Blood of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #4)

by Robin Hobb

Malta nodded and her smile touched her eyes. ‘I heard. You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to be Queen before you told them all that wasn’t why we had come here.’ Reyn lifted a hand from their child to caress her golden hair. It was coarse under his touch but his memory told him it was spun gold. ‘That was because I was sure you would say “yes”.’ He smiled at her. ‘And they would have let us simply walk in and take charge of all this.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I never want to be the one to say “This man lives and that man dies.” I am glad they think so highly of us and I am glad that they listened to me when I pleaded for clemency for the prisoners. But I am even gladder that they are talking and reaching the same conclusions on their own.’ ‘Negotiation. It’s the Trader way of solving things,’ she said, and he smiled.