Hadaan, who was grinning as proudly as if Walvis was his own son. Sioned quivered with silent laughter and whispered, “What did I tell you? A redhead!”
Crimson to his earlobes, Walvis stared at them and gulped. “I—my lord, my lady, it’s too great an honor.”
“Oh, nonsense,” Sioned told him. As Rohan slipped a ring onto his finger, she continued, “Topaz for a long and happy life, dear Walvis. We love you even more than you love us, and in further token of that love—” She slowly drew a string of shimmering iridescence from a pocket of her green gown, a teasing smile on her face and mischief in her eyes. She was so lovely that Rohan wanted to kiss her in front of the whole Hall.
“My lady!” Walvis gasped as the rivulet of glowing silver-gray pearls trickled into his palm.
“Suitable for a wedding necklet, I’d say,” Tobin contributed, and Chay aided and abetted by drawling, “Don’t fuss the boy, Tobin. He’s got the idea.”
Walvis’ wide blue eyes went helplessly from his prince to his princess. Sioned winked at him. “One day, Walvis, you must tell me exactly what happened at Tiglath. You may bow to us now, my lord,” she prompted. He did so and started back to his seat in a daze. Ostvel rose and escorted him to a place made amid Rohan’s other vassals. He sat with the pearls in both hands, stunned.
Rohan cleared his throat. “We present to you next Lord Tilal of River Run. Prince Davvi, the honor of confirming your son in his holding is yours.”
This elevation was no surprise to any of those directly involved. Tilal left the squires’ table and went to where his parents sat with his older brother Kostas. A ring was given and Tilal bowed to his father before turning to bow again in the direction of the high table. Wisla, already dizzy with delight at five days of being addressed as her grace of Syr by other princes, burst into happy tears. Kostas, eighteen winters old and a prince now himself, grinned at his little brother and made room for him at the table. A servant brought a chair for the new Lord of River Run, who hardly dared breathe.
“Goddess, how I love being a prince!” Rohan whispered to Sioned, smiling down at her. She was alight with an even greater excitement now, for next would come the best of the night’s surprises, known only to the two of them.
“We present to you now,” he called out, “Lord Ostvel of Skybowl.”
He froze at the far end of the high table, unable to move or speak. Chay pushed him up with a hand beneath his elbow and he managed to put one foot in front of the other until he stood facing Rohan and Sioned, his back to the assembly. His face was ashen and so bewildered that Rohan worried about his ability to stay upright.
From far down the Great Hall a small voice cried out, “Is Papa in trouble, prince?”
“Not in the least!” Rohan called back above the laughter. “You come up here too, Riyan.”
The boy raced up and clung to his father’s hand. Ostvel looked down at him, this irrepressible little boy with Camigwen’s wonderful dark eyes. When he faced Rohan again, his own eyes shone with tears.
“You trust me with the caves?” he murmured.
Sioned answered for them. “We trust you with our lives.”
“Forgiven?” he asked quietly.
Rohan did not understand the look that passed between them. Sioned bit her lip, then nodded solemnly. “If I am.”
Ostvel bowed his head. “She would have understood much sooner than I did, Sioned. If you’re determined to give this honor, do it for her, not me.”
“For you both,” she replied.
Rohan slipped onto Ostvel’s finger a ring set with a topaz so dark a golden-brown that it was nearly the color of Riyan’s eyes. To the child he said, “Your papa is a great lord now.”
Riyan looked excited, then suddenly forlorn. “Does that mean I have to be good all the time? No more playing dragons?”
“Oh, lots of playing dragons,” Rohan assured him. “You’ll have to teach Pol how, you know.” He reflected that there would be real dragons aplenty in the years ahead, seeking the caves around Skybowl now that they had forsaken Rivenrock for good. He envied Riyan the chance to see them so often.
The boy nodded his relief. “That’s all right, then. And I’ll be good, prince. I promise.”
Father and son went to the end of the high table, Riyan