Arian knew Kieri had sent letters to Mikeli giving details of the war but gave a quick review. “The last I know for certain,” she said finally, “is that Torfinn, their king, survived his brother’s attempt to take the throne and kill him. He did not order the invasion, and we no longer consider him a threat. His daughter Elis, the elder of his surviving children, is at Falk’s Hall, in training for knighthood. She is also his ambassador to our court.”

“You have met her?”

“Oh, yes. Last summer I was one of the Squires assigned to her when she was sent to marry Kieri. We had two princesses last year: Elis of Pargun and Ganlin of Kostandan.”

“Ganlin seemed very interested in Rothlin,” Duke Mahieran said. “And he was flattered, I think.”

“Her father, the king of Kostandan, would like an alliance south of the river,” Arian said. Let them figure out the implications themselves.

“What of the Pargunese princess?” the king asked, drumming his fingers on the table.

“She is not like to marry,” Arian said.

“And Dzordanya … do they even have any convenient princesses?”

Arian started to make a jest, but the look that flashed between Duke Mahieran and the king stopped her. The king … the young unmarried king … had an interest in princesses. “Not to my knowledge,” she said instead. “They sent an elderly woman to our wedding—a grandmother of the longest of long houses, she was announced. No mention of princesses or a king. Of course, it might be that there are. The Sea-Prince of Prealíth is of an age to have children, but he did not mention them.”

“Is it true, Queen Arian, that the curst webspinner, Achrya, was destroyed by the dragon, with all her evil servants?”

“So the dragon said,” Arian said.

“The dragon came here,” the king said. “I had not believed the rumor from Lyonya until then, not truly.”

“Too many new things,” someone muttered.

“Count Tivarrn, you wished to speak?” the king said. Tivarrn, a man Arian judged to be in his thirties, with a narrow face, flushed.

“Sir king, it just seems to me that there are too many new things.” He looked around, challenging. “Those mysterious jewels we heard of but no one can now see, the gnomes moving into Count Arcolin’s domain, the dragon, the war with Pargun. All that started with the return of magery … with Duke Verrakai.”

The king shook his head. “My lord Count, you were not here last year when we learned Duke Phelan was the rightful king of Lyonya. To my mind, the changes started when the paladin Paksenarrion went on quest to find that king … and the quest led to him. But I would guess some forces were already at work beyond our knowing.”

Tivarrn did not look convinced, but he said nothing more. He was one of the newest on the Council, Arian remembered.