"That would look good," muttered High Marshal Connaught, Knight-Marshal of the Order of Gird. "Nothing like a candidate fainting in the ceremony."

"She won't faint," said the Marshal-General firmly. Someone chuckled softly, thinking of it, and she frowned around the table.

"It's not that often we bring new yeomen in here," she reminded them. "It's serious to her—"

"I know that," said Marshal Kory, the Archivist. "It just slipped out, Marshal-General."

"Very well. And while we're on the subject, I would like to suggest something else."

"What you and Amberion were chatting about yesterday?" asked Marshal Juris. "If it's what I think, I'm against it."

The Marshal-General glared at him. "You might at least give me a chance to present the idea, Juris." He waved his hand. She glanced around the table. "You know we're desperately short of paladins—" They nodded. "I have word from Marshal Calith down in Horngard that Fenith was killed a few months ago."

A stir ran around the table. Several of the Marshals glanced at the two paladins, who stared ahead and met no eyes. Fenith had been Amberion's close friend, and Saer was his great-niece.

"We need to select a large class of candidates, if we can: the paladins in residence here agree that they can each take on two candidates—"

"Is that necessary?" Juris broke in, looking from face to face.

"I think so." The Marshal-General spread a short parchment in front of her, and ran her hand down the page. "Juris, for the past two hundred years or so, the Fellowship of Gird has had from twenty to thirty paladins recorded at a time. Those on quest vary from fifteen to twenty-five at any one time. We now have on quest only five—" She waited for the murmurs to cease, nodded, and went on. "You see? And here in Fin Panir we have only seven who can take on candidates for training. As you know, any of these may be called away at any time. If we can find fourteen candidates—two for each training paladin—it will still be well over a year before any of those are ready to go. And in the meantime, we have no one to train a backup class—"

"I think we should feather that," said Marshal Kory. "If we chose seven now, then they might progress faster, having more of the paladins' time. In a half-year or so, choose more. Then we'd get a few out faster, and have more coming along."

The Marshal-General nodded. "That's a good idea—Amberion, what do you think?"

"I like that better than taking on two novices at once," said Amberion. "But I don't know if that will shorten the time any. Remember that each candidate has had, by tradition, all the time a single paladin-sponsor can give. We dare not test these candidates any less because times are desperate. It is in desperate times that we need most to be sure of them."