"So, how are the royal page lessons going?" Marek asked Alex a few months later. They were relaxing in Marek's "royal suite" above the inn's kitchen, on one of the days Alex was allowed into the city. "And Joshua isn't with ye?"

Alex shook her head. "He has conferences today. I should imagine that's the one downfall of being Prince," she said.

Marek laughed. "I think I'd rather be a commoner, even without conferences," he told her.

"You're anything but common," Alex said as she twisted her coal necklace.

"What is that?" Marek asked her. "I've never seen it before."

"Oh, it's nothing," she quickly replied. "Just- a good luck charm, of sorts."

He walked over to Alex and lifted it up, but quickly let it drop. He shook his fingers, as if they were burned. "That thing's magic!" he yelled. "It nearly fried my fingers!"

"It's never done that to me," Alex said truthfully, and tucked it back under her shirt. "It's a good luck charm, and that's all."

Marek looked at the page sitting in front of him, and then sighed. Whatever this lad was hiding, it wasn't hurting anyone, so he decided not to pursue it.

"I have to get back to the palace," Alex then said hastily. "I thank you once again for your company, but I must go."

"You don't have to be back for another hour!" Marek protested.

"Yes, but I have some errands to run, and I don't want to be late," she lied.

"Fine, but at least let me walk you to the city edge. It's a dangerous city, and I don't even trust my people completely," Marek told her.

His company proved to be a blessing, because a group of crooks surrounded them halfway back to the palace.

"These aren't my people," Marek said as he pulled out one of his many hidden knives. "Must be new in town."

Suddenly, Alex turned white. "That's the one that attacked me the first day," she told Marek as the scar-faced man stepped forward.

"Well," he snarled, "history repeats itself, doesn't it? Want to give up your money now?"

Alex spat upon the ground in front of the man's feet. "It doesn't seem likely," she said thoughtfully.

He lunged toward her, and she pulled out a dagger, stabbing him in the shoulder. "I'm not aiming to kill," she told him, "just to defend myself, but I will kill if I'm forced to." They fought, as Marek took on the others. Alex was good, he knew, but not good enough yet to take on more than one at a time. He smiled grimly as he glanced at her and saw her doing fine. He slammed two into the nearby wall; they were unconscious. Two left, and Scar-man over there. The man lunged in for Alex's neck, but she quickly stepped back, and he caught the thread her charm was on instead. The knife easily slit through the thin thread, and he stared in horror as her face changed. Frightened, he and his two men were gone before the charm hit the ground.

Alex quickly covered her face, but Marek had already seen it. "Just a good luck charm, eh?" he asked her. "Now will you tell me what it is? And...who are you?" He made the poor girl lift her chin up and look at him, and he whistled. "Well, besides a beauty, that's for sure."

"It's a disguise charm," she explained as she picked it up. "But I can tell you're really not in the wave with the news. I'm Alexandria Greenwood Grossi. I'm- the Queen's cousin. I ran away almost a year ago, because I was supposed to go live on that other planet with my family. I didn't want to go, so I lived in seclusion on an island down in Australia for about seven months, then made that disguise and came back to England as Alexander Tirragen."

"I see." Marek's face did not show his thoughts. "Who knows?"

"Just my friends Stuart and Brian. Stuart is training to be a knight with me, and Brian was the one who helped me run away. Oh, and his father knows where I am, but not the whole story. And my sister, Jennifer, knows, but not where I am. We keep in touch."

"With your magic," Marek whispered.

"Yes. Marek, I didn't want to lie to you, since you're honest, but I had to," she explained.

"Well, you're definitely a powerful sorceress," Marek said thoughtfully. "That spell's a hard one, just to maintain for a little while. But to put it in the necklace, that was good. And you put a guarding spell on it, so if anyone touched it..."

"No, I didn't," Alex denied. "I don't even know the guarding spell. I don't know why it burned you, though."

"Hmm...the gods must be guardin' you, then," he told her. "There's no other explanation, reasonable or unreasonable. I mean, the Mother has already visited you once. That has to be it." He picked up the coal from her hand. "But, I suggest you get a chain for this, and put some heavy protection spells on that. If you can't, I'll help you. As for right now, you certainly can't go into the palace looking like yourself." He took off a gold chain from around his neck, and held it out to her. "Use this. And Alexandria-" She looked up at him, and he smiled. "Alexandria. I never would have guessed. But, hide that well until you put the spells on it."

"Thanks, Marek. I'll return the chain next time I get to come to the city," she promised.

"Oh, that won't do," he told her. "Keep it. Consider it a gift from me. No, you can't refuse it. And no, lad - las - I didn't steal it." She had to grin at that. "It was a gift to me, a long time ago. That person didn't steal it, either, so it has a clean record. Go ahead, put it on."

Alex slid the charm onto the gold chain, and then put it around her neck and fastened the latch. She immediately turned back into the page she had been disguised as, and smiled. "Good as new," she told him. "Oh- now I have to run to get back to the palace on time. But thanks for helping, Geor-Marek." She ran off, wondering what had possessed her to call him George. Sure, he reminded her of the King of Thieves from those books, but he definitely was not George. He was Marek.

The thief stared after her, a puzzled look on his face. How did she know? he wondered silently, then shrugged. It was obviously a mistake of hers, always giving people different names because she did not fancy their name at the present time, and another seemed to suit him better. But still, for her to guess George, of all the names in the world, was strange. Then, he smiled. Who would have thought that page was actually a girl in disguise, and the Queen's cousin? He knew there was something different about the yellow-eyed "lad" when they had met. But now he finally knew.

Alex leaned over to catch her breath. "Well, I'm not late," she snapped. "Plus, I have fifteen minutes still. What are you talking about?"

"Did you forget?" Alex looked at the Prince. "The new pages came today. Duke Edward wants everyone in the library."

Alex could have slapped herself in the head for her forgetfulness. "I did forget," she said with a slight smile.

"So, why were you late?" Joshua asked as they walked down the hall. "You're usually back at least a half hour early as it is."

Alex rubbed her forehead. "Believe me, it was my intent," she growled. "Marek and I had an encounter with thieves- not his thieves," she told him. "It was the same scarred man from our first attack." She held open one of the huge library doors. "After you, my Highness," she said as she bowed.

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