The Wounded Crown Prince

Before a shallow pool of water, Rowena removed her shoes, lifted her dress and stepped into it. It may not have been the sea that she would swim in with her beloved Falco, her lifelong friend and true husband, but it was close enough. The sea was not far, but as a prisoner she had no way to get to it.

Sighing, Rowena stepped out of the water and then looked at her companions Scholastica and Xe-tian as they held the infants Aeneas and Brutus. She did not know what to say to them, what was there to talk about? A twelvemonth they had been here in Hyperion and ever since the siege began the question would be asked of how long it would last, would the combined might of the Ulgen Khanate and the Cambyses Empire be enough to break through the walls?

Alas, no one knew.

Then came the sound of painful moaning. Rowena would have known that voice anywhere, it was the voice of that evil-hearted coward that she had been forced into marriage with: Acinonyx. Turning, she saw him being helped by a few other Hyperionites while he himself limped with a bleeding leg.

The moment Acinonyx noticed Rowena, he glared at her and inquired: "What prayers have you made to the Donkey God, that patron of redheads and foreigners? How is Falco still alive?"

Smiling, Rowena looked away from Acinonyx. Falco lived? Then her prayers had been answered and he had returned from the Earth Bull's realm. In response to the Wounded Crown Prince, she uttered: "Whoever the god is be it the Donkey God, the Storm Falcon, the Great Mother or the Goddess of Wisdom or even the fell Earth Bull, all that matters is that my prayers have been answered and my one true husband has returned from the realm of the dead. Your days are numbered, Acinonyx. Of that make no mistake."