When Rynere woke the next morning, the embers of the fire were only softly glowing red. Danid, as far as she could see, still wasn't conscious. Kyndran was asleep in the corner he had resigned himself to, and Kace was softly snoring on a wooden chair in the doorway that led to the outside.

The door itself was open, letting in the soft pink light of early dawn. Tace was nowhere in sight.

Rynere slowly got up -partly because she didn't want to be too loud, partly because she was so stiff from traveling the day before. She cautiously stepped around Danid and went to look into the other rooms.

One was a kitchen of sorts. One with various buckets and bowls and spoons and cups and a strange smell that hovered over it all.

The other room was filled with a disorganized mess of contraptions. Rynere couldn't even tell what materials some of them were made of.

"Unusual, isn't it?"

The voice behind Rynere made her jump. Kace was standing there with a grin.

"Tass used to bring those back from his journeys. Some of that stuff -I don't even know where he got it and I've never been able to remember what they're called."

"Why'd he bring them here?"

"Safest place available. Palace guards don't get much space to themselves, even as special as Tass was, and when he was gone for long periods of time some guard or other would take it upon themselves to remove what possessions he had."

"Why?"

"He ...exasperated them. He was always right, always knew just what to do, and never let them get away with anything."

"And they stole 'cause of that?"

Kace gave a nod.

"When they hear that he's gone, they'll probably be delighted for a while before they realize that all traces of organization will disappear from their midst."

"What about Tace?"

"What about him?"

"Will he be taking Tass's place?"

"Perhaps. There comes a point where some things have to stop. Maybe having a Jixi as a palace guard is one of them."

"Speaking of which," Rynere glanced around, "where's Tace?"

"He said he had some errands to run."

"When will he be back?"

"He said when the prince is recovered."

"What?" Rynere turned to him incredulously. Kace shrugged.

"That's what he said."

"But how would he know -why is he -"

Kace grinned.

"I'm sorry -I can't give everything away."

"What do you mean?"

Kace chuckled.

"You'll find out."

"Find out what?"

"Let's just say ...everything's not as it seems."

"What are you talking about?"

Kace smiled teasingly.

"Just take care of your fiance and everything will be fine."

"Just take care of -what is going on?"

"I'm not going to answer that, darling. Just fall in love with the prince -it makes marriage so much easier -and we'll take care of the rest."