“I remember now,” Mikeli said. He turned to Dorrin. “And you,” he said, “you brought water back to a cursed well.”

Dorrin stared at him. “I … removed the curse and took the bodies out…”

“According to the Marshal-General,” Seklis said, “you did more than that. You moved stones by magery, you removed the curse—it must have been by magery or Falk’s power or both, and magic in any case—and you told her that water returned to the well when you prayed over it and your tears fell.”

“It was Falk,” Dorrin said.

“If it was Beclan’s own magery mixed with Gird’s power that saved him,” the king said, “it could have been your own magery mixed with Falk’s power that brought water back. It could have been your magery alone, for that matter, like Grahlin’s. It was your magery alone that killed the traitor.”

“What I don’t understand is what the regalia have to do with it all,” Seklis said. “Are they calling you simply to tell you that your ancestors—or someone’s ancestors—stole the water from Aare and you’re supposed to put it back? The first is unprovable, and the second impossible.”

“I don’t know, High Marshal,” the king said, leaning back in his chair. “Unless we learn to travel in time, you are correct that we cannot know exactly what happened in Aare. But as for impossible … what is not possible for me is possible for a Marshal, and what is not possible for a Marshal may be possible for a paladin.”

“But I’m not a paladin,” Dorrin said.

“Does anyone know ahead of time if they’re a paladin?” the king asked, looking at Seklis.

“Paksenarrion did not, by all accounts,” Seklis said. “But there’s much we don’t know about magelords … Have you done any other magery with water, Duke Verrakai?”

“No,” Dorrin said. “Although…”

“What?”

“Well … my people have told me that in the year since I became Duke, the wells and springs have all become cleaner.” They started to speak, and she held up her hand. “But understand—the people had been forbidden to follow any of the old customs: dressing the wells for the merin in spring, performing the usual ceremonies of cleansing. I did nothing myself but make it clear that they were free to do so.”

“And did you yourself dress the wells?”

“Not except putting herbs on the two wells nearest the house. But more importantly, I had my people clean them out in the same way you’d clean a cellar. One of them, in the stableyard, had trash in it when I arrived. Stands to reason if you take rubbish out of a well, the water is cleaner.”

“And do you feel any particular … affinity for water?”

“Affinity?”

“When you were in the Duke’s Company, were you in charge of water, or anything like that?”