Chapter Sixteen — *Isolde*
Isolde was not what Mara expected.
She had built a picture of her in her head over fifteen chapters of running. Cold. Calculated. The Elder's daughter sitting in expensive clothes making quiet deadly decisions about people she had never met.
The woman sitting in the chair in Rhen's east building was not that.
She was twenty five. Maybe twenty six. Dark hair. Pale. The kind of beautiful that looked like it had cost her something to maintain. She was sitting with her hands folded in her lap and her back straight and her eyes on the door when Mara walked in.
She looked at Mara for a long moment.
Then she said: "You are smaller than I expected."
"You tried to have me executed," Mara said. "I expected someone less tired looking."
Isolde blinked.
Then somethin
