hair and the prominence of Verenthane symbols. And too many, even for her. “What message do you have for me that it takes seven of you hiding outside the door like common cutthroats to deliver it?”
“A reminder,” Kumaryn said coldly. “There are more of us than of you.”
Sasha laughed. “My Great Lord, you've learned to count! Your wet nurse will be so proud!”
“It's not our ability with numbers that was in question,” Yuan Martyn replied before Kumaryn could bristle his outrage. “You don't have your pagan rabble to defend you here.”
“You threaten like a coward,” Sasha retorted, her temper slipping. “If you were brave, you'd challenge. My family won't take kindly to my murder beneath their protection.”
“Oh aye,” Martyn said with a cool smile, “Prince Koenyg loves you well, I hear. The king has not called you ‘daughter’ for twelve years. The king no longer favours your pagan ways, nor your devil friends from Saalshen. You have few enough friends in Baen-Tar, girl.”
“I'm going to go and have a pleasant lunch with my sister,” Sasha said impatiently. “For the last time, say what you will and begone.”
“The trial of Lord Krayliss,” said Lord Kumaryn. “It will be soon.”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “You know, the last time we met, you were trying to arrest me for something you knew damn well I didn't do. Was this what that was about? You were trying to keep me from Lord Krayliss's trial and, since that didn't work, you now resort to threats?”
“The king wants Lord Krayliss dead,” Kumaryn continued, his bony cheeks reddening. “Prince Koenyg wants him dead. Every sane man and woman in Lenayin sees him for the rabble-rousing troublemaker he is, and…”
“All the nobility, you mean,” Sasha interrupted. “The only sane men and women in Lenayin.” Mockingly. “What'll you do once he's gone? Have the king appoint some friendly Verenthane lord to the great lordship?”
“Such would be a great boon to the people of Taneryn,” Martyn said softly.
“Did you ask them?” Sasha retorted. “I'm no friend of Lord Krayliss, but I'll not deny him a fair trial to help you fulfil your grand vision of a holy, Verenthane Lenayin with not a pagan lord in sight. You forget who the people of Lenayin truly are, so little you see of them in your Verenthane cities and castles. Best that you remember soon, or one day they'll walk into your cities and castles all together and remind you.”
Kumaryn's nostrils flared. “Now who would be making the threats, girl?”
“Not a threat, Lord Kumaryn,” Sasha said coldly. “Just seeing if you truly can count after all. They look so little from your castle towers, don't they? All the commonfolk? And so few. Like all the little streams in the hills after a winter's rain. It's only when you see them reach the valley bottom and come together that you realise what a flood looks like.”
“The little pretend princess thinks the Goeren-yai all love her,” Yuan Martyn said softly. His manner was all light-tongued menace, beside Kumaryn's blunt bluster. Sasha had no doubts which man was the more dangerous of the two. This was Princess Wyna's man, and Princess Wyna shared not only Koenyg's attention, but also his bed. Lord Kumaryn had no such advantage. “There are thousands of Goeren-yai soldiers camped before the walls for Rathynal. I hear they could barely agree on where to pitch their tents. Upslope was more fortuitous, I hear, and downslope potentially an ill omen. It nearly came to blows. Such a rabble could no more unite against the true lords of Lenayin than they united against the Cherrovan Empire. It took a lowlands Verenthane to save Lenayin from its disgrace. There is no such hero to ride to your rescue this time, little pretend princess.”
“And it took a lowlands Nasi-Keth to come and rescue the Verenthanes when the Cherrovan came back seventy years later,” Sasha retorted. Yuan Martyn's eyes flashed with anger. “Why go to such lengths to remove Lord Krayliss? If you're so unconcerned about the Goeren-yai?”
Yuan Martyn smiled. “Someone must save Lenayin from herself. The gods’ work is never easy, but it is rewarding. The gods are merciful, but their wrath is harsh upon all who would obstruct the righteous path. Remember, little pretend princess. Never forget.”
Sasha was almost surprised when the Verenthane Royal Guardsmen at Koenyg's door let her in with barely a query. Koenyg's chambers were large, with a main room here and a dining room beyond, half-hidden behind curtain drapes. Memories hit her