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"Father, I--"

"Please, Vivenna," he said quietly "I cannot speak of this further Go now We will converse later"

Later After Siri had traveled even farther away, after it would beher back Yet Vivenna rose She was obedient; it was the way she had been trained That was one of the things that had always separated her fro the door behind her, then walked through the wooden palace hallways, pretending that she didn’t see the stares or hear the whispers She made her way to her room--which was small and unadorned--and sat down on her bed, hands in her lap

She didn’t agree at all with her father’s assess She was to have been the God King’s bride That would have given her influence in the court Everyone knew that the God King himself was distant when it came to the politics of his nation, but surely his wife could have played a role in defending the interests of her people

And her father had thrown that away?

He reallythat can be done to stop the invasion That turned sending Siri into simply another politicalfor decades Either way, if the sacrifice of a royal daughter to the Hallandren was that io It had always been her duty to prepare forNot Siri’s, not Fafen’s Vivenna’s

In being saved, she didn’t feel grateful Nor did she feel that she would better serve Idris by staying in Bevalis If her father died, Yarda would be far better suited to rule during war tier brother--had been groomed as heir for years

She had been preserved for no reason It seemed a punishment, in some ways She’d listened, prepared, learned, and practiced Everyone said that she was perfect Why, then, wasn’t she good enough to serve as intended?

She had no good answer for herself She could only sit and fret, hands in her lap, and face the awful truth Her purpose in life had been stolen and given to another She was redundant now Useless

Unimportant

"WHAT WAS HE THINKING!" Siri snapped, hanging half out theof her carriage as it bounced along the earthen road A young soldieruncoht

"IThat’s silly, isn’t it? Surely you’ve heard about the kinds of things I do Wandering off when nobody’s looking Ignoring ry fits, for Color’s sake!!"

The guard glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but otherwise gave no reaction Siri didn’t really care She wasn’t yelling at hi precariously fro, red, straight--and stoking her anger Fury kept her frohlands had slowly faded away as the days had passed In fact, they were probably in Hallandren already--the border between the two kingdo that they’d been one nation up until the Manywar

She eyed the poor guard--whose only way of dealing with a raving princess was ignoring her Then she finally slue She shouldn’t have treated him so, but, well, she’d just been sold off like some hunk of mutton--doomed by a document that had been written years before she’d even been born If anyone had a right to a tantrum, it was Siri

Maybe that’s the reason for all of this, she thought, crossing her arms on the sill Maybe Father was tired of et rid of me

That seemed a little far-fetched There were easier ways to deal with Siri--ways that didn’t include sending her to represent Idris in a foreign court Why, then? Did he really think she’d do a good job? That gave her pause Then she considered how ridiculous it was Her father wouldn’t have assumed that she’d do a better job than Vivenna Nobody did anything better than Vivenna

Siri sighed, feeling her hair turn a pensive brown At least the landscape was interesting, and in order to keep herself fro any more frustrated, she let it distract her for the moment Hallandren was in the lowlands, a place of tropical forests and strange, colorful animals Siri had heard the descriptions from ramblemen, and even confirmed their accounts in the occasional book she’d been forced to read She’d thought she knehat to expect Yet as the hills gave way to deep grasslands and then the trees finally began to crowd the road, Siri began to realize that there was so no tome or tale could adequately describe

Colors

In the highlands, flower patches were rare and unconnected, as if they understood how poorly they fit with Idris philosophy Here, they appeared to be everywhere Tiny flowers grew in great blanketing swaths on the ground Large, drooping pink blosso practically on top of one another in a large cluster Even the weeds had flowers Siri would have picked soarded them with hostility

If I feel this anxious, she realized, those guards must feel more so She wasn’t the only one who had been sent away from family and friends When would these uilty for subjecting the young soldier to her outburst

I’ll send theht Then she i the men back would leave her alone in a city filled with Lifeless, Awakeners, and pagans

Yet what good would twenty soldiers do her? Better that someone, at least, be allowed to return home

"ONE WOULD THINK that you would be happy," Fafen said "After all, you no longer have to marry a tyrant"