As simply as he could, Regis told her about Felix Lawton. At the end, he said, “Will you come to Thendara to work with him?”

“Thendara is far away,” she said, her tone guarded. “It’s hard to believe that there is no qualified leronisnearer.”

“There is no one else with your training who is not committed to work in the Towers. The Bridge Society healer can help him through the worst of his threshold sickness, but she cannot teach him how to use his laran.She thinks he may have the potential to become a Keeper.”

You more than anyone knows how important it is to nurture such a talent.

Her gray eyes widened, but only for an instant. “It would not be a simple matter to move to Thendara. I have made a life here. High Windward is my home. And there is Kierestelli to consider. You have seen your daughter, Regis. How do you think she would fare in a city?”

Regis had not considered that Linnea would keep Kierestelli with her. Having seen the two of them together, however, he understood why Linnea would not consider leaving without her.

“I could arrange for accommodations in either the Hastur section of Comyn Castle or my own town house,” he said. “Thendara is a large city, with all that implies. At the same time, it offers many resources, art and culture and society, a chance to learn about other worlds and to meet a wide variety of people.”

“To be assaulted and exploited by them, you mean.” Linnea’s gray eyes flashed silver fire. She did not need to remind Regis of his own dead children, slain by World Wrecker assassins before Kierestelli was born.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “That was a long time ago. Yes, any place where large numbers of people live together has problems, but I promise you that our daughter will not be exposed to them. I myself will keep her safe.”

There it was, his word on it. The word of a Hastur was still considered more binding than any oath.

Linnea sat very still, with the unearthly calm she had developed in her years at a Tower. “Yes,” she said quietly, “I believe you would.”

She got to her feet in a swirl of woolen skirts. “I must think about this. Such a decision ought not to be made carelessly or too quickly. Meanwhile, enjoy the hospitality of High Windward. The cooks have been rushing around like headless barnfowl since your arrival, concocting a dinner they believe worthy of you.” She smiled with a trace of mischievous spirit. “My kinsmen are also anxious to welcome you properly. Don’t worry, they keep to the old ways and will not press you about your business here.”

“I believe I can endure an evening of toasts and storytelling,” Regis said.

“Then,” she said, going to him and laying her fingertips on his arm, “let us go down to join them.”

5

The next day brought fine weather, high clear skies of the crystalline brilliance of the mountains. Regis and Danilo went riding with Linnea and Kierestelli, the three adults on shaggy ponies, the girl on a beautiful silver-gray chervine.Regis noticed that although the little doe wore a halter, Kierestelli never touched the reins. Girl and animal moved as one, bound by a sympathy of mind.

Linnea took them down the path to the old, deserted village of the forge folk and showed them the caves where she had played as a child. Regis very much suspected that Kierestelli did the same. Once or twice, they came upon a herd of wild chervineswho stared at them, unafraid, before bounding away. Kierestelli laughed and clapped her hands.

That evening, they took their dinner along with Kierestelli and her nurse in the suite of rooms that Linnea had grown up in. These were in the same wing as the chambers Regis and Danilo had been given. Regis realized that Linnea had a hand in that choice.

“I knew you wouldn’t be comfortable in the Royal Suite,” she said on the second night, as they sat near the fire over cups of warmed firiand bowls of pitchoonuts. Kierestelli had just gone up to bed. “It’s huge and echoing and pretentious. They say it was built just in case a Hastur Lord should visit. I think it’s been used only once, and that by bandits.”

“You’re right, I’m much better where I am,” Regis answered. Replete with hearty country food, exercise in the cold air, and undemanding companionship, he was far more relaxed than in Thendara.

“I do admit,” he went on in a jovial mood, “there is a certain appropriateness in reserving the Royal Suite to the princes of the road, as outlaws are sometimes called.”

“The folk who dwelled here would have been far less amused at the prospect,” Danilo said.

Linnea glanced at him. “Yes, from all accounts that was a terrible time. The fellow’s name was Brynat Scarface, or something like that. You can still see the damage to the inner parapet where his men breached the walls.”

“Let us hope those lawless times never come again,” Danilo said.

Regis took a sip of his firi,finding it too sweet for his taste. The Terrans had brought more effective policing methods, and the Domains had been at peace with one another for decades. The closest they had come to war was during the Sharra business, when Beltran of Aldaran marched on Thendara with an army. Still, Regis reflected grimly, the decline of the Comyn created openings for ruthless men to take advantage of the weak. Petty thieves were one thing, even bandit kings like Brynat Scarface, but should a leader emerge, one bent on conquest and willing to use any means necessary to seize power . . .

He came back to himself as Linnea picked up her rylland tested the tuning of the strings. She picked out the melody of an old lullaby, a tune so haunting that Regis wondered if he had heard it in his dreams. She sang in a light but pleasant voice. Then she shifted into a walking song with a strong rhythm, and Regis sang along, while Danilo accompanied them on a small drum.

Eventually, the silences between songs lengthened. Regis noted that Danilo was yawning. “Go to bed before you fall over.”

“I’m all right.”

“I’m in no danger here, and you’re done in. I don’t want to have to carry you.”

Danilo’s gaze flickered to Linnea, sitting with her ryllon her lap.

Are we going to argue because I want a little time with the mother of my daughter?Regis thought.

Danilo pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll be off, then. Vai leronis,” he bowed to Linnea. “Regis.”

After Danilo had departed, Linnea set her harp in its case. “He has no reason to be jealous of me.”

“Protective, I think.”

She sighed. “Do you remember how we teased him about sleeping across the threshold of our door?”

“Come here.” Regis held out his hand to her and indicated the place on the divan beside him. “I remember what happened behind those closed doors.”

She came to him, still holding herself apart, but smiling now. “It was glorious, that brief time. I regret none of it. How could I, every time I see Stelli?”

Regis remembered when, in a gesture of compassion and openness of heart, Linnea had offered to give him children to replace those murdered by the World Wreckers. Then, as now, he had thought that a child by her would be precious beyond words.

“I do not regret it, either,” he said in a voice made hoarse by emotion. “It is said that when we love someone, they become part of us forever.”

What was this fey, romantic mood that had taken hold of him? He felt the yearning harmonics of the ballad thrumming beneath the beating of his heart. On impulse, he said, “Could we ever get it back, do you think?”

She turned to him, gray eyes wide with surprise. His question had caught her off guard. No, he told himself silently, it had caught both of them unprepared and open.

“I—I don’t know. Such things do happen. Regis, please don’t toy with me. You know I loved you, and I love you still. And Iknow that your first, your primary love will always be Danilo.”