“I asked for your assistance in a matter just before your adventure outside the palace walls. Now I want your word that you will give me that aid. I want your vow of loyalty.” His smile was dark. “What is it the Joratese call it? Your thudajé? I want your thudajé.”

Janel looked like she’d been struck. The court murmured among themselves. They were perplexed. Why did their duke care about a woman’s loyalty? Even the women seemed to be asking themselves the same question. They probably assumed Kaen was adding another Khorveshan woman to his collection, even though Janel was “married” to Relos Var.

“Well?” the duke said. “I won’t ask again.”

Janel fell to her knees and bent her head. She said something softly.

“What was that?”

Janel looked up. “I said I pledge myself to your service, Your Grace.”

Qown heard a gasp and then realized it had come from him.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it, Janel Danorak? But let’s do this properly.” He gestured to one of the attendants while saying something in a language Qown didn’t understand.

Immediately, a large man with a tightly curled beard and shaved head stepped forward. He wore so much jewelry in that beard it was a wonder he could even move his head. Whatever he said to the duke, it was clear the man wasn’t happy.

The duke responded in kind, his tone dismissive.

The courtier stormed out of the great hall, and several other men followed.

Meanwhile, the attendant came back with an open wooden box. Kaen reached inside and pulled out a piece of jewelry, very similar in style to the jewelry in his own beard, the jewelry in the beards of many of the men in the room. He separated a lock of Janel’s laevos and threaded the band around the base. “Repeat after me: as the winter is cold, I cleave to the protection of my king.”

“As the winter is cold, I cleave to the protection of my king,” Janel repeated.

Another jeweled band came out of the box, this one slightly different in design. “As the winter is long, I protect my people in his name.”

She repeated this. He laced the band around another lock of hair.

“As the winter is hard, I will overcome our enemies.” Again, he granted her another jeweled piece as she repeated his words.

“Until the winter ends, my life belongs to Yor.” The same ritual repeated.

The whole time, the crowd was silent and wide-eyed. Qown wondered if this was some sort of knighthood, the sort that wasn’t associated with tournament contests and commodity trading. That might explain why that courtier had been so furious. Duke Kaen finished lacing the last jeweled band into her hair and then stepped back. “Now I name you hand, extension of my will. Rise.”

Janel rose to her feet, looking shaky.