The main doors of the keep were awaiting hinges capable of supporting their great weight, so there was nothing to slow the boy who barreled into the great hall. He stopped in front of me and opened his mouth, but he couldn’t get a word out for lack of breath.

“Take it slow, boy,” I said. We waited for a long moment and several false starts before he could speak. Meanwhile, I examined him for clues to his identity.

He was clothed rather well, even for a freeholder’s son. The woolen trousers were newly dyed, and the shirt was linen—a cloth that had to be purchased, as flax didn’t grow in our climate. The boy looked like Atwater’s get, tall with dark eyes that swallowed the light.

“Sir, there’s bandits, sir. Down by Da’s farm. He sent me here to get you.”

He was covered in sweat, and once he’d gotten his message out, he had to give his all to breathing again.

“Atwater is your father?” I asked, and he nodded.

I always knew when there was trouble brewing on Hurog land. Oreg said it was because I was tied to it by blood right, and told me that several of my distant ancestors had the same tie to the land. Hurog spoke to me—when I listened.

A swift touch of magic showed me that there was no fighting near Atwater’s farm now, which meant that the bandits had been driven off. If Atwater or one of his family had been killed, I’d have known about it. They belonged to Hurog in a way that had nothing to do with law and everything to do with blood.

“Don’t fret, boy,” I said. “Atwater’s been fighting bandits longer than I’ve been alive. Let’s get my horse, shall we?”

INTHE END THERE WERE THREE OF US FOLLOWING THEboy. He plainly thought we needed more; I thought we could do with less. Rides with Oreg and my brother were always more interesting than pleasant.

My brother, Tosten, rode his new roan war stallion, a gift from our uncle, and came with the excuse that the animal needed exercise when he found me saddling my own horse in the stables.

Tosten was never going to be as tall as I was, but the past four years had given him a man’s face and a fighter’s body. He looked cool, competent, and clever (as some court woman said in my hearing). Competent and clever, I agreed with. Coolness might come with age—maybe in fifty years or so.

While I waited for Tosten to saddle his horse, Oreg showed up and, without a word, took out his own gelding. Except for his dark hair and half a head in height (Tosten was taller), he and Tosten looked enough alike to be twins.