Sendar, on the other hand, had been a very young King, but not at all uncertain in his office. Young, he might have been, but he’d been schooled in his duties since he could toddle. He’d been a handsome young man then, blond and tall and strong, with chiseled features worthy of a god, and an idealistic nature tempered with that finely-honed sense of irony. He was handsome still, though there was as much gray in his hair as gold, and age and care had continued to wield a cruel hand against those features, chiseling lines of worry that gave him a rather stern look. Kingly, but there was no doubt that people found him intimidating on occasion. His own sardonic sense of humor didn’t help on those occasions; he rather enjoyed being intimidating now and again.

“He promised that he would give us a trial,” Talamir told the King, knowing how Sendar would react. Sendar liked audaciousness; he’d loved it in his Queen, who had boldly proposed to him rather than the other way around, who had met every challenge, even the illness that killed her, with spirit and determination.

Sendar laughed as Talamir had expected, a dry little chuckle.

His daughter, Princess Selenay, who had been staring rather fixedly at nothing at all as she listened, made a face. “I don’t see what’s so funny,” she objected.

Selenay might one day grow into the dry wit her father possessed, but at the moment, she was in a stage where she took everything quite seriously and earnestly. Talamir found that uniquely endearing, as did her father.

“Not funny, my dear—ironic,” Sendar told her. “A Karsite, of all things, giving us a chance to prove our good intentions. If you’ll recall your history, you’ll know why that seems ironic.”

Selenay hesitated, toying with the end of her single braid, then evidently decided to be as forthright as her father. “He must be a man of honor, or Kantor wouldn’t have Chosen him, so why should that be ironic? Can’t Karsites have men of honor, too? It seems to me he has every right to require us to prove ourselves.”

“Perhaps because the Karsite leaders have broken every pact they ever made—and have even made war on their own people?” Sendar suggested mildly.

She flushed as Talamir gave her an opaque look, but persisted. “Why should that mean he shouldn’t demand we prove ourselves, though? The Karsites—well, how much do we know about them? Next to nothing; maybe in their minds they had honorable reasons to break their pacts. I mean, I should think that this man would have more reason to be suspicious—”

Sendar shook his head.

:Chosen, don’t just dismiss her because she’s young,: Taver cautioned. Clearly, this had gone from a discussion of one man to a more abstract problem.