Ossane made the offer in full on the tenth day, in her own tent, with no clerk present. She sent for the Regent by a Lessaran page in a green coat, who came up the causeway at the candle-clock and bowed to Idrin with great formality and then, in a lower voice, asked him not to bring the Hold’s Hands. The commissioner, the page said, wished to speak to the Regent alone, as one gentleman to another, and she had given her word that no clerk would hear.
Idrin went alone. He did not bring Tallow, though Tallow asked to come, and he did not bring Korrin, though Korrin had said at breakfast that a Lessaran who asked for a man alone was asking for a knife. He went with the cold in his left arm to the shoulder and his left glove on, and he walked the causeway past the scale and the faces and the soldier’s line, and he gave none of them a glance, because he did not wish to be seen looking.
The commissioner’s tent was smaller than the awning. It was made of cream-coloured canvas with a blue band at the hem, and it had a rug on the floor and a camp-chair with a cushion and a folding table with a cup on it. There was no tea. Ossane was sitting in the chair. She did not get up when he came in, which was a courtesy, because a woman who has been expecting…
