they’ll go after Sioned. She’s where you’re vulnerable.”
“There are other princes—other lords with as much money and power as I have. Why does it have to be me?”
Chay shook his head. “You don’t see it. I owe you an apology for all the years I thought you a nice, over-learned little boy. I’ve watched you since Zehava died. You’re as ruthless as Andrade and much more dangerous than your father ever was. His armies were in the field. Yours are invisible. Those ideas of yours are your soldiers, and your schemes are your armies going to battle. Nobody expects it. You play the fool of a prince, but there’s something about you that you’ll never be able to hide, not after killing that dragon. It’s power—and it’s very personal. That makes you worth a lot to any woman, especially one who has a taste for power herself.”
Rohan stared. He had never heard Chay talk this way before and had no notion of how to react.
“You don’t think Roelstra gives those girls anything useful to occupy their time, do you?” Chay went on. “Zehava always kept Tobin busy—he gave her enough work so that she knew her own strengths. She was her own woman before she became mine. Sioned’s the same kind. She has the look about her. She knows who she is and she has worth in her own eyes. But those princesses—you’re their chance to become somebody other than just another of seventeen daughters. They’ve been stewing in that castle their whole lives, looking for the day when they’ll marry some man who’ll let them play with his power. And once they find you’ve played them all for fools—”
Rohan’s fingers clenched around handfuls of moist grass. “You’re right, Chay. I’m stupid about women.”
“You’ve only known Tobin and your mother, Maeta, a few others. None of them has a vicious bone in her body. Rohan, anything spoils when it’s not allowed to live. A few more years and I would’ve started being afraid for you. But you’ve felt your own power now. The princesses see it. They want it.”
“I should have listened to Sioned,” he murmured. “She tried to tell me the same thing.”
“I thought you never even spoke to the poor girl!”
“Remember how I used to arrange meetings between you and Tobin? Walvis used the tricks I taught him.”
“Corrupting innocent youth. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Me? Who taught me in the first place?”
“I know a few more, and I’ll have my people use them to keep watch on her.”
“Just as you’ve set watch over me,” Rohan guessed.
Chay grinned in the darkness and got to his feet. “I don’t have to.” He gestured to the rise above the river. Rohan peered into the trees and after a moment made out the shape of a tall man. “Her fellow Sunrunners take turns,” Chay informed him dryly.
Rohan stood, speechless with fury. Then, very slowly, drawing out each syllable, “Why that sly, conniving, secretive, cunning little—”
Chay laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “All of which makes her just like you!”
Rohan managed a very sour smile and started up the bank, his eyes on the shadow next to a tree. As branches shifted and moonlight seeped down in new patterns, he saw the outlines of a frame much broader than his own, and made a guess. “Meath!” he called out, and the shadow moved abruptly. Rohan snorted. “I’ve seen you, so you might as well come explain this.”
The faradhi stepped out of his hiding place and bowed formally before straightening to his full height. “Your pardon, my lord. The Lady Andrade—”
“I quite understand,” Rohan interrupted. He knew very well the Sunrunner was about to tell him a convenient lie on Sioned’s orders, and did not wish to hear it. “I appreciate your concern, but I have a favor to ask of you, Meath—something my aunt apparently hasn’t thought about.”
“Yes, my lord?”
“You know the rumors about Sioned. Roelstra’s daughters aren’t likely to take those rumors of her presence very kindly.”
“I heard them with her and Princess Tobin at the Fair, my lord,” Meath remarked calmly.
“Just so.” Rohan knew he had no need to speak further, and smiled to himself. Sioned would now be guarded not only by his people and Chay’s, but by her own kind—and without her knowledge. It was a neat trick to play on her for guarding him, and one that would solve the problem of her protection. “My thanks, Meath. And now I think we’d all best retire so