“So I hope,” Kieri said. “I trust her courage, but her sense of duty to the taig is as strong. She will not damage it.”

“It is not she who damages it, if you and the Lady quarrel,” the Seneschal said. “Arian was not angry, was she?”

“No,” Kieri said.

“Then the taig’s disturbance was not her fault.”

“There is more,” Kieri said. “You remember what I told you of the bones’ messages?”

“Yes.”

“And that I spoke to others?”

“Yes, that too.”

“I was never able to ask the elves, or the Lady—they evaded me again and again—even Arian’s father,” Kieri said. “I still find it hard to believe, even after what the Lady has done this past year. She acts so—so strangely. Coming to my aid before I even arrived, cordial at my coronation, then cold at Midsummer … refusing to come when I asked … then coming to my aid and the Halverics’ … then disappearing again, only to come and show anger to the Pargunese king. If she were human and not elf, I would fear madness.”

The Seneschal shook his head. “I do not know or understand elves, Sir King. In my life, I have had few conversations with an elf; they dislike the ossuary and do not make friends with palace staff. I cannot judge the Lady’s character. But she is said to be great in power and wisdom. When she appears not to be, can we be sure we understand?”

“I understand my mother and sister are dead, and I spent years as a captive,” Kieri said. He walked out of the ossuary and sat on the bench to put his socks and boots back on. “Should she not have known the taig’s reaction?”

“That the taig rejoiced when you and Arian found each other? She must have, if she summoned you—why else?”

“Could I have been mistaken? Could it have been only my own joy?”

“No, Sir King. From all accounts your ability to read the taig is more than adequate to tell joy from distress. And so is Arian’s. The Lady must have known, and yet she chose to ignore it … though none of us know why, and I am not asking what you do not choose to share.”

“I will share it with you, who are guardian of the dead and can keep secrets,” Kieri said. “I will burst if I do not. The Lady likes not Arian’s father, a full elf, because she says he has fathered too many half-elf children against her will. She thinks—she said—that Arian must have inherited his irresponsible ways.”

The Seneschal pursed his lips, then shook his head. “That is not what I heard of Arian after she came here, Sir King. As you must know, having had her as your Squire, by all accounts she is as bound to duty as you yourself. Yet the Lady has power with those of elven blood, even a little, and she may have planted doubt in Arian’s heart by enchantment.”