Both women had abandoned their elaborate dresses for more practical clothes. Caldenia wore a modest gown in her favorite sage, while Lady Wexyn left the crown of needles behind and switched to simple blue and white robes.

“Are you curious what they’re talking about?” I asked Kosandion.

“If I said yes, would you allow me to spy on them?”

“No.”

He smiled.

“Is this really what you want?” I asked.

“It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

“You realize that you might have been manipulated?”

“I know I have. But the question is, to what end?” He looked at Lady Wexyn. “She doesn’t want power. She doesn’t want wealth or prestige. She just wants me. Nobody has ever gone to that much trouble just for me.”

“What about the Dominion?”

Kosandion turned around and leaned his back against the rail. “You’ve asked me if public opinion could be swayed before. Since the beginning of the selection, before we even entered your inn, I had committed every resource at my disposal to doing just that. I wanted her to win. I knew that she would take advantage of every opportunity, and she has done it brilliantly. At first, they were amused by her. Some of them ridiculed her. Then they grudgingly acknowledged her skills. They began to like her, and with every appearance, she seduced them a little more until she had them in the palm of her hand. She had endeared herself to them and by the end they wanted her to win as much as I did. Last night I nearly brought my nation to the breaking point by implying the selection would be canceled. The public outcry in her favor drowned out the remaining critics. The Dominion loves her.”

“You never meant to marry Nycati, then? But you told him he was your first choice.”

“He was about to take his life into his hands. He was doubting everything, from his birthright to his own abilities. I merely steadied him on his feet.”

“And Vercia?”

“I ended that relationship as soon as Wexyn agreed to enter the selection.”

“So it was about her from the very beginning?”

He nodded.

“Why her?”

“I don’t know. There is something about her. I can’t describe it, but I feel it. My life is very regimented, and it always has been. My time is rationed like water in the desert. So much of it isn’t mine. And she, she is chaos. She loves me for me, and I’m a deeply selfish man. I want all of that love. She is the one person who is just mine, outside of the rules and regulations. Nobody picked her for me, nobody picked me for her.”

“You picked each other.”

“Precisely. It is indescribably rare in my world. An outrageous luxury.”

He looked at her over his shoulder.