If the East Anglian levies were his, he would march across Wales at their head, with the Mercian hosts to right and left of him.

He might even wrest Northumbria from the hold of her kings.
Quendritha sees that flash, and knows that the cup has done its work.

The mind of the king is full of imaginings.

So she sits by him, and her voice seems to blend with his thoughts, and he does not hinder her as she sets before him the might and glory of the kingdom that would be his if that dream were true.

And so she wakes the longing for it in the mind of Offa, and plays on it until he is half bent to her will; and her will is that the dream should come true, and that shortly.
Then at last she says, "And all this is but marred because of a niddering lad who will leave the hall at a feast for the whining of the priests yonder! In truth, a meet leader of men, and one who will be a source of strength to our realm! It makes me rage to think that but he is in the way.