192 pages; soft cover; prose

With the hieral menace Ripple now safe and the school in a reconstruction phase, Inglis-former hero-king and current talk of the town-is summoned by the king himself to the palace, where she's offered a promotion to captain of the Royal Guard! This leap up the ranks is as unconventional as it would be desirable to almost anyone else, but Inglis turns it down as a matter of course, preferring to someday fight on the front lines. This means turning down a celebration feast at the palace, but an eccentric man named Count Weismar is more than pleased to make a deal: they be his new pair of leading ladies in exchange for food. "Sorry, but I'm worried about Rani. I've gotta be somewhere I can keep an eye on her." A beautiful dancer wipes out her foes in this fourth act!