“You’d be bored silly in two days,” he told me with a conspiratorial smile. “The queen’s parents are very dear people, but- Besides, I trust you to keep an eye on Dominic.”

Since they planned to be gone over a month, the king took the precaution of appointing his burly nephew as regent. Prince Dominic listened to the announcement without any apparent emotion. He merely nodded and slowly twisted the ruby ring he always wore on his second finger. The ring’s setting was a golden snake, with the jewel resting on its coils, and I had always felt it would be a much better ring for a wizard than for a prince. This regency, I thought, might be the closest Dominic would ever come to being king of Yurt, and I would have expected more reaction from him.

I had sometimes wondered at Dominic’s calm acceptance of the birth of his young cousin. After all, the royal nephew had probably spent most of his life, until the baby was born, assuming he would someday be king himself. I wondered if he planned to revolutionize the running of the castle while the king was away and rather hoped he didn’t, for if so I might be the first to go.

Less than two weeks after the king and queen first announced they were going they were gone, riding off in the cool of the early morning, accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets. The whole party rode white horses with bells on their harnesses.

Everyone had come out to say good-bye, and for several minutes as the riders mounted there was a great deal of laughing and calling final messages and instructions. The baby prince, riding in a pack on his nurse’s back, frowned at us all. Dominic alone stood stolid and dignified, as though already feeling the weight of his responsibilities and wanting to be sure we all knew it.

The king reined in his horse just as they all started down the hill. “Be sure to cut the roses every day,” he told the constable. “As I already told you, it’s better to cut them in the bud than to have the blossoms all fade on the bushes.”