Someone knocked. She ran and threw the door open, relieved to see her sister. "I've come to sit with you," Ilsabet said. "I know how terrified you are of rats."

Marishka made Ilsabet sit beside her on the bed. "Stay with me tonight," she whispered. "There's plenty of room in the bed, and you've always been so brave about such things."

Ilsabet kissed her sister's cheek and laughed. "Marishka, it's all right. Even the dungeons are quiet now. Whatever infuriated the beasts seems to have vanished as mysteriously as it appeared."

"Really?"

"The infected rats are all dead. They say there's over a hundred bodies in the tunnels."

Marishka took a deep breath, let it out, and smiled. "Stay the night with me anyway, like you used to," she said. "I've hardly seen you or Mihael since…"

"Since father died?" Ilsabet asked, then went on. "I haven't seen Mihael either, but I assumed you did. After all, I'm the enemy here."

"No one sees you that way. All our servants say that what you did was very brave. I wish I'd had the courage to stand up to Peto. Then maybe things would be different now."

"Different?"

Marishka frowned, trying to think of some way to explain without making Ilsabet angry. "Maybe if I'd shown some defiance, Mihael and Baron Peto wouldn't be bartering over me as if I were a spoil of war."

"Bartering? Are you for sale, sister?"

"Mihael seems to think so. As for Peto, well at least he's polite enough to try getting to know me before he makes a bid for me. What do you think of him?"

"I think he murdered our father," Ilsabet retorted. "You talk about him like a girl falling in love."

"I'm not!" Marishka insisted. "I meant, what sort of ruler do you think he'll be?"

"I'm not sure I should answer, just in case you do fall in love with him and repeat it."