The hand on his shoulder was attached to an arm clothed in Bedu blue; a moment later, the hand had gone to Ari’s forehead, and the Bedu was whispering a few unfamiliar words. The agony left Ari’s face, but now the pain there was of a very different sort. He looked straight into Kiron’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you let me die?” he asked bitterly.

“And years ago, why didn’t you let me?” Kiron replied without thinking.

“Because there has been enough of death on both sides, fools,” the Mouth of the Bedu said roughly. “And enough of wallowing in self-pity. Get up, Jouster, who is a Jouster no more.” And he grasped Ari’s wrist, and hauled him to his feet, turning him so that he faced into the west.

Dozens of brightly colored dots were speeding overhead, coming toward them. One shot past directly overhead, and a little later a bit of harness fell out of the sky to hit Gan in the head.

“Ow!” Gan shouted, indignantly, and shook his fist at the retreating dragon. “We freed you, ungrateful wretch! Ingrate!”

“There are no more Jousters, Ari, rider of Kashet,” said the Bedu. “Neither Tian, nor Altan. There never will be again. You are freed of your oaths.”

Ari—blinked. His lips twitched. “You, who speak for your gods, claim that?”

“No,” said Kaleth, pushing his way between Oset-re and Pe-atep. “I, who speak for the gods of both Tia and Alta, say that.”

This was not a Kaleth that Kiron had ever seen before. Leaner, browner, full of fire and energy, and with a look to his eyes as if he had seen all there was of pleasure and pain and had come to accept both as part of a greater whole. Now it was Kiron’s turn to blink.

And all he could think was, If only Toreth were here to see this. He would be so happy—and so proud. For Kaleth, who had always stood in his brother’s shadow, had come into his own.

Kaleth had something else new—around his neck was the hawk pectoral of a Priest of Haras, and on both shoulders were tattoos of the symbol of the Winged Ones.

“Priest?” said Ari falteringly.

“And Winged One of Alta,” replied Kaleth. He took Ari’s upper arm in a firm grasp. “And as both, I say to you—you are freed of your oaths, which had come to strangle you. There are no more Jousters. The dragons will answer to no bond save love. And so, you have no duty to return to. I give you the wings of the hawk, to choose your fate. You may go anywhere you choose, and leave behind everything that has caused you such pain as made you ask ‘Why did you not let me die?’ ”

“Or?” asked Ari, looking into Kaleth’s eyes.