“I’m not trying to lay a glamour on them,” he said to Arian one morning. “It just has that effect. I’ve wondered if that’s an effect of the elvenhome itself. If the Lady, for instance, did not intend the intensity of the glamours she laid.”

“The elves are certainly more cooperative,” Arian said, grinning. “Surely you don’t mind that.”

“What worries me is that everyone is more cooperative. Not that I want to deal with troublemakers every day, but honest disagreement keeps commanders—and I assume kings—from making stupid mistakes. No one is right all the time. That’s why I have a Council. I want my Council members to say what they think, even if I don’t agree.”

“Could you tell them that? Maybe if you say you want disagreement when they feel it, they’ll cooperate by disagreeing.”

“I had not thought of that,” Kieri said. He stretched. “And then there’s all that mess in Tsaia and Fintha. King Mikeli wants to know if we have magery emerging here … and how would we know, with so much elven blood in the realm?”

“I’m more concerned about those elves showing up in Fin Panir,” Arian said. “That must be where my father came from, so why did they not come here as well?”

“Animosity toward my grandmother, according to Amrothlin,” Kieri said.

“But she’s dead.”

Kieri stiffened. “Maybe … maybe they do not know. When was it they arrived in Fin Panir? It could have been before the Marshal-General knew about the Lady’s death. If they think she’s still alive—”

“They would think my father still alive,” Arian said, eyes wide. “If he was reporting to them, they will expect a report.”

“In their own time, which is not our time. I know the Marshal-General said the king she spoke to seemed in haste, but haste to them is not the same as haste to us. It may be they will arrive here next year or ten years from now and think it but a few days.”

“I would like to meet them,” Arian said. “For my father’s sake and for my own.” She patted her belly, clearly bulging now. “And for these, who elsewise will have no family but the four of us.”

“And how is your sense of them now? To me they are clouded by your own taig.”

“Healthy, growing, and very, very active.” Arian shifted in her chair. “They do seem … different since you came back with the elvenhome. They would respond to it, I think.”