helpless to find his way out of countenancing the slaughter for another year.
“You require me to attend you?” a furious voice hissed in the darkness, and he jumped. Sioned appeared out of nowhere, quivering with anger. “I had not been informed that I was to be numbered among your servants, my lord prince!”
Well-used to the rages of the other two women in his life, he was able to meet Sioned’s fury calmly, even with a certain amusement. “I asked politely and you never came. I thought an order would bring you out of hiding—if only to shout at me.”
“How dare you command me as if you owned me! If you ever send words like that to me again, I’ll make sure you’re unable to be a husband to any woman, let alone me!”
She looked as if she really meant it, something he had never encountered in his mother’s or sister’s explosions of temper. Evidently there was fury and fury, he mused. He would not make the mistake of judging Sioned by other women again. Still, his own pride demanded a certain kind of response, which he gave in sharp tones. “When I want to see you, my lady, you’ll come no matter what the method of the summons!”
“Well, I don’t want to see you!”
“Then why did you come?”
Contrary to all his expectations of infuriated females, she neither shouted at him, slapped his face, nor stormed off. Instead she gave a little gasp and a muffled giggle. “You’ve got me there,” she admitted ruefully. “So much for a good rousing fight!”
Rohan stared in total bewilderment that intensified as she shrugged and sighed.
“I needed to see you, Rohan. I keep catching glimpses of you in the halls, and you’re always so busy and out of reach. I refused before because I didn’t want to add to what you’re already carrying, with the vassals here and planning for the Rialla and all.”
He discovered then that the Fire could also be sweet as a hearthflame on a chill winter evening. “Sioned, you’re no burden to me. You’re the only promise I have for the future.” He slipped his arms loosely around her waist and she leaned comfortably against him. He smiled as he rubbed his cheek against her hair.
“Thank you. I almost forgive you for what you said about my training. And speaking of that, I’ve been studying with Urival. There’s so much I need to know, and there’s not much time before we leave for Waes.”
He was annoyed that his own sense of romance had not been communicated to her. He had no desire to discuss schemes and problems tonight. He wanted to try out all the phrases he’d practiced alone in bed.
“I’ve been watching what goes on at Stronghold, too,” she went on. “I’m not sure I’m going to be any good at being a princess. Cami’s always told me I’m as disorganized as a winter storm. So I’ve had her give me some lessons, too. Except I’m afraid I’m pretty hopeless.”
“Cami? Oh—the dark-faced girl with the gorgeous eyes.”
She drew back and made a face at him. “The lesson I don’t need, thank you very much, is how to be jealous!”
He grinned, realizing he’d found his path to romance—of a sort. “I don’t think you’ll need any training in that at all.”
“If you look too long at any of those princesses, you’ll find out how much I know about it,” she warned playfully.
“Sioned, even if I’d never met you, there’s nothing under the sun or moons, that would make me wed one of Roelstra’s daughters. I want to live to a decrepit old age, and the day I fathered a son on one of them would be the day I could start counting every breath. There wouldn’t be many.”
Her eyes went wide. “But—oh, Goddess, I hadn’t thought of that! Rohan, they might attempt your life. You mustn’t go.”
He laughed, delighted by her worry. “Nobody’s going to try to kill me, and I have to go. Besides, I’ll have my Sunrunner witch there to protect me.”
“Don’t make fun of me!” she snapped. “Once they find out it’s me you’ve Chosen, neither of us will be safe.”
“Don’t see shadows where there aren’t any. And just think of the fun we’ll have shocking them! The last night of the Rialla you’re going to enter the banquet on my arm, dripping in emeralds. The women will all want to murder you for being so beautiful, and the men will want to have me gelded, and .