Asirri nodded graciously and Sarkal’s gaze shifted to Lannahi. He looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. “Daughter,” he said with angry pride. “Do your father a favor and don’t get yourself killed.”
A curtsy was her only answer. She didn’t want to die, but if came the day when the choice meant being Nihhal’s slave or death, she knew she would choose death. She couldn’t promise her father anything. Fae didn’t make empty promises.
Some of the weight crushing her heart lifted, however, and the smile she sent her father was genuine.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, but though his anger began to subside, Sarkal didn’t stop frowning, and the look he gave Maal and Letiri wasn’t gentle. “Do you also plan to dethrone someone before my death?”
“We enjoy our roles as princes,” Letiri assured him.
Sarkal shook his head at such boldness, torn between annoyance and amusement, but after a moment he said as if a sudden fatigue had seized him, “Go now.”
Lannahi wondered if he noticed that his eldest daughter’s answer was not actually a denial.
***
The first thing Lannahi noticed after leaving the council room was the concerned faces of the guards. The door was thick, and she didn’t think they could hear anything after it was closed, even with Sarkal’s raised voice, but from the way they avoided meeting her eyes, she guessed they knew that she was the cause of their king’s anger. This washerfirst Sabbath after all.
One of the guards broke away from the others and followed Maal who left the chamber without looking back.
“You are full of surprises, Lannahi,” Letiri said.
Lannahi didn’t reply, but her sister didn’t mind. She smiled lightly and followed Maal in the company of her personal guard, presumably to confer with their brother.
Deciding to take a circuitous route to her chambers, Lannahi turned in the opposite direction. After the many hours surrounded by strangers, she welcomed the upcoming solitude.
She heard Erril’s footsteps behind her. She was assigned three personal guards, but he was the one who accompanied her to the balls. Deprived of his company at the Royal Sabbath, only today she realized how much comfort his presence gave her.
When they reached her chambers, she left the door open in a silent invitation. Erril didn’t hesitate to take it.
“From your sister’s words, I gather that it was you who messed up,” he said when she finished enchanting the lightcrystals on the walls, “but it’sreallyhard for me to imagine that to be true.”
Lannahi took off her coat and put it on the back of the sofa. She looked at Erril. With his hair shaved at the sides and his gray-gold guard’s jacket unbuttoned casually, he looked like the scamp he was, but now his eyes betrayed tension.
“I Challenged a landshaper.”
Her guard was speechless.
Lannahi was bemused at his unusual silence. “Is itthathard to imagine?” she teased.
Not even a hint of a smile appeared on his face. “Why?” he asked when he shook off his disbelief. “You…”
Lannahi’s amusement vanished as quickly as it appeared. “I… what? I’m weak?”
Erril frowned. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
He regarded her closely. “I thought you enjoyed performing,” he said slowly. “Then I thought that there were safer ways to gain power. That you could easily become the consort of a powerful king.” He smiled slightly. “And I suddenly realized that conquering a kingdom would require exactly the same amount of effort and luck.”
For the first time that day, Lannahi felt the genuine urge to laugh. “I came to the same conclusion.”
The man shook his head in disbelief and wonder. “You really challenged a landshaper?”
She nodded. He laughed.
“When is the duel?” he asked suddenly.
“In three days.”
