the brazier again, gaze fixed on her rings as he crouched beside her.
“You’re up late. You must be tired—it was a long ride, and I’m sure Camigwen didn’t spare you a share of the work.”
“I’m not sleepy.”
“Nor I. Roelstra’s arriving tomorrow, and I’m worried.”
“Surely you know what you’re going to do.” Her gaze strayed to his fine, sun-browned hands, held near hers as he warmed them at the fire.
“More or less. But it all may change when I meet him face to face, one prince to another. What if he sees through me?”
“If those who love you have their doubts, why worry about a stranger?”
“Oh, I’ve been fooling my family for years,” he replied, and she knew he had not heard her implication. “Sioned, what if I fail? I must have those treaties. Only then can I begin to build a life for us.”
“If it’s what you truly want, you’ll find a way to succeed.” She heard the platitude and loathed herself for it.
“Sioned, please look at me.”
Unwillingly, she did so. His face was all gold and Fire, his eyes reflecting the flames.
“I need you to want this, too. Before, it was for myself and the lands my father gave me. But now it’s for you as well. The private reasons are just as important as the public ones.”
She hesitated, then shrugged. “It’s been difficult, and it’s going to get worse for both of us before it gets any better. What you said to me on the Hatching Hunt, for instance. I can pretend to be what I’m not, but I can’t and wouldn’t change the past even if I could. You have to trust me.”
He held her gaze in silence for so long that she began to tremble inside with nerves. “Tell me one thing,” he said at last.
“Yes?” she asked, wary.
“Tell me you love me.”
Sioned looked away from those impossible eyes, unable to speak.
“You do, and I know it. But I need to hear you say it, Sioned. And that should tell you everything you need to know about me. Maybe the next days are going to cost us more than we’re willing to pay, but I’ve got to believe it’ll be worth it in the end. When it’s all finished here, we can go home and love each other in peace. This isn’t our beginning yet. That has to wait until we’re safely in our own country again. But the life we’ll have, Sioned—when I’m able to put my sword away for good, between us we can—”
“Your highness?” someone ventured from beyond the firelight, and Rohan cursed under his breath. He got to his feet and brushed his fingertips over Sioned’s hair as he left her.
“Yes, Lord Eltanin. Forgive me, I’d forgotten we were to talk. Shall we go to my tent and be comfortable?”
The firelight reached for him, unable to give up the touching of his body and hair. Sioned went into her tent, huddled on the bed, and did not sleep.
At dawn she rose and dressed in her riding clothes, careful not to awaken the other faradh’im. But as she was pulling on her boots, the encampment roused with noises a warrior would have associated with imminent attack. Swords clanged, boots and hooves pounded in the dirt, guards shouted orders. Sioned leaped up and pulled the tent flap aside, astonished by the frantic activity.
“What in the name of—?” Camigwen, long hair streaming down her back, pressed to Sioned’s side. “Why are they all running around, shouting at each other?”
The other Sunrunners, startled from sleep, crowded around and speculated among themselves, but no one had any answers until Ostvel strode past the tent and called out, “Get dressed, all of you! Hurry!”
“Is something wrong?” Cami asked, bewildered.
“That’s one way of looking at it,” he tossed back, leaving them more confused than before.
Cami pulled on her clothes and followed Sioned outside. They spotted Ostvel in the crowd that flowed down to the river. As they reached him, they heard him give a sharp order for the guards to form ranks.
“Fasten your tunic, woman! Straight lines, now! Look alive, even if you’re not awake!” When they were arranged to his satisfaction, he turned, caught sight of the faradh’im, and gave an ironic salute. “Good morning, ladies. You’re just in time to line the riverbank with the rest of us poor mortals. The High Prince has arrived.”
“All this, for him?” Cami marveled, gesturing to the bustle around them that was repeated in every other prince’s camp.