"Princess Airam. Princess Hermione. Princess Esther," Valdris said. "It has been a long time."
For several seconds, none of the sisters answered him.
Airam's body had gone frozen. The softness that had remained on her face only moments ago, when she had watched Esther and Hermione dancing near the stream, vanished at once. Her eyes fixed on Valdris's face, and she took a small step backward without seeming to realize it.
Hermione looked no better.
The color had left her cheeks. Her hands, which had been resting at her sides when she came from the tent, curled tightly into the thin fabric of her nightgown. She stared at Valdris as if she had seen a dead man walk out from the dark beyond the campfire.
Then both of them looked around once again.
