“that you made that wound fighting off the wee princeling behind you.”
“I was having a nightmare,” she said faintly, “and stabbed him by mistake.”
Uachdaran peered at Ruith’s arm, then looked up at him. “Need a surgeon, do you?”
“A spell would be just as welcome.”
“Happily, I might have one or two of those,” the king said. “Put your lady to bed in your chamber, lad, then you’ll pull up a scrap of floor in my solar—though I can’t believe I’m inviting you into my private sanctuary.”
“If it’s all the same to you, Your Majesty,” Ruith said, because he had spent the last night of Sarah’s life without her in the same chamber as he found himself, “I would prefer to keep Sarah within reach.”
Uachdaran made a noise of disapproval. “I don’t hold to these newfangled ideals of too much togetherness before marriage. A visit or two is sufficient, to my mind, to check for crooked teeth and knobby knees.”
Ruith wasn’t at all surprised, but he managed not to smile. “I vow I will be, as I have been until this moment, a perfect gentleman where Sarah is concerned. I wouldn’t want to face my mother’s disapproval.”
Uachdaran considered. “Well, she did manage to raise six lads without any of you going off to follow your sire in his madness, so I suppose she instilled some decent character into you. Very well. Bring your lady along. I’ll have a look at her arm while we’re tending yours.”
Ruith didn’t ask how Uachdaran knew about the trail of spells in Sarah’s arm. There was little—perhaps nothing, actually—that passed within the dwarf king’s realm that he didn’t know. He took Sarah’s hand, spelled a pair of soft slippers onto her feet, then walked with her after the king. He was a little surprised to find he did indeed remember the way to the king’s solar, but he supposed that was something he should keep to himself.
The king opened the door, entered first, then held the door for them both. He saw Sarah seated in front of a fire that leapt to life at his approach, then motioned for Ruith to help himself to the stool next to her. Ruith did, smiling a little at being put in his place. Uachdaran went off to putter amongst things that smelled like herbs, so Ruith took the opportunity to look at Sarah.
Sleep had obviously fled from her, which he couldn’t blame her for in the least. He’d never been able to sleep again after waking from a nightmare.
“Sing her a lay, Ruithneadh,” Uachdaran said, holding a glass bottle up to a candle. “Take her mind off the darkness. There’s a lute somewhere in here. I’d lay odds you know where it is.”
Ruith would have preferred to stick hot pins in his eyes rather than embarrass himself by demonstrating his lack of ability with anything bearing strings, but he could at least carry a tune. Perhaps Sarah would forgive him his very poor accompaniment.
He did indeed find a lute, tuned it, then looked at Sarah who was watching him in surprise.
“I had no idea you had so many courtly skills, Your Highness,” she said.
“Having them is perhaps a matter for debating later,” he said, “but I will concede that my mother did insist we all learn a few useful things. I do not play well, but if this could count as wooing, I might play better.”
“You seem to be lacking those ten princesses closely examined, Prince Ruithneadh,” she said pointedly, “before you begin to think of anything akin to that.”
“I believe we recently decided it was ten princesses danced with—and I believe that is much more than I agreed to at the start,” Ruith said, frowning as he plucked at the strings, “and I believe I danced with not one but two of our good king’s granddaughters this past night. That makes my remaining tally eight, not ten.”
“Well,” Uachdaran said, sounding as if he were trying very hard not to laugh, “the boy can do his sums. You must accord him that, Sarah, gel.”
“And I’m playing under enormous duress,” Ruith said, “with an arm that still bleeds. Surely that should earn me a concession or two.”
Sarah hadn’t begun to offer her opinion on that before Uachdaran had walked across the floor, slapped a dwarvish spell of binding on Ruith’s arm, then grunted at him before he returned to his work.
Ruith winced at the spell, but found its thoroughness to be quite admirable. He took a deep breath, then trolled back