conferring a tremendous favor.
'You are my only right-born child, Sheyrena,' he said, ponderously, and he held out a hand. She put her own in his, not really knowing what he wanted, and he set a ring of keys into it—the same ring of keys she had seen her mother wearing, for as long as she could remember.
'You are the lady of the House,' he told her. 'You now have charge of the bower and the household.' At her look of naked shock and dismay, he laughed. 'Oh, don't worry, child—it's only an honor and a title. The slaves really see to it all. You only need to see to it that the slaves know to come to you for their orders, and I will tell you what to tell them.'
'Yes, Father,' she faltered.
His smile broadened. 'You are far too valuable to waste on the likes of Lord Gildor,' he said, sounding very pleased with himself. 'I have sent my regrets to Lord Gildor, telling him that you are too precious to me now, and that I cannot bear to be without your comfort and company. I have dissolved the betrothal.'
'You have?' She stared at him; she would not have believed that he would go that far!
He mistook her astonishment for dismay. 'Oh, don't be disappointed, child! You are worth ten Gildors now! No, now, listen to me closely.'
She shut her mouth, and kept her face carefully schooled into the appearance of attentiveness.
'I am going to find you a marriage-alliance that will put our House in the ranks of the High Lords,' he told her gleefully. 'You have a job to do, a very important one. You must not allow this present attractiveness to fade, and that is an order! I want you to rise every morning, put yourself right into the hands of your maids, make yourself presentable, and keep yourself that way! None of these afternoon naps, when you can't be viewed! No disappearing for long rides! Don't go hiding in the garden as if you were a child! Is that understood?'
'Yes, Father,' she replied, flushing again with anger. And, predictably, he interpreted the anger as embarrassment.
'Now, Sheyrena, don't be upset,' he said, in what he probably thought was a coaxing tone. 'I'm not angry with you, but you aren't a child anymore, and you are far too important to the House now to play your childish games. Just do as you are told, and things will work out wonderfully for you. Just wait and see!'
'Yes, Father,' she replied, still flushed.
'I have decided, now that virtually every lord on the Council knows your name and your story, to announce that you are free for betrothal at the next Council meeting. It will make a pleasant diversion for everyone from our final preparations for war against the wizards. I will be able to marshal my forces beside those of whoever becomes your lord.' He beamed, as if he had thought of something terribly clever. 'I shall—ah—put you up for bid, so to speak. And I do expect the bidding to be brisk!'
'But Lord Gildor—' she said, unable to think of anything else to say.
'Hah!' He laughed. 'Put him from your mind. I don't know who your husband-to-be will be, yet, but you can take it as written that whoever he is, he will be as high above Lord Gildor as Lord Gildor is above the chief of my guards!'
But all that Rena could think—could hope—was that Mero would be able to read all of this from her thoughts, for she had no other way to send him this all-important message. The elves were about to break the treaty and the truce—months before any of them had thought possible!
Shana fumed, as she stood before the assembled wizards in the bare cavern they used for their meeting place, wanting very much to knock sense into several heads with a large and heavy stick! Especially the head of Caellach Gwain—and why had he chosen to take this line now, when he had been the one howling about the danger of the elven lords only a few months ago?
And how is Lorryn doing, and what is Lorryn doing, and why do I never hear from him, only from Mero? Does he—would he—damn it all, Shana, keep your mind on your enemies! But—he's in the midst of the worst of those enemies—
'I am telling you, I have it nearly from the mouth of one of the High Lords of the Council himself!' she growled, biting off the words savagely. 'The elves know where we are, they are going to attack, and they are going to do it soon! They're coordinated enough to put up a Portal to bring their troops right to our doorstep!'
'Oh, please,' said Caellach Gwain, waving a hand languidly. 'This is an old tale, and we're weary of hearing it. We haven't seen any signs of this so-called mustering of troops you've been ranting about.'
'That's because' she snarled impatiently, 'the troops are all being mustered on the estates of three of the High Lords who you have been afraid to watch!'
'And who is this informant of yours?' Caellach asked shrewdly.
She didn't answer at first. They wouldn't believe her, even though they had seen Rena themselves, if only briefly. They would never believe Rena could keep her head long enough to be of any use as a spy. 'I'm not about to blurt out any names when there might be a traitor among you!' she snapped.
'Oh? This is nothing more than a ruse to take our minds off the important matter of a treaty negotiated with dangerous barbarians—negotiated without permission of the Citadel as a whole, might I add.' Caellach looked disgustingly proud of himself. She glanced over at Denelor and Parth Agon; the former shrugged helplessly, the latter cast his eyes up to heaven. Caellach Gwain did not have enough votes to cause her serious trouble, but he did have enough of the wizards on his side to embroil them in this nonsense until the elven armies were at their very door!
Once again, as she gazed out at those fat, fatuous faces, she heard Mero's voice in her mind, giving her the bad news he had in turn heard from Sheyrena. In' a panic, she had spent all of the energy she dared in trying to send that same message on to Keman, but she had no real idea if he had heard, nor where he was if he had.
It would be just her luck that he and that lady friend of his had decided to flit off somewhere together out of reach of everything and everyone. Or perhaps they had gone back south to her Lair, to gain 'courting consent' from her parents…
Now, as she listened to the same idiocy that had kept her penned in this chamber, day after day, unable to accomplish anything productive, her temper snapped.
She stood up, right in the middle of one of Caellach's speeches, slamming the palm of her hand on the table. He stopped in midsentence, shock on his face at her rudeness.
'You can blather about this from now until you're cut down by elven blades, if you want,' she spat. '
'With what?' Caellach sneered.
'With us,' Kalamadea replied, standing up himself, as every other shape-changed dragon in the place did the same. 'Even if it is only to make plans to flee, with those who are wise enough to come with us.'
Caellach gaped at him, openmouthed at the revolt of the dragons. 'But—' he spluttered impotently. 'But —'
'But I don't think that will be necessary,' came a voice from the door, a voice so hoarse with weariness that Shana did not even recognize it. Until she turned, and saw—
Keman. And behind Keman, a dozen, two dozen—three, four—she lost count of how many strangers there were behind him.
All of them with dragon-shadows.
'Shana, here are your new allies,' he said, as Alara exclaimed in surprise and joy and ran to embrace not only her son but a tall and handsome, ebony-haired man who stood at Keman's side. 'Here are dragons from our Lair, O'ordila'i's Lair, Hali'a's Lair, Teomenava's Lair—'
He named off a half-dozen more Lairs as Shana stood there, so stunned that she couldn't even speak.
'We'll form the force on the right flank,' he continued. 'Dora has gone to the Iron People, and Diric should be able to bring his mounted warriors in to be our left flank before the elven armies themselves show up.'
'We can plant wedges of iron that will disrupt the elven plan to bring the Portal up right on your doorstep,' the black-haired man said with a grin. 'Our best rock-melders are bringing it up out of the earth now in fist-sized nodules, and we're flying it out here and dropping bits of it along the way. We think we'll have enough to seed the forest for a day's march all around.'
'That leaves your forces to form the rear of the trap,' Keman continued hoarsely, and turned to Caellach Gwain. It was at that point that Shana was struck by the realization that Keman was no longer a 'boy,' by any standards. He was thinking and acting for himself, taking responsibility, and willing to live with the consequences.
