“So my future was never my own?” he asked. “There was no choice as to where I wanted to reside come the end of my education?”

Adaira flushed in the twilight. “No, of course you have a choice. But can I tempt you, Jack? Can I tempt you to stay with the clan for longer than the summer? Perhaps a full turning of the year? The hall has been quiet for so long now, and we have been trapped in weeks of mourning and sorrow. I think your music would bring us back to life, restore our hope.”

She was asking him to let his music trickle through the isle like a stream returning after a long drought. To play on the full moon feasts and at burials and on holy days and at handfastings. To play for the younger generations, such as Frae, who held no knowledge of the old ballads.

Jack didn’t know how to respond to her.

His shock must have been evident, because Adaira hastened to add, “You don’t have to give me your answer now. Or tomorrow even. But I hope you will consider it, Jack.”

“I’ll think about it,” he said gruffly, as if he never would. Yet his mind raced. He thought of Lorna’s music turret, with the bookshelves and the grand harp and the clan music, hidden in a dust-riddled tome. It reminded him of the letter he had seen on the table, addressed to Adaira. “I saw something yesterday, which I need to speak to you about.”

“And what did you see, Jack?”

“The Breccans wrote to you. Why?”

She hesitated.

It struck him then that he had no right to know the things in her mind, the plans she was making. To be within her circle. But he felt an ache in his stomach, and while he had no idea where it came from, he realized that he longed to be in the confidence of someone who had walked hours, searching for missing girls. Who had told him her secret plans and trusted him with her late mother’s music. Who had given him the chance to become something far greater than he had ever envisioned for himself.

“You sound displeased about this,” Adaira said.

“Of course I’m displeased!” Jack said, exasperated. “What does our enemy want?”

“Perhaps I wrote to them first.”

That brought Jack upright. “Why?”

“If I share the answer with you, I expect that you will keep it secret, for the good of the clan. Do you understand, Jack?”

He held her gaze, thinking of the other secrets they shared. “I may be your favorite old menace, but you know that I won’t speak a word of it.”

Adaira fell pensive, and he thought she would withhold her answer until she said, “I want to establish a trade between our two clans.”

Jack gaped at her for a moment. “A trade?”