Truth be told, Elayne had been considering doing so. But now if she released them, the three would see Ellorien as their savior! Any gratitude that Elayne could have gained would instead be given to her rival. Blood and bloody ashes!

“The Windfinders are beginning to ask after the land you promised them,” Dyelin noted.

“Already?”

The older woman nodded. “The request still troubles me. Why do they want a sliver of land like that?”

“They earned it,” Elayne said.

“Perhaps. Though this does mean that you’re the first Queen in five generations to cede a portion of Andor—no matter how small—to a foreign entity.”

Elayne took a deep breath, and oddly found herself calmer. Blasted mood swings! Hadn’t Melfane promised those would grow less pronounced as the pregnancy progressed? Yet at times she still felt her emotions bouncing around like a ball in a children’s game.

Elayne composed herself and sat. “I cannot allow this. The Houses are all looking for opportunities to shoulder their way into power.”

“You would be doing the same in their place, I warrant,” Dyelin said.

“Not if I knew that the Last Battle was approaching,” Elayne snapped. “We need to do something to direct the nobles toward more important matters. Something to unify them behind me, or at least convince them that I’m not to be toyed with.”

“And you have a means of achieving this?” Dyelin asked.

“Yes,” Elayne said, glancing eastward. “It’s time to seize Cairhien.”

Birgitte choked quietly on her tea. Dyelin merely raised an eyebrow. “A bold move.”

“Bold?” Birgitte asked, wiping her chin. “It’s bloody insane. Elayne, you barely have your fingers on Andor.”

“That makes the timing even better,” Elayne said. “We have momentum. Besides, if we move for Cairhien now, it will show that I mean to be more than a simpering puff of a queen.”

“I doubt anyone expects that of you,” Birgitte said. “If they do, they probably took one too many knocks to the head during the fighting.”

“She’s right, however uncouth the presentation,” Dyelin agreed. She glanced at Birgitte, and Elayne could feel a stab of dislike through Birgitte’s bond. Light! What would it take to make the two of them get along? “Nobody doubts your strength as a queen, Elayne. That won’t stop the others from seizing what power they can; they know they’re unlikely to be able to get it later.”

“I don’t have fifteen years to stabilize my rule, like Mother,” Elayne said. “Look, we all know what Rand kept saying about me taking the Sun Throne. A steward rules there now, waiting for me, and after what happened to Colavaere, nobody dares disobey Rand’s edicts.”

“By taking that throne,” Dyelin said, “you risk looking as if you’re letting al’Thor hand it to you.”

“So?” Elayne said. “I had to take Andor on my own, but there is nothing wrong with me accepting his gift of Cairhien. His Aiel were the ones to liberate it. We’d be doing the Cairhienin a favor by preventing a messy Succession. My claim to the throne is strong, at least as strong as anyone else’s, and those loyal to Rand will fall behind me.”