The cat seemed definitely larger than the jaguars she'd once seen in a menagerie. The horses rolled their eyes and quick-stepped nervously, while their ylvin masters soothed them.

The whole column slowed, watching the animal. When they were past, Varia quickened her horse's pace, pulling up beside Cyncaidh. "It was beautiful," she said. "In the south, I doubt you'd ever see one so close."

He grinned. He'd been smiling more lately; she'd decided he must be getting close to home. "Wait till you see one in winter," he said. "Their coat gets longer, soft and thick, and turns almost white. A pale ice blue, actually, with blue-gray rosettes."

See one in winter? The words triggered anxiety. "How will I come to see one in winter?" she asked.

He hadn't noticed the change in her aura. That required attention, and his was on his thoughts. "We have a place, my family, where we-" He stopped. "You may not have the word for them in the Rude Lands. We fasten long slender boards on our feet, and run on them across the snow. Which up here covers the ground for about half the year."

"They have them on Farside," Varia said. "In my husband's language they're called skis."

His smiled faded. "Well, then," he said, "you know what I mean." He continued with less enthusiasm. "There are several of them there, the Great Cats, and we've developed a sort of mutual trust. We track one or another of them sometimes, to observe them, and sometimes they track us. They neither flee nor offer to attack, though ambush is their favored hunting strategy."

She couldn't tell him she'd love to see one. He might infer an interest in staying. Introverted, she said something vague and dropped back to where Caerith rode. She knew what had killed Cyncaidh's enthusiasm: she'd referred to her husband. While her wonder over the jaguar had died when he'd implied she'd still be with him in the winter. We need to thrash this out, she thought. But not yet. She wouldn't be able to stand it if he said she couldn't go back. Or even if he equivocated.

The next afternoon they topped a final ridge that looked across forest to the Great Northern Sea. Cyncaidh stopped, the rest of the party stopping too, and Varia rode up to sit beside him. She liked his grin; it made him look boyish. "That's it," he said pointing. "I've sailed it-including by ice sloop-and skied and skated on it. Everything but swim in it."

"You haven't swum in it?"

He shook his head. "It's too cold. You wouldn't last a minute. Well maybe a minute, but certainly not ten. Probably not five." He pointed northwestward. "My home is off there. Aaerodh Manor. We'll stay in Cyncaidh Harbor tonight, at an inn, and be home about midday tomorrow.

"I love it there. When I speak of home, that's where I mean. That was home even during my twelve years at Duinarog. Though it was about three weeks away by ship, up rivers and across both the Middle and Northern Seas."

The Middle Sea. I never even heard of it before, she thought. Nor of Duinarog or the Northern Sea, until Caerith mentioned them. Varia realized again how limited the teaching was at the Cloister. She knew far more about the geography of Farside than about her own world, or even her own continent.

Cyncaidh grinned down at her. "You'll love it too," he said. "It's made for you. It's beautiful."

The inn was a surprise to Varia. When Cyncaidh got down from his horse, a stable boy, a middle-aged human, took the reins grinning. "Good to see you again, Your Excellency," he said. His voice was respectful, but not at all obsequious. Cyncaidh had the man's name ready to his tongue: "It's good to see you, Joleth," he answered. It occurred to Varia then that the inn might be owned by Cyncaidh's family.

It seemed to bustle when they entered. The house staff, mostly ylvin, treated Cyncaidh like royalty. From their auras, they were honestly pleased to see him, and Cyncaidh, in his turn, was friendly-not overly familiar but not at all aloof. The place was almost crowded; the manager told Cyncaidh that a cruise ship had arrived that day.

A small dining room, reserved for special parties, was set up for him and his soldiers. At supper he seated Varia beside him, and the ylvin potboy's treatment of her went almost beyond courtesy, despite her road-worn uniform. In fact, the entire staff was friendly, and seemed to have been expecting her. It introverted her a bit.

While they ate dessert, Cyncaidh leaned toward her. "Stay near me after supper," he murmured.

Afterward the soldiers dispersed, some to sit in a common room for drinks and conversation, while others left to walk around. Apparently none had been in Cyncaidh Harbor before. After speaking briefly with the manager, Cyncaidh took Varia's arm, and together they climbed a flight of interior stairs to a hall, then down it to a large room with a fireplace and upholstered chairs. And a bed, which sent a brief twinge of unease through her.

Her glance moved to the flames dancing in the fireplace, then to the balcony. She walked past Cyncaidh and out onto it. It was flanked by what he'd told her on the trail were spruces, and seemed higher than a second story because the inn was built on a low rocky bluff. Before her lay a bay, with a rocky point on the west that extended well into the lake. Not a lake, she told herself. A sea. A blue, sweet-water sea. There were docks and a trio of schooners, one of them a long four-master, sleek and clean, painted a strong sky blue. The cruise ship, she supposed.

Cyncaidh stepped out beside her, and their arms touched. She was very conscious of his nearness and size. "Do you find it beautiful?" he asked. He wasn't smiling now, she knew without looking.

He's hung his boyish mood in the closet, she thought. It was a mood she liked, when he showed it, but in her experience it was fragile. She wondered what he'd be serious about this evening. "Very beautiful," she said.

"It seems to me you've been happy these last days."

"I have. More than any time since I was kidnapped and brought back to Yuulith."

As she said it, she remembered the day of her arrival at the new Cloister. She'd bathed, eaten with clone mates, and spent the evening walking and talking with Liiset. It had been a beautiful half day, half a day of blind and foolish optimism.

"I'm glad it pleases you," Cyncaidh said. "I love you, you know."

"I thought perhaps you did." She turned to him, to say more, to tell him that she loved Curtis Macurdy, but his arms slipped around her, and his lips lowered to hers. His kiss was not forceful but gentle, lingering. She was passive, neither returning nor resisting. He stepped back, hands on her arms, his face sober, his aura showing not arousal but love.

"I've wanted to do that-and tell you that-almost since we rescued you. If rescue is the word. And told myself I mustn't; that it wouldn't be fair. Perhaps it isn't now, either, but it seemed necessary that you know."

She stared at him, her fingertips on the lips he'd kissed.

"Tomorrow we'll be at Aaerodh Manor," he went on, "and you'll learn things there. You needed to know this first, know it with certainty." He took a deep breath and half turned, offering his arm. "Let me take you to the steward. You haven't seen your room yet."

He left her with the steward, a robust ylf whose face and aura reflected an even-tempered competence. Instead of assigning a page to guide her, he took her up himself, let her in, then gave her the key and left. The room was a duplicate of the other, with its own balcony facing the lake, and its own fireplace. A fire had been set and lit for her, and her bag lay on a high bench next to the bed. A robe and nightgown hung from a rod. There was a basket on the table, with cheese and bread, and a knife for slicing. A bottle of wine stood beside it.

The sun was low, its light golden on the trees along the water's edge. She stood on the balcony watching it set, saying nothing, almost thinking nothing. Then turned back the covers on her bed, donned the nightgown, and lay down. Thoughts came to her, of being kissed by Cyncaidh, and in them he didn't step away from her, but kept kissing her, murmuring his love while they undressed each other and lay down together.