By the time the emperor arrived in the airspace above the lodge the marines on the ground had cleared a stretch of forest and constructed a runway. He regarded their craftsmanship from the rear seat of a two-seater biplane, thousands of feet up in the sky. Everything looked so small, like he was standing at the edge of a cliff and looking down. Tiny trees and a tiny city on the banks of a tiny river. Only the Ashe River Plateau towered over them.

  The engine roared and the cloth-covered wooden wings jostled and warped in the gusts. The stick and rudder moved on their own as Algot Gunn piloted from the front seat. Somewhere up ahead a second biplane began a graceful helix descent toward the lodge. A single-seat biplane piloted by the best pilot in the empire. His own eleven year-old daughter Natasha. Glenice complained the girl could fly before she could walk.

  Natasha flew over the runway and she looped around and landed without incident. Algot Gunn took them down and landed in the same direction. It was only after they landed that the emperor perceived the clever little orange sock fluttering in the wind, which his daughter had no doubt used to determine the best direction to land. If he was not mistaken, it looked as if the marines had improvised the little sock from some of the late king's bedding.

  The biplane came to a halt by the lodge and the engine spooled down. The emperor clambered out of the back seat with some help from the marines on the ground. He went into the lodge without ceremony and he climbed up the stairs. The throne room was located on the second floor and the throne was occupied. It was the girl in the red robes. He was certain of it.

  "I believe that is my seat," Adrian said.

  The woman stood, gestured to the throne and bade him sit. He did so. Then she glided away. Soon the most powerful men in Taisia ascended the steps to array themselves before him. Bankers and legislators and the top brass of the local military forces. The king's Light Matron arrived last.

  "I was made to understand that everyone here was informed of the situation," Adrian said. "So I see no reason to delay. I, Emperor Adrian Maryy of Heyl, by Imperial Decree, hereby annex the mainland of Taisia into the Heylin Empire. Those of you gathered here will retain your ranks and offices provided you publicly recognize the legitimacy of this annexation and you swear service to the Heylin Empire."

  He gestured to the Light Matron.

  "With this Light Matron as witness."

  "So shall I witness," the woman said.

  The oaths took less than an hour. Algot Gunn arrived with a platter of libations and Adrian spent a few more hours schmoozing with his new subordinates. Powerful men, yes, and no doubt capable. The type of men he could delegate tasks to, hopefully. He knew that with repeated meetings and a long time for their relationships to mature, he would grow to like these men. Perhaps it was the alcohol, or perhaps his slight disinterest, but he found the whole party forgettable by the time he retired to his quarters.

  Natasha was seated on the bay window cushions with another girl who looked quite a bit like herself. Brown hair and brown eyes just like Natasha, though perhaps five or so years younger. The emperor suddenly felt a chill when he saw the child. An uncanny feeling that he had seen the face before somewhere. An image of the great hall in his palace in Heyl flashed in his mind. The great tapestry that he had seen thousands of times in his life, which depicted his ancestor, Vaska of Veninmark, the conqueror who brought glory to the city of Heyl during the First and Second Survival Wars.

  "The tapestry lives," he said.

  "Daddy!" Natasha cried. "Look! I have a sister!"

  Adrian grunted. "Who told you that?"

  "I told her that," a woman said flatly.

  Adrian turned to face the voice. Sudden recognition shocked him. It was that woman he found in his bed six years before, he was absolutely certain of it by her face. She had gained a little weight but the curves were in the right places. In that moment he remembered what the girl in the red robes had prophesied, that she would return to him when his daughter needed training.

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  "Where is the other one?" Adrian asked.

  "Who?" the woman asked.

  "The girl in the red robes. The Reagent of Taisia. Where is she?"

  "Gone," the girl-child said. "She said she had something important to do."

  "Gone where?"

  "Gone from this world."

  "Daddy, you can see it right?" Natasha asked. "She's my real sister. You can see it?"

  "I can see it," he admitted. "But this woman here isn't my wife. The girl's a bastard."

  "Klara said you would say that," the girl-child said.

  "Daddy you need to make her my real sister," Natasha complained. "I only have brothers and they are stupid. I want a sister."

  He turned to the woman again. "Who are you? What's this about?"

  "I'm the child's mother."

  "I know that. What's the significance? Why did that woman, Klara, want one of my scions for herself?"

  "The child is Lady Peace," the woman said.

  Her eyes wandered over to where the girl-child sat on the bay window seat.

  "Nothing I say has worth," she said. "You will need to see it with your own eyes. Lady Peace, dear, call upon her. Show him the Firstborn."

  The shadows in the room seemed to darken and grow longer. Adrian thought there was something wrong with the lamps but there was not. There was an Elemental at work. Possibly a Shadow Hunter. Adrian regretted not bringing the Light Matron with him to his quarters at that moment. He was without protection against Shadow Hunters.

  The shadows coalesced in the center of the room and a pale hand burst out of the ground, palm slamming down for leverage. The rest of the body ripped up out of the shadows and into view. Another girl-child, made from ghostly black-gray light, frilly dress burning with wraiths of black smoke. She had white skin and painted black lips and black hair that was so long it reached the tips of her bare toes. Her hands were bloody and she was holding a dagger. Her eyes were hidden behind a silver crown-mask.

  Lady Peace is a knife at the throats of your enemies, the Elemental said in his mind.

  Her voice was childish and feminine, but somehow sinister, with a hint of mockery.

  She was crafted for a singular task and she is sufficient to that task. You would do well to keep her close, human monarch.

  Adrian was completely stunned.

  "What is this abomination?" he asked.

  "This is the First High Daughter of the Elemental Queen of Darkness," the woman explained. "Reyndell named her Erika, Firstborn of the High Daughters."

  "My child has a High Daughter? A real, bona fide High Daughter?"

  "That's right, my emperor."

  "Daddy!" Natasha insisted. "I want her to be my real sister!"

  "Come with me," he said. "All of you."

  When he returned to the throne there were still some of the men there drinking and chatting. He bade them gather the others and return. He summoned the Light Matron once again to witness his proclamation. When everyone was gathered he bade the girl-child named Lady Peace to stand beside the throne.

  "This child is my daughter," the emperor explained. "I, Emperor Adrian Maryy of Heyl, by Imperial Decree, hereby recognize this child as my legitimate daughter, and an Imperial Princess, with all rights and obligations thereof."

  He looked at the child.

  The tapestry lives.

  "Simultaneously, I hereby grant her a new name. She shall be named after my ancestor, Vaska of Veninmark. I thus name her Imperial Princess Vaska of House Maryy. With this Light Matron as witness."

  "So I have witnessed," the Light Matron said.

  When he returned to his quarters Natasha and her new sister Vaska both seemed very excited about their official sisterhood. He sent them both away with the mother to the women's quarters and he went out onto the north balcony to get some fresh air. It was late in the afternoon and the shadows of the biplanes were growing very long across the runway. The marines were fussing over the rigging on the airplane's wings. He sat on one of the chairs and watched them, deep in thought.

  A flash of indigo light exploded in the sky overhead.

  Adrian looked up and lost all sense of comprehension. He thought he was dreaming for a moment. The sky, which had been dusky at the horizon and otherwise blueish overhead, had transformed into a uniform indigo color. The sun was gone. The moon was gone. He feared that he had fallen asleep and lost some hours but there were no stars. Suddenly the land began to quake. The sound of distant rockfalls, of shattering stone.

  With a second explosion of indigo light a new celestial body appeared in the sky. A moon. An alien moon the colors of some shabby gray cat. The indigo bled away and the sky returned to its original colors, blue and red and yellow, with reefs of purple clouds at the horizon. The moon returned, gleaming white in the sky. But that other moon, the gray one, remained in the sky. The marines down on the runway pointed to it excitedly.

  A flash of red light and the sound of a howling blizzard. A cold wind rushed past Adrian's cheek and he turned to face the portal. The girl with the red robes marched through with a satisfied look on her face. The portal collapsed and closed. She put her hands on her hips and looked up at the gray moon in the sky.

  "That will get his attention," Klara said.