“Yet you did not forget.”

“No … my lord, I did not. For your mother said remember, and she was my queen.”

Kieri forced himself not to pace back and forth. Joriam looked anxious enough. “Joriam, I know you’re no gossiper, but this is a matter of importance to me and to the realm both. I have no parents left to guide me; when the gods send dreams or visions, I must find a way to interpret them.”

Joriam ducked his head. “My lord, you came from the bone-room in a state—”

“Yes. I learned things, but not enough. Not everything a king needs to know.”

“And you want me to tell you more.”

“Yes.”

“She was so beautiful,” Joriam said. “They both were, mother and daughter, but when they were angry, it was like a fire. Not often. The Lady … I think she did not understand how your mother could love your father. We all saw that. She had not married him from a duty to pass on the taig-sense; she truly loved him, and he loved her. She never put on airs with him, as the elves do so often. Never treated him as lesser. The Lady said, ‘You’re losing your nature,’ and your mother said, ‘I am what I am.’ ”

“Did she get along with other elves? My mother, I mean?”

“Some. Not all. There was some, you know, just like now, thought themselves too great to associate with humans at all. Your mother argued with them; they couldn’t nay-say her because she was the Lady’s own daughter, but they did say she was young and would learn better. Her brother, he was older—”

“Amrothlin?”

“I don’t know all those names, my lord. Only that another time, she said to the Lady, ‘You must tell my brother to treat the king with more respect.’ ”

Kieri shook his head.

“My lord?”

“No—I was scolding myself, Joriam, for not having asked you before about my parents and other matters. Only you have been such a quiet presence, and so many other matters claimed my attention …”

“If there’s more you need to know, you should talk to Tekko as well … you know, the old huntsman. And Erda, she was one of your mother’s maids. Dressed her hair and all.”

“Sir King?” Sarol, King’s Squire, spoke from the door.

“Yes?”

“There’s a courier come from Captain Talgan. I thought you’d want to know.”

“Joriam, thank you—and I will want to talk more with you later. And the others. It’s time I knew more about my family. But I must go now.” He followed Sarol downstairs, his mind leaping ahead to the Pargunese situation. He wished he could get reports from Cracolnya, who would surely have posted troops on the Tsaian-Pargunese border. Though Mikeli had agreed to send any information he had on Pargunese troop movements, so far that had produced nothing useful.

Talgan’s report included observations by forest rangers as well as his own troops: everything he had been able to glean about Pargunese activities both on the river and in Pargun itself.