Chapter Text
“Betrothed to Gen? Why? Why not Stenides? For that matter, why not Pylaster?” Kallinike, Queen Thief, demanded of her husband.
Hector frowned slightly before shrugging elaborately.
”Not that old rumor again. Gen looks just like you.”
”He looks like you. And if he did look like me, well.”
”I still don’t see why Attolis doesn’t want his daughter engaged to Pylaster, the actual heir to Eddis and much closer in age to this girl.”
”I don’t think he’s looking for an alliance so much as a hostage.”
”As if your brother cares a whit about Gen.”
”So we have to be careful about refusing. Technically it’s a high honor.”
”Surely we can object due to Gen’s age? He’s only 8. We can offer Stenides instead, and if they refuse that will be the end of it.”
”What if they accept? Are we willing to let Stenides marry into the Attolian royal family?”
Kallinike didn’t answer, instead fingering her watch and turning to look out the window.
“Stenides . . . might be able to survive the Attolian court. Do you really think they’d accept him?”
”Who knows? We need more information.”
”In any case, we can delay the engagement until we can figure out a reason to extricate our sons from it. Surely if we want to deny it we can simply demand a particularly high dowry.”
”On what justification?”
”I’m sure my father can think of something.”
Hector frowned and looked down, but didn’t say anything.