Khadasa! The boy was perceptive! It was as though he’d read the unspoken thoughts. If Brion was to avoid the Morgan question, he would have to steer Kelson away from the subject quickly.

The king permitted himself a wan smile. “Thank you for the vote of confidence. I’m afraid that you and I are among the few who have missed him, however. I’m sure you’re aware of the rumors afoot in the past weeks.”

“That Morgan is out to depose you?” Kelson said guardedly. “You don’t really believe that, do you? And that isn’t the reason he’s still at Cardosa, either.”

Brion studied the boy out of the corner of his eye, his crop tapping lightly against his right boot where Kelson could not see it. Cardosa, even.

The boy certainly had a good source of information, whatever it was. And he was persistent, too. He had deliberately turned the conversation back to Morgan’s absence, despite his father’s efforts to avoid the issue. Perhaps Brion had misjudged the boy. He tended to forget that Kelson was nearly fourteen, of legal age. Brion himself had been only a little older when he came to the throne.

He decided to release a bit of solid information and see how the boy would react.

“No, it isn’t. I can’t go into too much detail right now, Son. But there is a major crisis brewing at Cardosa, and Morgan is keeping an eye on it. Wencit of Torenth wants the city, and he’s already broken two treaties in his efforts to annex it. By next spring we’ll probably be formally at war.” He paused. “Does that frighten you?”

Kelson studied the ends of his reins carefully before replying. “I’ve never known real war,” he said slowly, his gaze shifting out across the plain. “As long as I’ve been alive, there’s been peace in the Eleven Kingdoms. One would think men could forget how to fight after fifteen years of peace.”

Brion smiled and allowed himself to relax slightly. He seemed to have succeeded in shifting the topic of discussion away from Morgan at last, and that was good.

“They never forget, Kelson. That’s part of being human, I’m sorry to say.”

“I suppose so,” Kelson said. He reached down and patted the bay’s neck, smoothed a stray wisp in the mane, turned wide gray eyes squarely on his father’s face.

“It’s the Shadowed One again, isn’t it?”

The insight of that simple statement momentarily rocked Brion’s world. He had been prepared for any question, any comment—anything but a mention of the Shadowed One by his son. It was not fair for one so young to have to face such awesome reality! It so unnerved the older man that for an instant he was speechless, open-mouthed.