Giddon pushed potatoes onto his fork and chewed. He considered Oll’s words. “We can’t do any work for the Council,” he said, “if we don’t also follow Randa’s commands. We’re no use to anyone if we’re sitting in the dungeons.”

“Yes,” Oll said. “But still, it doesn’t seem right.”

By the end of the meal, Giddon was as morose as Oll. Katsa watched Oll’s craggy face and his unhappy eyes. She watched Giddon eating, his knife reflecting the gold and red of the walls as he cut his meat. His voice was low, and he sighed—they both sighed, Oll and Giddon, as they talked and ate.

They didn’t want to perform this task for Randa. As Katsa watched them and listened, the fingers of her mind began to open and reach around for some means by which they might thwart Randa’s instructions.

PO HAD SAID it was in her power to refuse Randa. And maybe it was in her power, as it was not in Oll’s or Giddon’s, because Randa could punish them in ways he couldn’t punish her. Could he punish her? He could use his entire army, perhaps, to force her into his dungeons. He could kill her. Not in a fight, but he could poison her, one night at dinner. If he thought her a danger, or didn’t think her useful, he would certainly have her imprisoned or killed.

And what if his anger, when she returned to court without Ellis’s daughter, inflamed her own? What would happen at court, if she stood before Randa and felt an anger in her hands and feet she couldn’t contain? What would she do?

It didn’t matter. When Katsa awoke the next morning in her comfortable bed in Giddon’s castle, she knew it didn’t matter what Randa might do to her, or what she might do to Randa. If she were forced to injure Lord Ellis today as Randa wished, it would set her into a rage. She sensed the rage building, just at the thought of it. Her rage if she hurt Lord Ellis would be no less catastrophic than her rage if she didn’t and Randa retaliated. She would not do it. She wouldn’t torture a man who was only trying to protect his children.

She didn’t know what would happen because of this. But she knew that today, she would hurt no one. She threw back her blankets and thought only of today.

GIDDON AND OLL dragged their feet as they prepared their bags and their horses. “Perhaps we’ll be able to talk him into an agreement,” Giddon said, lamely. “Humph,” was Oll’s only response.

Ellis’s castle was a few short hours’ ride distant. When they arrived, a steward showed them into the great library, where Ellis sat writing at a desk. The walls were lined with books, some so high they could only be reached by ladders made of fine dark wood that leaned against the shelves. Lord Ellis stood as they entered, his eyes bold and his chin high. He was a small man, with a thatch of black hair, and small fingers which he spread across the top of his desk.