“You never know.” Speros smiled at him. “It might be. Have you seen the Lady Cerelinde? She is … how did the General say it? We spoke of her in the desert, before I’d seen her with my own eyes. ‘She’s beautiful, Speros,’ he said to me. ‘So beautiful it makes you pity Arahila for the poor job she made of Shaping us, yet giving us the wit to know it.’ Is it not so? I think it would be hard to find any woman worthy after her.”

Blaise drew in his breath sharply and turned away. “Be watchful,” he said over his shoulder to Fianna. “Say nothing in his hearing that may betray us.”

She nodded, chagrined, watching as the Borderguardsman strode away. Speros lay back on his bedroll, folding his arms behind his head. “Do you suppose he harbors feelings for his lord’s betrothed?” he wondered aloud. “What a fine turn of events that would be!”

“Will you be silent!” the Arduan woman said fiercely. Her nervous fingers plucked at the string of Oronin’s Bow. A deep note sounded across the plains of Curonan, low and thrumming, filled with anguish. Speros felt his heart vibrate within the confines of his chest. For a moment, the campsite went still, listening until the last echo died.

“As you wish,” Speros murmured. Closing his eyes, he courted elusive sleep to no avail. Strangely, it was the Ellyl’s words that haunted him. Men of your ilk, builders and doers. Was it wrong that he had taken fate in his own hands and approached Darkhaven? He had made himself useful. Surely the General would not forget him, would not abandon him here. Speros had only failed him once, and the General had forgiven him for it. His mind still shied from the memory; the black sword falling, the maces thudding. The old Yarru folks’ pitiful cries, their voices like his grandmam’s. His gorge rising in his throat, limbs turning weak.

But the General had not wanted to do it, any more than Speros had. The Ellyl was wrong about that. He did not understand; would not understand. Though Speros did not want to remember it, he did. The General’s terrible sword uplifted, the cry wrenched from his lips. Give me a reason!

Opening his eyes, Speros blinked at the stars and wondered why so many questions were asked and went unanswered, and what the world would be like if they were not.

TOTAL DARKNESS HAD FALLEN BEFORE Dani and Thulu dared venture from the tunnels. They crept blindly, bodies grown stiff with long immobility, parched with thirst and weak with hunger, fearful of entering a trap.