The sweet little lies you tell won't erase the blood on your teeth. -- Unknown

Far away from Saoridhlém, Kitritúr awoke from her uneasy sleep in a cold sweat. "That idiot Abi is doing something stupid again. I just know it."

It wasn't quite as much of a leap of logic as it sounded. Ever since the incident of the walking dead Kitri's nightmares had been haunted by reanimated corpses. Not the brainless, harmless ones Abi had actually reanimated, but vicious, deadly creatures that relentlessly hunted the living. Night after night she started awake with a stifled scream, feeling the phantom pain of imaginary teeth tearing through her throat, her hand flying to her neck to make sure the teeth were just imaginary after all. After so many nights of endless panic she was not feeling at all kindly-disposed towards Abi. So when she woke again, this time with the certainty that something was going horribly wrong somewhere, she knew exactly who to blame it on.

Kitri got up, her mouth set in a grim line. It was useless trying to go back to sleep now. She wouldn't get a minute's peace until she was sure her imbecile of a friend wasn't about to start a galaxy-wide zombie apocalypse.

She went into her study and began to draw up plans for an unexpected trip to Saoridhlém. She didn't know how long she'd be away. Probably at least until after the Day of Comets -- which would provide a convenient excuse for her hasty departure. Everyone knew she was originally from Saoridhlém and most of her immediate family still lived there. All she had to do was temporarily hand the ruling of her lands over to her steward, pack enough clothes to last her a month or longer, and buy tickets on the earliest spaceship to Saoridhlém. With any luck she'd be on her way by tomorrow morning at the latest.

Abihira won't know what hit her, Kitri thought with grim satisfaction as she made a list of important duties. I'll stop her raising the dead again, even if I have to go to the empress herself!

From the perspective of someone on a boat the sea between Seroyawa and Saoridhlém was almost a thousand miles of vast emptiness. There were small islands in between them, of course; parts of the Ikinasan archipelago. If you didn't want to make the whole journey in one go (and who would, when the seas were rumoured to be full of strange creatures?) then you could veer south. That way you could make a quick stop in the kingdom of Hyon-eun before heading north-east again to Seroyawa -- as long as you kept in mind the often very strained relationship between Hyon-eun and Seroyawa. But the unfortunate fact remained. Unless you went in an airship, or took a complicated route by land through Kazincgy, Nabevsky, Lagoeuli, Liang and Western Qi, you faced miles and miles of open ocean.

Tales abounded of the things seen in the oceans. Tales of enormous octopuses, of islands that weren't islands, of sea serpents and kraken and other, even stranger things. Most people who made the journey saw nothing at all, and thought the people who told the stories were drunken fools. Yet still the whispers lingered.

Unusual sightings around the coast of Liang were much rarer. The crew of the Meijung had certainly never seen anything to alarm them before. When they cast their fishing nets one day they expected to catch guoma[1] and nothing else.

The first sign something was wrong came when the fishing boat abruptly lurched to the side, as if something had grabbed her and was pulling her behind it. Startled exclamations and angry oaths rang out. Everyone peered over the boat's sides to see what had happened.

The sea bubbled and roiled like boiling water around their fishing nets. Something very large coiled and thrashed just far enough below the surface that they couldn't see what it was. A silence equal parts amazed and horrified fell on the fishermen.

Before their eyes the lines holding the nets in place grew tighter and tighter. Just when it looked like they were about to snap, they abruptly loosened. The water calmed. The boat stopped shuddering and lurching. Everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened.

"What was that?" everyone asked at once when they got their breath back.

One of the fishermen shouted and pointed out to sea. "Look!"

They looked. In spite of how warm the day was all of them felt a cold chill wash over them. Something sped away from the boat, rapidly disappearing into the distance. Something that broke the surface with long arches of a snake-like body. Something that moved far faster than any sea creature they'd ever seen before.

Unanimously the crew decided never to fish in that part of the sea again.

Kiriyuki didn't slow down until she was miles away from any boats with fishing nets. Her scales still stung, rubbed raw where the net had dug into them.

I must never tell Mirio about this, she thought as she swam on at a more sedate pace. She would die of embarrassment if her brother found out she was caught in a fishing net. A fishing net! One of the first things all sea serpent immortals learnt to beware of!

Abihira had better appreciate the trouble Kiriyuki was going to on her behalf. Not even sea serpents liked travelling so far in such a short time. They stayed around their own territory and only ventured far out into the ocean when they had to. Already she'd had a narrow escape from a rokuyukin[2]. At this rate she wouldn't reach Saoridhlém until tomorrow. Who knew what trouble her stupid little sister could get into in that time?

If everything went well Kiriyuki's absence wouldn't be noticed for another two days. By that time she should have safely reached Saoridhlém. Perhaps she would already be on her way back. She went hunting often enough that no one would suspect anything just yet. Or so Mirio hoped.

Unfortunately everything didn't go well. The Seroyawan royal family wasn't required to attend court unless they were specifically summoned. It was just his luck that the emperor summoned all five of his children the afternoon following Kiriyuki's departure.

Mirio slowly made his way to the Great Palace, delaying the inevitable as long as possible. His stomach sank further and further with every step. When he entered the Audience Hall his worst fears were realised.

"There you are!" his father exclaimed, scowling at him as if he was personally responsible for all the world's ills. "Where is the First Princess?"

Mirio bowed before answering, as protocol dictated. He kept his calm expression fixed in place while inwardly he weighed up the risks of lying. It would buy him some more time, yes. But when the truth inevitably came out the resulting explosion would be much worse.

"By now I believe she is somewhere in the Sea of Owanano," he said, and watched all hell break loose.

Abihira spent hours trying to find an excuse to visit Haliran-rúdaun. Nothing she came up with was plausible enough. Then Líusal came to visit and practically handed her an excuse on a plate.

"Have you heard?" her older sister said to their mother in a conspiring tone. "That woman--" Her tone implied she wanted to use a very different word, "--Haliran-rúdaun has bought the very collection of Liang pottery I wanted to buy. It's disgraceful! A creature like her! I'm sure I don't know where she got the money, unless one of her male acquaintances gave it to her. The things I've heard about her would make your blood run cold! They say her husband is a brute. If it's true then all I can say is they're well-matched. Apparently she beat a servant so badly the poor girl's blind now. I can't abide the thought of that precious pottery staying in the hands of such a bitch."

An onlooker would have thought Abi was completely engrossed by the novel in her hands. She didn't bat an eyelid at anything Líusal said. But she listened to every word. A plan began to take shape in her mind.

"Offer her more money than she paid for them," Hartanna suggested practically.

Líusal groaned and sank back in her armchair. "If only I could. But, well, I don't quite know how it happened, but we're rather short of money at the minute."

I can't imagine why, if you go around buying everything you see, Abi thought dryly.

"No," Hartanna said sharply. "I can guess where this is going. I absolutely refuse to give you any more money."

Abi put her book down. "I could try to get the pottery for you."

Her mother and sister turned and stared at her as if they'd forgotten she was there. Líusal narrowed her eyes. She gave Abi the sort of look a detective might give a known bank robber who'd been caught in a bank vault and insisted they'd just got lost.

"I didn't know you were interested in pottery," Hartanna began.

At the exact same time Líusal said, "What's in it for you?"

Abi thought quickly. She wasn't stupid enough to claim she'd developed a newfound love for ornamental pieces of clay. She also couldn't admit she just wanted an excuse to visit Haliran-rúdaun. "I'm used to haggling. We do it all the time in Seroyawa. If I meet this what's-her-name I dare say I could argue her into letting you have the pottery for less than what she paid for it."

Líusal continued to look suspicious. "How very nice of you. Again, what do you get out of this?"

"You'll owe me a favour," Abi said, which was true enough. "So if I ever need help I'll call on you."

Líusal barely suppressed a shudder. "What a lovely prospect. I think I'd rather do without the pottery. You might ask me to help you usurp the throne! I wouldn't put anything past you."

"How rude." Abi sniffed. "I have no interest in the throne. Now where does Haranil or whatever her name is live?"

Technically Shizuki was not supposed to leave his adoptive father's house. In practice, what Haliran didn't know absolutely would hurt her, but she didn't know that either yet. She went on thinking that her unwanted bastard was kept out of sight and out of mind, while Siarvin and Shizuki went on letting her think that.

By now the manor's staff were so used to the sight of a large snake slithering around that they knew to ignore it. Perhaps they had their suspicions about it. Snakes of any sort were not common in Saoridhlém, and this snake had the distinctive pattern and diamond-shaped head of a Seroyawan okimira. But the snake never harmed anyone, and no one was fond enough of Haliran to report it to her.

Today found Shizuki coiled up on the roof of the main manor, half-asleep in the sun. Occasionally a passing carriage made him raise his head to see who it was. All the people who passed the manor gates would have been astonished if they knew he was watching them. If he recognised them -- and he usually did; he knew almost every royal and noble currently in the city -- he could make a reasonable guess at where they were going. If he didn't he amused himself by weaving elaborate stories about their lives.

Very few people actually visited Kastlán Manor. Since Ilaran was out of the city Shizuki knew no guests were expected today. He knew a great many things about the day-to-day running of the manor; things even Haliran paid no attention to. If asked he could say with certainty how much every piece of furniture had cost, how much the head cook spent on each meal, and why the teaspoons had a miraculous habit of disappearing when certain relatives came to call. He knew the names of all Haliran's closest associates. He knew the contents of the documents she kept hidden from everyone's view. And everything he knew, Siarvin knew.

The clatter of an approaching carriage startled Shizuki out of his half-doze. He looked up, and stared in surprise. For the first time in years something was happening that he didn't know about.

The carriage drove right up to the front door. On its door was the two-headed wolf that marked it as belonging to the royal family.

Shizuki had never seen Princess Abihira before. He did however know what her parents and all her siblings looked like. It required no great detective work to look at a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to Princess Hartanna, with her hair up in a distinctively Seroyawan style, and to guess at her identity.

What in the world is she doing here? Didn't she read the letter?