“But I am interested in your impressions and opinions, Harkell, not simply the facts.”
Harkell blinked in surprise. “I beg your pardon, Sire. I was not sure whether you continued to value my opinion.”
“And why would I not?” asked Tarkyn, raising his eyebrows.
Harkell was at a loss to reply. He could not say in this public forum, that it was because he was now being treated as prince to commoner, or because now he felt like an outsider looking in. Suddenly his temper, which he had guarded so carefully all those years in Jarand’s court, got the better of him. “Because, Your Highness, so far today you have addressed yourself exclusively to those people among us who possess power and high rank. I have neither.”
“Is that not the usual practice of a prince holding court, unless he is respond
