My name was Tansy, and I had come to Highcrag Palace to steal my brother's name back.
The rider wall was cold. Ferris's name was still there, under the queen's black strike.
I used a kitchen knife and my thumbnail.
Tansy: Six months dead, and they cut you off this wall.
The black strike came away in flakes.
Ferris had taught me to ride before I could read.
He died on a border pass, keeping the queen's peace.
Tansy: Peace. That was the word they used.
A guard's boots passed behind me. I went still.
Blood ran down my thumb, warm and slow.
Tansy: Not yet.
A bell dragged me toward the throne hall.
I stood with servants. Nobody looked at a woman in gray.
Vessa: Hear me. Prince Lucan will take a bride.
Vessa: Every noble daughter of age will present herself.
Vessa: Refuse, and your family name comes off that wall.
Her smile was a clean knife.
Vessa: The crown does not beg for heirs.
Vessa: And I will not have my son rutting with servants. His bride will be clean-bred.
The hall laughed. I did not.
Prince Lucan stood beside her. Tall, gray-eyed, black coat.
He looked like a well-dressed prisoner.
Vessa: Smile, Lucan.
He smiled like a man showing a wound.
Vessa: You are the crown's seed. Act like it.
I felt sick. Not for him. For every woman in this hall.
Tansy: He is not a man. He is a door.
Hate was easier when it had a face.
I was Lucan. My mother's voice still rang in my ears as the hall doors shut.
My smile dropped before the lock clicked.
Vessa: You looked weak up there.
Her thumb pressed my chin until my teeth ached.
Lucan: I looked like a prize. Wasn't that the point?
Vessa: The point was obedience. You gave them a sulking boy.
Vessa: You will choose a wife.
Vessa: You will put a child in her before the year turns.
I stared at the wall and said what I always said.
Lucan: Yes, Mother.
The word came out easy. That was the worst part.
I had been trained to say yes since I was old enough to kneel.
Lucan: I am the crown's. I always was.
She let go. My jaw stayed sore.
Somewhere below, a dragon screamed in the pit.
Lucan: I did not envy it. It had a chain. I had a crown.
I went back to the bare stone where Ferris's name had been.
Tansy: I will make them say it again.
The wall was cold. My promise was not.
I had no title. No invitation. No clean way inside.
I had a dead brother's pin and a queen's new rule.
Tansy: A bride for the prince. Fine.
She wanted a noble woman. She would get a ghost with a knife.
The prince's tired face came back to me. I pushed it away.
Hate was my clean thing. I would not let him dirty it.
Tansy: Ferris, watch me.
I would not stop until the crown choked on its own custom.