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  Whether or not he rejected her, she’d welcome an end to her travels.

  As if summoned by her thought, a stronghold appeared in the distance, jutting into the river they’d followed most of the way. Kai had called it Weild Aenor, Kindren for ‘wild river.’ She didn’t need his sudden tension to tell her they approached Torindan. The high hold of Faeraven fanned wings of blushed stone backward against the surrounding cliffs. What would it be like to spend her days in the shadow of those peaks? If her father accepted her, she would find out.

  What if he didn’t want her? He’d thought her dead all this time and might find her appearance after so long inconvenient or even unwelcome. He could become so angry at Mam and Da for deceiving him that he’d forbid her to visit the Whitefeather Inn again. Her breath hitched at the thought.

  She reined in her imagination. From what Kai had told her of Elcon, he wasn’t cruel. At first sight, Kai had mistaken her for her mother. Would her father have the same reaction?

  Having been raised an Elder, she knew enough of Aewen of Westerland to admire her bravery. What would it be like to forsake her homeland and take up the duties of a high queen in a nation not her own? She couldn’t imagine it.

  

  Two flags fluttered above the high hold, one embellished with the gilded rose of Rivenn. Kai’s chest warmed at sight of the second flag, for its rampant golden gryphon announced Elcon, Shraen of Rivenn and Lof Shraen of Faeraven, in residence.

  Torindan stood, and Elcon lived.

  Flecht carried them over the narrow strip of thin soil with scant grass between the curtain walls. The outer wall stood tall at the gatehouse but as the ground rose, retained the soil of the motte beneath the keep and chapel, with the river swirling below. Kai frowned. The bastions built into the outer wall should shelter guardians of Rivenn keeping watch over the stronghold. Elcon had grown lax, indeed. Would he listen to Emmerich’s warning?

  Kai sent his wingabeast into a downward spiral to land at the place where the bridge leaped the moat to the barbican. His wingabeast’s hooves rang first on stone then thudded on wood as he crossed the bridge. He reined in Flecht and caught his breath, recognizing one of the faces peering at him from above the gatehouse.

  “Kai?” The joyous shout rang out. “Is that really you?”

  “Aerlic.” He forced the name past his clogged throat. The flame-haired archer had changed little.

  “You’re a sight I never thought to see again! Come inside.” Aerlic withdrew from behind the battlements, then metal screeched while chains clanked as the portcullis lifted. Kai rode beneath the jagged iron teeth and along the short corridor lit by bars of light falling through arrow slits. Flecht’s hooves rang on hollow wood as they crossed one of several trap doors. The portcullis lowered behind them but the wooden door that should have served a second barrier to entry remained open. At Torindan, convenience seemed to have replaced caution.

  The second portcullis at the other end of the corridor clanked open. The bridge that spanned a channel of the moat to reach the gatehouse lay before him. He did not cross but dismounted as Aerlic hastened down the stairs from the barbican. They met in an embrace.

  Aerlic stepped away, grinning. “We’d given you up for dead! Where have you been?

  “In a place you’d never want to visit.”

  “I’m happy to find you alive and well”

  Kai laughed.“Not half as glad as I am. Tell me, where can I find Elcon?”

  Aerlic stared at Mara. “Lof Raelein Aewen!”

  “Syl Marinda is much like her mother.”

  Comprehension chased shock across Aerlic’s face. “Forgive me, milady, but I thought a ghost walked among us. You are the very image of Lof Raelein Aewen.”

  KaiI should have expected this. He’d had a similar reaction the first time he’d seen Aewen’s look-alike daughter. “Syl Marinda,meet Aerlic, first archer of Rivenn.” He stepped in to diffuse the awkward situation.

  “I am honored.” Aerlic made an elaborate bow.

  Mara smiled. “You speak with grace.”

  Aerlic gave her the charming smile he awarded to beautiful maidens. “And truth.”

  “Where may we find Elcon?” With pressing business at hand, Kai had little patience for courtly speeches, however well his companions might relish them.

  Aerlic sobered at once. “He’ll be in his chambers.”

  Kai lifted into the saddle. “Will I find him well?”

  “The Lof Shraen is in health.”

  Kai sent Flecht across the small drawbridge over the murky moat and into the gatehouse. The smells of stagnant water and damp stone gave way to that of dry dust as they entered a dim passageway flanked by doors. It led to the small courtyard behind the gatehouse where light spilled through the archway into the outer bailey. The clopping of Flecht’s hooves echoed along the stone walls. They had nearly reached the courtyard when a door cracked open.

  A tall Kindren rushed out while the door slammed against the wall behind him. “Do my eyes deceive me? Kai?” Craelin looked much the same, apart from some extra lines for his blue eyes to nest in and a scar on his throat that had not been there before.

  “It’s good to see you again.” This time, Kai could do nothing to prevent the tremor in his voice.

  “You, of course, are late for duty.” The first guardian of Rivenn accompanied this chastisement with a smile replaced almost at once by a frown as he looked at Mara. “Lof Yuel! What magics summon Lof Raelein Aewen from the tomb?”

  “This is Syl Marinda, Aewen’s daughter and that of Elcon.”

  Craelin stared at her. “Are you certain?”

  “I promise you, she is the daughter.”

  Craelin gestured into the small chamber from which he’d emerged. “Come inside and I’ll give you something to drink. You must be thirsty from the journey.”

  Kai lifted Mara from the saddle and carried her inside to one of the benches at the chamber’s rough trestle table.

  “Will you take cider?” Craelin poured golden liquid from a crock into cups and presented one to Mara with a small flourish.

  She thanked him with a smile and accepted his offering.

  “You are injured, Lof Raena,” Craelin gestured with his own cup toward her bandaged feet.

  Mara’s forehead had creased in apparent puzzlement, but Kai decided not to explain that Craelin had addressed her by the Kindren term for high princess. He quaffed his own cider with memory catching at him. On a day long ago in this very spot, he and Craelin had questioned the guardians of Rivenn, looking for traitors. They’d found each one faithful. He should have known that the wingabeast riders who had burned Elder homefarms in night raids had not come from among the guardians. Benisch, former Steward of Rivenn, had confessed to the crime after his arrest, stating that he and the servant, Chaeldra, had ridden with Freaer in the raids.

  His thoughts propelled him to his feet. “Duty constrains me to find Elcon at once.”

  “Spoken like the Kai I remember. And so you shall, but I’d better warn Elcon to save him a shock. You could both be specters.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Mara’s gaze flew to Kai’s, and he gave the first guardian of Rivenn a reassuring glance. “I carry a message informing Elcon of a threat against him.”

  “Who sends you?”

  Kai hesitated. “Emmerich.”

  Craelin’s eyes nested in lines “You speak of the DawnKing.”

  “How is it you acknowledge him when Elcon does not?”

  “You’ve been away a long time, my friend.”

  Hope flickered within Kai. “What do you mean?”

  Craelin spoke above the rim of his cup. “Elcon…reversed his opinion about Emmerich.”

  “When did this happen?”

  Craelin drank the last of his cider and plunked the cup down on the scarred table. “After Lof Raelein Aewen’s death. Torindan had survived one siege and begun to prepare for another when Elcon went off looking for Emmerich. I’ll confess I th
ought them both mad, but then Emmerich saved us.”

  “He saved Torindan?” Mara had fallen silent with her head tilted as she listened. Craelin followed his gaze to her and went on in a softer tone. “It’s hard to explain what happened. He brought about a darkness that cast the enemy into confusion. First they fought one another, then broke and ran.”

  “I must carry Emmerich’s message to Elcon,” Kai reminded Craelin.

  “I will take you to him, but I must know what has kept you from your duty.”

  “Erdrich Ceid ensnared me.” Kai spoke the words half-expecting to be met with amused disbelief. Only children believed the Ice Witch was real.

  Craelin’s eyes widened. “She exists?”

  “After a manner of speaking.” He watched the first guardian’s expression as he grappled with the idea.

  “How did you escape from her?” Craelin asked.

  Kai cast about for an explanation and settled on the only one he understood. “Emmerich called my name, and I answered him.”

  

  In his outer chamber, Elcon laid his head against a velvet-cushioned chairback and stared at the ornate ceiling where a gilded rose of Rivenn unfurled and golden gryphons spread their wings. Weariness pulled at his eyelids, and he let them shut by their own weight. A dream had woken him in the night, and afterwards he could find no comfort in sleep. He released his breath on a sigh and pushed to his feet. Sleeping in a chair would gain him nothing but a stiff neck.

  “Elcon, will you eat?” Arillia bent over him, her forehead creased. “You’ve taken nothing today.”

  He always found it hard to eat after the dream, but he hated worrying Arillia. He inclined his head toward his servant, Anders, who hovered nearby. Anders went to do his bidding while Arillia sat on the stool beside his chair, and he stroked the golden hair cascading down her back. “You are plagued with a difficult husband, I fear.”

  “I am sure of it.” She softened her words with a smile. “Did Aewen haunt your sleep again?”

  She read him far too well to give her anything less than the truth. “She did.” In his dreams, his dead wife ever searched for their lost babe.

  “Will you never be free of her?” She pressed her lips together as if to hold back words, but then continued. “If I could give you children, could you let her go?”

  He made no answer, for nothing he could say would ease her, especially since the questions she raised mirrored his own.

  Arillia gazed at him with sadness. “Your silence speaks what you do not.” She slipped from the room, leaving him alone in his misery.

  Anders returned with maids bearing bread and cheese as well as roasted crobok and honey mead. Elcon’s appetite had fled with Arillia, but he sat at the table in his meeting room and took enough nourishment to ease the frown lines on Anders’s forehead.

  He ought to have offered Arillia assurances of his love, but whatever he said seemed to upset her. Each time she whispered to him of a precious life within her, only a few moons later they would hang their heads in sorrow. No amount of infusions or special foods could change that Arillia’s womb would not carry a babe to birth, and he couldn’t help his reluctance to create more opportunities for grief. He wasn’t proud of withdrawing just when Arillia needed him most, but it didn’t help that each new death raised the specter of the child he had conceived with Aewen.

  A knock came at his outer chamber door, and then a tap on the meeting room door. “Pray enter.” He hadn’t meant to sound irritated. The door swung open and Craelin strode into the room.

  “Lof Shraen.” The first guardian made his bow.

  Elcon inclined his head in acknowledgment. “Craelin. Join me, if you wish.” He bit into a roasted crobok leg and forced himself to chew.

  “Thank you, but I come upon an urgent duty.”

  Elcon contemplated the first guardian. Taller than most, Craelin’s height added to his authority. The fading scar at his neck attested to the arrow he’d taken at the siege of Torindan. They’d almost lost him on that occasion. Whatever brought him now must have put that gleam in his eye. “What matter brings you so late?”

  “Lof Shraen…”

  Elcon had never seen Craelin at a loss for words. “Yes?”

  “This will come as a…surprise, but I must inform you…”

  “Yes?”

  “Kai has returned.”

  “Kai?” Elcon leaped to his feet. “Where is he?”

  “He stands in your outer chamber.”

  Elcon strode to the door.

  “Lof Shraen, wait...” Craelin’s cry followed him from the chamber.

  Elcon slid to a stop and gazed in helpless confusion, but not at Kai. How could this be? The wife he had thought dead gazed back at him with frightened eyes. “Aewen?”

  “I meant to give you better warning, Lof Shraen.” Craelin spoke from behind him. “This is not Aewen.”

  “Not Aewen?” Elcon repeated the words to make sense of them. But yes, something about her seemed not quite the same… “Who are you?”

  The maiden’s face paled, and she rocked on bandaged feet.

  Kai touched her arm, and she leaned into his support. He spoke above her head. “Lof Shraen, this is Syl Marinda, your daughter.”

  11

  JOURNEY’S END

  Mara had hoped to feel a spark of kinship, but the Kindren across the chamber seemed no more than a stranger. With his burnished hair untouched by gray, he didn’t look old enough to be her father, and his nobility lay beyond her ken. A yearning to go back to the inn took hold of her.

  “I can hardly credit what you say.” Her father spoke at last, his voice deepened by sorrow, an old pain on his face. “Quinn showed me my daughter’s grave.”

  Kai tensed beside her. “He confessed to that.”

  Mara’s stomach churned. She hadn’t known Da as well as she’d thought..

  Elcon frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Sad to say, but both the innkeeper and his wife deceived you.” Kai shook his head.“They placed a stillborn child in the nurse’s coffin and paid the mother to hold her tongue.”

  “Why would they do such a thing?”

  Mara stirred. “Please—“

  “To steal a child not theirs.” Kai spoke the ugly truth. “I wouldn’t have thought this possible of them.”

  She had to speak up for them. “They wanted to protect me.”

  Eyes the same green as her own narrowed. “Did they think me a danger to my own child?”

  “They worried of war.” Mam’s excuse sounded feeble on Mara’s lips.

  Her father gazed at her with sorrowful eyes. “Will you defend them?”

  “They have made that difficult.”

  Elcon strode to the fireplace and gripped the mantle for so long he might have forgotten her.

  With her feet throbbing, she glanced at a nearby chair, tempted to seek its ease, but remained standing. She hadn’t been invited to sit.

  Her father turned at last, his gaze running over her. “Did they treat you well?”

  “I worked hard, but we all did.”

  “They robbed us of the life we could have had together and made the Lof Raina of Faeraven into an inn servant.” He paced before the cold hearth for a time before coming to stand before Mara.. “Why have you only now come to me?”

  “They kept her identity from her.” Kai’s voice made Mara jump.

  “I thought as much.” Elcon’s jaw tightened. “I’ve a mind to call them both to account.”

  “Lof Shraen, if I might intercede…” Kai’s voice cut across Mara’s protest. “Despite all their wrongs, they brought Syl Marinda up as a daughter, and she loves them.”

  Her father stared into the flames in the hearth. Whatever inner battle he fought, Mara did not see. “Very well.” He turned back to them. “For my daughter’s sake alone, I will not seek revenge.”

  She closed her eyes on a wave of relief. “Thank you.”

  Kai put a hand to Mara’s back in sile
nt support. “I have learned that leaving justice in Lof Yuel’s hands works out better.”

  Elcon turned to him. “I have missed you, Kai. Where have you been all this time?”

  “Trapped too long in a place I hope never to visit again. Emmerich freed me.”

  “I might have guessed he would find you. He wanders like the wind, venturing into places others fear.”

  Emmerich had saved her, too, but she didn’t want her father to know about that episode.

  He started toward her, and Kai pressed her elbow, urging her forward, and then released her and moved away. She held back, uncertain.

  “My child.” Her father extended a hand to her.

  She went to him, and he gathered her in his arms. For a time, words were not needed.

  He gazed upon her at arm’s length. “You are beautiful, like your mother. I wish you could have known her.” His voice broke as his emotions swept over her—guilt sorrow, regret, but also joy. She reached out from within to soothe him.

  Surprise lit his face. “The shil shael has not passed you by, I see.”

  “Of what do you speak?” But she could guess what he meant.

  “Lof Yuel has blessed most of the sons and daughters of Rivenn with the ability to touch one another’s souls.”

  “It is a blessing? I thought it might come from evil...”

  “As with the touch of a hand, the shil shael can be used for good or evil. Tell me what you have experienced that made you wonder that.” Tension throbbed in her father’s voice.

  She clasped her arms about herself. “Someone or something torments my dreams.”

  “Freaer searches for her.,” Kai shifted closer as if to protect her from unseen dangers.

  “He is a son of Rivenn?” Mara asked.

  “Yes, but an illegitimate one,” her father answered.

  “Another soul visited me.” Mara told herself that naming Rand wasn’t important. “It seemed…kinder.”

  “Who can it be?” Elcon looked past her to Kai. “I have no other children, Rivenn’s other line has faded, and Freaer’s son is said to rival his father for cruelty.”

  “What do they call him?” Mara prepared herself to learn the worst.

  “Draegmor.”