A procession through and around the city … a feast for all who came … that was the greatest cost to the Crown. Kieri had specified that no one else need wear new clothes, and the ceremonial banners of the previous king’s reign—used so seldom—could be reused. The cost lay well within the amount he had given Halveric.

“This is excellently done,” he said finally, looking up at Halveric. “I am surprised you managed the cost of so large a feast so well …”

Halveric flushed a little. “Your elven relatives, my lord, offered to share the cost and pledged half the feast.”

“Even so,” Kieri said. “It is excellently done and I appreciate your efforts. Now—have we heard from foreign guests?”

“I have heard from Tsaia—under the circumstances, they cannot risk the crown prince, but an envoy will come. Prealíth and Kostandan will send envoys as well. We have heard nothing from Pargun, as expected, since we did not invite them.”

“If they come in peace,” Kieri said, “we will be polite. If they sulk at home, so much the better.”

“If it were up to me, I’d build river forts against invasion, but most on the Council don’t agree.” Halveric kept his voice low.

“So … is it the elves who set the people against defense? Is it their enchantment?”

Halveric shrugged and spread his hands. “Truth be told, we don’t ask things like that. Aliam tells me war is brutal and he hopes there’s never another war this side of the mountains … and he makes his living by it, as did you. He says those of us who want to arm against Pargun don’t know what we’re asking for.” He looked at Kieri expectantly.

“He’s right that war destroys … can destroy everything.” The memory of that last campaign in Aarenis came to him again, barren fields sprouting bones, burning cities, once-prosperous villages sacked and their populations scattered, to beg along the roads. He wrenched his mind back to the present. “I profited by war, Sier Halveric, because it existed, not because I thought it good.” All but that one year, when a rage for vengeance had driven him past all reason. “Like Aliam, I would not see here what I saw in Aarenis—or for that matter in my own lands in Tsaia, when the Pargunese or the orcs attacked and good people died. And yet, unlike the elves, I am more willing to recognize the reality of intractable conflict, and use force when nothing else will serve. I would appreciate your assessment of any strategic dangers. Or those of anyone else who has studied these things.”

Halveric nodded sharply. “So I had hoped, my lord king. So I had hoped. I have no fear or hatred of the Sinyi, and indeed some Sinyi blood runs in our veins, but I worry about the security of the realm on several accounts. We cannot trust in elven powers alone—your mother’s death and your captivity prove that, if incursions from Tsaia, through Verrakai lands, and threats from Pargun, were not enough.”