Chapter Twenty-Four

The Crown Prince and his sister, Princess Alexandra, chose another chilly late fall day to go outside. "Boy," noted Prince Sebastian, "you can tell the winter is coming. It's going to be bad this year."
"Yeah," agreed Alexandra while throwing a rock into a hopscotch square.
"While I have you here, I wanted to talk to you about something. I'm deploying your regiment over to the foot of the mountain."
"For what?"
"Um, there was a minor earthquake there."
Alexandra's eyes widened. "Earthquake?"
"A minor one. The fire chief says there doesn't seem to be much damage but we just need to clear out the area and keep cars off the roads there. Make sure everything is safe."


"AJ! Thank goodness I got a hold of you."
"Yeah," AJ sighed, "what's going on?"
"Besides my mother driving me ape about this marriage ultimatum --"
"What marriage ultimatum?"
"She's told my sister and me that we have to get married within 2 simweeks or lose our inheritance."
"That's crazy!"
"You're telling me." Alexandra's tone turned serious. "There's been an earthquake, at the foot of the mountain. Our unit's being deployed there. The Prince says we need to clear out the area, make sure everything's safe, that kind of thing."



Anastasia heard a knock on the door in their shared bedroom, which had been their sister's. It was Alexandra. And she was beaming.



"Guess what?"
Anastasia was taken by surprise. "What?"
"I've been deployed!"
 "What?!?"


"Yeah," Alexandra announced, her gray eyes dancing around with excitement. "My unit's been deployed to the earthquake zone. We're to help with security, handing out food supplies, restoring power -- "
"What?"
"It's part of my job. There was an earthquake, and part of what I do and part of my training is responding to natural disasters."
Anastasia nodded quietly. "I knew this could happen," she whispered.
"Knew what could happen?"
"That you'd have to leave at some point. I knew that when you enlisted."
"I leave early tomorrow morning."



Anastasia took a deep breath and reached for her sister to give her a hug. 



"I love you," they whispered in each other's ears.