“You know that answer better than I do, Lord Geoffrey. Better to ask what you can do to set things right. Do you believe that your daughter is the rightful heir to Lavas County?”

“There is no other that I know of.”

“If one such should appear, would you offer your loyalty to that one?”

“There cannot be another claimant! Count Lavastina had but two sons, Charles and, eighteen years later, my grandfather, the first Geoffrey. There my cousin lies.” He pointed at the bier. “He is the last of the elder lineage. I am the only surviving descendant of the younger. Who else could there be?”

“Have you never wondered how the elder Charles acquired his fearsome hounds?”

Geoffrey shrugged.

“I do not know the answer,” continued Alain, “but I wonder. Fear left me to seek another. And there was one person the hounds feared. Is there a connection between them?”

“You speak in riddles to torment me!”

“I pray you, forgive me. Something was set wrong long ago, in Lavas County. If we set it right, then it may be like a rock thrown into a still pool. Its ripples may spread to wash over the entire pond.”

“These are mysteries! Conjecture! If you do not claim Lavas County, then what matters it to you who does?”

“Justice matters.”

Geoffrey shrugged impatiently. “There is something more to this! Who is your father?”

Alain shook his head, distracted from his thoughts and, in truth, a little annoyed, but he let the irritation go. “My father? Henri of Osna is my father. As is Count Lavastine. As might be the shade of the lost prince in the ruins up on the hill. As might be the man who was also my grandfather, if he shared his own daughter. Or another man never named and never known. This is the truth.” He lifted his hand from Lavastine’s arm and stepped forward to stand between the hounds, so close to Geoffrey that he might reach out to touch him. “My path was marked the day the Lady of Battles challenged me. I know to whom I owe a son’s love. Beyond that, I care not because it matters not.”

“It makes no sense to me. You say you do not wish to contest my authority as regent for my daughter, or her claim, unless one comes who has a better claim than ours to the county of Lavas. You say that, knowing there are no other surviving descendants of the elder Charles and the first Geoffrey.”

“I have no reason to suppose there are descendants of those men, besides yourself and your daughter and young sons.”

“Then how—? What—? You are saying you believe there is another surviving descendant of my great great grandmother, Count Lavastina. She had no surviving siblings, no nieces or nephews to contest the elder Charles’ portion. The family lineage is written carefully by the Lavas clerics, but there is no record of it!” He grinned, the gesture more rictus than smile.