"You are the sixth of whom my father spoke?" Tomasso asked warily.

The man did look familiar now that he was in the light. He was dressed for the forest not the city, in two shades of grey with a black sheepskin vest over his shirt, and breeches tucked into worn black riding boots. There was a knife at his belt, without ornament.

"I heard you mention that," the fellow said. "I actually hope I'm not, because if I am the implications are unsettling, to say the least. The fact is, I never spoke to your father in my life. If he knew of my activities and somehow expected me to find out about this meeting and be here… well, I would be somewhat flattered by his confidence but rather more disturbed that he would have known so much about me. On the other hand," he said for a second time, "it is Sandre d'Astibar we're talking about, and I do seem to make six here, don't I?" He bowed, without any visible irony, towards the bier on its trestles.

"You are, then, also in league against Alberico?" Nievole's eyes were watchful.

"I am not," said the man in the window quite bluntly. "Alberico means nothing to me. Except as a tool. A wedge to open a door of my own."

"And what is it lies behind that door?" Scalvaia asked from deep in his armchair.

But in that moment Tomasso remembered.

"I know you!" he said abruptly. "I saw you this morning. You are the Tregean shepherd who played the pipes in the mourning rites!" Taeri snapped his fingers as the recognition came home to him as well.

"I played the pipes, yes," the man on the window-ledge said, quite unruffled. "But I am not a shepherd nor from Tregea. It has suited my purposes to play a role, many different roles, in fact, for a great many years. Tomasso bar Sandre ought to appreciate that." He grinned.

Tomasso did not return the smile. "Perhaps then, under the circumstances, you might favor us by saying who you really are." He said it as politely as the situation seemed to warrant. "My father might have known but we do not."

"Nor, I'm afraid, shall you learn just yet," the other said. He paused. "Though I will say that were I to swear a vow of my own on the honor of my family it would carry a weight that would eclipse both such oaths sworn here tonight."

It was matter-of-factly said, which made the arrogance greater, not less.

To forestall Nievole's predictable burst of anger Tomasso said quickly, "You will not deny us some information surely, even if you choose to shield your name. You said Alberico is a tool for you. A tool for what, Alessan not-of-Tregea?" He was pleased to find that he remembered the name Menico di Ferraut had mentioned yesterday. "What is your own purpose? What brings you to this lodge?"

The other's face, lean and curiously hollowed with cheekbones in sharp relief, grew still, almost masklike. And into the waiting silence that ensued he said:

"I want Brandin. I want Brandin of Ygrath dead more than I want my soul's immortality beyond the last portal of Morian."

There was a silence again, broken only by the crackle of the autumn fires on the two hearths. It seemed to Tomasso as if the chill of winter had come into the room with that speech.

Then: "Such terribly splendid words!" murmured Scalvaia lazily, shattering the mood. He drew a shout of laughter from Nievole and Taeri, both. Scalvaia himself did not smile.

The man on the window-ledge acknowledged the thrust with the briefest nod of his head. He said, "This is not, my lord, a subject about which I permit frivolity. If we are to work together it will be necessary for you to remember that."

"You, I am forced to say, are an overly proud young man," replied Scalvaia sharply. "It might be appropriate for you to remember to whom you speak."

The other visibly bit back his first retort. "Pride is a family failing," he said finally. "I have not escaped it, I'm afraid. But I am indeed mindful of who you are. And the Sandreni and my lord Nievole. It is why I am here. I have made it my business to be aware of dissidence throughout the Palm for many years. At times I have encouraged it, discreetly. This evening marks the first instance in which I have come myself to a gathering such as this."

"But you have already told us that Alberico is nothing to you." Tomasso inwardly cursed his father for not having better prepared him for this very peculiar sixth figure.

"Nothing in himself," the other corrected. "Will you allow me?" Without waiting for a reply he lifted himself down from the ledge and walked over to the wine.

"Please," said Tomasso, belatedly.

The man poured himself a generous glass of the vintage red. He drained it, and poured another. Only then did he turn back to address the five of them. Herado's eyes, watching him, were enormous.

"Two facts," the man called Alessan said crisply. "Learn them if you are serious about freedom in the Palm. One: if you oust or slay Alberico you will have Brandin upon you within three months. Two: if Brandin is ousted or slain Alberico will rule this peninsula within that same period of time."

He stopped. His eyes, grey, Tomasso noticed now, moved from one to the other of them, challenging. No one spoke. Scalvaia toyed with the handle of his cane.

"These two things must be understood," the stranger went on in the same tone. "Neither I in my own pursuit, nor you in yours, can afford to lose sight of them. They are the core truths of the Palm in our time. The two sorcerers from overseas are their own balance of power and the only balance of power in the peninsula right now, however different things might have been eighteen years ago. Today only the power of one keeps the magic of the other from being wielded as it was when they conquered us. If we take them then we must take them both, or make them bring down each other."

"How?" Taeri asked, too eagerly.

The lean face under the prematurely silvering dark hair turned to him and smiled briefly. "Patience, Taeri bar Sandre. I have a number of things yet to tell you about carelessness before deciding if our paths are to join. And I say this with infinite respect for the dead man who seems, remarkably enough, to have drawn us here. I'm afraid you are going to have to agree to submit yourselves to my guidance or we can do nothing together at all."

"The Scalvaiane have submitted themselves willingly to nothing and no one in living memory or recorded history," that vulpine lord said, the texture of velvet in his voice. "I am not readily of a mind to become the first to do so."

"Would you prefer," the other said, "to have your plans and your life and the long glory of your line snuffed out like candles on the Ember Days because of sheer sloppiness in your preparations?"

"You had better explain yourself," Tomasso said icily.

"I intend to. Who was it who chose a double-moon night at double moonrise to meet?" Alessan retorted, his voice suddenly cutting like a blade. "Why are no rear guards posted along the forest path to warn you if someone approaches, as I just did? Why were no servants left here this afternoon to guard this cabin? Have you even the faintest awareness of how dead the five of you would be, severed hands stuffed into your throats, were I not who I am?"

"My father… Sandre… said that Alberico would not have us followed," Tomasso stammered furiously. "He was absolutely certain of that."

"And he is likely to have been absolutely right. But you cannot let your focus be so narrow. Your father, I am sorry to have to say it, was alone with his obsession for too long. He was too intent upon Alberico. It shows in everything you have done these past two days. What of the idly curious or the greedy? The petty informer who might decide to follow you just to see what happened here? Just to have a story to tell in the tavern tomorrow? Did you, or your father, give even half a thought to such things? Or to those who might have learned where you planned to come and arranged to be here before you?"