“And I, my lord, wish you and your family well, including the king. You should know that we do not ride to Harway, but along a trail the queen told me of—a more direct route to my domain.” He would realize by this that there would be no chance meeting along the way no matter when he chose to leave with Rothlin.

“Go with Gird’s blessing,” Mahieran said.

“I should mention,” Dorrin said, “that I propose sending my kirgan to Falk’s Hall, where I went, to take his knightly training. Will you inform the king and ask his permission?”

“Of course,” Mahieran said. He bowed and turned away.

“Well,” Dorrin said to Beclan when Mahieran was out of earshot. “That was … not expected. But now we ride. For now, you will take rear guard.” She mounted and turned her horse toward the gate without a backward look.

They made good time through the springtime forest. Dorrin used the time to think about the mysterious pattern as well as about the equally mysterious patterns of power operating among the people of the Tsaian court and between the elves and humans in Lyonya. Would Duke Mahieran’s current attitude hold, and would it have any effect on lesser lords? While they were both gone, others would have attended the court at the Spring Evener in Vérella. Were any of them but Arcolin on her side? And would the elves decide to help Kieri, or would they disappear somewhere, using those patterns of power?

CHAPTER FIVE

Six days after the elves left with the Lady’s body, Amrothlin returned to the palace in Chaya alone. Other elves, he said, were still singing the Lady’s life in the deep forest, though a few had come back to Chaya with him.

“But I promised the king I would return swiftly, and here I am,” he said to Arian. “Do you know where he is?”

“He rode out with Aliam Halveric this morning,” Arian said. He turned away, but she spoke again. “I have my own questions for you about those things my father promised to tell me later. Now he is dead, I will never know from him. You, however, know more of him than I do.”

Amrothlin stiffened. “Arian—lady queen—you cannot ask me—”

“I can and I do,” she said. “For the good of the realm, for the good of my future children, and for the good of Lyonya’s elves, I must know those things I am sure you know.”

“You have no right—” His eyes flashed; he looked the same as before the Lady’s death, all arrogance. She felt the pressure of his glamour but resisted it.

“I have every right,” Arian said. “As queen, as Dameroth’s daughter, and as one who was kept in ignorance far too long, I have the right. Your mother quarreled with my father, but that is no reason for you to continue that quarrel with me.”