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broke off mid-sentence, seeing them.
    The noble scholar bowed low with an elegant sweep of his hand. 'My king.'
    Piro felt a tug on her skirt and realised she had been staring at the frail old man who had toppled her father's kingdom and brought them such misery. He wasn't at all what she expected, not arrogant, if anything he looked tired and cranky.
    Another tug on her skirt. She flushed and bowed her head, hands by her sides in the Rolencian manner, no fancy flourishes.
    'Dunstany,' a thin voice spoke. 'Like a black cat, you've returned unharmed.'
    The noble scholar lifted his head and so did Piro.
    Dunstany shrugged. 'You know what they say, a cat always lands on its feet.'
    'But you've been doing that for ninety-four years now.' The old man's eyes blazed. 'How do you do it?'
    'A by-product of Affinity, my king.' From his tone, Piro could tell they'd had this conversation before. 'Affinity affects different people in different ways.'
    The king sat back with a grimace. Used to being acknowledged by visiting nobles, Piro felt excluded but also relieved, because she could stand back and observe.
    Dunstany turned to Palatyne with the barest of nods. 'Overlord.'
    'Duke Palatyne,' he corrected, touching a large, official crest on his chest which rested amidst her family's royal emblems. Every time Piro saw the pendants, her stomach lurched as she was reminded of how her mother and father had died. How had Lence died? Would she ever know? He'd been so much larger than life, he and Byren. She could not imagine anything quenching the fire in them.
    'You.' Palatyne tugged Piro forwards.
    She lifted her chin determined not to let the grand palace, and its even grander people, overwhelm her.
    'And this, King Merofyn, is my gift to your beautiful daughter, a Rolencian nobleman's child for her very own seven-year slave.'
    Piro glanced to Palatyne, surprised by his easy lie. Then she recalled she wasn't supposed to understand Merofynian.
    She let her gaze meet King Merofyn's. This was the man who had assassinated her mother's young brother to steal the crown, relying on his cousinship to legitimise his claim.
    Her old nurse had always said you were born with the face the gods gave you, but you ended up with the face you deserved. If this was so, then King Merofyn had been a mean-spirited, angry man and now she thought she also read fear in his frail body. He sat on the great golden throne, behind the royal table, dwarfed by his mantle of office with its gleaming chains and seals.
    Originally, she had put him high on her list of people who needed killing. But, since overhearing Palatyne's plan to poison him and now, seeing him in person, she pitied the king.
    Next to him sat Isolt Merofyn Kingsdaughter. Her eyebrows had been plucked completely and her face powdered so that she was very pale. Kohl elongated her tilted black eyes and her mouth had been painted a glistening red, like a furled rose bud. With her high forehead and her hair pulled back under a circlet of silver, she looked like a perfect sculpture, not a living, breathing girl half a year older than Piro.
    'You do me great honour, Overlord Pal...' Isolt corrected herself, 'I mean Duke Palatyne.'
    Piro felt a little kick of delight. If she was not mistaken, Isolt's slip had been deliberate, to remind Palatyne of his origins beyond the Divide. Piro studied Isolt. Was this kingsdaughter a kindred spirit?
    No, she couldn't be, not when she held her honour so lightly.
    Palatyne's jaw clenched, but he said only, 'The Lady Seela is at your service, Isolt.' No title for her.
    'Seela? That is a Merofynian name. Does she speak Merofynian?'
    'No. Rolencian only,' Palatyne said. 'These Rolencians imitate their betters but do not have the scholarship to learn another language. How many can you speak, Isolt Kingsdaughter?'
    This was a clumsy attempt at flattery and Piro thought Isolt agreed with her, because her answer was barely civil.
    'As many as I need to.' She added in only slightly