, though the Steward would probably not think so.

'I don't care,' Alexander growled, pointing imperiously out the door. 'Out, I said!'

Taki sighed and took Meliande's hand. 'Come on,' she said. 'Let's go.'

They sidled past Alexander, who glared at Meliande with baleful dark eyes. 'And I don't want to see you in here again.'

'Don't be such a pig, Lucian,' Taki sniffed, squeezing out past the man who refused to move an inch to let them past. Meliande found herself far too close to him, and looked up, reminding herself that she was royalty, and he nothing but outlaw scum. He stared down his nose at her, his eyes unreadable.

'She's right,' she said. 'You are a pig.'

'I know.' He grinned suddenly. He let the curtain drop behind them and followed the two women out into the sunshine, blinking and half-sneezing at the sudden brightness.

After the midday meal, Alexander beckoned Meliande to him. She went unwillingly, thinking he was going to tell her something she didn't want to hear.

He read her expression, then laughed. 'This isn't about Karoni slavers,' he said. 'At least, not in the way you're thinking. I suppose if you're staying I ought to explain a few things - and show you the paths we use that allow us to stay hidden from the road.' He picked up a twig and with it began to draw out a series of lines all emanating from a circle. She drew back, suddenly fearful.

'Nonono, you're not doing magic!'

'What?' He looked up at her with a puzzled frown. 'What are you on about?'

'Those symbols. Limean magic, I bet!'

'Ha, no, princess, just a map.' He beckoned her to sit again, and she obeyed reluctantly. 'This,' he pointed to the circle, 'is just the Eyrie. These lines are the paths. Magic! What the fuck did they teach you about my people?'

Meliande's cheeks burned. That was a spark of amused mockery in his eyes, she was sure. She hated to be mocked! Especially by foul-mouthed Limean mages. He had no right, he should learn some respect!

'They taught me what low, criminal scum you all are,' she said nastily. 'They told me you all should swing. And I agree!'

'Sorry you feel that way,' he snapped. 'I suppose after all you only need to know one path - the one to Karon. I'm sure you'll run into a slaver soon enough. Better than me though, right?'

'Anyone's better than you!' Meliande jumped to her feet, brushing assorted twigs and dead leaves from her skirts. 'Shall I take my chance in Karon? My second cousin is Lord Argon. I'm sure he'd take me in.'

She flounced off before he could reply, narrowly missing slamming into Felix who'd come by with her new bow. He took a startled look at Alexander, then hurried after the princess.

She whirled on him as she began the descent to the bottom of the ravine, scuffling twigs and small stones as her foot slipped. She snatched at a low-hanging hazel branch to steady herself, and stood galring at the young man who had come after her.

'What?'

He held the bow out. 'It's finished. New bow.'

He reminded her of a rabbit caught in a snare, the bright light of a lamp shining into its frightened eyes. Then she felt ashamed. He'd only come to give her the bow. He didn't deserve her anger.

He turned his head at the sound of Larentius' voice from somewhere near the cavern entrance, and grinned. His hair, bound in a loosely-woven braid, swung free of his baldrick, and Meliande decided that if she was going to hate Alexander for being Limean, she'd better hate Felix too.

Felix turned back. 'Here,' he said, thrusting the bow at her. 'Gotta go help with the dishes. Try it out, see if you like it.' He flashed her a quick smile and ran back up the path, disappearing from her sight.

Alexander lifted the corner of the thick wool covering he'd hidden the egg under. It showed no signs of hatching, and he judged it several weeks from doing so. He had two weeks to find a buyer who could keep his mouth shut. Maybe three. Or it would have to be destroyed. He did not want to be on the Eyrie when the chick hatched. Not for all the gold in the world would he have risked that. He doubted even Lord Fell and his cronies would be idiots enough to buy a blue eagle egg, and so he thought he would have to look farther afield than Karon. He could get out to Eshkaron, but getting across the border with such an egg would not be an easy feat, and if he botched it...he shook his head to clear it of the thought. He hadn't escaped a Jailli noose just to go and stick his neck in an Eshkaroni one.

He let the wool drop back over the egg. What am I to do? Blue eagle eggs...runaway princesses...he had his hands full, he knew. If one didn't bring his death, the other surely would.

He looked round, suddenly wary, as he felt a draught of cool air on his neck.

'What are you doing skulking in here, Lucian?' It was Felix, a thick slice of cheese in one hand and half a meat pie in the other. 'I'm going out to check the snares. Won't be back 'til after dusk.'

'Who's going with you?' Alexander didn't like his friends going out alone, and it was an unspoken rule that they didn't. Even if he broke that rule more often than not.

Felix swallowed a bite of cheese. 'Flavian,' he said, as if the answer was obvious. 'He knows where best to set snares. We're going along the Karoni border. Could nip into the Rising of the Moon for a barrel if you have the coins?'

Alexander grinned. The Rising of the Moon was their favourite haunt, the landlord a friend of theirs and famous for his red apple cider. 'See if he has a barrel of the red brandy,' he said. He fished in his money-pouch and took out several gold coins. 'More than it's worth but I owe him for the damage I caused last time I was there.'

'You did more than three esse worth of damage, Lucian,' chuckled Felix. He pocketed the coins nonetheless. 'What shall I tell him if he protests your paltry offer?'

'Tell him to go to the darkest pit and burn,' Alexander suggested amiably. He ducked out of the cave past Felix, and stepped out into the warmth of the evening, blinking as his sight adjusted. The first thing he saw was Meliande, practicing her archery. Arrow after arrow flew from her string, thrumming through the air with unerring accuracy to embed in the tree stump she was using as target practice. Feathers floated in the air, punched violently out of their brocade cushion by her arrows' vicious points. Alexander gawped, then swore loudly, causing her to fumble the last arrow.

She whirled on him. 'Yes, it's your chair! And your damn cushion, which, by the way, I remember seeing in a temple only seven weeks ago!'

He gritted his teeth. 'Nailed down, was it? No, so I took it! No reason comfort shouldn't be had in the forest, though we live like vagabonds because of your dull-witted laws, written, may I add, by a woman who clearly needs a thorough seeing-to by a man instead of preening in front of that damn mirror all day and worrying if she's at all beautiful!'

Meliande gasped. 'How dare you?' She picked up her fallen arrow and nocked it. 'Thief! Murderer!' She let fly.

'I haven't murdered anyone, princess,' he growled. 'Killed in self-defence. It's not a crime to want to live!' He turned on his heel and nearly slammed into Larentius. 'See she cleans this mess up. And don't let her out of your sight!' He took Meliande by the arm and shook her. 'Stay here, don't you dare leave the Eyrie!'

'Son of a bitch!'

He yanked her against him and put his mouth next to her ear. 'Daughter of a dog,' he snarled, and released her so abrupbtly she stumbled, tears of rage and hate blurring her vision.