we’ll be fresh for the races tomorrow. I hope you’re placing a bet on Lord Chaynal’s horses—”
Suddenly Meath gave him a powerful shove and he staggered down to hands and knees in the grass. Chay swore sharply and as Rohan glanced up he saw Meath running headlong for the river.
“What the hell—?” Chay exclaimed, helping Rohan to his feet. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” He brushed off his clothes. “But what was all that about?”
Meath soon came striding back, carrying a limp figure over his shoulder. “Your pardon, my lord,” he said again to Rohan, and dumped his burden on the ground. “I hope you’re not injured.”
“Not at all. Who’s this?”
Meath casually conjured a small flame above the man’s form, and Rohan gave a muffled exclamation. Chay bent down and touched the man’s face, turning it from side to side as if unable to believe what he saw. But the dark hair and ritual chin scar of the Merida royal house were unmistakable, even in the dim light.
“You don’t appear all that surprised, my lord,” the faradhi observed.
Rohan glanced up, startled by the man’s perceptiveness, and only then saw the dark stain on Meath’s left arm. “I wasn’t aware Lady Andrade allowed her Sunrunners to walk around the holes in their clothing,” he said mildly, though his whole body had clenched with fury. It was one thing for his own people to be wounded in his defense; it was quite another for a Sunrunner’s blood to be spilled.
“Nothing but a scratch, my lord.” Meath produced a wicked throwing knife, its glass blade twinkling in the conjured flame. “There’s enough of me so no harm was done,” he added.
Rohan cleared his throat. “Come to my tent and my squire will look after you, then, if it’s not serious. I’d rather Andrade didn’t hear about this.” He turned to Clay. “And not a word to Tobin or anyone else, please. Meath is right—I’m not especially surprised, except for the fact that it’s a son of the Merida Blood responsible.”
“What are you talking about?” Chay demanded.
“Come with me, and I’ll show you. And leave that here,” he said, nodding to the Merida. “It’d be too much bother to keep him captive, and I want him alive to tell his brethren he failed.”
The three men made their way by a roundabout route to Rohan’s tent, where Walvis wakened instantly from a light doze. His eyes went wide as Meath shrugged out of his shirt to reveal the knife wound, and he scrutinized Rohan intently to make sure there were no similiar holes in his lord’s hide. While the boy cleaned and bandaged the wound as all Stronghold squires learned to do from Princess Milar, Rohan dug into his saddlebags for the other knife and presented it silently to Chay.
“When?” the older man asked.
“On the way here. Both knives missed me. I think the other one went into the river, but this one stuck in the mud near the bank. Merida,” he added unnecessarily.
“I can see that!” Chay growled. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Rohan shrugged.
“Sometimes you are the most damnably stupid—”
“Well, what would you have me do? I didn’t want Andrade and Tobin fussing over me—or you either!”
“What about the Merida?”
“I’d rather see what their game is than try to stop it at this point.”
Chay drew breath for an explosion of temper, but Meath, his wound now invisible beneath a bandage, spoke first. “You’re well-guarded, my lord, as you now know. I think your decision to do nothing about them is wise.”
Walvis had turned a look of pure reproach on Rohan. “Why didn’t you say something, my lord?”
“Never mind, Walvis,” Chaynal said. “You and I both know he does as he pleases, with no thought to anyone else. Well then, Rohan, with so many eyes watching you, I suppose you’re safe enough. Is it any use asking if you’ve any idea about what caused this?”
“A few.”
“But you’re not telling.” Chay sighed with exasperation.
Rohan smiled. “Meath, if you can part with your souvenir, I’d like to keep it for a while.”
The faradhi handed it over, and Rohan fingered the hilt. “They’re advertising their presence, all right,” he mused. “This is a knife fit for a prince—look at the jewels in it. Even if it wasn’t made of glass. . . .”
Meath hesitated, then said, “A good thing it is, my lord. It’s only a rumor, and nobody I know has ever tested it out—but it’s said that Sunrunners pierced with steel can’t control their powers.”