The route to the dungeon took them out of the city and into a valley.

  Initially, once they had passed through the gate, Adon fluttered his wings, ready to take off and leave Rosslyn to herself for a little while. But he felt a gentle hand on his back, and Rosslyn shook her head slightly.

  You should stay, she thought, clearly intending for him to read her mind. I would enjoy your reaction to the scenery you are about to see.

  As the party moved further into the valley, a beautiful vista unfolded before Adon.

  The view consisted of lush, green countryside, thick forest, rolling mountains and hills lining the countryside, and a wide river that ran the length of the valley.

  Does that river run through the city? Adon thought. But the river wound around a hill before it would have made it to the city walls. It was possible that it joined the city in a different part of the fortifications than the party had exited from, and Adon was mildly tempted to go and look to see, but he did not want to leave. The view from Rosslyn’s side was good enough.

  After only a couple of minutes, he felt ready to give his verdict on the setting.

  This place is beautiful, Adon sent.

  “These are your crownlands, correct, Princess?” William asked, pulling up alongside Adon and the Princess on his horse.

  Oh, this is your land specifically? Adon sent to Rosslyn only.

  She turned to Adon and smiled.

  “These lands have been in the crown’s hands for over a thousand years,” she said. “We are very proud of them.” She turned to the young lord and added, “William probably remembers them from his previous visits.”

  “Oh, was Adon surprised that I knew that?” William asked in a gentle but slightly superior tone. He looked toward the butterfly. “The Princess and I first met as young children, after all. You should expect we would know each other very well—including each other’s territories.”

  If Adon had facial expressions to give away his feelings, he would not have been able to conceal a twinge of annoyance at that.

  But Rosslyn did not seem to have any reaction, so Adon guessed this was probably how William usually expressed himself.

  “Look, old Sarsen’s vineyard!” William pointed ahead of them, and Adon saw the beginnings of high iron fences emerging from out of a hillside. He could just make out the distant greens and purples of grapes growing on trellised vines beyond the fences.

  “Well done remembering his name,” Rosslyn said, sounding pleasantly surprised. “His son runs the place now.” She turned back to Adon and added, proudly, “Most of this valley is given to viticulture. The land is very rich, and it produces some of the best wine on the continent.”

  “Probably the same stuff you have been drinking every day since you emerged from your chrysalis, eh, my good insect?” William added, winking.

  Unfortunate that human food is unsuitable for mystic beasts, the young lord thought, with what Adon read as faux pity. But at least they can enjoy the finest vintages.

  Does he know I can hear his thoughts whenever I want? Adon wondered.

  “We had some fun times there,” Rosslyn said.

  Adon saw that her mind was suddenly filled with recollections of games of hide and seek in and among various vineyards that dotted these hills.

  “Since the land is so beautiful, and it has been in the Royal Family’s hands for as far back as anyone can remember, I imagine this is where you entertained many of your guests in the past,” William said. “But I am glad you remember our little adventures fondly.”

  Rosslyn simply nodded.

  “Had you seen this area before, Adon?” William asked.

  The butterfly could not tell if the words were intended as a dig. As in, Rosslyn and I have many shared memories together, while you have never even seen her land outside the city. A part of him thought that they were, because this was not the first such ambiguous remark William had made.

  Was William attempting to put him in his place with these little jibes? If so, was it because the lordling had figured out that Adon had rigged the final moments of the duel with Rosslyn? Or for some other reason?

  Most importantly, were the young lord and the butterfly going to have problems, once they were away from the outside world in that dungeon?

  Do not worry, Adon heard Rosslyn think. If you are imagining that William might know what happened, he does not. Our friend lacks the deceitful instinct that would motivate him to hide that knowledge. He has always been very straightforward.

  Adon wondered to himself if Rosslyn really knew William as well as she believed she did. He thought he understood the Princess well enough that he could say she would have rejected the suit from the Duke’s son if she knew that he thought of her as basically a broodmare—and a key to William’s own power—rather than respecting her as a fellow leader. Rosslyn cared first and foremost about her country, but she was also extremely proud and confident in her own competence.

  Would she really be willing to be displaced as head of her own land?

  We had not visited the area before, Adon transmitted. The Princess has spent so much time trying to hone my magical skills and sharing her language and culture with me and my friends that we have scarcely left the palace.

  This was Adon’s best, most calculated response to William’s question. He was no master wordsmith, but he hoped it would send the message that he intended. That he had some significant shared memories with the Princess now, too. It should not bother William unless he had intended his question and his previous words as subtle digs at the butterfly.

  William smiled at Adon’s response, but Adon could not help noticing that the young lord’s expression did not reach his eyes, which looked coldly down at the arthropod on Rosslyn’s shoulder.

  Little worm, William thought quietly. Just because he grew wings, he thinks he is more than that. A fit companion for royalty…

  “Do you think I have a moment to re-familiarize myself with the terrain, Princess?” William asked. “When I was a boy, I never appreciated the quality of that beautiful black soil. Now that I am a full grown man, I have often wondered about the terroir here. What conditions give rise to such marvelous vintages of red wine?”

  Rosslyn looked up to gauge the position of the sun and frowned.

  “It may increase the hazard slightly, but you know how little time of day matters in entering a dungeon. Please try to keep it to a reasonable delay, though.”

  William nodded and quickly shouted a halt for the whole force.

  Adon could not help but notice, slightly nervously, that the entire party listened to the young lord instantly and implicitly.

  The butterfly waited to speak up again until William had dismounted from his horse and walked a short distance away. The young lord crouched in the soil, felt the dirt with his fingers, and stuck his nose in it like a hound trying to get a scent.

  One day, I will manage these lands, Adon heard William thinking. In the name of our descendants. When I do, how do I best increase the yields of these vineyards? I cannot change the old ways too much, but…

  Stolen story; please report.

  There was a lot of business-like thought in William’s mind, which Adon was ill-equipped to understand. Even if the butterfly had slowly come to dislike the lordling, he had to admit that William’s education and study in matters of ruling was impressive, at least.

  Maybe that was what Rosslyn saw in him.

  With the young lord occupied, Adon checked in with the Princess.

  Are you certain he does not know? Adon sent to Rosslyn only. The whole group seems pretty content to follow his lead; they heard him give the command to stop, not you. If he’s basically as much in charge of this expedition as you are, and he’s quietly holding a grudge against me, the rest of this journey could be rough. William could inflict a little reign of terroir.

  Rosslyn snorted, then giggled—actually giggled, for almost a full minute, until she had to contain herself, because a few heads had turned.

  “Adon, that is by far the very worst pun I have ever heard,” Rosslyn said, still visibly amused. She lowered her voice. “You do not need to worry about this. If William had a problem with you, you would know it by now. He would not make the mistake of taking a personal grudge into a potentially deadly dungeon with him.”

  She added, inside her mind, We do not have to discuss this now, unless you want to get it out of the way.

  I can’t see how waiting benefits me, Adon replied. At least now I’ve made you laugh and put you in a good mood, albeit inadvertently.

  If we are having this conversation now, I will not say I know what you were thinking, exactly, Rosslyn thought in response. I have ideas about it. Some of those theories are to your credit. Some of them are sympathetic, if not entirely worthy of the person I have come to know over the last couple of months. But the overarching fact that keeps presenting itself to me is that the decision seems extremely impulsive and reckless.

  Sorry about—

  Please let me finish, Adon, Rosslyn thought, trying to cut him off. You wanted me to get this out of the way. My thoughts are not entirely organized, but I will at least give them to you as best I can, and then we can move forward.

  Sure, Adon managed back, feeling slightly queasy.

  I think you wanted to affect the outcome of the duel, which I can understand. I did not appreciate it. You have become important to me, but I need to be trusted to fight for myself sometimes. The fact that you apparently interfered to help me—do you deny that you did that?

  No, Adon sent tonelessly.

  I appreciate the honesty. The unexpected assistance felt as if you did not trust my skills. I do not believe I have given you reason to doubt me before. Even if you did think that I would lose, it would not have been the end of the world—no matter what, I am the one who will decide when and whom I marry. When the duel ends by cheating, it does not affect that fact, but it impugns my honor. I feel certain that William does not know what happened, because he would have reacted by now, but I do not know if you realized the risks of what you did. He would have been within his rights to challenge you to a duel, to the death, in response to your interference. Are you ready to face someone like William, who you have seen for yourself is roughly as strong as me?

  I’m not, Adon admitted.

  The other matter, which is arguably more important, is that he might have considered this a reflection on Claustria and our two nations’ friendship. If William had simply left and taken his knights with him, this expedition might have been impossible. At the very least, it would mean leaving the capital virtually undefended while we delved into the dungeon, instead of leaving most of my own knights behind defending the city. So, please think of that in future. Not just you and me, but the larger effect of actions like these that you can take. The world is larger than us. You are wiser than this. I know it. You may have been stirred by passion, but temper it. Time is on your side. Have patience.

  Adon felt simultaneously chastised and strangely encouraged—in part because the tone of those last several inner monologue sentences had been deliberately encouraging.

  Thank you for telling me how you feel, Rosslyn, he began. I don’t think I understood the full weight of what I was doing at the time. It was impulsive. Honestly, I just found the idea of William beating you—and injuring you, I remember he was trying to injure you, not just win the duel—unacceptable. I’m not used to formal fights with rules. Usually I’m in life or death situations with creatures that don’t understand the idea of rules—

  Wait, Adon, Rosslyn’s thoughts interrupted. You are saying William was trying to injure me, not just win the duel?

  He wanted to break your arm, Adon replied. It was a consciously articulated intent in his mind.

  Something he intended to do? Rosslyn asked. Not just a thought he had?

  I don’t think it was just a thought he had, Adon sent. At the time that he was trying to get ready to win the duel, he thought, “If she has a broken bone, she cannot enter the dungeon. She will remain safe here while I go and destroy the core…”

  Rosslyn’s expression turned very sad. She chewed her bottom lip as she thought over what Adon had said.

  That just seems so unlike the William I remember, she thought. Whatever his flaws.

  Adon felt a haze of doubt emanate out from Rosslyn’s body.

  Then there was a noise from a few feet away, and both the butterfly and the Princess jumped slightly.

  “I am ready to resume,” William said, smiling cheerily. “The two of you seemed most deep in contemplation.”

  “Oh, I was not thinking about anything important,” Rosslyn said. Adon was impressed by the neutral tone she managed to effect.

  The young lord called the knights back into formation—they had only moved a little out of position in the first place—and the journey continued.

  Adon could not read Rosslyn’s thoughts as the party moved on—at least not without deliberately probing beyond the surface level of her mind, which felt like an invasive thing to do if he did not have prior permission.

  After a few minutes of silent walking, Rosslyn began telling the story of how the vineyard owners had come by their land. They were direct vassals of the crown, because their ancestors had fought with distinction in the Formation War that laid the foundations for the Kingdom.

  “Beyond this valley—” She pointed at an opening at the end of the valley that had now come into view in the distance—“there are shepherds and goatherds who work the land just further out. It is a wilder terrain. This is where the dungeon is meant to be. The shepherds and goatherds are the ones who have been complaining of losing animals to the monsters that sometimes stray from a dungeon.”

  Is that your land too? Adon sent, glad to talk about anything besides the awkward subject matter from earlier. Is that why they came to you for help?

  “No,” Rosslyn replied. “Even though it is close to our holdings, that land is actually owned by one of our oldest vassals.” She smiled bittersweetly. “Old historically, and the man in question is also just old. He may be unable to defend his land and quell a dungeon as he would have in his younger days.”

  “And he has no heirs, from what I recall,” William said.

  Rosslyn simply nodded.

  “Which means that when he dies, his land will escheat to the crown,” William finished.

  Rosslyn frowned. “We will find a suitable noble or knight to manage the fief,” she said. “The crown does not need more lands right now. We need more warriors and able administrators. Ideally we would choose a relative of the family that has traditionally held it, even if we have to look along more distant lines than normal.”

  We will see about that, Adon heard William thinking. The incomes from those lands are not quite as great as those from the existing crownlands, but there is no reason for the Kingdom to pass up additional revenue. We should not be empowering new nobles but centralizing as much wealth and authority as possible.

  Adon gathered from the general tissue of William’s thoughts around this that he was planning on trying to implement his father’s general governance philosophy in Claustria.

  And maybe that is what Rosslyn and her father would want in Rosslyn’s husband, Adon thought.

  He tried to listen non-judgmentally to all that the other said and thought as the party continued marching forward, though the conversation reached a lull shortly thereafter.

  What took the place of dialogue, as the group reached the end of the valley, was an emotional atmosphere of excited anticipation. The knights were ready and eager for action. Rosslyn and William were caught up in their own respective complex cocktails of emotions, with Rosslyn simultaneously joining the knights in their eagerness and also dealing with underlying layers of anxiety—a feeling that Adon suspected he had induced himself, by putting his foot firmly in his mouth earlier. William, on the other hand, was in a triumphant mood, and he also seemed to be taking considerable joy in the thought of killing monsters. There may have been some violent tension beneath his surface that he was looking forward to working out, but Adon did not probe too deeply.

  Adon had never delved very far below the surface of someone’s mind without their knowledge, and he was wary of the possibility that William would become aware of what he was doing. Rosslyn was right. Adon needed to be careful—at least until he was strong enough to win a duel with anyone he chose to face.

  The party walked for another fifty feet, before Rosslyn pointed and shouted.

  “There!”

  Adon looked where her finger was aimed, and he saw what appeared to be a dark hole in the ground. An eerie feeling surrounded it—but also, a strange sense of deja vu.