“I swear it,” growled Geoffrey. The hounds growled, in unison, as if in answer or in challenge.

Geoffrey wiped his brow. The girl bit her lip but did not shift or otherwise show any fear in the face of the fearsome black hounds. Pens scratched as a cleric, seated by the fire, made a record of the proceedings on vellum.

Alain descended from the dais and went over to the bench where his pack lay. He hoisted it, whistled to the hounds, and before any person there could react, he kissed Blanche, made his farewells to Cook, and walked to the door. He came outside past the brace of guards and was out into the courtyard and practically to the gates before he heard the rush of sound, a great exhalation, as the folk inside the hall rushed outward to see where he was going.

They crowded to the gate and some trailed after him to the break in the fosse that met with the eastbound road. A handful kept walking behind him all the way into the woodland until it was almost dark and at last he turned and asked them kindly to go back before it was too dark for them to see.

There was a lad, weeping, who sidled forward, grasped his hand, and kissed it.

“I pray you, be well,” said Alain. “Do not weep.”

There was Master Rodlin, without the whippets, who stared at him and said, “What of the hounds? They follow you still. Is that not the mark of Lavas blood? And if not, then what is it?”

“They cannot answer, for they do not have human speech,” said Alain. “They chose to follow me long ago to help me on my path.

398

Serve the rightful heir, Master Rodlin, as faithfully as you did Count Lavastine.”

“When will that one come?” he demanded.

“Like the hounds, I cannot answer. If Lavrentia is the rightful heir, you must serve her with the same loyalty you showed to Count Lavastine.”

Rodlin frowned but grabbed the lad’s hand and led him away. The holding was hidden by the trees and the stone tower by a twilight that caused colors to wash into one dim background.

One remained, wringing her hands. “Do you remember me?” she said. “Will you curse me, for teasing you when you first were come here? Do you hate me for it?”

Her eyes were still as startling a blue as when he had met her years ago. She had a well-fed look to her and her belly curved her skirts in such a way that he supposed she was in the middle months of pregnancy.

“Did you ever meet the prince in the ruins?” he asked her.

Her lips twisted into a resigned smile. “Did you lie to me that night when we both went up to the ruins?”

“No, I did not. I saw him.”

“Then you saw more than I did! I looked, but I saw nothing. Or maybe that’s just how it goes when a girl is young and stupid. I married a good man who works hard and can feed me and my younger sisters and our child. There are only shadows in those ruins now.”