Chapter fourteenUlana Farlan decided she really did not feel well enough to go to the party. She expressed her regrets and asked me to apologize to my friends and to thank them for their kind invitation. She sat up in my bed with a violet shawl draped about her shoulders. Her hair fell freely about her head and, again, I wondered if Yavnin might not reconsider his affection for Ahilya.
Telling her that I understood and that she should stay in my quarters for as long as she wished, I started to take my leave. She held out a hand. “Majister. I must ask you — my Chuliks?”
I shook my head. She put a lace handkerchief to her mouth. Her lips, newly to me, were full and red. “I am so sorry.”
She went on to say that Princess Velia had, on the request of Princess Didi, instructed her bankers to
