She trotted out of the great hall, leaving him and Jaenelle staring at the door.

“We could make it part of the bargain,” Daemon said.

“How so?” Jaenelle asked.

“If he wants the Queen, he has to take the Sceltie.”

“Oh, Hell’s fire.”

It didn’t occur to him until much later, when he was cuddled up with Jaenelle in her bed, that Beale hadn’t thought there was anything odd about the Warlord Prince of Dhemlan and the former Queen of Ebon Askavi sitting on the floor of the great hall laughing like fools.

CHAPTER 8 - TERREILLE

CHAPTER 8

TERREILLE

Theran stared at the ninety-nine Warlord Princes and wished one of them would sneeze, cough, fart—anything to break the stone-hard silence.

“That’s it,” he said. “That’s the bargain.”

“One choice,” Ranon, the Shalador Warlord Prince, said. “And if she turns out to be a bad choice, she’ll destroy what’s left of us.”

I know. “I don’t believe Daemon Sadi would recommend a Queen who would be a danger to us.”

“Sadi hated Terreille,” Ranon said. “He might see this as an opportunity to crush a Territory completely.”

“Sadi hated everything to do with Dorothea SaDiablo and what she was doing to the Realm,” Theran said, raising his voice to be heard above the mutters.

“That may be true,”Archerr said. “But you said it was his wife who went and talked to this Queen.”

*And you’ve said damn little about the wife,* Talon said on a psychic thread aimed directly at him.

*Nothing much to say,* Theran replied.

Talon shifted in his chair. The mutters faded as the other Warlord Princes focused their attention on him.

“Here’s the thing,” Talon said. “Jared trusted Daemon Sadi. So did Blaed. They knew him. He gave them some training when they were slaves, and helped them survive. Yeah, that was a few centuries ago, and maybe he’s changed—maybe he jumps now when his wife snaps her fingers. But the terms he set tell me he gave some thought to this request. They won’t be all that easy for us to meet, and these ‘inspections’ don’t sit well with me, I can tell you that. Even so, I think we have to take this chance.”

“Forgive me, Prince Talon,” Ranon said, his tone respectful, “but you’re demon-dead. You have less to lose than the rest of us.”

“I have less to lose physically,” Talon agreed. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to lose. But I’ll offer to serve in this Queen’s court—and that’s an offer I didn’t make to Grizelle or Lia when they ruled. I served them both in my own way, but I never chained myself to a contract.”