Talia found herself lost for words.

"Talia?" Lynn said, sounding uncertain. "I--er--"

The former Princess stared at the lost-looking Queen before her. "My Queen, what you ask of me is a little . . ." here she paused, wondering what word could make sense of this muddle. "Profound," she finally said. "And a little frightening."

"Frightening?" Lynn said, sounding heartsick.

"No," Talia said quickly, "not frightening, really, but this whole situation makes me a little nervous, like there is a trapped bird in my stomach and all it can do to express itself is to flutter its feathers along the inside of me."

Lynn relaxed minutely, and finally turned around on her stool. "Talia, I don't want to make you frightened, and I certainly don't want to make you nervous, especially around me. I just wanted you to know how I felt, so just--" Lynn sighed. "If you felt the same way, you might--know that I am here."

"When we first met," Talia said slowly, "I was a little terrified of you. You're as tall as a man, and as strong, and you hunt and rule and do all the things that a King does, and you were so just! I thought you might despise me for being so weak, and more feminine than you, and having two children that I need to take care of."

"I could never despise you," Lynn said. "There is naught in you that is despisable, and naught on your outside, either." She rose from the chair and looked Talia in the eyes. "I care deeply for you Talia, and I want only the best for you and your children."

"I know," Talia said. The bird in her stomach and the pounding of her heart were making her dizzy, and Lynn was rapidly becoming the only thing that she could see, as though Lynn was the light at the end of a tunnel.

Lynn's eyes, usually sharp and brown, softened a little with what might have been tears. "Then I will--"

"Stay," Talia said, and she flung her arms round Lynn's neck and kissed her. Lynn's arms closed around Talia's shoulders and waist and drew her up close. No one else was in the room, and though there was a tense standoff going on outside, no one came to bother them. The kiss went on for a long time, til finally there was a knock at the door.

"My Queen, the brigands wish to make parlay," someone called.

Lynn's mouth tore away from Talia's and she walked to the door.

"Tell them that I shall accept nothing but their surrender, and we are well-prepared for a siege," she said. Lynn then went to a chest at the foot of the bed and began pulling out armor. "Talia, will you help me?" she asked.

Though unused to the task, Talia found herself easily able to assist Lynn with donning her heavy armor, and within minutes the Queen was suited up in very serviceable, somewhat used armor.

Then Talia found herself being pressed into a lighter suit of similar armor, and she was given a light bow and a heavy quiver of arrows and a long knife.

Star and Tide were hidden away somewhere in the lodge, well-defended by heavily armed servants, and with them safe, Lynn and Talia went out onto the porch to face the bandits.

The air was tense and thick, and the main body of the brigands was well-concealed behind trees. Only a few remained in the open to call for, but any calling was unnecessary. As soon as Lynn emerged, one man, older and graying, stepped forth.

"We are seeking the body of a cursed Princess," said the man. "The farmers round the Palace said that the King of the next country over had been the only one to enter the place."

"The Princess Talia?"

"She is here?" asked the brigand.

"She is indeed," Lynn said, pointing at Talia. "Alive and well."

Talia stepped forward and was met with horrified stares.

"Necromancy!" one of the concealed brigands shouted.

"There is no sorcery here," Lynn shouted. "There is nothing but the ending of a curse, brought about by the sons that the King fathered upon the Princess."

There were shouts of outrage among the brigands, and one young man fitted an arrow to his bow.

"Let it speak, if it is not a necromancied corpse!" declared the brigand who had spoken the most.

"I am indeed the Princess Talia," Talia said clearly and loudly. "But I am a Princess no longer."

"What about the children?" one brigand yelled.

"The King of this country forced himself upon my body when I did not know of his presence, and fathered children upon me," Talia said. "They ended the curse upon me, and eventually I came to the Queen of this country, and when she discovered what had happened with the King, she executed him and I have been here ever since."

"She executed him?" The main brigand asked.

"I do not condone rape in my Kingdom," Lynn said. "Even the King is not above punishment, and he was about to put this woman and her children to death, and it was luck that I arrived in time to stop the horrible situation."

Murmuring came from the forest, and the brigand with the strung arrow lowered his bow.

"If you are truly the Princess, of what nature was the curse that was laid upon you?" he called.

"I was never told of it," Talia said, "but I know it had something to do with my ring finger, for the last thing I remember before waking up was falling off of the odd animal in my father's stable, with my hands held out before me to catch myself, and when I woke up the ring finger on my left hand hurt abominably."

The older brigand's face suddenly grew more tired. "And the way the heralds described you to the country?"

Talia sighed. "They proclaimed that I was a child as orange as flame, pink as the pinkest rose, and as dark as driftwood, which is to say, not very."

Before Talia could say another word, the brigand was on one knee, and the others were following suit.

"Princess Talia, we are in fact a group of loyal soldiers sent to retrieve your body and kill the man who stole it. We come from the court of your niece, Princess Lisset of Gisbourne, to fetch you back for her."

Talia paled. "I have a niece?"

"And nephews," the soldier said. "Six of them."

And nephews. A niece and six nephews.

"Are they . . . well?"

"Curses seem to run in the family, Princess," the soldier said. "Your nephews have been living as ravens for several years."

Lynn's hand crept around Talia's, giving her some strength.

"Must I come back with you?" she asked.

"You could give us a token," the soldier suggested.

What token? She thought desperately.

"Your niece requires a key to enter the glass mountain where her brothers live," the soldier said hesitatingly. "It is of an odd nature, and her fingers are too torn and ruined from an earlier attempt at a rescue to work."

"Fingers?"

"The key is a finger," he said. "But it must be the finger of a blood relation to the brothers, else the mountain will lock forever, keeping the six raven brothers inside."

Talia looked down at her hands. "I--" she said. "My finger is a little crooked, but it may well work."

Lynn's hand seized within her own, and Talia gripped it tightly before pulling her hand out. She held her left hand before her, then knelt on the wood of the porch, splaying her fingers before her with the littlest finger tucked under her palm.

She seized the knife that Lynn had given her, raising it high over her head, gripping it with a strength she did not know she had had.

And she brought it down, down, down at the base of her finger, into the finger that had started it all with the curse, and severed it completely.

For a moment she felt nothing but an odd lightening of her spirit--and then the pain struck. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, and she could not keep a cry from escaping her lips. Blood was everywhere, shockingly red against what snow was left on the porch.

Talia did not faint, which might have been a mercy, but she sagged against Lynn, who held her tight until a servant came with a poker still red-hot from a fire. And then she held Talia tighter, held her through the white-hot pain that took all feeling away, and dwarfed the pain from her severed finger completely.

Dimly she remembered picking up the severed, bloody finger with her other hand, and shoving it through the thin ice of a water-barrel into the shockingly cold water within, and bringing out the white, slightly crooked finger of a Princess. There was still a little blood in the crevices of her knuckles, and deep in the cuticles, but she handed it to the soldier anyway.

"My token," she gasped out, before Lynn and her servants hustled Talia away to be treated.

#

The soldiers had gone back to Talia's niece, carrying their grim token, when Lynn knocked at the door.

"How are you feeling?"

Talia held up a four-fingered hand. "I have felt better, but for now I am doing as well as I can."

Lynn nodded, and strode into the room, dropping down onto a stool beside Talia's plush chair. They say silently beside the fire, close enough to be warmed inside and out as though in a hot bath, but no more than that.

"Star and Tide are put to bed," Lynn said softly.

Talia smiled. Her sons had barely noticed her missing finger, and were full of stories about the nice servants who had watched over them that morning and afternoon.

Lynn slid off of her stool and onto the floor at Talia's feet. She rested against Talia's legs, and Talia slid her uninjured hand down to rest in Lynn's hair.

The warmth made them both somnolent, and as they drowsed Talia thought dreamily about the day.

The fire crackled and popped, sending a few sparks out onto the hearth where they took some time to die, and as Talia watched them glow and fade, the Queen's hand crept up to hold hers.

"Will you marry me?" Lynn asked.

"Do you love my sons?" Talia asked.

"Oh, yes."

Talia said in a rush, to the crown of brown hair below her, "I love you, and I want to marry you."

Lynn squeezed her hand, and Talia knew that everything was exactly as it should be.