Alberich was not present at the Council meeting that day after the masquerade where she announced—not asked, not even for advice—announced, arbitrarily and making it clear that she would brook no opposition, that she and the Prince were going to wed. And that it would be within the month. He was told about it later that evening by Elcarth.

Elcarth, Kyril, Jadus, and Talamir were all in Alberich’s quarters, which made it a bit crowded once Myste, Keren, and Ylsa joined the group. Elcarth was looking more than a bit dazed, Kyril a little grim, and Talamir very—quiet and contained. Inhumanly so, actually. It made the hair on the back of Alberich’s neck rise.

But they all had other considerations at the moment.

“You ladies wouldn’t have known her father when he was at his most stubborn,” Elcarth said, rubbing his hands over his temples. “When there was something he knew he wanted done, and he wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer. He was a force of nature, and there was no point in getting in his way, any more than there is in standing in the path of an avalanche and expecting it to stop because you want it to. It was like seeing her father all over again, with the addition that she was positively fixated on getting her way in this, as if it not only would be, it had to be, or the world would end.”

“She simply rode right over the top of any opposition,” Kyril seconded. “Not that there was very much, not when Orthallen and Gartheser threw in on her side. But still—I’ve never seen her like this, she became a petty tyrant, in fact. It was as if anyone who said anything contrary to her just didn’t exist—”

“She was afraid,” Talamir said, into the silence. “Fear can make anyone a tyrant.”

The men looked at him blankly; Alberich was among them. He couldn’t imagine how Talamir had come to that conclusion; there was no logic in it.

But Keren and Myste exchanged an eloquent glance, and after Keren nodded, Myste spoke up.

“She was afraid that if she didn’t force this through, now, she would lose him, you mean,” Myste said. It was a statement, not a question. “And if she loses him, it will break her, and she knows it.”

“I think so.” Talamir passed a hand over one eye, and looked, for a moment, impossibly frail.

“How can it break her?” Elcarth asked, aghast. “Great good gods, she’s been through much worse than having a love affair end!”