“No matter where you are,” said Olivenko, “you could harm her if you chose. Yes, she trusts you. Or at least she hopes she can trust you, which is about as close to trust as powerful people ever get. There are so many incentives for betrayal. It’s a lonely life. She wants you to share it with her. Partly for reasons of state. Or mostly. But I think she believes it will also be a tolerable thing.”

But the way he said it made Umbo think that Olivenko thought that Param thought that it might be better than tolerable.

“I still have that adolescent crush,” said Umbo. “I’m better at hiding it, that’s all.”

“Not so very much better. Disguising it as surly resentment fooled only two people: Param and you.”

That was the first time it had ever occurred to Umbo that maybe all his feelings of resentment were not really directed at Rigg. They were really there because as long as he thought he could feel sorry for himself because Rigg was always the leader, he didn’t have to feel sorry for himself because Param would never love him.

“I wish I could go back in time and explain to myself why I was so angry all the time,” said Umbo.

“Would you have believed yourself? And even if you did, could you have stopped?”

“If I couldn’t have stopped then, why can I stop now?” asked Umbo.

“Because she asked you to marry her, you fool,” said Olivenko.

“It’s going to be a very complicated life,” said Umbo.

“What do you mean?” asked Olivenko.

“Being married to the Queen-in-the-Tent.”

“Oh? Are you going to be married to her?” asked Olivenko.

“But . . . she asked me.”

“Yesterday,” said Olivenko. “And since that moment, have you even spoken to her?”

“I don’t . . . I couldn’t . . .”

“She asked you to marry her, and after a day you still haven’t answered her.”

“But she didn’t ask me. She just announced it. As if everyone already knew it was going to happen.”

“Was she supposed to kneel and beg you to cross her threshold? Give you the key to her house? Pull a symbolic tent over both your heads? Those are the traditional ways, but can you tell me which of those a princess of the Sessamids should use in asking an ignorant privick like yourself to be her consort? She was asking, and you haven’t answered.”

“So this whole lecture you gave me—”

“I believe I used a series of pedagogical queries—”

“Was designed to get me to tell her yes or no?”

“Absolutely not,” said Olivenko. “If you had been too stupid to understand any of this, I would have gone to her and begged her to rescind the offer.”

“And then what?” asked Umbo. “Would you have killed me for her, to get me out of the way?”