Lion Head Mesa lyre

ramesses did not like the querulous tone which had entered crowfeather's voice. he looked slowly between the stricken prince and gucci with an inscrutable expression. why did the prospect of royalty and marriage so affect the boy? 
"you are a seer." the lapis eyes sharpened and rested like the twin points of jeweled spears against the handsome young face. "you know the stars." an egyptian court held high regard for astrologers. they worked with the priests in order to pick the most auspicious dates, and they were denied nothing.
"you told me if i was to visit the starsea, your people would not welcome me as pharaoh. if they raise their teeth against akashingo, i will put them to the edge of the sword." his voice hardened as he spoke; ramesses became as marble. "likewise, the laws of the starsea do not apply here. i honor you as a noble and a seer. and i will place you in such a rank as reflects this."
none of the richness within the mesa had appealed to crowfeather. his new status as respected prince inside akashingo did not matter. the things that ramesses had offered held no interest, and it was enraging.
pharaoh was unused to being denied.
he would not be denied.
"if your master does not wish to marry," he said to gucci, voice firm in the richstone room, "then i will find another match for her elsewhere. but it is done, crowfeather. she is already on her way." another lie but it did not matter. ramesses trusted in jawahir.
the sun god rolled his shoulders in faux exhaustion. "meet her at the very least. this is what you can do for me, prince. this is how i am to be repaid. your marriage is an alliance and if it should bear fruit, then akashingo benefits."
another slow glance between the pair.