So closely in step with his desires and intention, they might have been dancing, Aurora realized what Balthazar wanted of her.  Knowing that it would mean the doom and death of a man whom she'd been fond of, if resentfully so, all her life, Aurora opened her mouth, and screamed.  "Herrick, no, stop, what are you doing?!"  She screamed again, wordless, loud, with all the power her lungs could put into the shout, and, within a heartbeat, a pair of armed guardsmen rushed into the tent.<br/><br/>What they saw; the princess denuded, and their own captain assaulting her, froze them in their place, shock and horror etched into their faces.