Winter took hold of the lands of the north and the west, and villagers and city dwellers spent their time indoors before blazing fires, sipping warm wine, crowded together against the creeping cold. But in Neria, to the south, no snows blew, and no winds howled. The skies held only a warm sun and soft clouds. The pleasure barges still rode the waters of the rivers and lakes, and fields yielded their crops of the season. But vicissitudes of another sort augured ill for that nation.
In Cenre, the capital city that sat upon broad Lake Croir, the young Princess Desdira sat in her palace, in the Hall of Rulers, on her cushioned throne, and imperiously but waywardly regarded her assembled ministers and councilors. And they, in their turn, regarded her steadily, and not with the humility of subj
