Chapter 1: THE FIRST PRINCESS IS CLAIMED

DIANA’s POV

Diana had become very good at attending celebrations to which she had not been invited.

Tonight, princes and nobles from across the Five Crowns had come to admire her sister, and Diana watched them from behind a carved wooden screen above the great hall, where servants, spies, and inconvenient daughters were expected to remain unseen.

Below, Selena stood beside their father’s throne in Southern gold. Every candle found her, and every prince looked at her.

No one looked up.

Alma stood beside Diana with a tray of untouched food. "You should eat, Princess."

Diana shook her head and returned her attention to the hall.

Selena was the daughter King Odran displayed to the world: beautiful, charming, and blessed with a voice people wanted to hear. A red jewel rested at her throat, while dragon-wing chains had been woven through her dark hair, though no living dragon had entered Valence in years.

Diana rested her fingers against the carved screen.

Once, her portrait had hung beside their father’s throne. She still remembered sitting for the painter while Queen Elara corrected the angle of her crown.

The portrait disappeared after her mother died, and Diana vanished from court soon after it.

Younger nobles now believed King Odran had only one daughter. The older courtiers knew better and had survived by learning which truths were safest to leave alone.

Prince Emmon of Westmere had brought Selena a chest of pearls. Lord Carthis had arrived with six white horses. Prince Adrian of Merovia had composed a song and hired someone else to sing it.

The last gift was probably the most honest.

Selena accepted each offering with the grace expected of Valence’s future queen. She knew exactly how long to hold a prince’s gaze, when to laugh, and when to look away so that each man could imagine he still had a chance.

A servant approached with another jeweled cup. Selena accepted it without looking at him, and the man bowed deeply before retreating.

No one had bowed to Diana in years unless Alma forced them.

King Odran rose with his goblet in hand.

"My friends, our kingdom has known a season of abundance."

Applause answered him from every table.

Beyond the high windows, winter rain streaked the glass as he continued. "Our fields remain rich. Our ports are full. Our alliances reach farther with every passing year."

Diana remembered a Northern request she had found three months earlier in the records room, just before a clerk noticed what she was reading and took it from her.

The request had named medicine, ward materials, and soldiers.

Valence had answered with promises.

Her father had always been generous with things that cost him nothing.

The musicians began another dance, and Prince Emmon offered Selena his hand. She had barely stepped toward him when the doors of the great hall opened hard enough for cold wind to scatter flower petals across the floor.

The music stopped.

A man stood in the archway in black armor. After an evening of pearls, roses, and princes dressed for admiration, he looked as though he had entered the wrong celebration.

Blood marked one side of his cloak. A fresh bandage covered his left forearm, but red had already soaked through the cloth, and ash coated his boots to the knees.

Four Northern soldiers entered behind him.

They carried no wedding gifts.

Southern guards lowered their spears as the stranger removed one glove and revealed a black metal seal in his bare hand.

"Commander Daric Voss," the royal herald announced, with considerably less confidence than he had used for the princes. "First Sword of Blackharrow."

Cups lowered across the hall. Prince Emmon stepped away from Selena, while Queen Maerissa’s hand tightened around the carved arm of her chair.

Daric crossed the flower-strewn floor without appearing to notice what his ash-covered boots were doing to the polished stone.

King Odran remained seated.

"You enter the royal hall armed."

Daric stopped below the throne. "I came from the Third Watchtower."

"That does not answer me."

"The men who defended it had no time to remove their weapons before they died."

The whispering nearest the throne ceased.

Daric placed a folded document on the lowest step of the dais. A seal shaped like a dragon’s open eye closed the page, but Odran made no move to touch it.

"What does your master want?"

Daric looked toward Selena.

The princes who had spent the evening admiring her jewels now watched her face instead.

"By the Blood-and-Flame Covenant, Grand Duke Raigoro Kael of Blackharrow, Warden of the Ashen Gate and Commander of the Dragon Host, invokes his ancient right."

Selena’s hand closed around her skirt.

Daric’s next words carried clearly enough to reach Diana above the hall.

"Grand Duke Raigoro Kael claims Princess Selena Valence, First Princess of the Southern Crown, as his lawful bride."

The banquet erupted.

Several noblewomen cried out, and Prince Emmon released Selena’s hand as Southern lords crowded toward the throne.

"The covenant has not been used for generations."

"The girl is heir to the kingdom."

"Blackharrow cannot take her."

"This is retaliation."

"This is barbarism."

Diana ignored them and watched Selena.

Her sister’s practiced smile had disappeared. She turned toward Queen Maerissa, but her mother looked elsewhere.

King Odran rose at last.

"The covenant was written for a different age."

"The Ashen Gate does not care what age this is," Daric replied. "Its ward is weakening."

"You come to my daughter’s banquet covered in blood and speak of marriage?"

"The blood came from men your kingdom promised to reinforce."

A Southern lord stepped forward. "Our princess is not payment for dead soldiers."

Daric regarded him without moving from his place below the throne.

"Your king’s ancestor disagreed when he signed the covenant."

"The Grand Duke may be offered another noble bride," the lord insisted. "A woman of suitable blood and rank."

"No."

This time no one spoke over him.

Daric turned back to Selena. "The covenant names the First Princess of the Southern Crown."

Queen Maerissa descended one step from the dais. "Surely the Grand Duke understands that Princess Selena is heir to Valence."

"He understands."

"He would leave this kingdom without its future queen."

Daric looked across tables burdened with silver, imported fruit, jeweled cups, and flowers brought from heated gardens.

"The Third Watchtower asked for two hundred soldiers."

Odran gave no answer.

Daric pointed toward the banquet. "You have gathered twice that number to watch princes dance."

Several guests suddenly found their cups interesting.

Selena crossed to her mother. "Mother."

Her voice was low, but Diana heard it.

Maerissa finally faced her.

Selena touched the red jewel at her throat. "The blood rite."

The queen caught her wrist. "Not here."

Diana watched Maerissa’s fingers close around Selena’s hand.

Whatever her sister knew about the Northern ceremony frightened her.

Odran picked up the covenant.

"How long do I have to answer?"

"Until the next sunset."

"And if I refuse?"

"Blackharrow will present the covenant before every kingdom protected by the Ashen Gate. Valence will be named an oath-breaker."

Daric stepped away from the dais.

"When the ward fails, every kingdom protected by the Ashen Gate will know Valence expected Blackharrow to keep bleeding for a defense it refused to support."

His bow was technically a bow, though not one deep enough to flatter a king.

Then he left.

The Northern soldiers followed him through the great doors, and when those doors closed again, no musician attempted to resume the dance.

Selena looked toward the princes who had crossed kingdoms for the chance to be chosen by her.

None met her eyes.

Alma touched Diana’s sleeve. "We should leave."

Diana nodded and turned toward the hidden stair.

She had almost reached it when palace guards appeared at the top of the passage.

Their captain did not bow.

"Princess Diana."

Her name sounded too loud in a place where strangers had not spoken it in years.

"His Majesty commands your presence."

Alma moved closer to Diana. "Where?"

"The queen’s private council room."

Before following them, Diana looked through the screen one last time. Selena remained below between Odran and Maerissa while servants cleared the abandoned banquet around them.

The princes were already leaving.

Diana followed the guards through corridors the court had forgotten she still used.

Odran and Maerissa waited in the private council room, but Selena was not with them.

The covenant lay open on the table beside a portrait of Selena in her golden gown.

Odran looked from the painted princess to Diana. His attention moved over her hair, her face, and the shape of her shoulders with none of the recognition a father might have given his daughter.

He was measuring.

Maerissa closed the door.

Odran placed one finger upon Selena’s painted name.

"At dawn, Diana, you will become your sister."