Birgitte ignored her, prodding at the seat’s cushion. Light! Was the Warder determined to embarrass her in every possible situation? Surely the—

“Aha!” Birgitte said, yanking something from the pillowed cushion.

Elayne started, then stepped closer, Lorstrum and Bertome at her side. Birgitte was holding up a small needle, tipped black. “Hidden in the cushion.”

Elayne paled.

“It was the only place they knew you’d be, Elayne,” Birgitte said softly. She knelt down and began prodding for more traps.

Lorstrum had grown flushed. “I will find who did this, Your Majesty,” he said in a low voice. A dangerous voice. “They will know my wrath.”

“Not if they know mine first,” stocky Bertome said, looking over the needle.

“Obviously an assassination attempt intended for the Lord Dragon, Your Majesty,” Lorstrum said in a louder voice, for the benefit of the audience. “None would dare try to kill you, our beloved sister from Andor.”

“That is good to hear,” Elayne said, eyeing him. That expression of hers said to everyone in the room that she would put up with this ruse, intended to save his face. As her strongest supporter, the shame of an assassination attempt fell on him.

Agreeing to let him save face would cost him. He lowered his eyes briefly in understanding. Light, she hated this game. But she would play it. And she would play it well.

“Is it safe?” she asked Birgitte.

The Warder rubbed her chin. “One way to find out,” she said, then plopped herself down in the throne with an unceremonious amount of force.

Not a few of the nobles in the hall gasped, and Lorstrum grew more pale.

“Not very comfortable,” Birgitte said, leaning to the side, then pushing her back up against the wood. “I would have expected a monarch’s throne to be more cushioned, what with your delicate backside and all.”

“Birgitte!” Elayne hissed, feeling her face grow red again. “You can’t sit in the Sun Throne!”

“I’m your bodyguard,” Birgitte said. “I can taste your food if I want, I can walk through doorways before you, and I can bloody sit in your chair if I think it will protect you.” She grinned. “Besides,” she added in a lower voice, “I always wondered what one of these felt like.” The Warder stood up, still wary, but also satisfied.

Elayne turned and faced the nobility of Cairhien. “You have waited long for this,” she said. “Some of you are dissatisfied, but remember that half of my blood is Cairhienin. This alliance will make both of our nations great. I do not demand your trust, but I do demand your obedience.” She hesitated, then added, “Remember again, this is as the Dragon Reborn wishes it to be.”

She saw that they understood. Rand had conquered this city once, though it had been to liberate it from the Shaido. They would be wise not to tempt him to come back and conquer it again. A queen used the tools that she had at hand. She had taken Andor on her own; she would let Rand help her with Cairhien.