His mother filled a crystal goblet with icy water poured from a crystal carafe. The two chimed, one against the other, a perfect note.

Stubborn woman … he should have forbidden Kerian to leave, ordered her to abandon her fool’s errand. Iydahar was nothing if not capable of taking care of himself.

“If you had ordered Kerian to stay,” said Laurana, picking a peach muffin from the covered basket, “if you had, my son, you would have lost her as surely as though you’d commanded her into exile.”

His mother’s words, dropping right into his thoughts, no longer startled Gilthas. They did, as at times like this, often annoy him, but they didn’t startle. Laurana had had the skill of reading her son’s thoughts from the first moment he had thoughts, or so it seemed to him. She smiled her golden smile, and went on buttering her muffin.

Her tone had, he thought, contained just a note of the acerbic. The Queen Mother had a true liking for Kerian but also the kind of respect that could sometimes appear cautious.

“Mother,” Gilthas said, seeking to turn Laurana’s thoughts from his. “I’ve had all the news Rashas is willing to give this morning, which is news hardly worth having. The watch was kept calmly through the night. There was only a minor altercation at a tavern near the western bridge where the Knights go to drink. The festival will move out into the countryside today, people will light bonfires in the fields. Rashas isn’t as happy about that as the people themselves.”

Laurana looked up, only a small glance. Morning breeze ruffled her golden hair, nothing seemed to ruffle her composure. It was always that way with her, Gilthas thought.

“Mother-”

“Listen,” said Laurana, she who in lands beyond Qua-linesti was yet known as the Golden General. She held up a hand to still her son. She placed a finger to her lips.

In the garden beyond the open doors, birds sang. The whisper of voices washing in from the city lay under those songs, and the sound of the gardener speaking with her apprentice, ordering the final clipping of the roses for the season.

Gilthas frowned, his mother mouthed the word again.

Listen.

He did, and in the next breath he heard the click of nails on the marble floor of the patio beyond the doors. He saw the hounds before he saw the elf woman, two long-legged beasts trotting across the patio with perfect confidence. They cast shadows behind them, and it seemed the woman appeared from those very shadows, the substance of her rising from the darkness. Gil caught his breath, startled. Here was Nayla Firethorn, a woman of his mother’s household. Times were when the woman would be gone from the city for days, even months. Sometimes she would come and go alone, sometimes with Haugh Daggerhart, a man said to be her lover. These two, and others like them, were the voice and will of the Queen Mother beyond Qualinesti’s borders, her trusted warrior-heralds.

“Nayla,” said the Queen Mother.

Laurana lifted her hand and Nayla dismissed her hounds, sending them in to the garden before she came forward to the open door. A beautiful woman, Nayla wore her golden hair in a thick braid hanging as far down as the small of her back. Gilthas imagined that, unbound, the woman’s hair would cover her like a shimmering cloak.

Nayla saw Gilthas and swept him a courtier’s bow, a flourish of the arm, a bending of the knee.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” she said, rising. One flickering glance she gave to Laurana-it was not lost on Gilthas!-then, having received some signal indiscernible to the king, she seemed to relax. She stepped into the room and stood before Laurana. “Your Highness, I have returned early, leaving the completion of the task to Haugh. All will be well.”

Clear as water on a windless lake, Laurana’s expression never changed. “I see you have come back by unusual means, Nayla. You felt the need for secret haste?”

Nayla reached into her shirt and withdrew a small leather pouchw She spilled the contents into her hand, a gleaming emerald shaped like a leaf half-furled. This she put into Laurana’s hand. “I have, Madam, and I thank you for the use of the talisman. As magical talismans work these days, it served well enough.”

She hesitated, then, when she spoke, she spoke directly to Gil.

“I’ve come with unexpected news for you, Your Majesty. I hope you will understand that although I might not understand the full weight and import of what I saw last night, I give you news of it with the best will possible.”

Puzzled, Gilthas frowned. “Please speak freely.”

She drew a breath, and she stood tall, trusting her instinct better than she trusted the king to hear her news calmly. “Sir, while I was upon my errand for your mother, I chanced to witness an incident at the Hare and Hound-”

Gil’s heart jumped.

“-Haugh and I had sat down to supper when an elf-woman came into the tavern.” Her glance jumped from Gilthas to the Queen Mother. “Madam, the rumors we’ve been hearing are true. There’s something …” She shrugged. “Something wrong in the forest.”

Gil leaned forward. “Wrong? What do you mean?”

“Your Majesty, it’s as though something bewitches one’s senses in there, in the deepest parts of the wood. On the road, one may be fine. Farther in-and with no regularity of pattern to discern-a kind of … it feels like magic takes hold, and all the senses are muffled. In the villages and towns, they mutter about the Kagonesti and say the Wilder Kin have something to do with it. I don’t know about the cause, sir. I only know the effect.” She paused. “It is the elf-woman I want to talk about, Kagonesti.”

“At the Hare and Hound.” Gil’s voice was unsteady. If his mother or Nayla noticed, neither acknowledged it.

“She is Kerianseray, Your Majesty, servant in the household of Senator Rashas. I believe you know her, and I believe you will not welcome the news I bring of her.”

“Tell me,” said the king, startled by the coldness of his voice.

“Your Majesty,” said Nayla, “while we were there three Knights came in with a Kagonesti woman for a prisoner. She had been badly beaten. The leader of those Knights is Sir Egil Galaria, one of those beholden to Lord Thagol.”

“Speak of Kerianseray”

“Sir, Your Majesty, there was a sudden altercation. Somehow she rescued the prisoner and fled the Hare and Hound with her.”

A smile twitched at the corners of the king’s lips. His heart swelled with sudden pride.

“She fled, sir, and on the way out, she killed a Knight. With luck, Lord Thagol doesn’t know it yet, but when he does learn the news …”

She need not have finished the thought. Beyond Lau-rana’s garden, past the grounds of her residence, the span of the eastern bridge shone in the morning sunlight, mist curling around its towers, wisping like ghostly tendrils of hair around the piked heads.

“Thank you, Nayla,” said the king softly, after a long silence. “I appreciate your effort to bring me this news.” He looked at her with faraway eyes. “I appreciate your discretion, as well, for you must have many thoughts on the subject of Senator Rashas’s servant and reasons why I would be interested in her well-being.”

Nayla bowed, again a courtier’s sweep. When she stood, her green eyes were clear and bright. “I have no thoughts on the subject at all, my lord king. I hope you will trust me ever as your lady mother has. I hope you will know that in all matters, Haugh’s heart and mine are as one.”

He knew it. He had not known the Forest Keepers, that shining legion of warriors who had been the buckler and sword of a kingdom. Fate had commanded that he disband them, the breaking of that valiant army part of the fee to be paid for an uneasy peace that would keep his kingdom intact, his people alive. He saw in the eyes of this messenger the kind of loyalty few but kings would ever know.

Gilthas dismissed her with his gratitude and turned to his mother.