Reader and Raelynx Read Online Free PDF Page B

degrees.
    “So why have I come here tonight?” she asked, leaning back against the tattered fabric. “Since you seem to know everything.”
    He grinned. “I don’t. Just that you were coming.” He thought a moment. “Because the king asked you to?”
    “Why do I even bother?” she demanded. “Why don’t I just let you figure it all out for yourself?”
    “It goes faster if you tell me,” he laughed. “But did King Baryn really ask about me?”
    She relaxed more deeply into the chair. She seemed tired. “Not about you so much as…Here’s the story: He’s decided he should find a husband for Princess Amalie.”
    Cammon spared a moment to think of that thin, calm, curious girl with the amazing red-gold hair. “Does Amalie want to be married?”
    Senneth smiled. “I’m not sure that’s the point.”
    “It might be to Amalie.”
    “Hush. Listen. Amalie’s nineteen now, and all anyone in Gillengaria can think of is what kind of queen she will make and whether she will be fertile and bear heirs. So Baryn thinks that if he weds her off now, perhaps this will stop some of the plotting among the marlords of the Twelve Houses. Pick the right man, one who pleases all the marlords, have her produce a son or a daughter while Baryn is still alive—this might keep peace among the Houses.”
    Cammon was still thinking of Amalie. “Yes, but if she doesn’t want to be married—”
    “Princesses don’t marry for love,” Senneth said. “They marry for political alliances. They marry coastlines and trade routes and standing armies. Amalie knows this.”
    “ You got to marry for love,” he argued. “And serramarra are supposed to marry coastlines and all that, too. But you’re a serramarra and you married a King’s Rider—”
    Senneth was laughing again. True, she was a serramarra—the daughter of a marlord—but she was hardly the most respectable example of the aristocracy. “Well, I’m different,” she said. “I’m a mystic, and the fate of Gillengaria does not depend upon my bloodlines. But Amalie will be queen—if we can keep her alive—and a great deal depends on her heirs. Therefore—”
    “That’s who arrived yesterday, isn’t it?” Cammon said as the pieces suddenly came together. “Some prince from Sovenfeld, I suppose. Is the king going to marry her off to a foreign lord?”
    Now Senneth was watching him from her wide gray eyes, keeping her face neutral. It did her no good to try to mask her expression, of course; he could read the astonishment behind the impassive look. “How did you pick up on that, I wonder?” she said. “Or did you see them ride in?”
    He shrugged impatiently. “We talked about it last night. All of us had sensed someone coming into the city, but we couldn’t get the details.”
    “That was an envoy from Karyndein, not Sovenfeld,” she said. “And not the prince himself, but a representative of the prince. I don’t think Baryn is seriously considering a groom from outside Gillengaria, though. He believes that a judicious marriage between Amalie and a local noble might be more likely to restore peace to the realm. Myself, I’m not sure that’s it. Baryn has never been one to look too far beyond his own borders, and I don’t think he wants to bestow Amalie’s hand on anyone who seems so strange.”
    “I think he should ask Amalie who she wants to marry.”
    Senneth grinned briefly. “The problem is not so much who Amalie would like to marry as who would like to marry Amalie,” she said. “Who can be trusted? Which serramar from which House does not have a secret agenda? The thought was that you could help us decide who is sincere and who is scheming.”
    “ I can help you? How could I do that?”
    “The king would like you to serve as an advisor to Amalie as she picks her husband.”
    Cammon just stared at her mutely, and Senneth went off into peals of laughter.
    “I’m sorry, but the look on your face—! I did manage to surprise you after