He found it hard to draw. As his eye followed the lines and colors to mark them down, he felt a pull from the pattern, and he could not remember, except in the briefest glances, how the pattern fit together. Even the squares of green and gray that had seemed so flat and simple before now seemed to move, as if flowing down into the central pattern.

How, he wondered, did the elves see such a pattern? Did it move, for them, or did it stay still? He did not hear Arian approaching until she spoke his name.

“Kieri—what are you doing?”

“Trying to draw that pattern on the floor,” he said. “I think it means something, but I don’t know what. And it seems to shift about.” He turned to look up at her; her expression showed surprise, even shock. “Do you know what it is?”

“I think that’s the same pattern I saw in that underground place where the Lady was trapped,” Arian said. “I had to mend it so that she and the others could come out. That one had the power to allow movement.” She took a step forward and stared at it. “Does it suggest that to you?”

“Other than an urge to go stand on it and turn certain ways, no,” Kieri said. “Is that what you feel?”

“Yes. I think this must be the same. The Lady’s power could take her anywhere from that one. If we had her power, we could probably go to Vérella or Fin Panir or anywhere.”

Kieri frowned, thinking. “I wonder if these mark destinations as well as origins. I did not see it, but when I went to Fin Panir to speak for Paks, I heard that the expedition to the far west had returned by means of some ancient elven pattern. They arrived in the High Lord’s Hall there to find a pattern graven in the stone like the one they’d started from. Their archives said Luap used it to help the magelords in Fintha escape to the west.”

“So if we tried this, there is no certainty where we would arrive?”

“You weren’t thinking of trying it, were you?”

“No-o. But should we not know where the other end is or if this can be used by someone …?” She looked at Kieri; when their gazes met, uncertainty faded from her eyes.

“The Lady,” they both said. Arian nodded.

“She came here whenever she willed it,” Kieri said. “I always thought the elvenhome brought her, but the elvenhome emanated from her: she brought it, as well. And the iynisin—was it using the pattern?”

“Yes,” Arian said. “Unless it focused on the Lady herself and her power. Elves must have put the carpet here to hide the pattern from human eyes. I never sensed anything strange in this room until now, but elves must have been able to feel that pattern even when it was covered.”