“And I do not mean in the last decade,” the blue-eyed princess said. “That is the scale of the immediate, the short precedent. It is not an honest examination of the past. Since the Principate was founded, Hanno of Arwad, how many princes and princesses have deservedly been slain by heroes?”

The brown-eyed man frowned.

“Given a few hours I would be able to give you a precise answer,” Hanno said, “but at the moment I cannot.”

Cordelia waved that away. She was not trying to ambush him, pretend that lacking an exact number would mean she somehow won the argument.

“Imprecise would be enough,” she replied. “Thirty, forty, a hundred?”

He mulled that, eyes going distant for a few heartbeats. The air pulsed faintly with power. Aspect, she thought.

“Less than eighty,” he finally said. “More than thirty.”

- Book 7, Interlude: Occidental V