Amirantha closed his eyes a second, then said, “I will not tell you I am sorry one more time, Sandreena. I did what I did and you have continued to punish me for it every time we meet. Enough!” His tone was sharp, but not loud. “Dalthea…you bury three lovers over a century and see if finding comfort with an immortal being with beauty and amorous skills doesn’t become appealing.”

“Three?” said Sandreena. “You never said…”

“And you never asked.” He looked her in the eyes. “I thought us two strangers who chanced to meet in an improbable place, a village with the silly name of Yellow Mule, and thought us both seeking the comfort of the moment, both the body and the heart. I was a traveling mountebank who occasionally did real work with demons and you were the very serious young knight trying to do some great good in the world. I thought it but a passing thing, not what it turned out to be; I never meant to hurt you.”

“You lied to me!”

“I lie,” he retorted. “That’s what charlatans do. We lie. We cheat. We do what we find in our own best interest.” He looked out at the distant sky as if remembering.

“Then what brings you here?” she said, her eyes bright with emotion.

He let out a long sigh, leaning so he could put one arm on the step above him, and his shoulders sagged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I look at the grey in Brandos’s hair and realize that if he doesn’t get himself killed in a brawl, in ten, twenty years I bury another person I love. And Samantha. I’m over a hundred years your elder, Sandreena. I was a man full grown when your grandmother was a baby. For all I know, I bedded her. I need something more than being a confidence trickster, a liar, and a cheat. I need something bigger than myself.” He let his voice fall. “I thought I might stay with others like me for a while. Pug is older than I, as was Miranda.

“When I saw her killed, I realized that no matter how long or short our lives may be, we must do something with them.” He shrugged and gave her a sad smile. “That’s when I decided to stay and help. I can’t undo those things in my past I regret, but I can strive to do better from now on.”

She studied his face and remained silent, then finally said, “Tell me about these demons.”

He realized that in some way she had just forgiven him, or at least agreed to forget how he had wronged her. What that meant was unclear, but at least he could turn his attention to the matter at hand.