“No one asked you,” Elona snapped. Leesha looked at her in surprise.

“You already knew he was married, didn’t you?” Leesha accused. “You knew and you still tried to trade me off like a piece of livestock!”

“I knew, yes,” Elona said. “I also know that he could burn the Hollow to ashes, or make my daughter a queen. Was my choice so bad?”

“Who I marry isn’t your choice to make,” Leesha said.

“Well, someone has to make it,” Elona snapped. “You sure as night weren’t going to.”

Leesha glared at her. “Just what have you promised them, Mother? And what did they offer in return?”

“Promised?” Elona laughed. “It’s a marriage. All the groom wants is a bed toy and baby maker. I promised you were fertile and would provide sons. That was all.”

“You’re disgusting,” Leesha said. “Just how could you know that, anyway?”

“I might have mentioned your six older brothers,” Elona admitted, “all tragically killed fighting demons.” She tsked wistfully.

“Mother!” Leesha shouted.

“Do you think six was too many?” Elona asked. “I was worried I overplayed, but Abban accepted it right away, and even seemed disappointed. I think I could have gone even higher.”

“Even one is too many!” Leesha said. “Lying about dead children; have you no respect?”

“Respect for what?” Elona asked. “The poor souls of children who don’t exist?”

Leesha felt the muscles twinge behind her left eye, and knew a terrible headache was coming on. She massaged her temple. “It was a mistake coming here.”

“It’s a little late to see that,” Rojer said. “Even if they let us go, it would be the same as spitting in their faces if we left now.”

The pain behind Leesha’s eye flared sharply, bringing on a wave of nausea. “Wonda, fetch my herb pouch.” Her mother would be easier to deal with after she had taken a tincture for blood flow to ease the headache.

Jardir arrived soon after the lower rooms were ready and her friends escorted down to them. Leesha wondered if he had purposely waited until she was alone before visiting.

He stood in the doorway and bowed, but did not enter. “I do not wish to give dishonor. Would you prefer to have your mother present to chaperone?”

Leesha snorted. “I’d as soon be chaperoned by a coreling. I think I can handle you if you put a hand where it doesn’t belong.”

Jardir laughed and bowed again, entering. “Of that, I have no doubt. I must apologize for the meanness of your accommodations. I wish I had a palace worthy of your power and beauty, but alas, this poor hovel is the best Everam’s Bounty has to offer at the moment.”

Leesha wanted to tell him she had never seen a place so beautiful short of Duke Rhinebeck’s keep, but she bit back the compliment, knowing the Krasians had stolen the place and deserved no praise for its splendor.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were already married?” she asked bluntly.

Jardir started, and she saw honest surprise on his face. He bowed deeply. “Your pardon, mistress. I assumed you knew. Your mother suggested I not speak of it because your jealousy rivals your beauty, and thus must be terrible indeed.”

Leesha felt her temple throb again at the mention of her mother, though she could not deny a flash of pleasure at the compliment, sugared though it might be.

“I was flattered by your proposal,” Leesha said. “Creator, I even considered it! But I do not fancy being a part of a crowd, Ahmann. Such things are not done in the North. Marriage is a union of two, not two dozen.”

“I cannot change what is,” Jardir said, “but I beg you still to not rush to decision. I would make you my First Wife in the Northland, with power of refusal to all who come after. If you wish me to take no other greenland brides, it shall be so. Think carefully on this. If you bear me sons, my people will have no choice but to accept the Hollow tribe.”

Leesha frowned, but she knew better than to refuse him flatly. They were in his power and knew it. Again, she found herself regretting her rash decision to come.

“Night will fall soon,” Jardir said, changing the subject when she did not reply. “I have come to invite you and your bodyguards to alagai’sharak.”

Leesha looked at him for a long moment, considering.

“Our war with the alagai is the common ground our people stand on,” Jardir said. “It will help my warriors to accept you, if they see we are…siblings in the night.”

Leesha nodded. “All right, though my parents will stay behind.”

“Of course,” Jardir said. “I swear by Everam’s beard that they will be safe here.”

“Is there a reason to worry to the contrary?” Leesha asked, remembering the glare of Damaji Ichach.

Jardir bowed. “Of course not. I was simply stating the obvious. Forgive me.”

Leesha was impressed with the tight units the Krasian warriors formed for inspection as Jardir led Leesha and the others to alagai’sharak. Abban limped at her side, and Leesha was grateful as ever for his presence. Her understanding of the Krasian language was progressing rapidly, but there were hundreds of cultural rules she and the others did not understand. Much like Rojer, Abban could speak without moving his lips, and his whispered hints of when to bow and when to nod, when to placate and when to stand fast, had kept them all from conflict so far.

But more than that, Leesha found she liked Abban. Despite an injury that put him in the lowest echelon of his society, the khaffit had managed to keep his spirits and his humor, and had risen to new power, of a sort.

“That can’t be all of ’em,” Rojer murmured, looking at the assembled Sharum, over a thousand in number. “No way that many men took a whole duchy. We can field that many fighters in the Hollow.”

“No, Rojer,” Leesha whispered, shaking her head. “We can field carpenters and bakers. Laundresses and seamstresses who will pick up a weapon at need to defend in the night. These men are professional soldiers.”

Rojer grunted and looked out at the assembled men again. “Still ent enough.”

“You are correct, of course,” Abban said, obviously having heard every word of their whispered conference. “You see but a tiny fraction of the warriors at my master’s command.” He gestured to the twelve units of men in the courtyard by the great gate. “These are the most elite fighters of each of the twelve tribes of Krasia, chosen as honor guards to their Damaji in the city proper. Before you is the most invincible fighting force the world has ever seen, but even they are nothing compared with the million spears the Shar’Dama Ka can muster. The rest of the tribes have dispersed throughout the hundreds of villages in Everam’s Bounty.”

A million spears. If Jardir could field even a quarter of that, the Free Cities would be best off to surrender quickly, and she should get used to the idea of being Jardir’s bed toy. Arlen had seemed convinced the Krasian army was much smaller than that. Leesha looked at Abban, wondering if he was being honest. Dozens of questions popped into her mind, but she wisely kept them to herself, lest they reveal even more of her inner counsel.

Never let anyone know what you’re thinking till they’ve a need to, Bruna had taught her, a philosophy Duchess Araine seemed to agree with.