Free The Fire Dragon by Katharine Kerr

then let out her breath in a long sigh. She was trembling and sweaty, she realized. When she took a step, she nearly stumbled; she had to catch the back of the chair to steady herself, an effort that left her gasping for breath. There will be plenty of time, she told herself. You'll simply have to work slowly, in stages. She wrapped the newly purified brooch up in a bit of cloth to protect it, then went to bed.
    Over the next few days Lilli worked on the talisman, stopping often to rest. The work was making her so tired, in fact, that she thought of leaving it undone, but she couldn't bear to disappoint Elyssa. She saw the serving woman often, generally in the great hall, where Elyssa would always stop to chat and let her know how the princess fared. Finally, on the morning that she finished the talisman, Elyssa told her the news they'd both been dreading.
    “When the princess woke this morning,” Elyssa said, “she wasn't herself. She wept so piteously that it wrung my heart.”
    “Ah ye gods! It aches my heart just to hear of it,” Lillisaid. “Her brooch is finished, by the by. Come up to my chamber with me, and I'll give it to you.”
    Wrapped in cloth, the brooch lay on Lilli's table by the window. Lilli took it out and handed it to Elyssa.
    “Well, this is a pretty thing!” Elyssa said, smiling. “Did you have Otho polish it, too?”
    “I didn't.”
    “But see how it glitters in the sun! I don't remember it being so lovely.”
    Lilli knew then that her working had succeeded. Elyssa took the brooch and hurried off to the women's hall to give it to the princess. Lilli sat down to her studies, but her mind kept wandering to Bellyra's plight and the brooch. Finally, when the morning was well advanced, Elyssa returned to the chamber.
    “How does she fare?” Lilli blurted.
    “A bit better, though the sadness still grips her,” Elyssa said. “The brooch did please her, though. She pinned it to her dress and swore she'd wear it always.”
    “That gladdens my heart!” Lilli tapped the book with her fingers. “It says in here that sometimes talismans work slowly. Maybe it will help in a few days.”
    “I'll pray so.” Elyssa sighed, glancing out the window with exhausted eyes. “Anything for a little hope.”
    “Should we send off another messenger? Nevyn will want to know that she's—” Lilli could not bring herself to use the word mad. “—unwell.”
    “That's true.” Elyssa considered this for a moment. “But even if he does know, what can he do? He won't be leaving the prince's side.”
    “He can't, truly. I suppose we'll just have to wait till the men ride home again.”
    “Just so.” Elyssa looked up, studying the sky as if it could report the prince's progress. “Now, the messengers we sent off about the new baby? They should be reaching Maryn soon. He'll send them back to us with news.”
    “And then I can write Nevyn a letter to go back with them. Well and good, then. Do you want me to come visit Her Highness?”
    “In a few days. This—this illness always seems to affect her the worst at the very beginning. In about an eightnight she settles down, like.”
    After Elyssa left, Lilli spent some time trying to think of other ways she might help Bellyra. She failed, except for the one obvious course of action: end her love affair with the prince. That, she felt, would be a harder thing for her to work than the mightiest dweomer in the world.
    The princess's messengers caught up with the army just at sunset, as it was making camp in a grassy meadow beside a stream. In the midst of the purposeful confusion Nevyn was standing with the prince, waiting for the servants to finish setting up their tents. A sentry led up the two men, all dusty from the road.
    “Messages, Your Highness. From your lady.”
    The messengers knelt to the prince. Maryn grabbed the silver tube and shook out the tightly rolled letter inside. He glanced at it, laughed, then began to read it aloud.
    “To my husband,