"By now Mena must have rid the Halaly of the beast in the lake," Rhrenna said.

"I truly hope so," Saden said. "It will refill as it always has. I was wondering about a different matter. The Eilavan Woodlands were sorely taxed by the harvest of timber. First-rate lumber, of course, and invaluable to a nation that needed to rebuild after war. The demand remains high, and the replanting efforts have barely begun. Might you-oh, I don't know-make the trees grow back faster?"

Inwardly, Corinn rolled her eyes. Outwardly, she just looked at him. When had one of these fools ever proposed anything not meant to benefit himself?

Rhrenna spoke for her. "I wonder, Senator Saden, if you are here as the Senate's representative, or as your own? Don't you own an interest in the woodlands' harvest? Your family, if I'm not mistaken, have been harvesting there for a hundred years or more."

"We are one of the many families, yes, but-"

"So you've had more than enough time to learn to manage it properly. The queen does not act to fulfill the personal interests of the few." Rhrenna glanced at Corinn. "Shall we move on to other topics?"

"Forgive us," Talinbeck said. "We just don't know what you're capable of. We don't know how you do the things you do. If you explain it to us, we'll know and-"

Corinn did not like the engineer's earnest tone. The last thing she wanted was for them to start being honest with her now. "Yes, let's move on." She waited a moment. "Are there other topics?" She knew that there was one topic they would likely raise before she dismissed them, but as the silence continued she almost believed she would get away with ending the meeting without facing it.

But then Julian, the Council's most senior member, cleared his throat and motioned that he would speak. He was the only one of the group who had been a member of Leodan's Council. Quite notoriously, he was on record as having doubted that Thasren Mein's attack on King Leodan had really meant Hanish was launching a war. He had been wrong about that, but he had been right in managing to stay alive long enough to see another Akaran rise to rule. It was for that connection with the past that he was a part of the Council.

"I hope you don't mind my mentioning it, Your Majesty," Julian said, his voice tremulous. "I know it's a delicate matter and wholly up to you to consider, but I would be remiss… if I didn't bring up the topic of your betrothal. The topic is discussed openly on Alecia. Openly, in truth. Some have even written asking me to speak with you about it."

Yes, Corinn thought, tap old gray-haired Julian for your dirty work, as if I can surely find nothing lascivious in the urgings of such a revered elder. "And what did they bid you say?" she asked, tenting her hands on the granite table and creasing her brow in feigned interest.

Julian blinked. For a moment he looked as if he had forgotten, but then it came back, and he spoke as if surely he had described it all to her before-as, indeed, he had. "Why, they wish you to wed, of course! They've even commissioned a team of scholars to look into the lineages of all the eligible Agnates. There's quite a list, I assure you. Should you be interested, I could have it for you-"

Corinn interrupted. "Is that a list of true Agnates, or does it include the new families?"

"New or old, it makes no difference," Saden answered. "The recent Agnate appointments stand as solidly as the old. All the same now, as it has to be."

"Does that strike you as true, Jason?"

Her former tutor started in his seat. He had not said a word yet other than reading one of the earlier accounting reports, and would probably have been content with that. Whatever things he had seen during his years of hiding during Hanish's rule had crippled him. Creases carved his face and white strands outnumbered the brown in his hair, though he was just past forty. Sometimes, feeling his eyes studying her when she was not looking at him, Corinn felt he viewed her with a certain amount of uneasy astonishment. Perhaps he remembered the shallow girl she had been and could not recognize the person she was now. She rather liked that.

Jason answered, "I don't doubt that the old Agnates will forever remember that they are, in fact, more ancient lines; but in point of fact in the law Senator Saden is correct." His fingers trembled when he gestured with them. "Your list of possible suitors-should you choose to consider it-is larger this way. Easier to find a suitable match, one that none would contest."

"I see." Corinn pressed her lips together as if giving the idea renewed thought. "What I don't see, however, is why I should marry anyone. Do any of you think me incapable of rule? Or is it that you wish to challenge my son's right to the throne? You think him a bastard, perhaps?"

A cacophony of denials. Voices raised in complaint, so ardent that Corinn shared a look with Rhrenna, a look of amusement, although other eyes would not have known it as such. The councilmen's response was answer enough to things she had already believed, so she would go no further with it. There were many reasons men wished to wed her. None of them were advantageous to her. But the issue of Aaden was a concern like no other. If she did marry and had another child by one of these Agnates, and if her husband called himself king and appealed to his class to elevate his own child above a bastard fathered by their hated enemy, well, that was a fight she did not wish to have. Better that she have no other children. Better that her rule stay strong, and that the people come to love Aaden.

Once he reached seventeen, she could step aside and see him crowned king. After that, none would challenge him. A ruling queen always had the option to step aside for a mature son. Corinn had studied the secession laws in detail, and likely knew them better than any senator. She doubted any of them could imagine her to be planning this, but planning it she was. They would be waiting for her death to move against him. She would act before that, though.

The councillors were still squawking when she decided to change the subject once more. Cutting in to the conversation, she said, "I will not discuss this anymore today. If I choose to wed, you'll hear about it promptly, but my marital situation is not to be decided at Council." Several of the councillors looked ready to take exception to that, but she spoke over them. "Here is a thing I wish to speak of: we will bring horse culture back to the center of the empire."

The room fell silent.

Sire Dagon plucked his pipe from the corner of his lips. "Horse culture?"

"Exactly."

"And what horse culture would that be, Your Majesty?"

"Surely, all in this room know of Acacia's ancient traditions of equine excellence. I've been giving it a deal of thought, consulting with knowledgeable individuals, and I've concluded that we should bring the noble practice back into the mainstream of Acacian culture."

The truth was somewhat simpler than that. Aaden had given her the idea while they were riding in Talay. He had observed, quite casually, "One is taller on horseback. I like being taller." Watching him ride away, upright and easy in the saddle, reins held correctly as he had been taught, Corinn had been struck with inspiration. Her people, she decided, had once been horsemen-in some distant past, in the time of the early kings, perhaps. Wasn't Tinhadin famous for his love of his gray mare? Yes, certainly he was. Hadn't Valeeden once had to ride full out from Calfa Ven to Alyth, stopping only long enough to leap upon fresh horses offered by the peasants? She was vague on the details of these things, but she had not found details very important in convincing people of things they wanted to believe. Acacians had once been horsemen, she decided; they would be so again. One was taller sitting on horseback, just as the future king had said. Let the people feel taller.