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Nasilee’s daughter. Imagine how much mercy she would have if she ever had the Flower Princess in her power.”
    At the mention of the Flower Princess, King Palicrovol bowed his head. “I remember the Flower Princess, Sleeve. I have not forgotten. This girl is so much Nasilee’s daughter that even as I took her, she tried to seduce me. That is the sort of animal that was bred in Nasilee’s palace.”
    Asineth went cold, for he sounded horrified at the memory. She had tried to be Berry, but this man only pitied her, and the others looked at her with contempt. Her shame before had been the shame of a King’s daughter degraded; now her shame was of a woman despised, and she hated herself for having tried to make him love her, and hated Berry for being so much more beautiful than she, and hated Palicrovol and Zymas and Sleeve for knowing her pitiable attempt at womanhood, and hated most of all this unknown Flower Princess who never would be raped upon the Hart. She cried out against the gag, and Palicrovol ordered them to free her tongue.
    â€œIf I am an animal, kill me!” she cried. With no crowd to watch her now, with all dignity gone, she was willing to beg. “Kill me now! Like my father!”
    Palicrovol only shook his head. “It is not her fault that she is what she is. If she had been born in any other house, to any other father, she would not be what she is. If she had been born across the southern water, she might have been the Flower Princess.”
    â€œBut never Enziquelvinisensee Evelvenin,” said Sleeve.
    â€œNo,” said Palicrovol. “But we ask the gods for only one miracle in a lifetime.”
    â€œYou have broken and humiliated her,” Zymas said. “Nasilee’s daughter will not forget.”
    â€œI have broken and humiliated her,” Palicrovol echoed, “and killed her father before her eyes, and taken away her kingdom, and to harm her any more would make me despise myself more than I can bear. If I do not temper my victory with one act of mercy, even one that is dangerous to myself, then how will I look in the crystal and say to God that a better man than Nasilee now wears Nasilee’s crown?”
    There was a moment of silence, and then Sleeve stepped forward and took Asineth by one of the clumsy boards that encased her hands. “If you insist that this broken creature live, then put her in my care. I alone am strong enough to guard her in her exile, and hide her from the eyes of all your enemies who would love to find her and use her to destroy you.”
    â€œI need you by me,” protested the new King.
    â€œThen kill this woman.”
    Palicrovol hesitated no longer. “Take the little Queen, then, Sleeve, and be kind to her.”
    â€œI will be as kind to her as you will let me be to one whose only desire is to die,” said Sleeve. “By my blood I wish that you had truly been merciful.”
    Sleeve enclosed her in the folds of his own robe, so that no one could see the naked body of the little Queen. Little Queen, thought Asineth. I will remember the name he called me, she told herself. He will know someday who is little, and who is great. Are you the strongest of all men, so strong that you can be merciful to me, a weak woman? Here is the undoing of your strength: I am not a weak woman. I am not a Little Queen. And your mercy will be your undoing. You will regret leaving me alive, and someday you will remember possessing me, and yearn to possess me again.
    What was the third lesson that Asineth learned? She told me herself, many times, when she dwelt in your palace and you hopelessly wandered the forests of Burland.
    Asineth learned that justice could be cruel, and crueler yet necessity, but mercy was the cruelest thing of all. That would be useful to her. She would remember that. That is why she left you alive for three centuries when she had the power to kill you whenever she wished. As the Godsmen say,