“In the beginning for most Trainees, exactly ’cause they are younglings, that isn’t always the case,” Dethor put in. “Sometimes Chosen and Companion are the same age and learn together, but sometimes one’s full grown while the other’s still a child, or just a little older. But in your case, you’re both adults, and you start out with a partnership from the beginning.”

Talamir nodded emphatically. “We each give, and we each take, and what we do should be the result of cooperation, not dictation. Don’t forget that.”

“I shall not,” Alberich replied. “But for the moment, Kantor it is, who knows this land and people. Not I.”

“True enough.” Talamir hefted his tankard and looked at Dethor, who poured him (and, without his asking, Alberich as well) another round. The beer foamed up, leaving a pleasantly bitter aroma in the air.

Dethor and Talamir exchanged another pregnant glance. Alberich’s neck prickled. Something was still in the air. Talamir was not here only because of the rumors coming out of Karse.

“Alberich, I’m here for more than one reason. I think that you already have some inkling of this, so I am going to put it in plain language,” Talamir continued, rubbing his thumb along the side of the tankard. “As a fighting commander, I suspect that you have, more than once, had to do what was expedient, rather than what was—”

“Ideal?” Alberich suggested. “An idealist, I never was.”

:Liar,: Kantor objected mildly. :Who was it, agonizing over the fate of the border villages just now? Who is it that values honor above everything else?:

:Hush: He flexed his shoulder muscles; they felt tense. Something was coming; he was just beginning to make out the shape of it, and he wasn’t certain he was going to like it. “You have a thought.”

“More than one. Actually, I have—we have—a job that needs doing. It’s something I used to do, before I got too crippled up,” Dethor said, with just a hint of… regret? Bitterness, that he was no longer what he had been? “I don’t know that you’d have the stomach for it—but I’ve got to tell you, Alberich, for all your skill you’re the last person I’d have looked to for this, except for one thing. Taver trusts you. He thinks you can do this, so Talamir says.”

“Taver said to ask you,” Talamir added, and sighed, his brow furrowed with concern and uncertainty.

:Taver might have made a suggestion, but Talamir is not completely certain how good an idea it is,: Kantor put it.

Well, that was clear enough.

Talamir cleared his throat awkwardly. “You saw the Lord Marshal’s man—you know that there are such things as—agents. Well, we Heralds have them as well—and we need another.”