"What I've heard is true, I see." Hiresh reached for Lianne's hand, brought it to his mouth, and kissed it gently. "Your beauty may not be as famed as your mothers, but it is certainly no less. It is a pleasure to meet you, Princess."
Lianne wished she could say the same; it would make replying much easier. Somewhere in her mind, a voice told her that it was certainly not a pleasure to meet him, and she was hesitant to lie to someone when she had no knowledge of their abilities. "I apologize you were made to wait here," she finally said. "Had we known you were coming, we would have been better prepared for your arrival."
Hiresh exchanged a glance with Teuku, seemingly amused. "We did send a messenger, as I explained to your brother. Perhaps he was lost. I'll look into it, when I return home."
"You're not staying long, then?" Lianne asked politely, doing her very best to seem interested.
"I'm afraid I could not say how long I will be here until I have had a chance to meet with Their Majesties."
"I do not think," Liam cut in, moving to place himself beside Lianne, "They are going to be available until tomorrow morning, at the very least. You've caught us at a very busy time."
Hiresh nodded curtly, eyes now on Liam. "I understand, of course. We have time.
Lianne took the chance to look the man over, now that his attention was elsewhere. He was very tall, probably an inch or two over six feet, and at five foot three, Lianne felt dwarfed by his presence. It was not merely his height which created this impression; everything about the man seemed large. He had a muscular, powerful build that reminded her of her Uncle Raoul. His face was square and clean shaven, his eyes were small and dark beneath busy black eyebrows. He's young, she realized, probably not much older than I am.
Lianne could not help but notice his clothes; she had never seen such relatively simple clothes look so extravagant. He was dressed for riding in a shirt and breeches, but the fabric looked much finer than riding would normally warrant, and the cream colored shirt was much too light to be practical. The blue cloak over his shoulders was much the same – the thin fabric would do little to keep out the winter chill, and was very heavily embroidered for a garment meant to be worn on the road. A jeweled pendent hung around his neck, conspicuously outside his shirt, when it was common sense to tuck jewelry in while on horseback. It was plain to Lianne that he had dressed to display wealth, not to travel practically. She almost felt sorry for him – he must have nearly frozen on the ride.
When Lianne turned his eyes to Hiresh's companion, she was surprised to find that the middle-aged man was looking directly back at her, his clear grey eyes direct as he looked her over. She flushed at the man's stare and tried to turn her attention back to the discussion between Hiresh and her brother. Even not looking at him, she could still feel his eyes on her.
Lianne did not speak anymore, distracted and uneasy by the prince's companion. She found herself unable to relax until a maid had come to lead the two men to their rooms, and the door to the drawing room was safely shut behind them. The room was quiet.
The quiet did not last long. Liam, visibly controlling himself, strode to the door and locked it, then turned slowly, eyes falling on Jasson. Alan had grabbed him by the shoulder and escorted him to the far end of the room almost as soon as Jasson had entered, and Jasson, trained manners momentarily taking over for the instinct to protest, had remained quiet. Now that their guests were gone, he shoved Alan's hand away, annoyed.
"What, exactly," Liam cut Jasson off as he opened his mouth to speak, "Did you think you were playing at?"
Jasson blinked, clearly not having expected the dangerous, and not very typical, tone Liam had taken with him. "What?"
"You! Coming barging in here in here for no reason and with no idea what was going on."
"Well how was I supposed to know you were here already?" Jasson asked, defensive. "All I knew was that they wanted to see Father and they couldn't. It would have been rude if someone hadn't come!"
"And so you brought Lianne because –"
"Please leave me out of this," Lianne interrupted, still lingering near the doorway.
"I would love to!" Liam snapped, smacking his hand angrily against the wall and causing Jasson and Lianne both to blink at him, startled. "I don't want you to have anything to do with this but the two of you aren't making it any easier!"
Alan cleared his throat, tone cautionary. "Liam."
No one spoke. Liam focused his eyes on a painting on the opposite wall and took a deep breath, hands unclenching slowly. "Forget about it," he finally said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"Fine," said Jasson, still disgruntled.
"No," said Lianne.
Liam and Alan exchanged glances.
"You're not telling me something."
Both boys looked in her direction; neither actually met her eyes.
"It's obviously concerning me."
Silence.
"I'm not going anywhere until someone tells me."
Liam signed and looked to his brother. "Go away."
Insulted, Jasson sputtered with indignation, apparently unable to string words together in his anger.
"Please go, Jasson." Lianne said, and when he looked at her, the pleading look in her eyes was enough to quiet his protests, though he did, on his way out, shoot Liam a heated glare. The door slammed behind him.
Lianne sat in the nearest chair, expectant.
"Lianne…" Liam tugged an earlobe uneasily, "You know Aly's been spying for George." Off her nod, he continued, carefully. "The people she's with are reasonably close to Rubinyan. Ah – that is, Rubinyan Jimajen, one of the regents for the –"
"I know who he is," Lianne said quietly.
"Right. Well – he's been working on putting his house back in order. He's trying to sort out the mess Oron made and form alliances with countries Oron didn't necessarily get along with."
"And?"
"Well he'd like us to be on better terms with them. The fact that Prince Hiresh is here shows how much, he's a pretty important figure. Imam, too, he's of a very old family."
Lianne looked at her brother blankly, still unsure where, exactly, this conversation was going. Liam cleared his throat.
"The Prince is here for you," Alan said, apparently tired of Liam dancing around the truth. He crossed the room and sat in a chair near Lianne's, meeting her eyes for the first time since she entered the room. "Rubinyan's sent him here to arrange a marriage."
"Oh," said Lianne, "Now I understand."
She didn't, not really. The concept, of course, she understood. Marriages to form alliances weren't at all unusual. Roald married Shinkokami to strengthen ties to the Yamani Islands, and Kalasin would marry Kaddar so the tensions between Tortall and Carthak would ease at least. Granted, they both had gotten very lucky. Roald and Shinkokami learned to love each other even before their wedding, and it appeared Kalasin and Kaddar were well on their way. But this was different.
It is not, Lianne scolded herself, dimly aware both boys were watching her very closely. Arranged marriages happen all the time. She swallowed, chewing on the inside of her lip. They're just not supposed to happen to me!
And there it was. Lianne couldn't deny the little protesting voice in her mind; she never expected that she would be forced into marriage. She was a younger princess, and one of the youngest of the family. She almost certainly wasn't going to take the throne. Politically, she shouldn't have much real value at all.
"Lianne?" Liam asked.
She blinked, shook out of her thoughts abruptly. "I would have thought Mother and Father would have told me if they were going to promise me to someone." To her own ears, her voice sounded faint and distant.
"They're not!" Liam rushed to say, and Lianne was vaguely aware of Alan shaking his head vehemently.
"I don't want to go to the Copper Isles," she went on, still not entirely registering the conversation.
A strong hand grabbed her shoulder and squeezed lightly, blue eyes met her own, and Liam's voice became fierce as he assured her, "You won't be."