“Yes,” Dorrin said. She looked more at ease this visit. “She’s not ready to settle down; she’s got a touch of Paks-fever.”

Arcolin laughed. “I’m not looking for a wild girl,” he said. “Nor yet a soldier. Someone steady enough to manage an estate while I’m gone, who won’t mind being up there in the north with a military training camp, yet young enough…”

“We do have a list,” Serrostin said. “Though perhaps we should apologize for making one without asking you, but after … events … everyone’s been concerned about pedigrees this year, and we want you to be safe.”

“Safe?”

“You haven’t told him?” Mahieran said, turning to Dorrin. “Even after the king made the proclamation?”

She shook her head. “My lord, you know it would have been unwise: what if the message were intercepted in Aarenis before it reached the duke?”

“True. Well, then—”

The story he told chilled Arcolin’s blood. Beclan proved to have active magery, stricken from Mahieran and now Dorrin’s heir? His mother still confined to the Mahieran city house? If a Mahieran could have active magery, who else? Surely not the king—no, but the king’s brother, and many more in families humble and high both.

“Even though it now seems it is not a matter of mageborn blood—or anything to do with Verrakai,” Serrostin said as the tale ended, “we sought to find potential wives for you who were not related within five generations to Verrakai or Konhalt. My children qualify, but all the girls are married or already pledged. Please do not be insulted that our list is taken from lower nobility.”

“I’m not insulted at all,” Arcolin said. “I had not thought to seek a high marriage in any case.”

“Well, then. There are two barons west of you who have daughters you might consider; they don’t come to court, but their fathers declare them sensible young women. And a niece of Duke Gerstad Elorran, a widow. Of course, you may have your eye on someone else, but—”

“Thank you,” Arcolin said. “Are any of these ladies at court now?”

“As a matter of fact, they are.” Serrostin’s eyes twinkled. “That was another reason to put these on the list.”

When one of the king’s messengers called him to the palace, Arcolin thought it must be a question about gnomes, recruitment, magery, or the search for a wife. Instead, he found a royal courier with the king.

“Your Captain Selfer sent a courier to Fiveway and demanded this be taken by one of mine with all urgency—his courier waits there for your answer and hopes to return over the pass before it closes for winter,” the king said. “I do not know the message. Read it to me.”