“PHILLIP!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The gardeners scattered in the courtyard like leaves before wind as a boy with a mop of curly brown hair came barreling out of the eastern Palace gate. He flew down the marble steps and paused for a second, obviously trying to decide the most providential evacuation plan. In an instant he was off again, dashing through the stone arch of the Rose Maze.

The boy’s steps were still echoing on the flagstones when another figure appeared, stamping furiously at his apparent escape. The gardeners quelled their giggles and began trimming hedges furiously as the perfect heart-shaped face of Princess Dawn, heir to the throne of Gareth Kingdom, contorted into an enraged scowl. Her green eyes flashed angrily as she held up a still-smoking gun. Rounding on the gardeners, the Princess held it aloft.

“My brother, as you probably know, is obnoxious and uncivilized. No doubt you heard him fire this gun in the throne room just five minutes ago. And any who dare tell me anything except the direction he went shall be discharged. WHERE IS PHILLIP?”

Intimidated, one of the gardeners gestured with his pruning shears in the direction of the Rose Maze. Bobbing an impatient, but impeccable, curtsey the Princess stalked off, catching her long skirts up in one hand as she disappeared beneath the arch.

Not a soul could be found in the gardens when she returned ten minutes later, dragging a protesting Phillip by his left ear, which was becoming quite red.

“But Dawn!!! They said it was okay to test it! They said it was the final model! Think of it as performing a princely duty!”

“YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO TEST IT IN THE THRONE ROOM!!!”

“But...! You wouldn’t let me out on the archery range!”

“Well of course, you idiot, the soldiers are going through their drills right now, look what time it is! You’ve lived in the palace almost sixteen years now, and you still can’t remember these things? Phillip, please! I have to run the kingdom while Mother and Father are gone! I can’t keep following you around like this!”

Phillip hung his head. He was quite tall for his age, and had been taller than his sister for years now. Dawn looked up at him, one hand on her hip, the other still holding the gun. Her eyes had been narrowed in exasperation, but the expression softened almost immediately.

“Phil...I know how much you like to try these things...but you know they’re still mostly just prototypes...the gunsmiths have yet to perfect it, and Father is nowhere near approving a design. Only the pirates use them...”

“That’s why they always win! Because they have guns!”

“That isn’t true and you know it. Please...it’s alright if you try them out, but you need to let me know first, and not in the throne room of all places! You scared the ambassadors to death! Promise me you’ll do your shooting out on the green next time, alright? We can find an hour or two when the soldiers aren’t mustering. Then you can practice all you want.”

“Well...alright...I guess so.”

Dawn smiled, obviously relieved. She sent Phillip on to his horseback riding lessons and took the gun back to the armory where it had been locked in the gunsmiths’ cabinet. And then she quieted the blustering ambassadors, sitting at meeting with them for nearly three hours before finally calling a recess.

The Princess, named Co-Regent in her parents’ absence, had been completely swamped with affairs of state in the three months they had been gone. Now, in a rare moment of peace, she leaned against the high back of the throne and tried to gather her energy for the next wave of ambassadors and trade officers, merchants and messengers. She had little time to wonder where her parents had gone, or why the need for them to depart had been so pressing in the first place. Her head was full of proposals and treaties, and her eyes ringed from lack of sleep. Sometimes she mused that if she could somehow be blessed with three separate bodies, each with six arms and two pairs of legs, she might get everything done in twenty-four hours...if she could just be in fifty different places at once, maybe she could answer all the complaints about pirate raids...perhaps the shipping lanes would secure themselves, and the Trade Delegation magically become a school of fish...

“Your Highness?” There was a knock on the heavy oak doors. Raising her head, the Princess lifted a hand and the two footmen pushed the doors open, admitting a man in messenger’s garb.

“State your business,” she said, almost wearily.

“I come bearing news from the Court of His Excellency, King—”

“I’ll be accepting the message, thank you. My lady, go up to your rooms and rest. The recess will end soon, and no good will come of you collapsing in the middle of discussion with the Trade Delegation.”

The Princess sat back, heaving a fatigued sigh. “Jal...thank heavens. Are you sure? I know it’s my duty and all, I’m Co-Regent, I need to be here...”

“And I am Regent, as well as your guardian in these times. Go on now, or will you insist that I call the Guard here to escort you?” Jal smiled kindly, taking the girl’s hand in her own. “I will send your dinner up as well. You need the rest, my dear, whether you admit it or not.”

Dawn rose from the throne and hugged Jal gratefully. Her parents’ most trusted adviser, Jal had always been there when Dawn and Phillip were growing up. She was almost like a grandmother. Allowing herself to be shooed out of the room, the Princess began her slow ascent of the staircase to the western tower, which was hers. But she had barely cleared the second step when she heard the loud clatter of a scroll and a sudden rush of running feet resonating from the throne room. Momentarily forgetting her exhaustion, Dawn raced back to find Jal bending down to collect the fallen message scroll, alarmed footmen scrambling to help her.

“Jal! Jal, what happened? What’s wrong??”

"Nothing, I was just...I guess the news was...Your Highness, this is a message from Barinesh...”

Dawn gasped. Barinesh...

The aggressive, war-torn country to the west had always been a source of unease. Its rulers were nearly always hot-headed warrior kings bent on conquering the neighboring lands. A ferocious, almost militant people, the Barineshi were forever engaged in battles, either amongst themselves or with whoever stood in the way of their conquests.

As a motion to achieve peace between Gareth and Barinesh, Dawn’s father the King had betrothed her to its youngest Prince at birth. Alexander...

Jal’s voice broke into her thoughts. “A fever has spread throughout Barinesh. The people are dropping like flies. In an effort to curb the contagion, even this message had to be sterilized and sent not by envoy, but by hawk. The Queen has taken ill, as well as two of the four sons...”

“And...Alexander?” Dawn thought she would choke on her own heart as she waited for the answer. A fiercely independent young woman, she had fought with her parents for years over the issue of her betrothal. The idea of an arranged marriage went completely against everything she believed, and she had tried to claw her way out of it all the way up to the time when she and Alexander should meet at last, face to face. But when she had met him...when she had talked to him, and laughed with him...

“He has disappeared.”

The room began to spin uncontrollably. Dawn leaned heavily on the arm of the massive golden throne, but could not stop the tears. “What do you mean, he’s disappeared? Where? Why?”

“I don’t know, my lady...the letter only said...that the fever rages, that there is no cure...that the King is trapped in his own fortress, for fear of succumbing to it as well. And that Prince Alexander has gone, none can say where. He did not inform anyone of his plans. The King pleads with us for aid. Their situation, and their need, is dire.”

“...there have been no letters, for so long...Lex...” Dawn sank to the floor, her gown pooling all around her in a swath of silk. Jal let the girl cry for a while, knowing all too well what she must be feeling. After some time, the older woman laid a hand gently on the Princess’s shoulder.

“Princess...we must decide what to do.”

Dawn looked up, her face suddenly assuming a look of utmost determination.

“Jal, send me. Send me to Barinesh, I will go...”

“You know very well that I cannot let you leave, Your Highness. You must stay here, in your parents’ place. Barinesh is not safe right now, and we cannot risk any of our people to that fever. Not until a cure is found.”

Dawn stared at the floor, tears spilling from her eyes. Her frantic thoughts, combined with the stress of the last three months, all began to flood her senses now. Try as she might, she could not think. She could only see, every time she closed her eyes, his face...

But she had been trained well, and brought up strong. Calling up every last ounce of her spirit, the Princess stood straight and tall. No, Lex would not want her here on the floor, sobbing. He would not want her on a doomed mission to Barinesh, either. He would want her to hold him in her heart, but to continue no matter what. I will find you, she thought to herself. But now...

Now I must be strong...

“Send envoys to Leiden and Guillare. We must work to find a cure. If at all possible, organize a supply convoy to Barinesh. In the meantime, proceed with the plans of the Trade Delegation; we will comply with their request that the shipping lanes be secured. Summon the Generals at once. Our ports must be protected at all costs, for surely refugees from Barinesh will attempt to land in the kingdom to escape the disease. This fever must not spread.”

“And what of the Pirate King, my lady? Your Father expressed in his last letter that the task force be deployed as soon as possible.”

“Yes, he did say that. A messenger was sent this afternoon, I believe. He left me the name of the General he wishes to assign the mission to. When he arrives, please send him to me immediately. That task force is all the more important now, Jal, with the epidemic in Barinesh. There must be absolutely no traffic going in or out. The sooner the pirates are dealt with, the better; there are enough problems without them raiding every city on the coasts and bringing the fever back with them from Barinesh on their foul ships...”

The Princess’s voice died away. Jal bowed deeply, and left. Dawn walked slowly to the wide window overlooking the green, the part of her that would be Queen fighting to push away the part of her that wanted only to fly apart in a thousand terrified pieces.