Alise.  You have a guest."

Alise lifted her eyes slowly.  Her sketching charcoal hovered over the heavy paper on her desk.  "Now?" she asked reluctantly.

Her mother sighed.  "Yes.  Now.  As in the 'now' that I have been telling you to expect all day.  You knew that Hest Finbok was coming.  You have known it since his last visit, last week at this same hour.  Alise, his courtship honors you and our family.  You should always receive him graciously.  Yet whenever he calls, I have to come and ferret you out of hiding.  I wish you would remember that when a young man comes to call on you, it is only polite to treat him respectfully."

Alise set down her charcoal.  Her mother winced as Alise wiped her smudged fingers clean on a dainty kerchief embroidered with Sevian lace.  It was a tiny act of vindictiveness.  The kerchief had been a gift from Hest.  "Not to mention that we must all remember that he is my only suitor, and therefore my only chance of wedding."  Her comment was almost too soft for her mother to hear.  With a sigh, she added, "I'm coming, Mother.  And I will be gracious."

Her mother was silent for a moment.  "That is wise of you," she said finally, adding in a voice that was cool but still gentle.  "I am relieved to see that you have finally stopped sulking."

Alise could not tell if her mother was stating something she believed was true or was demanding that she accede to a dictation of deportment.  She closed her eyes for an instant.  Today, to the north, in the depths of the Rain Wilds, the dragons were emerging from their cases.  Well, she amended to herself, today was the day appointed by Tintaglia for the leaves and debris to be swept away from them, so that the sunlight might touch them and stir them to wakefulness.  Perhaps even now, as she sat at her tidy little desk in her pale room, surrounded by her tattered scrolls and feeble efforts at notes and sketching, dragons were tearing and shouldering their way out of the cocoons.

For a moment, she could imagine the whole scene: the verdant riverbank warmed by summer sunshine, the brilliantly hued dragons trumpeting joyously as they emerged into daylight.  The Rain Wild Traders were probably heralding the hatching with all sorts of festivities.  She imagined a dais decorated with garlands of exotic flowers.  There would be speeches of welcome to the emerging dragons, song, and feasting.  No doubt each dragon would parade before the dais, be joyously introduced, and then would open wide its glittering wings and lift off into the sky.  These would be the first dragons to hatch in Sa knew how many years.  Dragons had come back into the world... and here she was, trapped in Bingtown, shackled to a docile existence and subject to a courtship that baffled and annoyed her.