But there should have been one creature above all who would have—or should have—realized what was happening before this. And even if she hadn’t been able to stop it, she should have been able to warn the rest of them!

:Kantor,: he called.

:I follow you,: his Companion replied. :I hope you don’t mind; you jarred me awake and I just followed your thought.:

Once he would have been angry; not now. Now, in fact, he was grateful. Kantor had become the perfect partner, in a way; the shield-brother, the man you could depend on to fall in at your side and match you, move for move.

:That’s the way it’s supposed to work.:

Well, he could see that. Clearly, it didn’t always.

:You’re thinking Selenay and Caryo.: There was a moment of hesitation. :You can’t understand why Caryo didn’t nip this in the bud, especially since she doesn’t much like Prince Karath. And why she didn’t realize how far things had gotten.:

:Exactly,: Alberich replied.

:You and I are—exceedingly compatible now. We are about the same age, with similar experience. Selenay and Caryo—aren’t. I mean, they’re compatible, but their experiences are vastly different.:

Alberich blinked in surprise. That hadn’t occurred to him as a possibility.

:Think of Caryo as a maiden aunt, or a virginal, scholarly sister who is much, much older than Selenay. She’s—well, to be honest, she’s rather sexless. Kind-hearted and stalwart, protective absolutely, ready to comfort when Selenay is hurt or angry, but as thick as two short planks when it comes to romance and especially sex.:

Oh… This was beginning to make him feel a little ill.

:Caryo is the sort of person whose shoulder you cry on when your father dies, the wise and clever person you could ask for help with political and administrative problems. Not the person you go to when you’re moon-calfing over a boy. And as for sexual attraction—you’d be horribly embarrassed even to hint that you had such a thing to her, because she would be horribly embarrassed if you brought it up.

Now, suddenly, it all made sense. Terrible sense.

At least, insofar as he understood young women, and insofar as Caryo being in the dark about all this right along with everyone else. :Dear God…: he replied, aghast. :We’ve all been blindsided.:

:Our own damned fault,: Kantor agreed. :We, the Companions, should have known. We know Caryo better than anyone but Selenay—and she was exactly the right Companion for a girl who was bound and determined not to think too hard about anything that wasn’t involved in being the Heir and a Herald. If Sendar was still alive—: