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but His Majesty says you're to be sober for this evening. He asks your lordships to take the Prince to the royal baths and scrub some sense into him."
    Yendral stood up. "Consider it done. Come on, let's get this pitiful prince of ours fit for his princess."
    "Roll me in the mud. That's what Her Highness is used to," shouted Ramil as they dragged him down the corridor. "To market, my sweet, to buy us a pig, home to our farm to make it grow big, " he warbled.
    "Can't you shut him up, Yendral?" implored Usk. "What if the Crescent people hear him?"
    Lord Yendral took out a handkerchief and stuffed it in the royal mouth.
    Together the three friends manhandled Ramil all the way to the baths, only letting go when they passed him over to the merciless care of the muscular attendant.
    Tashi felt very lonely sitting in her rooms going through the rituals with only a few attendants to spec-tate. In the palace on Rama she had always known that her sisters were performing the same service at exactly the same time in other parts of the palace, as were the priests and priestesses in the temples throughout the Blue Crescent. It had felt like one great
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    service, all for the Mother. As the only one performing these rituals for thousands of miles, probably at a different time as even the sun was strange here, she found her voice sounded very thin and weak, the bell insignificant, the responses feeble.
    The evening service complete, the Etiquette Mistress displayed the gown she had selected for the banquet: white silk, decorated with golden dragons.
    Tashi nodded her agreement. She didn't really care for it, but then again she didn't care what she looked like. No one would mind as this was not about her at all: it was about the joining of two nations, not a girl and a boy. Her hair was hidden under a sunburst gold headdress and veil, her face paint retouched.
    "You are ready, Your Highness," declared the Etiquette Mistress, noting with quiet approval the composure of the Crown Princess, whom she had always considered too free with her emotions. "You do honor to our people," she added with a rare touch of warmth.
    The Royal Chamberlain led the way to the feasting hall where the Gerfalian court was already assembled. Tashi peeked over his shoulder at the open door and saw that there were hundreds of strangers all waiting for her. She felt terrified. And one of them was to be her husband. They all seemed the same to her--the bearded men with long wild hair and strange clothes, the women with low-necked gowns that clung to their shapely forms, leaving little to the imagination, so unlike the fair-haired, pale-skinned people of her own
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    court. If a woman ventured in public like one of these Gerfalians, she would be considered half-dressed; an unshaven man would be censured by the priests.
    "Her Highness, Taoshira of Kai, the Fourth Crown Princess of the Blue Crescent Islands and dependent territories," announced the Chamberlain.
    The room fell silent. Tashi walked smoothly up the central aisle, keeping her eyes locked on the man at the center of the long table in front of her. She reached the bottom of the dais and bowed as befitted one ruler greeting another.
    "Your Majesty," she said in Common.
    "Princess Taoshira, you honor all Gerfal with your presence." King Lagan came down the steps to greet her, kissing her hand in Gerfalian style. Tashi had been warned to expect this so did not flinch at the contact. "Please be seated at my side."
    He led her to her chair. Tashi noted with pleasure that it was of equal magnificence to his own. She swept her gown into an arc as she sat. A dog promptly flopped down on it, drooling on the priceless fabric. King Lagan bent and stroked the beast.
    "My favorite hound," he said in explanation. "Do you like dogs, Princess?"
    Warming to this fatherly man, Tashi was about to tell him about her own dog, the one who helped her keep her flocks safe on Kai, but then remembered her status.
    "I love all animals