"Did he fall off?"

"No, he didn't. Sechroom told him to stop when he got right to the very end of the plank and Hiliti could feel the edge. Hiliti undid the blindfold and stood there, arms out, waving at the two girls sitting far below. They were cheering and waving. Hiliti turned carefully and went back to the safety of the cliff edge, and then it was Sechroom's turn.

"Sechroom put on the blindfold and heard Hiliti adjust the amount the plank stretched out over the drop. Then she stepped on to it, sliding her feet very slowly and carefully and keeping her arms out to each side just as Hiliti had done."

"Like this."

"Like that. Well, the plank went up and down and Sechroom felt very frightened. A breeze had started up and it blew against Sechroom and made her feel even more frightened, but she kept sliding her feet along towards the end of the plank, which by now was starting to seem very far away.

"Just as she got to the end, Hiliti told her to stop, and she did. Then she slowly put her hands to the back of her head and undid the blindfold."

"Like this."

"Like that. She waved down to the friends standing on the grass."

"Like this."

"Like that, then she turned round to walk back along the plank, just as Hiliti stepped off the plank and let it and Sechroom fall."

"No!"

"Yes! Now the plank didn't fall very far because Hiliti had tied a length of rope to the end, but Sechroom fell screaming into the pool at the foot of the waterfall and hit the water with a tremendous splash and disappeared. Their two friends dashed and splashed into the water to help, while Hiliti calmly drew the plank back up and then knelt on the side of the cliff, looking down, waiting for Sechroom to surface.

"But Sechroom did not surface. The two other friends swam around looking for her and diving down into the depths of the pool and searching amongst the rocks all jumbled at the sides of the pool but they could find no sign of Sechroom. Up on the cliff Hiliti was horrified at what he'd done. He had only meant to teach Sechroom a lesson, to show her that you could not trust anybody. He wanted to be cruel to be kind because he thought that Sechroom's ideas might be the death of her one day if she was not taught to be more careful, but now it looked like his Hiliti's — ideas had been the death of his cousin and best friend, for much time had passed by then and Sechroom could not possibly have survived so long under water."

"Did Hiliti dive into the water too?"

"Yes! He dived into the pool and hit the water so hard that he knocked himself out, but the two other friends rescued him and brought him back to the grass by the side of the pool. They were still slapping his cheeks and trying to press water out of his lungs when Sechroom appeared from the water, her head and neck all bloody and stumbled up to see how her friend was."

"She was alive!"

"She had struck her head on an underwater rock when she'd fallen into the pool and had nearly drowned, but she'd been brought up to the surface behind the waterfall and floated along with the current until she'd wedged between some rocks. There she had recovered and had realised what Hiliti had been up to. She was angry with Hiliti and with the two other friends as well, because she thought — mistakenly — that they were in on the trick too, and so she hadn't shouted out when the two had swum nearby, and had ducked under the water so that they wouldn't see her. Only when she thought Hiliti had injured himself too did she swim and wade out of the pool."

"Did Sechroom forgive Hiliti?"

"Mostly, though the two were never quite so close friends again."

"But they were both all right?"

"Hiliti came to quickly and was mightily relieved to see his friend. Sechroom's head wound was not as bad as it looked, though to this day she bears a funny, triangular scar on her head where the rock hit, just here, above the left ear. Luckily her hair covers the scar."

"Hiliti was bad."

"Hiliti was trying to prove a point. People often behave badly when they are trying to prove a point. Of course, he claimed that he had proved it. He said that he had taught Sechroom exactly the lesson he had sought to teach her, and taught it so well that Sechroom put the results of that lesson into effect almost instantly, for what was Sechroom doing, hiding there amongst the rocks behind the waterfall, but trying to teach Hiliti a lesson?"

"Ah-ha."

"Ah-ha indeed."

"So Hiliti was right?"

"Sechroom would never agree to that. Sechroom held that her head was damaged and her brains were addled at the time and that that proved her point, which had become that it was only damaged people with confused brains who ever saw the justice in trying to be cruel to be kind."

"Mmm." Lattens yawned. "That was a better story than the last one, but quite a difficult one."

"I think you must rest now. You have to get better, don't you?"

"Like Sechroom and Hiliti did."

"That's right. They got better." DeWar tucked the boy in as Lattens" eyes slowly closed. The boy reached out and felt for something. His hand closed on a square of worn, pale yellow material, which he gripped tightly in one small hand and brought up to hold by his cheek, settling his head further down into the pillow with a few small nestling movements.

DeWar got up and made for the door, nodding to the nurse sitting knitting by the window.

The General met his bodyguard in the visiting chamber of the outer harem. 'Ah, DeWar," UrLeyn said, walking swiftly from the doors to the harem and settling his long jacket over his shoulders. "Did you see Lattens?"

"I did, sir," DeWar said, falling into step as they exited the harem. Two men of the palace guard who had been effectively tripling the guard on the harem entrance trailed them by a few steps. This additional escort for the Protector was DeWar's response to the increased danger he perceived UrLeyn to be in after the attack by the Sea Company ambassador and the start of the war in Ladenscion, which had begun a few days earlier.

"He was asleep when I looked in," UrLeyn said. "I'll see him later. How was he?"

"Still recovering. I think the doctor bleeds him too much."

"Now, DeWar, each to his own. BreDelle knows what he's doing. I dare say you would not appreciate him trying to teach you the finer points of sword-play."

"Indeed not, sir, but even so." DeWar looked awkward for a moment. "There is something I'd like to do, sir."

"Yes? What?"

"I'd like to have Lattens" food and drink tasted. Just to make sure that he is not being poisoned."

UrLeyn stopped and looked at his bodyguard. "Poisoned?"

"Purely as a precaution, sir. I'm sure he has some… normal illness, trivial enough, But just to be on the safe side. With your permission."

UrLeyn shrugged. "Very well, if you think it necessary. I dare say my tasters won't object to the odd extra bit of food." He set off again, striding quickly.

They exited the harem and set off up the steps to the rest of the palace two at a time until UrLeyn stopped about halfway up and then continued one step at a time. He rubbed his lower back. "Occasionally my body chooses to remind me of my true age," he said. He grinned and tapped DeWar on the elbow. "I believe I deprived you of your opponent, DeWar."

"My opponent, sir?"

"Your game-playing companion." He winked. 'Perrund."

"Ah.,

"I tell you, DeWar, these young things are all very well, but you realise they're still girls when you have a real woman." He put his hand to his back again. "Providence, though. She puts me through my paces, I tell you." He laughed and stretched his arms. "If ever I expire in the harem, DeWar, Perrund may be to blame, and yet no blame will attach."

"Yes, sir."

They approached the King's Chamber where UrLeyn had taken to holding his daily briefings on the war. A buzz of conversation could be heard from beyond the guarded double doors. UrLeyn turned to DeWar. "Right, DeWar. I shall be in here for the next couple of bells."