“Will you marry this girl, then?” Camwyn tried to sound more adult and sensible than he felt. Girls—Aris’s sisters or the others he knew—were just people as far as he was concerned. Pretty or plain didn’t matter as much as whether they were lively or dull. He liked what he’d heard about Gwenno, Aris’s older sister, but he also liked Temris, a year younger than Aris.

“I don’t know,” Mikeli said. “I am supposed to do what’s best for the realm. Kieri has advised me that I must marry someone who will sustain my interest and not be overwhelmed by dynastic considerations, but the Council want me to marry soon. Kieri has inspired them, it seems.”

“Have you met her?”

“Ganlin of Kostandan? No. Her father suggests a state visit similar to that on which she was sent to Tsaia—but you know what happened then.”

“Will she finish at Falk’s Hall?”

“I don’t know. From what Kieri’s told me, she’s eager to marry. She thought she wanted to run away with Elis of Pargun; now she thinks she wants a husband, as high ranking as possible. She’s still young—a few years younger than me—so who knows what she’ll want in another few years?”

“Surely any woman would be happy to wed the king of Tsaia,” Camwyn said around a large wedge of ham roll.

“It’s not the wedding but the time after I’m concerned about. Think of our uncle Mahieran, Cam. He loved Celbrin; he thought she loved him. Perhaps she did. But through her has come all this trouble with Beclan. And by the way … are you really questioning my decision?”

“Um … no.”

“It sounded like it to the Marshal-Judicar.”

Tattletale, Camwyn thought, and then tried to unthink it. Mikeli was too good at reading faces.

“And he should have told me,” Mikeli said, making it clear he had figured out what Camwyn was thinking.

Was that magery? Or just an older brother’s understanding of a younger? Camwyn wasn’t sure. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s all this emphasis on bloodlines. If blood matters, then whatever you say, whatever the law says, Beclan’s still in our family. He’s Uncle’s true-son, not Duke Verrakai’s.”

“Camwyn, you’re old enough to know that physical truth and legal truth aren’t always the same thing.”

“They should be.”

“In this instance, the physical truth would have required me to order Beclan’s execution when he broke his oath to me.”

“But the law that demanded it is just the law—not the physical truth.”