The queen regarded Rishi coldly. "And you are?"

"Rishi Saubhari, Radiance, a bahrana ginger-prince from the Free Cities." Rishi stopped two paces from the bed, where a handsome Ffolk man in a plain golden crown stood flanked by six guards. "It was not so very long ago that I myself was presented to Your Brilliance and the Royal Husband."

Still clasping Atreus's hand, he bowed first to the bedridden queen, then to the man with the golden crown. Atreus was about to do likewise when Jyotish scurried up and hurled himself to the floor.

"This is not my doing!" The chamberlain spoke so rapidly that Atreus could barely decipher his thick accent. "I could not stop them!"

Rishi turned toward Jyotish. "We were meant to wait?" He allowed his jaw to drop in a purely artificial expression of surprise. "The queen did not summon us forward? Apologies! Apologies many and profuse! Then I was much mistaken in the impression that she wished to meet this man-this man who has journeyed many months across land and sea all the way from the parched wastes of the far side of the world, and only so he might bask in the divine radiance of Edenvale's queen." Rishi tugged sharply on Atreus's hand. Taking the hint, Atreus bowed first to the queen, then to her husband. "Please excuse the interruption," he said, feeling rather clownish with Rishi's shirt draped over his head. "It was not my intention to disturb your court."

Rishi finally released Atreus's hand. "Allow me to present Atreus Eleint, a noble prince of Erlkazar-"

"Loyal citizen!" Atreus corrected, horrified. In Erlkazar, such a gross misrepresentation could cost a man his tongue. "I am not even a lord."