Cassan’s expression sobered. He looked back at her for several seconds, then inhaled deeply and nodded.
“You’re right,” he acknowledged. “At the same time, I know you’ll understand there are many things going on right now that I can’t discuss with you or anyone.”
“Of course I do,” she said quietly. “I know exactly the stakes you’re playing for, Father. I don’t need to know all the details of how you plan to play the game, and I understand the reasons for holding your cards close to your tunic. I even understand that not telling me everything is one way of protecting me…exactly as you’re doing with Seralk. But I hope you understand why I want to know anything you can and want to tell me. You’re my father, and I love you. Even if it weren’t my responsibility to do whatever I can in our house’s service, my own heart would command me to assist you and your plans any way I can.”
“I know,” he said quietly, reaching across the table to cover one of her hands with his. He squeezed it gently, and felt the same pang at the heart of him that he’d felt the very first time he considered the information Talthar had brought back from Halthan.
He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t already been aware of Thorandas Daggeraxe’s interest in Shairnayith’s hand. And it was indisputable that Shairnayith, at twenty-four, ought to have been married years before. Yet she was the daughter and child of his heart. More than that, of all three of his children, she-more even than Seralk-understood the intricate, complex, sometimes deadly nature of the unending contest between the Kingdom’s great houses. There were times when he wished she, not Seralk, might have been his heir. The very idea was impossible, of course, and Shairnayith would probably have been vehemently opposed to it even if it hadn’t been. She was nothing at all like Tellian’s depraved, debased daughter, thank all the gods! The very thought of the most nobly born of Sothoii noblewomen actually coupling with one of those hradani animals was enough to make Cassan spew. If anything in the world had been wanting to confirm the weakness, corruption, and degeneracy of the entire House of Bowmaster, Talthar’s information that Leeana “Hanathafressa” had deliberately set out to bring a hradani to her bed would have provided it! Better- far better! — that she should have coupled with one of Tellian’s wolfhounds! That sort of insult to all Sothoii could be washed away only in blood, and one way or another, Cassan of Frahmahn would see that blood spilled. But unlike Tellian, he knew he would never have to blush for his daughter’s conduct, whatever else happened, and he felt a fresh flood of warmth as he looked at her.
Yet that very warmth explained why he’d taken no action for so long where Thorandas’ indirectly expressed interest in her was concerned. He didn’t want to give her up, didn’t want her to move away from him. The long, weary leagues between Toramos and Halthan would separate them, take away that closeness forever, and the very thought was enough to fill him with gloom. None of which meant he wasn’t going to have to do it anyway. That was what he’d discussed with her earlier that week.
“The truth is,” he told her now, releasing her hand and sitting back in his chair, “that several things are coming together at this moment. I have…reason to believe Tellian’s actions are inspiring opposition from outside the Kingdom, as well as in. I know I don’t have to explain to you why the Purple Lords and the River Brigands would both be opposed to this insane plan of his, and I’m afraid my sources indicate some of them are seriously contemplating some sort of…direct action here in the Kingdom in an effort to make certain it comes to nothing in the end.”
Shairnayith nodded seriously. She probably suspected-no, she almost certainly suspected-that he was carefully tailoring what he told her. She was far less impulsive than Seralk, yet many of the same considerations applied when it came to protecting her by limiting what she actually knew. And everything he’d just told her was the absolute truth; it simply left out his own increasingly risky part in that opposition to Tellian’s plans.
“No one could possibly predict where that sort of opposition might end, or how it might be expressed,” he continued. “Unfortunately, I believe it’s quite probable that it could lead to serious instability here in the Kingdom. That’s one of the things Tellian and the idiots supporting him have completely overlooked. The sheer scope of the threat he poses to those outside elements’ prosperity-especially to the Purple Lords’, and the gods know a Purple Lord will stop at nothing where money’s involved! — is almost bound to bring about interference here on the Wind Plain. The kind of interference that could well have disastrous consequences for the entire Kingdom! And however much I might fear the effect of their actions, I can’t pretend Tellian isn’t offering sufficient provocation for them to justify almost anything they might choose to do in response. But does he recognize that, or care about it if he does? No, of course he doesn’t!” He grimaced angrily. “He doesn’t give a single solitary damn that he’s embroiling us far more directly in the Axemen’s quarrels with both the Purple Lords and the Spearmen, which can hardly be in the Kingdom’s long-term interest!”
He shook his head in unfeigned disgust at the way Tellian was subordinating the Sothoii’s interests to those of outsiders. He was honest enough to admit he probably would have been less disgusted if his own interests and influence weren’t going to be so severely damaged if Tellian succeeded, but that didn’t make anything he’d just said untrue.
“In the worst case,” he said more somberly, “we could find ourselves in a situation which literally threatens to tear the Kingdom apart, possibly even send us back to the Time of Troubles.” He watched her eyes darken and nodded grimly. “And, frankly, that’s even more likely to happen because of how evenly matched Tellian and I are on the Great Council. You’ve read enough history to know what happens when opposing factions are so evenly balanced that neither seems likely to be able to achieve its ends through politics and compromise, and that’s exactly what I’m afraid we’re looking at. Obviously, Yeraghor supports me, but the wind riders support Tellian. That makes the North Riding critical, and that, I’m afraid, is the reason I’ve mentioned Thorandas’ request to you.”
Shairnayith looked at him, then sighed. Despite how well he knew her and how much he loved her-or perhaps because of how much he loved her-he couldn’t read her emotions from her expression this time, and he wished desperately that he could.
“Father,” she said after a moment, her voice low, “I’ve always known that when the time came I’d marry for ‘reasons of state.’ You did, when you married Mother, and it would have been foolish for me to think even for a moment that it could be any different in my case. For that matter, we only have to look at the West Riding to see what happens when people with the responsibilities we have marry to please themselves and let Phrobus take the rest of the Kingdom.”
She hadn’t yet heard about Leeana and that bastard Bahzell, he knew, but she didn’t need to. The effects of Tellian and Hanatha’s selfish refusal to provide a clear succession before Leeana obliged everyone by running off the the war maids like the whore she’d turned out to be was quite bad enough. Her nostrils flared with genuine anger and contempt as she thought about it, and her eyes hardened. But then she raised them to meet his gaze again, and they softened once more.