August shook his head slightly, returning his attention to Liam and Dorothy far ahead. "No. The queen might be curious about you and your ridiculous costume, but I'll bet she'll assume you're just some Verinian misfit caught up with the bandits. She might ream me out for letting you tag along, but I don't think she'll care much in the end." And then Sam pointed out the gravity of his own situation, and August stiffened, his mouth set grimly.

"I'm not going to tell you I don't care about dying," he admitted after awhile. "Idiots throw their lives away for the sake of being a hero. Besides, I've got those two to look after." He nodded slightly toward Liam and Dorothea, who was happily tapping her tail against the prince's back. "But you don't know what the queen is capable of. [i]I've[/i] only seen the tip of the iceberg -- it's obvious she has more power than she's letting on. For all I know, at the first sign of trouble she'll tear the castle apart -- kill the king at the very least, take the kingdom by force. She's being subtle now because she wants the continent to fall into her lap." He took a breath, and paused to force himself to calm down. "If there's a quiet way to destroy her, with as few lives lost as possible, I'll find it. But if this does come to war with Verinia, I'll have failed." He smirked a little. "I'm telling you I have no idea what to do. If I betray the queen to Liam she'll kill me on the spot -- and probably the king too, or take the kingdom hostage. If I follow her orders, we go to war -- but war takes time." Time was precious when the queen was a powder keg ready to blow.

Raquelle was, of course, just behind and beside Liam, where she had brought up her horse as soon as he was back with the company. She had smiled appreciatively to the Marshal, but he'd seemed too busy paying attention to that strange girl with the red hair and trousers. [i]She[/i] wasn't a part of her mother's plan, that was clear. Raquelle spent a few minutes hanging back and listening with all her might, but the clank of armor and the clop of hooves all around made it impossible to hear anything at all of what the Marshal and that Samantha girl were saying.

She heard her name, however, being spoken by Will just ahead, and she smiled sweetly and came up closer to Liam. She caught the cat glaring at her hatefully -- Dorothea rumbled a growl in her throat -- but Raquelle only tossed her golden curls. "Liam," she chirped, "are you certain that cat isn't diseased? It's a stray out of Verinia, and you know everything out of those woods is poisoned or enchanted." At this Dorothea belted out a terrific yowl of agreement, that made Raquelle jump in surprise at the noise. "Oh my goodness, my dear Liam, please get rid of it -- look at its fangs!" Dorothea was indeed baring her teeth like a vampire, braced over Liam protectively, coiled as if any moment she might leap upon Raquelle and tear her ears off.