She did understand that he was still angry with Kieri’s mother for her choice of a human partner, for marrying Kieri’s father.

“She was the heir and carried the seed of a new elvenhome; to mate with those who cannot possibly engender an elvenhome—to bring forth only children who cannot—is irresponsible, utter folly. If my sister had not chosen to marry a human, she could have revived the Ladysforest when the Lady died. As it is, her decision doomed us.”

“I suppose she thought she would outlive Kieri’s father and could then mate with an elf,” Arian said. “It was her death that doomed the Ladysforest, not her first marriage.”

“Chance comes to all,” Amrothlin said. “As events proved. Besides, she had sworn she would not. She doubted herself after—” He stopped abruptly. “I cannot say all. Not yet. You might as well know that she was determined to pass it to her son, but we knew that was impossible. She quarreled with the Lady about it, insisting she had done so.”

Secrets indeed! Arian stared at him, silenced for a time as the new possibilities tumbled through her mind. Kieri’s mother had intended him to inherit the elvenhome gift? Why? And how? And … most important … had she done it or merely talked about it?

“Do you think she—?” Arian began.

Amrothlin interrupted. “It is impossible, I tell you.” He ranted on for another half-glass about the impossibility of such things, about Kieri’s mother’s rebellious foolhardy nature, about the elven estimate of Kieri’s own character when he had escaped from bondage and returned to Lyonya an abused waif.

“It would have been better had he died; nothing was left of whatever the prince had been.”

Arian’s own anger erupted. “Can you say that now, to the king’s face? Nothing left? He has taig-sense, he has the healing magery—”

“He did not have it then.”

“And you did nothing to help him! How could you leave any child to starve in the winter forest, let alone your sister’s son? How is that creating harmony and song?”

“I did not,” Amrothlin said. “I was not the one who found him first. When I heard—” He closed his eyes a moment before going on. “I argued he should be taken to some human settlement, placed there. I went, in fact, to where he had been found, but he was gone.”

“And how long did you search?” Arian asked.