Daine curls her lip distastefully. "So they could cripple Tortall without ever having outright war declared." At least Ozorne's out of the picture, and Carthak's no longer a threat, but there are still enough immortals running around the place to keep the country busy.

She's both surprised and pleased by the head-bump, which she takes as a sign that Yuri's finally accepting the idea of being relatively harmless in that shape. "I don't know," she says, reaching up to pat his shoulder. "We could wander around until we see something interesting."