Free The Fire Mages' Daughter by Pauline M. Ross

The guards’ commander settled the matter by telling me sternly that his men would take it very badly if they had to walk up to the fortress on empty stomachs.
    As soon as I entered the eating tent, I wished we’d kept to my original plan. To say there was a bit of an atmosphere would be an understatement. Ly-haam’s mother glared at me, the first sign of real emotion I’d seen in her, and several of the others looked sideways at me, before turning away. Clearly I was not supposed to get quite so intimate with their boy god.
    Ly-haam himself was quiet, and mercifully free of the endless smiles, but he didn’t try to avoid me, coming straight to my side and sliding onto the bench beside me.
    “Highness,” he said, with a touch of the hand to his forehead, a surprisingly formal greeting, considering. “You intend to leave as you have planned?”
    “I do. We have completed the time allotted to our mission.”
    “You go back to Kingswell?”
    I nodded.
    “You will tell your queen everything that you have seen here?”
    Was there a slight emphasis on ‘everything’?
    “I will tell the Drashona all that needs to be told.”
    His brow furrowed a little. Then he nodded. “You will inform her of our wish to understand your magic?”
    “I will tell her, but I do not believe it will help you. Our magic… does not travel well. There was an attempt to share the benefits with the coastal towns a few years ago, but it was not a success. Since then, we have kept it within the boundaries of Bennamore.”
    He nodded solemnly. It was odd how changed he was. The bouncy, lively boy with the perpetual smile had vanished, and in his place was a serious and thoughtful young man. I liked him so much better this way. He seemed more real, not hidden behind a veneer of artifice.
    Impulsively, I reached out to hold his hand. It was foolish of me, and his eyes widened at the touch but – nothing happened. Again, his forehead creased, and I was puzzled myself. After the dramatic effect he’d had on me only a few hours before, now there was nothing, just the warmth of his hand, the skin smooth. He was not a common labourer, that much was certain.
    “I cannot advise you,” I said, “but it may be profitable for you to send an ambassador to the Drashona’s court, to discuss your proposal more fully. These things take time to come to fruition. The Drashona would need to learn a great deal more about your people before any arrangement could be made.”
    We straggled back up the hill to the fortress, most of the guards striding ahead, the advisors and servants in the middle, while Vhar-zhin and her ladies ambled well behind. Ly-haam was again the only one of his people to accompany us, walking slowly and without energy just in front of Vhar-zhin. Crows fluttered nearby, alighting on a stone as we passed, then taking off and landing further up the hill. Watching us, always watching us.
    Overhead, three eagles wheeled in the morning sun, their feathers touched with gold.
    “They follow you everywhere. Which one of them is yours?” I asked mischievously.
    “All of them,” he answered.
    I had no idea whether he was joking or not.
    ~~~~~
    When we returned to Kingswell, there was a formal session with Yannassia, with a whole gaggle of advisors, the interpreter and the guard commander all giving their reports, such as they were. No one had learned anything of interest from our hosts; all had the same uneasy feeling that we had revealed too much about ourselves.
    Then Vhar-zhin and I, in private.
    “So he did not measure up as a possible husband?” Yannassia said to Vhar-zhin.
    She shuddered. “I did not like him at all. He was very… strange. He certainly showed no interest in me, although he was very polite. I am sure he had no thought of taking a wife. He gave no sign of it. We were quite misled about that, fortunately.”
    And then Vhar-zhin left, and the two bodyguards, and it was just Yannassia and me. She poured wine for us both, and