“We have been together for years,” Kitai said. “We have shared a bed and pleasured one another on a daily basis. For years. And you are finally becoming competent.”

Tavi thought his cheeks might actually burst into flame. “Kitai!”

“I am informed that the fact that we have been together for so long will be the source of much mockery and outrage among the Citizens of Alera. That they universally regard me as the Princeps’ whore.” She scowled. “And for some baffling reason, that is considered to be a very bad thing.”

“Kitai, you aren’t—”

“I will not be treated that way,” she snarled. “You idiot. You face problems enough in assuming the Crown without giving your enemies in the Citizenry such an obvious weakness to exploit. How dare you allow me to be a means by which you are brought to harm?”

Tavi just stared at her helplessly.

The anger faded from her expression. “Of course,” she said, her voice very quiet, “this all assumes that you intend me to be your wife.”

“Honestly, Kitai, I hadn’t... I hadn’t even thought about it.”

Her eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open in an expression of something almost like horror. “You... you hadn’t?” She swallowed. “You plan to take another?”

Tavi felt his own eyes widen. “No. No, crows, no, Kitai. I hadn’t considered it because I never thought it would end any other way. I mean, it wasn’t even a question to me, chala.”

For an instant, her uncertainty was replaced with relief. And then that expression gave way to another in turn: Kitai narrowed her eyes dangerously. “You just assumed I would do it.”

Tavi winced. Again.

“You assumed I would have no other option. That I would be so desperate that I would be forced to become your wife.”

Clearly, anything he said would only make things worse. He kept his mouth shut.

Kitai stalked over to him and seized him by the front of his tunic, lifting him several inches, despite the difference in their sizes. The young Marat woman was far stronger than an Aleran her size, even without employing furycraft. “This is what is going to happen, Aleran. You will no longer lie with me. You will treat me in exactly the fashion that you would any proper young lady of the Citizenry. You will court me, and do it well, or so help me I will strangle the life from you.”

“Um,” Tavi said.

“And,” she said, a massively threatening quality in her tone, “you will court me properly after the ways of my people. You will do so with legendary skill and taste. And only when that is done will we share a bed once more.”

She spun on a heel and stalked back toward the pool.

Tavi stammered for a second, then blurted, “Kitai. It might help if you told me what the customs of your people involved.”