Chapter 68

“Yes. I’m glad I wasn’t married when I met you,” he said huskily. He managed to smile back, but it was impossible to keep any kind of humor in this awful place. “So,” he went on, “Faladir would’ve been Prea’s Consort. Of course, as a mage, I followed in my blood mother’s footsteps. I was sent to the seminary, so I barely know how to lift a sword.”

Five frowned, then mimed cutting his forearm, then made a casting gesture.

“Well, yes. I know I do all right anyway,” Tarquin said, smiling a bit at the compliment. “But the reason I told you all that was to explain why Isobel, Ainya, and Faladir were at Telir, but Prea, Aethelreda, and I weren’t. My mother ordered Prea to stay in the city as the regent while she was gone. Aethelreda was Mage of the Realm and Consort to the Queen, but she wasn’t a warrior, so she stayed here as well. I was at the seminary, of course.”