When I walked back into our quarters, I found the girls awake and piled onto Sian's bed, chatting. 'Where've you been, Cat?' asked Loi. 'Yakov gave me a tour of the rest of this floor.' I wandered over and climbed on the bed, then told them about the beautiful picture. It inspired us to make a trip to the libraryfinallyand we spent the rest of the day there. It made for a good distraction with us nervous at the idea of starting our new, official lives and it gave me something else to think about when I fell into bed that night. We didn't say much when we woke and dealt with the usual morning stuff then walked to breakfast together. The Great Hall buzzed with activity as we neared it. Servants worked on opening the walls between the ballrooms and the throne room. The castle had two ball

