Some, perhaps, hoped to secure matches before the stakes were raised by her entry into the marriage market, while the more optimistic among the boys might be saying, “Why not me for royal consort?” The gifts still came thick and fast, and it gave Raisa a fierce pleasure to redirect them to her father and, through him, to the temple school. Not that it was easy. Queen Marianna was most displeased with her husband, following Raisa’s supposed “visit” to Demonai Camp. She made it clear that Averill was not welcome at court in all the various ways available to queens. So even though her father was back in the Vale, Raisa didn’t see as much of him as she would have liked. Would her own marriage be like this, Raisa wondered—this constant sparring, shifting alliances, hidden agendas, the gaining and losing of ground? She loved both of her strong-willed parents, but it wasn’t easy to be caught in the middle.
