“Gitres? I thought it was Achrya.”

“She may have laid the lure to punish the Halverics for aiding you, but it was Gitres you held off this night, Sir King, and proved beyond any doubt your right to kingship. Not that I have doubted you since I first met you.” She turned away. “I must apologize to Aliam and Estil, if you will excuse me.”

“Of course,” Kieri said, still astonished. Light remained—her light? His light? Now he recognized his own tent, his own neatly folded clothes nearby. Before getting up, he laid both hands flat on the ground. “Thank you,” he said to the taig, and without realizing he was going to, bent down and kissed the turf.

His clothes felt warm when he put them on. When he came out, dawn painted the eastern sky rose and gold. Off to his right, a fire crackled and steam rose from pots set on and near it. He smelled sib, bacon, porridge. To the left, a group of elves looked at the ruins of Halveric Steading; one noticed him, said something to the others, and they all bowed, then went back to staring. The Lady, Aliam, and Estil were talking quietly as they, too, watched a thin trickle of black smoke rising from the stable wreckage.

Kieri could think of nothing to say at first; he put an arm around Aliam’s shoulders and stood in silence. “I seem to have made a mess of your house,” he said finally.

Aliam prodded him in the ribs, as of old. “You seem to have saved our lives, you mean. Don’t try to play humble, my liege.” And into Kieri’s ear: “I can’t call you Kieri with her around; she’d skin me and eat me.”

“I don’t eat humans,” his grandmother said austerely, without looking at either of them. “No elf would touch man-meat. Call him Kieri if you wish; I do.”

Aliam stiffened; Estil chuckled.

“I could eat whatever’s for breakfast,” Kieri said. Moment by moment he felt his mind clearing. “Unless we have need of haste to do something.”

“We have need of sunlight, and that is coming soon,” the Lady said. She smiled. “You, grandson, have need of breakfast. Others have eaten already.”

“You?” Kieri asked Aliam.

“Indeed.” He patted his stomach. “My daughters say I will grow fat if I eat so much.” He looked ten years younger, this morning. Kieri glanced at Estil.

“There is enough work to do, rebuilding,” Estil said. “I will not worry about your appetite unless you lose it again.”

“It was my doing that left you unable to sense the taig, Estil Halveric,” the Lady said, as if continuing a conversation Kieri had interrupted. “Do not refuse my aid in rebuilding what my deeds caused to fall.”

“Do not take on the responsibility of others,” Estil said, in a tone she might have used to a child. “It was the malice of Achrya and Gitres, not you, that tore down those walls.”