"But Hierosol… that is where my father is prisoner!"
"Of course, Highness." Dan-Mozan bowed as though acknowledging a sad but immutable fact, some ancient tragedy. "Still, I do not think you should be overly worried. Autarch Sulepis, even if he can put three hun¬dred warships in the water, will not be able to overcome Hierosol."
"Why do you say that?" She wanted to believe it. It was horrid to think of being stuck here with Hierosol coming under attack. Foolish and prob¬ably fatal as it would be, it was all she could do these days not to steal a few days' worth of food and sneak out of the house, heading southward.
"Because the walls of Hierosol are the strongest defense on either of the two continents. No one has ever conquered them by force, not in almost two thousand years. And the Hierosolines have a mighty fleet of their own."
"But for all that, Hieorsol has been conquered several times," growled Shaso, who had been silent until now, staring at the barren tree as though
he had never seen anything so fascinating. "By treachery, usually. And Sulepis has made more than a few of his conquests that way-have you for¬gotten Talleno and Ulos?"
Effir dan-Mozan smiled and waved his hand as though swatting away the smallest of flying insects. "No, and Ludis Drakava has not forgotten either, I promise you. Remember, his followers can have no illusions about what comes in the wake of one of the autarch's triumphs. The Ulosians who turned to Xis did not have that knowledge and they paid dearly for it. Recall that Ludis and his men are interlopers, with no power except that which they hold in the great city itself. Not one of the lord protector's followers will believe he can make himself a better deal with Sulepis."
"Yes, but there are many that Ludis displaced, the old nobility of Hier-osol, who might think precisely that."
Again the merchant waved a dismissive hand. "We will bore Princess Briony with this talk. She wants assurances and we give her debate." He turned his sharp gaze onto her. "You have my word, Highness. As the ora¬cles teach us, only a fool says 'Forever, but I promise you that the autarch will not take Hierosol this year or even next year. There is time enough to get your father back."
Shaso muttered something, but Briony could not make out the words.
"What else did you learn today?" she asked. "Anything about my brother or Southmarch?"
"Nothing we did not already know, at least in general terms. The only thing of interest I heard was that there is a new castellan at Southmarch- a man named Havemore."
Shaso cursed, but Briony did not recognize the name at first. "Hold-is that Brone's factor?" She felt sudden anger boil through her. "If he has ap¬pointed his own factor as castellan, then Avin Brone must be prospering under the Tollys." Could the lord constable, one of her father's oldest friends and closest advisers, have been with them all along? But if so, why had he told her and Barrick about the contact between the autarch and Summerfield Court? "It is all too confusing," she said at last.
"Not so confusing, at least in one respect." Shaso looked as though he wanted to swim back to Southmarch and get his large hands around someone's neck. "Tirnan Havemore is well-named. He has always been ambitious. If anyone would profit from the Tollys being in power, he would."
•**
Shaso and Effir had gone in, and Briony had been left alone in the gar-den to mull over the latest tidings from Southmarch and elsewhere, large and small. She paced slowly, pulling her shawl close around her loose gar¬ment. Havemore being made castellan and the Tollys' liegeman Berkan Hood being made lord constable, those changes were not all that surpris¬ing, just evidence of Hendon tightening his fist on power. No one knew much about Anissa, Briony's stepmother, and the new baby, but they had been seen, or at least Anissa and a baby had been seen.
It's not as if Hendon Tolly even needs a real heir, Briony thought bitterly. The baby might have died that night, for all anyone will ever know. As long as Anissa swears it's true, any baby she claims is hers will be the heir, and the Tollys will protect the heir-which means the Tollys will rule. It was especially bizarre to think that this child, if it was the real one, was her own half brother.
A sudden pang touched her. Maybe he looks like Father, or like Kendrick or Barrick. For me, that would be reason enough to protect him. For a moment she did not realize that she had made another promise to herself and the gods, but she had. If that child is truly my father's, then Zoria, hear me-/ will save him from the Tollys, too! He's an Eddon, after all. I won't let him be their mask.
She was so deep in these thoughts that she had not noticed the man standing across the courtyard from her, watching her in the growing twi¬light gloom, until he began to move toward her.
"You are thinking," said Talibo, the merchant's nephew. His curly hair was wet, combed close against his head, and he wore a robe so clean and white it seemed to glow in the garden shadows. "What do you think about, lady?"
She tried to suppress her anger. How was he to know she wished to be alone with her thoughts? "Matters of my family."
"Ah, yes. Families are very important. All the wise men say this." He put his hand to his chin in a gesture so transparently meant to look like a wise man's pondering that Briony actually giggled. His eyes widened, then nar¬rowed. "Why do you laugh?"
"Sorry. I thought of something funny, that's all. What brings you to the garden? I will be happy to let you walk in peace-I should go join the other women for the evening meal."
He looked at her f'or a moment with something like defiance. "You do not want to go. Not truly."
"What?"
"You do not want to go. I know this. I saw you look at me."
She shook her head. He was using words, simple words in her own language, but he was not making any sense to her at all. "What do you mean, Tal?"
"Do not call me that. That is a name for a child. I am Talibo dan-Mozan. You watch me. I see you watch me."
"Watch you…?"
"A woman does not look at a man so unless she is interested in him. No woman makes such shameful eyes at a man if she does not want him."
Briony did not know whether to laugh again or to shout at him. He was mad! "You… you don't know what you're talking about. You were staring at me. You have been staring at me since I came here."
"You are a handsome woman, for an Eioni." He shrugged. "A girl, really. But still, not bad to the eye."
"How dare you? How dare you talk to me like… like I was a serving wench!"
"You are only a woman and you have no husband to protect you. You cannot make eyes at men, you know." He said this with the calm certainty of someone describing the weather. "Other men would take advantage of you." He stepped forward, trying to pull her toward him, first her hands, then-when she slapped his fingers away-moving even closer to put his arms around her.
Zoria, save me! She was so astonished she almost could not fight. He was going to try to kiss her! A small, sane part of her was glad she had left her knives behind, because at this moment she would happily have stabbed him through the heart.
She fought him off, but it was difficult: he was pushing blindly forward, as though determined on something he knew might be painful but needed to be done, and her own knees were weak with surprise and even fear. She was terrified and did not entirely know why. He was a boy, and Shaso and the others were only a few paces away-one shout and they would come to her aid.
She got her arm free and slapped at him, missing his face but striking him hard against the neck. He stopped in surprise, then began to step toward
her again but she used one of Shaso's holds to grab his arm and shove him to one side, then she fled across the courtyard back toward the women's quarters, tears of rage and shame making it hard to see.