Lost by Sarah Prineas

expect the duchess will send an envoy to Desh in order to discover the truth of the matter.”
    Yes, she would. “Nevery, I have to go with them. The magic warned me about Desh, and I think it wants me to go there.” I didn’t want to leave the city, but if a group from Wellmet was going, I needed to go, too.
    Nevery leaned back in his chair and pulled on the end of his beard. “Hmmm. Perhaps,” he said.
    He said perhaps , but he knew I was right.
     
    Nevery was right about the duchess. She summoned him to the Dawn Palace the next day.
    I went with him, putting on my black sweater and my apprentice robe, so they’d know I was a wizard.
    As we walked up the front steps of the Dawn Palace, the guards at the door gave me a squinty-eyed look, but Nevery swept-stepped past them, me right behind him. We went up to the duchess’s rooms. Outside the door, Trammel whispered to Nevery that the Shadow had struck the duchess with a stone blade that was spreading stone inside her, and that he should make his visit short.
    “He should stay outside,” Trammel said, pointing at me. “She doesn’t need to be upset.”
    “Well, boy?” Nevery asked, pulling at his beard.
    I stayed outside; Nevery went in.
    The guards outside the duchess’s door glared at me, but I ignored them. I sat down with my back against the wall and closed my eyes. My neck felt numb where the Shadow had touched me.
    Hearing hurrying footsteps, I opened my eyes.
    Rowan, with a guard.
    She stopped. “Hello, Connwaer. You don’t look much better than the last time I saw you. What are you doing here?”
    I looked up at her. Her mother was right in the next room, and Kerrn’s guards were an arm’s length away; I wasn’t going to talk to Rowan here.
    Rowan waited for me to answer. “Still not talking to me, then?” she said after a few moments.
    I shook my head.
    “My mother,” she said with a sigh. “I know.” She reached down with her hand; I took it, and she pulled me to my feet. “You can come in with me,” she said.
    But the guards wouldn’t let me past the door. Rowan shrugged and went in, and I went back to sit against the wall and wait.
    After a while, she came out. I got to my feet.
    “Well,” Rowan said. “You aren’t talking to me, but I’m going to tell you my news anyway.” She smiled and her eyes sparkled. “Conn, I’m being sent as an envoy to Desh to meet with the sorcerer-king, to try to find out if he sent the Shadows, and to bring back proof of it if he did.”
    She was going to Desh? Drats. The duchess would never let me go if Rowan was going. I shook my head.
    Rowan frowned. “I’m leaving as soon as possible. Will you come see me off?”
    I shook my head again. Why couldn’t she just stay here?
    Rowan straightened, and suddenly she looked older, more like her mother. “I thought you would be excited for me, but I can see that you’re not. I am my mother’s heir, Connwaer. One day I will be duchess. I’ve been trained for this; I’ve been taught diplomacy and policy and sword fighting for a reason. I will go to Desh and I will find out if they sent the Shadows, and I will make it right.” With one last glare, she turned with a swish of her skirts and stalked away down the hallway, followed by a guard.
    The duchess’s door opened and Nevery came out, looking grim. He put on his wide-brimmed hat. “Come along, boy,” he said, sweep-stepping down the hallway. I followed.
    In the tunnels on the way back to Heartsease, I asked him about his talk with the duchess.
    He strode along, his cane going tap tap against the slippery slate floor of the tunnel, the blue glowfrom his locus magicalicus lighting our way. He paused to open a gate and we went through. “We spoke about the envoyage to Desh,” he said at last. “I suggested to the duchess that you be allowed to go along, but she would not allow it.”
    Of course she wouldn’t. So I’d be staying in Wellmet. That wasn’t such a bad thing. Leaving Wellmet and