Then with a rustle of wind, the vayash moru was gone.

One evening at the start of their second month at the Library, Tris was working his way through a stack of books in the third-floor study. He glanced up when the door creaked open. To his surprise, Kiara slipped into the room with a teapot in one hand and a small cloth sack in the other.

"May I come in?"

Tris smiled and set aside his book. "Please," he said with a gesture that welcomed her to a chair near the fire. Kiara brought the teapot over and set the cloth sack down on the table, out of which tumbled a piece of crusty bread, a wedge of cheese and a sturdy mug.

"Carina sent me up with some of her headache tea," Kiara said. "Since I was headed this way, Royster added the food—seems he and Kessen got into a row in the kitchen and dinner will be late tonight," she added with a chuckle. She sank gratefully into a chair, and declined his offer of food.

"No thanks. I grabbed a bite for myself while I was in the kitchen," she confessed. "Although I might take a sip of that tea—I have been reading until my eyes feel crossed!"

She paused. "Sister Taru says that Cam and two friends of yours reached a keep of the Sisterhood in northern Margolan."

"They're alive? That's the best news I've heard in a long time," he said.

"Carina was so relieved, I thought she'd never stop crying." She paused. "Taru says that your friends will meet us in Principality City," Kiara added. "She sent them on to start recruiting troops. Cam rode for Isencroft with an elixir to keep the illness from getting any worse. But they can't heal father while the mage lives who cast the illness."

"Do you know who sent the spell?"

Kiara met his eyes. "Arontala. He wants father dead—that way, we have no choice but to ally Isencroft with Margolan to survive."

"I'm sorry," Tris replied.

She looked away. "You're doing all you can. The elixir buys us time. Carina has found some other things in the books that may also ease his suffering and give him strength until..."

"Until I can destroy Arontala," Tris finished her sentence.

She met his eyes, then looked down and nodded. "Yes." She was silent for a while longer. "I want to do a scrying," she said finally. "To see if Cam arrived safely and see if father is doing better. " Tris poured a cup and slid it toward her. She took a few sips, and closed her eyes.

"I never had the chance to ask you more about your magic," Tris said, watching her in the firelight. Jae hopped down from his perch on her shoulder and Tris offered him bits of cheese. Jae snapped up the treats before curling into a ball on the edge of the desktop.

Kiara shrugged. "It's not really sorcerer-caliber talent," she admitted. "The gift is very limited. Scryings, some battle divination—things directly related to the safety of the kingdom," she said. "It shows only snatches of information, out of context." She sighed. "On the future of Isencroft, it has been silent."

Tris sipped his tea. It began at once to ease the tension in his shoulders and the reaction headache that throbbed in his temples. "Maybe the future is yet in motion," he said gently. "Maybe we alter it, even now, by what we do."

"Perhaps," she said. "I'd like to think so."

Tris slipped another crumb of cheese to Jae, who gobbled it then stretched out lazily, lolling to one side to invite a belly scratch. "He isn't like that with just everyone," Kiara observed. "You've made a real friend."

"I hope so," Tris said, meeting her eyes. She looked away, her cheeks coloring slightly, as if she caught the full intention of his comment.

"Thank you," he said. "For the tea. And the company. It gets too quiet up here."

"You're welcome," she said, daring a glance back at him. She held out her arm, and Jae waddled toward her, making a gurgle of protest as he lighted on her shoulder.

"Kiara," he said seriously, "please don't scry without me. Just a feeling I've got... Taru went back to the citadel to confer, Gabriel is gon I wish you'd reconsider."

Kiara shook her head. "How could we be any safer than here, behind all of the Sisterhood's spells? Carina's desperate to see that Cam is safely home, and I'm as lonesome for a glimpse of father as I am anxious to see how he's doing."

Tris sighed. "We're probably as safe as we'll ever be. But please, wait for me."

"All right," she said, "you've got a deal."

After supper, Carroway favored them with several new stories; then three of the Keepers joined him for a candlemark of chamber music. Tris drank another mug of the mulled wine and breathed deeply, enjoying the first chance to relax. He was enjoying Kiara's company as much as the entertainment, and could see that Carroway was relishing the opportunity to entertain with the lute the Keepers had given him.

When the program ended at the tenth bell, everyone congratulated Carroway and the other musicians. As the group filed from the room, a handful remained behind.

"What's going on?" Vahanian asked as he passed Tris.

"Kiara wants to do a scrying to see how her father is doing," Tris replied. "She'll need a few of us to hold the circle, but we've got enough that you're off the hook."

Vahanian gave him a sideways glance. "I think I'll stick around outside the circle and watch your back, if it's all the same, Spook," he said. "After all, if you get your royal ass fried to a crunch with some magic-gone-wrong, the rest of us have a one-way trip to the hangman's noose."

"I want to watch," Berry chirped.

"No," Tris said.

"Absolutely not," Carina echoed.

"Isn't it late for you to be awake?" Vahanian asked. Berry made a sour face.

"I don't have a bed time," she announced. "I've never seen a scrying. It will be fun."

"It can be dangerous," Tris said.

Berry dismissed him with a gesture that looked oddly like one of Vahanian's mannerisms. "I'm not afraid. I've fought slavers and seen ghosts and vayash moru."

"She's actually handy in a fight," Vahanian said off-handedly, and Berry beamed. "All right—I'll let you stand behind me, on one condition."

"All right!" Berry agreed enthusiastically.

Vahanian fixed her with a steady gaze. "No matter what happens, you don't get in the way."

Berry gave him a smug look. "Of course I won't get in the way. I wasn't in the way at the forest throwing rocks, now was I?"

"It's possible that you pair are two of a kind," Tris observed dryly as they followed Kiara into the parlor.

Fresh torches burned in the sconces and a fire blazed on the hearth. In the room's center was a small table surrounded by six chairs, and on the table sat an amber scrying ball the size of a melon, on a stand of tangled bronze dragons. "It's beautiful," Kiara commented, reaching toward it and pulling her fingers back just before they touched its smooth surface. Jae flapped nervously on her shoulder, hissing.

"I'm still not comfortable about this," Carina said. "At Isencroft you had the chamber, and it was spelled and warded. When Alyzza and Tris tried a scrying with the caravan, there was... something... out there looking for him," she recounted with shudder.

"You are in a fortress of the Sisterhood," Royster interrupted. "It, too, has safeguards." He jumped as if jabbed from behind, and glared at the empty air. "Did we ask you?" he snapped at the ghost. Tris saw Kessen tugging at Royster's shirt, for once completely devoid of mischief.

"I think he's trying to tell you something," Tris said. "I don't think he's joking."

Royster stopped in amazement, unused to others seeing his ghostly companion. "All right," he said abruptly to the ghost. "What, then?"

"What did he say?" Carina and Kiara asked in one breath.

"Did you just talk to him, Tris?" Berry asked excitedly.