“Yes, Majesty.” The queen then departed, and Juli and her bodyguard did likewise in a different direction. It was nice to know that Juli and her queen were on the same page for once, hoping the Aserit would become suspicious of their scout—though it seems the sovereign wanted to push the idea even further by leaving them completely in the dark.<br/><br/>The princess lead Nira back toward her quarters. “Seeing as how things have been pushed back, I can get out of this dreadful dress—I don’t care how nice it looks, I hate being unprepared for trouble.”<br/><br/>“Yes, Ma’am.”<br/><br/>Once inside her room, Juli spoke again. “Can you undo that string on the back?” After Nira did so, the princess removed her dress. She did not have any concern over stripping down to her panties in front of her bodyguard—it was nothing the girl had not seen plenty of times before.<br/><br/>And as it turned out, Nira had something else on her mind. “I can’t believe the queen is going to trust that snake,” she muttered angrily. “He should hang for daring to threaten the king! I wish you’d let me kill him when he first appeared, Major.”<br/><br/>“I wish I had too,” she said ruefully. “You know how I feel about mercenaries, and this one is probably as vicious and treacherous as he is skillful. The queen thinks she can isolate him from his employer, but the Aserit may anticipate that she will try to cast dispersions on him—they’ll surely be suspicious of those suspicions, so to speak.”<br/><br/>“I really hate politics—it’s gives me a headache. It used to be all my problems could be solved by bringing down my axe on the right person’s skull.”<br/><br/>Juli laughed. She had put the dress away, and was now changing into her usual soldier’s garb—the young royal valued mobility in combat, so there was not much in the way of armor. Soon she had her sword, buckler, dagger, bow, and quiver all where they should be. “So much better.”<br/><br/>“As nice as that dress was, this is who you are.”<br/><br/>“I suppose you’re right—but I’d be happier if the world didn’t need people like me. I really hope something comes of the peace process, whatever the odds against it.”<br/><br/>Nira nodded. “What now?”<br/><br/>“Let’s head up one of the towers—I love the view up there, and I need to decompress a bit after all that tension.”<br/><br/>A few minutes time found the women on the roof of one of the towers, feeling the breeze and looking out over sprawling city. “All this is at stake,” Juli mumbled, more to herself than her companion.