be done by tomorrow morning. Get Camigwen to help you. She has a clear hand.”
“If I can pry her away from Ostvel,” he murmured with a slight smile. He gathered up the two cases, bowed, and left her alone with the High Prince.
“Please sit down,” he invited, and Andrade sank into a chair. Roelstra seated himself opposite her at the table. “You know my hopes regarding your nephew and one of my daughters.”
“A blind man could see it,” she replied pleasantly. “You can be subtle when it suits you. I wonder why you’re so obvious now?”
“Without insult, may I venture the opinion that there was no other way to get the idea across to Rohan? He’s been very intent on the business of the Rialla, and unresponsive to any but the most direct hints about my girls.”
“I think he’s received the impression you wished him to have,” Andrade told him straight-faced.
“But I understand you have your own candidate for his hand.”
She nodded. “In her own way, Sioned is as stubborn as Rohan.”
“I have an offer to make you, Andrade. Lady Sioned doesn’t really want him. He would do much better by way of wealth and prestige by taking one of my girls. A marriage bond with me would be a very good thing, and we all know it.” He paused. “As you also know, I have been without a Sunrunner at Castle Crag for some years now.”
“That was your doing, not mine. Johoda was highly skilled, but you rejected his service.”
“An action I have come to regret. As you are aware, I have other sources of information. But now I need a faradhi.”
“And you want Sioned.” Her fingers beat a steady rhythm on the table. “You may not have her, Roelstra.”
“And if she herself should request it?”
Andrade burst out laughing. “For the honor of being your whore? Don’t fool yourself, Roelstra—not about this girl, nor about yourself. You’re no longer young. You’re thicker than you used to be, and the years are beginning to show. Scarcely the handsome youth who came riding into my father’s keep nearly thirty years ago, looking for a wife!”
He gave her a narrow smile. “Thank the Goddess I chose neither you nor that witless twin of yours.”
“Your memory is failing, I see,” she taunted. “Milar loathed you on sight, and I had already seen what you’d become.”
“I will have Sioned!”
“You will have nothing!” She leaned forward, no longer laughing. “Do you think I’d even consider entrusting that girl to a man who has already corrupted one faradhi? Oh, yes, I know all about it—and you knew that I knew. You have my permission to explain yourself.”
He surged to his feet, towering over her. “Your permission? How dare you accuse me—”
“I ought to have accused you before the other princes!”
“And why didn’t you?” he shot back. “Too proud to admit you can’t control everyone and everything the way you control Rohan?”
“Whatever gave you the idea that I tell him what to do or say? You have a great deal to learn about him, Roelstra.”
“I warn you, Andrade—”
She rose, pulling her cloak around her. “It was your face, the face you wear now, soiled by power, that I saw in the Fire while I was still a young girl. Live your own life as you will. But I warn you, Roelstra. Don’t you ever touch one of my faradh’im again.”
She swept out of the tent, racked by an inner shaking. Goddess, how she hated that man, wanted to ruin him—but without the renegade Sunrunner at hand, she had no proof. She surprised herself with the depth of her need to see Roelstra utterly broken. But she knew that only when he was would Rohan and Sioned be safe.
The High Prince ignored his servants as he strode onto his barge. He heard Palila’s voice rise on his name, but had no time for her—bloated, useless Palila, who would never bear him a son. He entered his own cabin and locked the door against her, should she manage to lever her bulk from her couch, and thought of Sioned’s slender body, Sioned’s graceful movements, Sioned’s fathomless green eyes—and Sioned’s faradhi rings.
He opened a compartment concealed in the wood panels and pulled out a small velvet sack. Weighing it thoughtfully in his hand, he considered Crigo’s needs. The man was valueless. He would receive no more than what he already had in his tent.
There was more than enough dranath here for Sioned.