"Why didn't you tell me they were real?" asked third-princess Ashmiren, as they followed the gathered elders down through the undercrypts and out to the eastern caverns."I'd have... I don't know. Made ill-advised promises for a chance to see them, let alone ride one."
"I honestly wasn't sure," Pallian replied. "They were a story, like that ancient goldfish in the pools."
"Does this happen often?" asked Ember. "Where you do not know what is true about the place in which you live?"
Pallian and Ashmiren exchanged a glance. "Yes," said Pallian. "Surprisingly often. Is that different from your experience?"
Ember considered that. "No," it said after a moment. "Not in any way that matters. I had... I had hoped it would be different here."
"So had I," muttered Pallian, and Ashmiren smiled and touched his hand.
"Your father has done poorly by you," she said. "Not all the noble houses are like that."
Pallian looked ahead, then looked back to her. "Too many of them are."
Ember considered that for a long moment, then said: "So we should avoid them. Especially since they will seek to learn my name and bind me to their service."
Pallian and Ashmiren exchanged a glance. They didn't say anything, but Pallian saw it in her eyes: they were both thinking that it wasn't the worst idea they had ever heard. "My father would absolutely send assassins to murder me -- or worse."
"It would completely destroy any chance of alliance," answered Ashmiren. Then she added, "If they learned of it."
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