Giving up my pose, I reset the board, having to scramble under the bed to find the dark rook, and we started again. This time I was playing for death. Lunch came and went, and the early shadows of the shorter winter days necessitated the lighting of candles before the game was over. I beat her this time, but I’d had to work at it.

“Hah!” I bellowed, hitting the table, and she laughed.

Better than the healing of her body was the easing of her spirit. She hadn’t talked about what had happened to her, and I hadn’t pushed. I knew from experience that some wounds heal best in silence. Later, when the experience wasn’t so fresh, I’d press her on what had happened, and in the meantime I worked on helping in other ways. She didn’t even flinch at my aggressive gloating.

When she quit laughing, she said, “Not that I don’t appreciate the game, but don’t you have other duties here that call for your attention?”

I picked up the scattered pieces from the floor again, and said, “The harvest’s in and stored. My aunt needs no help keeping the Guard busy. I could help lay the floor in the main hall, but it’s not necessary.”

As I set the pieces back in their case, I asked her something that had been bothering me. “What were you about in Estian? I thought your so-public fight with Haverness was staged, but I’ve never figured out the reason for it. What did your exile to Estian accomplish?”

“What was it supposed to accomplish?” she asked.

I scowled at her. “No one who plays chess like you would do such a stupid thing without reason.”

“How was it stupid?” she asked. “I fought with my father. He tried to tell me how to think, and when I refused to agree with him, I was asked to leave—I think he believed that would make me give in. So I left.”

“And went to Estian,” I said.

“Where else?”

I laughed. “That might work with Tallvenish folk, my lady. But I’ve seen how your father dotes upon you. Like me, he might understand that Alizon’s rebellion hasn’t a chance of succeeding, but he’d never toss you out for that. What took you to Estian?”

She was silent, but it was a challenging silence. I’d grown up with a sister who couldn’t speak and communicated by expression.Figure it out yourself, Tisala’s folded arms and superior expression said.

What makes Tisala unusual enough that Alizon’s cause would pull her to Estian?I wondered.

I smiled at last, getting it. “A man, even a man of high rank, whose support of Alizon became common knowledge would be taken in for treason.”

She smiled back, but didn’t say anything.