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Aroaned and pressed her hands over her eyes Kami’en was the only one who looked at the baby without dread The Dark Fairy took the slithery body and stroked the transparent skin with her six-fingered hand until it turned as red as his father’s, giving such beauty to the small face that now all the averted eyes turned back in enchantment to admire the newborn prince Amalie reached out for her son, but the Fairy placed the baby in Ka, and when she stepped out into the dark hallway, he didn’t stop her

The Dark Fairy had to pause halfway and struggle for breath on a balcony Her hands treain, until she could no longer feel the warm body they’d touched

There was no word for child in her language There hadn’t been in a long time

An Alliance of Old Foes

John Reckless had stood in Charles de Lotharaine’s audience chamber before, once, with a different face and a different nao? He found it hard to believe it hadn’t been longer, but those past years had taught hi days and years that passed as quickly as a day

“These will be better?”

Charles, the Crookback, frowned as his son tried to hide another yawn behind his hand It was an open secret that the crown prince Louis was suffering from the Snow-White Syndrome The palace kept silent about where and how the prince had contracted that ress, the preferred teric) Yet the parliaers (and opportunities) of a King on the throne in Lutis who could at anydays at a time The Albian secret service claione so far as to secure the services of a child-eater to heal the crown prince Judging by the yawns Louis tried to hide behind his dark red sleeves, she’d not been very successful

“You have my word, and that of Wilfred of Albion, Your Majesty The her and faster than the airplanes of the Goyl but will also be much better armed”

What John did not mention was that he could only be so confident because those Goyl airplanes had been designed by hiineer’s past His stolen name and new face had shielded John from such exposure, just as they protected hi for him A different nose and a different chin were a shts were still shattered by dreaacy of years spent in Goyl prisons But he’d learned to make do with little sleep Yes, the past five years had

indeed taught him a lot Not that they hadcoward, relentlessly driven by aht on) His iht him that, but also a lot about this world and its inhabitants

“Should your generals be concerned that airplanes may not be the answer to the military superiority of the Goyl, then I can assure you that the parliament of Albion shares these concerns and has authorizedtwo of my most recent inventions”

The authorization had, in fact, been issued by King Wilfred himself, but it seemed best to maintain appearances Albion was proud of its deh the true power still rested with the King and the nobility It was no different in Lotharaine, though here the people had a less romantic view of noble and crowned heads—one of the reasons for the ar the capital

Louis yawned again The crown prince had a reputation for being as stupid as he looked Stupid, moody, and with cruel tendencies that worried even his father And Charles of Lotharaine was getting old, though he dyed his hair black and was still a handsome man

John uards who had accompanied him from Albion to come closer The Walrus (this , John was perpetually worried he ht one day actually use it to address his royal e had insisted, over John’s well-known dislike for ships, that his best engineer go in person to sell Crookback on the idea of an alliance The construction plans, which the guard now handed to the King’s adjutant, had been drawn by John especially for this audience, leaving out a few vital details he would supply after the alliance was coineers wouldn’t notice After all, John was confronting they of another world

“I call these ‘tanks’” John had to suppress a ss with an obvious mix of envy and incredulous awe “Not even the Goyl cavalry can withstand these machines”

The second drawing showed rockets with explosive warheads There were indeed moments when John’s conscience tried to put hiht inventions into this world that would have made it healthier and more just for its people He usually soothed his conscience with a generous donation to an orphanage, or to Albion’s suffragettes, though that of course brought up memories of his wife, Rosamund, and of Jacob and Will

“Who is going to ineer asked doubtfully

John returned to the present, where he was a hter of a Leonese diplomat and fifteen years his junior

“If they can ineer, “then we can daineers froon and Londra?”