She was taken to a small corner room lined with curio shelves and looking out over a pleasant ornamental garden. Not only were there windows open to the garden, there was a door as well. This was clearly not an office. And the Count was not alone.

With him was a lady who was about the same age, with short-cropped graying hair, whose features were so like his that she immediately revised her idea that this was his wife. He confirmed this by introducing her to “my cousin Alberdina, a Healer with as wandering a foot as my son Ivar.”

They all settled down into three chairs beside the cold hearth; the Count ordered wine and invited Delia to explain why she was there.

Keeping to her script, she told him how Kordas had been summoned to the Imperial Capital with no notice and for an indefinite length of time, and that she was to be the messenger between him and Lady Isla.

He pursed his lips, but said nothing immediately. Alberdina, however, was not shy about giving her opinion.

“How tiresome,” she said. “I wanted permission to test his people for Healing ability. I don’t suppose Lady Isla will cooperate?”

“I don’t see any reason why she shouldn’t,” Delia hastened to tell her.

“Well, not every Lady is pleased when her favorite gardener or some other useful servant turns out to be able to Heal, and I snatch them up from under her nose to train them,” Alberdina said.

“You can do that?” Delia looked at her, perplexed.

“Imperial Law. Goes back to when the Wolf King was a pup.” She laughed heartily. “Old bastard fancied the idea of having a Healer at hand to tend even his hangnails. Not a bad law, either.”

“I don’t think Lady Isla will object,” Delia replied firmly.

The Count nodded. “Told you so, cousin. Our Duchess is very much on the practical side.”

Then the Count asked a lot of very trite and boring questions, until Delia wondered if she’d been sent to the right place. It went on for so long she was about to find some excuse to leave, when a little mage-light that had been burning on a small table between the Count and his cousin turned from red to white. She might not even have noticed it, had the Count not suddenly relaxed and held out his hand.

“It’s safe to speak now,” he said. “And I assume you have a message for me?”

With relief, she handed over her bit of parchment. The Count read it, then handed it to Alberdina, who in turn read it and handed it back to Delia.

“Give that back to Lady Isla. She’ll know what to do with it,” the Count said. “I’m not a mage myself. I don’t know how to destroy it in such a way that another mage can’t find out what was on it.”