Kantor told him.
:Didn’t Caryo guess what was going to happen?: he demanded. :Why didn’t she warn the rest of us? We could have gone to more pains to investigate him!:
:I don’t know,: Kantor said, mirroring Alberich’s irritation. :Maybe she thought it would all blow over. This shocked everyone; no one guessed Selenay would do this. I suppose she didn’t even confide in her own Companion.:
He kept his thoughts on that subject to himself. All right, granted he wasn’t the most competent when it came to matters of the heart and particularly of romance, but there were some things that were obvious. He hadn’t set eyes on this Prince himself, but he’d heard from plenty of people that the boy was absurdly good-looking. When you took a young woman like Selenay, who surely cherished her own dreams of romance even though she knew very well she was unlikely to fulfill them—and you presented her with a handsome young man of the proper birth and with all of the advantages that a foreign minister could ask for—well, what did you expect to happen? The only reason that he, Alberich, had been blind-sided was because the young man himself had given no outward signs—that Alberich knew of—that he was interested in a marriage alliance with Selenay and Valdemar.
Clearly both he and Selenay had played these cards very close to the chest, if even Caryo had thought it would all blow over.
:So what does anyone know about this prince?: he demanded.
The way cleared; they were in among the manors of the highborn now. And the highborn were all still at the masquerade, so the way was clear. Kantor broke into a gallop.
:I don’t know anything more than you do,: Kantor replied. :But you’ll shortly find out.:
Alberich cut his questions short. But behind his silence, they were piling up, like stones before an avalanche.
***
“—and that is all any of us know,” Myste concluded. Since she was the Chronicler, she had elected to be the one to collect all of the information there was about the Prince, and all of the information there was concerning the Prince and concerning the reaction this unique declaration was going to have on the Council.
Myste sat down on a bale of hay. They were meeting in the stables—the Companions’ stables. The building had the advantage of being big enough to hold all of them, and away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears.
No one seemed particularly ready to break the silence that followed Myste’s words. Finally, someone coughed.
“And Caryo doesn’t like him, but can’t say why. . . .” said the Herald who taught some of the law classes. “I am reluctant to place too much weight on this. Not even all of the Companions get along all the time; there are Companions that dislike anyone who isn’t a Herald, including their Chosen’s own relatives. I would even hate to speculate.”
“It could just be his natural arrogance that gets her back up,” Talamir suggested. “The boy is arrogant. It’s to be expected, in someone with that much rank and privilege, who is also that confoundedly good-looking.”
“It could be jealousy,” said someone else, in what sounded like the voice of experience. “Just as Peled said. We’re not perfect, and neither are they. I know the first time I flirted with an outsider, my Jandal got as jealous as anything.”
Someone sighed. “I don’t suppose it would do any good to reason with her about it—”
“Not if you don’t want her to call for a priest and wed the boy on the spot,” Keren said flatly. “For those of you who don’t happen to have experience with first love—”
“Infatuation, Keren, surely!” exclaimed someone else.
“First love, first infatuation, it doesn’t matter because it’s a strong emotion either way,” Keren snapped back. “She’s young, she just lost her father, and we can guess that he’s been playing all the parts she needs right now in a single package—part comforter, part protector, part lover. And, may I add, her Council has been putting pressure on her to make some kind of marriage. With all of that going on, not only won’t she hear anything bad about the boy, she’ll turn on the one who tries to criticize him. I’ve seen that, time and time again, in my village. The fastest way to get a girl to marry someone is to tell her you don’t want her to.”
She nodded with an air of finality. Alberich saw her looking at him, and just shrugged. If anyone thought he had any insights on what would work with Selenay, they were going to be sadly
