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"What I mean to say is that if I put up portraits of her and you at her age, a man would be hard-pressed to choose between you, but in person, it’s no contest Her beauty is wasted on her She is divorced from her flesh, joyless You, on the other hand, have this ability to enjoy ayou on any of a dozen levels If I could imbue a dress hat you have, I would not be a tailor, I would be a god Of all my clients, you will always be my favorite, Gwinvere"

She smiled, oddly moved With Master Piccun, you always expected lechery, but you never expected hi by it Now, he meant every word he said "Thank you, Aerinned "I don’t suppose I’ve warhed "I’ discounts on their dresses for the coronation They’d be so disappointed if I exhausted you"

"It’s cruel to ruin ahi hiht"

"Fourteen?" she asked

"Fourteen long, long years"

"M al time"

He stepped close

Momma K slipped away, opened the door, and beckoned the lisso in the front room "Careful, sweetie, I think he’ll want to start with the discount"

The noblewohed "Cruel, Gwinvere Cruel"

41

Jenine had been spending her days trying to decide if Garoth Ursuul’s wives and concubines would die Dorian waited for her in the black rock halls that she usually lightened with her presence But today, and for the days since he’d laid the question before her, that sunny presence had been clouded

"My love," he said gently, "we have to decide today"

"Part ofme decide, but this is what it is to be a queen, isn’t it? You are wise, milord If you decided for me, I would doubt you either way"

He breathed When she’d said "part offor centuries had been cremated with his wives and concubines, save for a few concubines that the next Godking wished for himself If Dorian kept his first proed to throw themselves--or be thrown--onto Garoth Ursuul’s pyre, with only the dubious reward of getting to spend all eternity as his slaves The alternative was to claim all of the to the dead, but a Godking was not expected to be selfless

There was a third alternative, of course Dorian could outright ban the practice of throwing the living on funeral pyres In a few years, he intended to do exactly that But he was already being painted as a soft southerner The Vürdainst his life What would Solon have told him to do? Dorian pushed the question aside: Solon would have told hiet the hell out of Khalidor