The speaker was a man of short stature. He had perhaps thirty summers, with a round face and short hair. The Verenthane star hanging from his neck was twice the size of his compatriots.' That, plus his northern accent, made Sasha fairly certain of his origin.
'Please, Master Stranger,' she said reasonably, 'it's impolite to insult someone without first offering your name. How else will I know whom I kill?'
'If you wish to challenge,' the northerner said with a smile, 'then you may challenge Yuan Martyn Ansyn. I and my sword shall be waiting for you.'
'Martyn Ansyn.' Sasha's eyes narrowed. 'Heryd Ansyn's brother, yes?'
'The very one.'
Family Ansyn were Family Telgar's oldest allies in Hadryn. There was much shared blood between them, and Lord Heryd was said to have been the old Great Lord Telgar's closest friend.
'So the lords of Hadryn and Valhanan lock arms at last,' said Sasha, surveying the group before her. There were two men behind her-seven in all, including Kumaryn and Martyn. More Hadryn than Valhanan, to judge from the cut of their hair and the prominence of Verenthane symbols. And too many, even for her. 'What message do you have for me that it takes seven of you hiding outside the door like common cutthroats to deliver it?'
'A reminder,' Kumaryn said coldly. 'There are more of us than of you.'
Sasha laughed. 'My Great Lord, you've learned to count! Your wet nurse will be so proud!'
'It's not our ability with numbers that was in question,' Yuan Martyn replied before Kumaryn could bristle his outrage. 'You don't have your pagan rabble to defend you here.'
'You threaten like a coward,' Sasha retorted, her temper slipping. 'If you were brave, you'd challenge. My family won't take kindly to my murder beneath their protection.'
'Oh aye,' Martyn said with a cool smile, 'Prince Koenyg loves you well, I hear. The king has not called you 'daughter' for twelve years. The king no longer favours your pagan ways, nor your devil friends from Saalshen. You have few enough friends in Baen-Tar, girl.'
'I'm going to go and have a pleasant lunch with my sister,' Sasha said impatiently. 'For the last time, say what you will and begone.'
'The trial of Lord Krayliss,' said Lord Kumaryn. 'It will be soon.'
Sasha rolled her eyes. 'You know, the last time we met, you were trying to arrest me for something you knew damn well I didn't do. Was this what that was about? You were trying to keep me from Lord Krayliss's trial and, since that didn't work, you now resort to threats?'
'The king wants Lord Krayliss dead,' Kumaryn continued, his bony cheeks reddening. 'Prince Koenyg wants him dead. Every sane man and woman in Lenayin sees him for the rabble-rousing troublemaker he is, and…'
'All the nobility, you mean,' Sasha interrupted. 'The only sane men and women in Lenayin.' Mockingly. 'What'll you do once he's gone? Have the king appoint some friendly Verenthane lord to the great lordship?'
'Such would be a great boon to the people of Taneryn,' Martyn said softly.
'Did you ask them?' Sasha retorted. 'I'm no friend of Lord Krayliss, but I'll not deny him a fair trial to help you fulfil your grand vision of a holy, Verenthane Lenayin with not a pagan lord in sight. You forget who the people of Lenayin truly are, so little you see of them in your Verenthane cities and castles. Best that you remember soon, or one day they'll walk into your cities and castles all together and remind you.'
Kumaryn's nostrils flared. 'Now who would be making the threats, girl?'
'Not a threat, Lord Kumaryn,' Sasha said coldly. 'Just seeing if you truly can count after all. They look so little from your castle towers, don't they? All the commonfolk? And so few. Like all the little streams in the hills after a winter's rain. It's only when you see them reach the valley bottom and come together that you realise what a flood looks like.'
'The little pretend princess thinks the Goeren-yai all love her,' Yuan Martyn said softly. His manner was all light-tongued menace, beside Kumaryn's blunt bluster. Sasha had no doubts which man was the more dangerous of the two. This was Princess Wyna's man, and Princess Wyna shared not only Koenyg's attention, but also his bed. Lord Kumaryn had no such advantage. 'There are thousands of Goeren-yai soldiers camped before the walls for Rathynal. I hear they could barely agree on where to pitch their tents. Upslope was more fortuitous, I hear, and downslope potentially an ill omen. It nearly came to blows. Such a rabble could no more unite against the true lords of Lenayin than they united against the Cherrovan Empire. It took a lowlands Verenthane to save Lenayin from its disgrace. There is no such hero to ride to your rescue this time, little pretend princess.'
'And it took a lowlands Nasi-Keth to come and rescue the Verenthanes when the Cherrovan came back seventy years later,' Sasha retorted. Yuan Martyn's eyes flashed with anger. 'Why go to such lengths to remove Lord Krayliss? If you're so unconcerned about the Goeren-yai?'
Yuan Martyn smiled. 'Someone must save Lenayin from herself. The gods' work is never easy, but it is rewarding. The gods are merciful, but their wrath is harsh upon all who would obstruct the righteous path. Remember, little pretend princess. Never forget.'
Sasha was almost surprised when the Verenthane Royal Guardsmen at Koenyg's door let her in with barely a query. Koenyg's chambers were large, with a main room here and a dining room beyond, half-hidden behind curtain drapes. Memories hit her with a rush, hard and unwelcome. These had been Krystoff's chambers. They'd seemed lighter then, somehow. The sun had always been shining through the far windows, in those memories, and gleaming golden upon the dining table. Now, the stone walls seemed darker, more foreboding.
She passed the curtain drapes and found Koenyg seated with Archbishop Dalryn at the near end of the long dining table, each with a drink in hand. Both men rose upon her entry. 'Sister,' Koenyg said blandly. 'What a lovely surprise. What can I…
'Did you send your wife's Hadryn lapdog after me?' Sasha demanded angrily. 'Or did she send him herself?'
Koenyg gazed at her for a long moment, the flexing of his free hand the only sign of a reaction. 'You should refer to your brother's wife as either Princess Wyna, or sister,' said Archbishop Dalryn into that silence. 'Your own title is no longer 'princess', and such informality is unbecoming.'
'Was I talking to you?' Sasha snapped at the holiest Verenthane in Lenayin. The archbishop reddened. He was, in Sasha's opinion, an utterly unremarkable man. He had a longish face, with a pointy jaw, a bloated nose and loose skin sagging from his cheeks. His hair was dark streaked with grey, and curly-an unusual trait in Lenayin. It was usually hidden beneath his tall archbishop's hat, which now sat upon the dining table. Now it stuck up in fuzzy curls. Like an old feather duster, Sasha thought.
'What happened?' Koenyg asked simply, sipping his wine. Or Sasha assumed it was wine, the archbishop's tastes were well known.
'Martyn Ansyn told me not to support Lord Krayliss come his trial, or I'd suffer for it. When is Lord Krayliss's trial anyway, Koenyg? Have you decided? Or does it depend entirely on what I plan to say in his defence?'
'Your brother should be addressed as Prince Koenyg,' the archbishop persisted, 'or as brother. From your mouth in particular, such informality is…
'From my mouth in particular?' Sasha leaned on a chairback, and glared at him. 'And how would you like me to address you, Dalryn? As the rural folk of Lenayin do? The Holy Brewery, perhaps? The Listing Bishop? Father Red Nose?'
'You dare say such things in this place!' the archbishop fumed. His horrified stare fixed on Koenyg, but Koenyg only watched, wearily.
'In this place more than any other!' Sasha retorted. 'This is my brother, in the chambers that once belonged to my dearest friend, and I've far more claim to the sanctity of this place than you ever will. If you don't like it, get lost.'
'Sasha, this is my invited guest.' Very little ever penetrated Koenyg's rock-like calm. He seemed no more alarmed by his sister's outburst than he might have been by a small, yapping dog about his ankles. 'You are not.'
'Did you send that thug to try and scare me?' Sasha yelled at him. Koenyg was heir to the throne and renowned throughout Lenayin for cold, emotionless calculation. But he was still her brother, and Damon's brother, and Sofy's. She might not have expected any better of his actions toward herself, but if he was capable of this toward her, then he could do it to her other siblings just as easily.
'You should apologise to His Holiness,' Koenyg continued. 'He is rightly unaccustomed to such indignities. He is also the spiritual leader of all the Verenthane faith in Lenayin. That includes you.'
