'Allen's here! I just saw the Crusade coming in to land!'
Millerna rushed in from the balcony in a cloud of jasmine perfume. Carenza bit her lip and stared at her book. That meant Van would be here soon, and the confrontation between the brothers could not long be delayed.
Eries sighed and folded her arms.
'I suppose you're going to rush down to the harbour to meet him?'
'Well of course. He's an old friend of the family - why shouldn't I be pleased to see him?'
'It is hardly decorous for a princess of Asturia to run around after a mere knight. I'm sure Allen will get here soon enough.'
'Well I'm going to see him. At least someone in this place ought to make him feel welcome.'
Eries sighed again.
'Well, since you're so set on going, perhaps you could take him a message?'
Millerna folded her arms in imitation of her sister and cocked her head on one side.
'Very well.'
'Tell Allen that our father wishes to see him immediately. There is much they need to discuss.'
Millerna nodded curtly and left.
'I really don't know what to do with her,' Eries said, sitting down opposite Carenza. 'I'm certain that Allen only pays attention to her because she reminds him so much of Marlene.'
'They are very much alike,' Carenza conceded.
'Sometimes I think he loves almost any woman better than me. I understand even you got to kiss him once.'
'It was only a trick to fool the guards, so that I could give him your letter. It meant nothing to me, or to Allen, I swear.'
'And that's supposed to make me feel better? Well, you have a lover of your own, now, I hear.'
Carenza's jaw dropped.
'How did you...it was only last night-'
'Ah, so you have slept with him! What a dark horse you are, Carenza Fassa - so much like your father. I'd heard he was in bed with Zaibach; now so are you.'
Carenza paled.
'How dare you-!'
'I dare because I have the good of my country at heart. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to speak to my father.'
Carenza stared after the retreating princess. How many of the servants were in Eries' pocket, she wondered. The elder princess had schemed even when she was heir to the throne; now she plotted to become the power behind it.
About half an hour later Millerna returned, not with Allen but with a familiar dark-haired youth and two others Carenza did not recognise.
'Carenza, you went to Fanelia, didn't you? I expect you remember Prince Van - sorry, King Van as he is now.'
Carenza smiled at Van and curtsied. He had grown, of course, but he still had the round puppy-dog eyes and shock of dark hair that she remembered. Was this skinny boy really the terror of the mighty Zaibach Empire? She was beginning to wonder if Emperor Dornkirk was quite sane.
'Your highness.'
'Hmph,' muttered Van, and wandered away.
Carenza frowned. This was not the sweet-natured child she remembered. Growing up without a mother's guidance had done nothing for his manners, that was for sure.
'And this is Lord Van's companion, Hitomi,' said Millerna, introducing a shy-looking girl with wide green eyes and brown hair cut boyishly short.
'I told you, she's with Allen!' cried the third member of the party.
'Really, I'm not with anyone,' said Hitomi, blushing.
'Merle, is that you? Goodness how you've grown!'
The cat-girl glared at Carenza. 'Who're you?'
'You probably don't remember me - you were very young when I came to Fanelia.'
'Nope,' she said, and shrugged.
'You must all be tired after your flight,' said Millerna. 'Carenza, why don't you take Hitomi upstairs? She can have a bath and change out of those clothes into something less...conspicuous.' She gave Carenza a meaningful look.
Carenza nodded back. No doubt the princess was planning to hide Allen and his friends from Folken for as long as she could. She thanked her stars that her relationship with Folken was not yet the gossip of the whole palace, even if Eries' spies had already reported on it. If she could find out anything useful in the meantime, well, all the better.
'Please, won't you come this way, Miss Hitomi?'
Once in Millerna's suite, Carenza rang for servants to fill a bath and then took Hitomi through to the princess's dressing room. There was a whole rack of dresses that Millerna had bought just before she discovered Ezgardian fashions.
'How about this one?' she asked, holding up a white dress with a pink bodice and a wide lace collar. There was no reply.
She turned round to find that Hitomi had sunk cross-legged to the floor and now sat, shoulders tensed, on the verge of crying.
'Why, whatever is the matter?'
Hitomi looked up, her eyes full of tears.
'I want to go home,' she whispered. 'I miss my family and I'm just so sick of all this fighting!'
Carenza put her arms around the girl and let her cry her homesickness away.
'Where do you come from, anyway?' she asked once the sobbing subsided.
She listened in amazement as Hitomi told her how Van had appeared from nowhere, followed by a dragon, and how he had killed the dragon, whereupon a pillar of light had brought her to Fanelia - though from where, she would not say. She described how Zaibach guymelefs had used some kind of invisibility cloak to launch a sneak attack on Fanelia, resulting in the city's destruction.
'Thousands left homeless,' Hitomi whispered, her voice hoarse with crying.
'But why would they do such a thing?' Carenza asked.
'I don't know. I think they want Escaflowne.'
'The Fanelian guymelef?'
Hitomi nodded.
'When Zaibach attacked, some of the cloaked guymelefs surrounded Van and me, but another pillar of light took us to Asturia, which was where we met Allen. But the Zaibach soldiers found us and they destroyed the fort. We escaped in Allen's ship, though only because Van used Escaflowne to lure them away. He was captured, and we had to rescue him.'
'Van was captured by Zaibach?' Carenza frowned. Folken had not said anything about this.
'Oh yes. They took him to a huge floating ship. Van's brother was there - he works for Zaibach, I don't know why. Van told me his brother drugged him with a needle hidden in that metal hand of his, to try and make him stay.'
Carenza somehow managed to smile sympathetically despite the horror clutching her guts. A memory came to her, of icy steel claws brushing against her naked flank as Folken tried to find a comfortable position. At the time she was only worried that he might scratch her. Now she realised it could have been a lot worse...
'How dreadful,' she said mechanically. 'Well, why don't you have a nice relaxing bath and I'll come back in, what, half an hour?'
Hitomi nodded and allowed herself to be guided to the bathroom. Carenza kept up the act of the helpful lady-in-waiting, but inside she was seething. She couldn't wait to hear Folken's side of the story.
She found him just leaving the throne room, and fell in beside him.
'You look pleased with yourself,' she commented once they were out of earshot of the guards.
'Things are developing nicely. Allen Schezar is here and has asked the king to help Van. Of course King Aston has refused. And I've persuaded Allen to bring Van to me, so we can talk things over.'
'I think we need to talk things over.' They turned the corner into the same colonnaded walk where they had kissed, was it only yesterday?
'So what did you want to talk about?' he asked, slipping an arm around her shoulder.
She shrugged him off, and he raised an elegant eyebrow in consternation.
'What's the matter, beloved?'
'When were you going to tell me you had already tried to take your own brother prisoner?' she burst out, unable to contain her anger any longer.
'How-?'
She bit her lip; revealing her source would mean betraying Van's presence in the capital. But it seemed the only way to get at the truth.
'Van is here, in Palas. Hitomi told me all about it.'
'Hitomi?' He looked baffled.
'Some girl whom Van met when he was off killing his dragon. At first I thought she was making it up, except that she knew about your metal hand.'
Folken nodded thoughtfully.
'You're not denying it then?' she asked.
'Denying what?'
'That you kidnapped and drugged your own brother.'
Folken sighed.
'Have you met Van lately?' When she nodded, he went on, 'Then you'll know he's not the sweet trusting little boy you once knew. But he is still my brother. I just want him to join me, to serve Zaibach. Perhaps my methods were a little harsh...'
'Hitomi says Van told her you have needles in those mechanical fingers of yours, filled with sleeping potions and who knows what else.'
He inclined his head in acknowledgement.
'And would you use them on me, if I did not do as you wished? Well?'
He simply looked at her, his eyes expressionless. Her anger faded, to be replaced by a cold emptiness. He did not really love her; he was just using her as a pawn in the emperor's twisted schemes. She felt strangely calm now, as if this was what she had expected to happen all along.
'I can't believe I ever trusted you.' She pulled the Heart of Fanel from her finger, and dropped it at his feet. 'Here, take it back. It's as much heart as you'll ever have. I never want to see you again.'
Turning on her heel she headed back towards the east wing to see if Hitomi had finished her bath.
Folken stooped to pick up the ring in his left hand and looked at it for a moment, then flung it away as hard as he could. It ricocheted off a pillar and flew sparkling across the courtyard to land with a splash in the fountain. He sank onto a marble bench, cursing himself with every profanity he knew. He could have denied it, could have reassured her, told her what she wanted to hear. But he believed that love was based on trust and truth - and he could not truthfully say that he would not use every means at his disposal to ensure the perfect future he wanted for them both.