Lise found herself getting wily. She spent many of her nights with Hawk, enjoying his comfortingly familiar embrace without ever letting down her guard completely. Those nights in Forcena, she found some unexpected peace in the arms of her unexpected lover. She would lie against his chest as he draped an arm around her, and together they would stare out the window as the breezes played over the peaceful grasslands beyond.

But they were not together every minute, and during the day she found any opportunity she could to be with Duran.

Frankly, she couldn't quite straighten out her feelings for either, and it was spinning her head in circles. Although, after the memories that had been tormenting her brain since she fled Rolante, this was a positively welcome release. After years of putting her responsibilities ahead of her desires, it was strange that now in sorrow and exile she was able to fully indulge them, with not only one man, but two.

But eventually, those responsibilities found her once again.

------------------------

She was all smiles when Duran came to her on one particular afternoon, but that expression fell as she saw the look on his face. The look of a heavy heart.

Lise was even more concerned as he plopped himself into a chair, burying his head in his hands. She placed a hand on his back, trying to soothe him, but he only brushed it off.

"I'm sorry, Lise," he told her, still almost afraid to look at her. "But I am here in an official capacity. The King has ordered me to bring you to him without delay."

She wanted to be angry with him; but it was hardly his fault, and she pushed her petulance down. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she said, smoothing her skirts. "Let's go."

He traveled at her side down the corridor with a soldier's stiffness and formality, and Lise casually entertained herself with thoughts of the way his body could also move and writhe. The fantasy flew out of her head, however, as the guards to the throne room threw open the doors, to let her in to see Richard regally seated on his throne.

She and Duran traveled up to the dais, he going to one knee before his liege, she curtsying in a way that was now almost natural. "Guards, leave us," ordered Richard, and Lise suddenly felt a not in the pit of her stomach. A monarch never sent his closest retainers away unless it was a matter of very grave importance and prime secrecy, and she couldn't figure out how she might qualify.

Nevertheless, she was obligated to remain as she was until the soldiers had all filed out of the throne room, leaving only the three of them, and Richard gave the command to rise. She stood gracefully, trying to suppress the nervous heaves of her breath, meeting Richard's eyes cautiously and deferentially.

To her surprise, he inclined his head towards her, the deference demanded, royal, to royal. "Your Majesty," he told her politely. "I am glad to have this chance to talk to you at last."

"Don't insult me with my empty title," Lise retorted sharply, realizing only after that that empty title was the only thing that let her speak to a king in such a manner.

Richard seemed a bit taken aback, but only nodded. "In that case… Lise," he said, the gap left by the lack of honorific nearly palatable. "We have much to discuss, anyway."

Lise shot a sudden, horrified look at Duran, he not meeting her eyes, a glance Richard did not fail to notice. "Do not blame my captain, Lise," he told her gently. "Duran relayed some of his… suspicions… on the day you were apprehended, but nothing since. It was indeed chivalrous and brave of him to risk the wrath of his monarch to keep the secret of a lady, but he could hardly lie to me when I put it all together."

Lise breathed a sigh of relief, and Duran lifted his eyes slowly to hers, bearing the slightest hint of embarrassment. She gave him a hint of a smile in reassurance, and tension seemed to drain from him.

"Why, then, do you even bring it up?" challenged Lise, and Richard gave a nod to the younger man.

Duran let out a deep breath, and began. "We want your help against Altena," he told her. "You saw what they had done to us when you first got here, but they are still a threat."

"We have a strong army, but they have the powers of magic," Richard continued. "Instead of a full assault, we are hoping to execute an attack of stealth against the center of their power. We hope the offensive will collapse after that."

"You want to kill the queen of Altena?" asked Lise, doubtful.

"No. Not Queen Valda," Richard replied. "Our intelligence tells us that she herself is practically under the command of a wizard named Koren. He is the real threat, and he is our target."

"Is he really so powerful?" asked Lise.

"They say the Queen of Altena married off her own daughter to him," Duran informed her. "The princess was apparently ordered to birth a heir as soon as possible, so their legacy can be perpetuated."

A suspicion grew in Lise. "Hawk's in this too, isn't he?"

"Indeed," Richard replied. "I broached the subject carefully with him, the first day he was here, knowing the skills of a Navarrese would certainly come in handy. He saw through it quickly enough, and jumped at the chance to trade his skills for asylum and political immunity within the borders of my country."

"Navarrese are hardly popular across the world right now," offered Duran.

"I need no asylum," Lise told him.

"I can offer you safety, alliance. The conditions are yours to set," returned Richard. "But I have a feeling those are not the things you will base your decision on. I think you see well enough that there is something more that led to Altena's attack against us, that led to the destruction of your own country. No true Amazon would walk away from that."

He sees too much, Lise thought. The king was indeed wise. The thirst for blood and revenge that she had forgotten for a while clambered to the surface once again. Justice. Even if it was too late for her own people, she could not resist the chance to seek it for another.

-----------------------

Plans proceeded quickly, and the mission was scheduled for only three days later. Three days that flew by in a flurry of activity, planning, briefings, things Lise slipped back into with an instinct that had been bred into her since birth.

That last night, she did not go to Hawk.

She sighed in contentment as she lay against Duran's chest, they having worked out their mutual worry and tension with hours of vigorous, passionate lovemaking. Now… she was still worried, but it was more of an objective thing, something distantly known as she cuddled inside the blissful cocoon that was the two of them.

He ran one hand through her loose hair; it was sweaty and tangled, but he hardly cared. Their eyes met languorously, the two now barely moving except for he occasionally placing delicate kisses across her face and neck.

Neither wanted to talk about it, but Lise realized, for the first time in a long time, that she was thinking of the future.