She pursed her lips. Perhaps tonight, if he spoke to her in a dream link, she would ask him about the sea people. Though it sounded as if the Elai were in even greater need of the White’s help than the Siyee, she suspected their resentment toward all landwalkers would make negotiating with them difficult. Perhaps Leiard knew how best to gain their confidence. She needed all the information she could get.

Turning back to Tyrli, she smiled.

“So how long has your tribe been trading with the Elai?”

Drilli sighed and followed her parents out of the bower. They were going to yet another meeting of the fragmented Snake River tribe. The families living among other tribes were using the Gatherings as an opportunity to meet in one place and plan for their future. She glanced at Tryss’s family bower, despite knowing he would be away training other Siyee in the use of the harness. Not even his cousins were hanging about.

As she turned back, her father caught her eye and frowned disapprovingly. She looked away, despite the temptation to glare at him, and obediently followed as he set off along a forest path.

How could he do this to me?

For months they had danced around each other. It had been a good-humored game at first. He would ask what she thought of some young man, and she would give some polite but dismissive answer. He would nod in acknowledgment and leave it at that.

Then she had met Tryss. He was no stronger or better bred than any of the matches her father had proposed, but he was interesting. Most of the young men in her tribe sent her delirious with boredom. Most of the older men did too. Except her grandfather…but he had died during the invasion of her home.

Like her grandfather, Tryss was clever. He thought about things. Really thought. He didn’t pose or boast to get her attention. He just looked at her with those deep, serious eyes…

Her father had lost all patience with her when he learned that she had been spending so much time with Tryss. He couldn’t come up with any good reason for his disapproval of their neighbor’s son, except that Tryss wasn’t of the Snake River tribe.

To Zyll, the need to keep his tribe from being absorbed by others was more important than anything else—even his daughter’s happiness, she was discovering. He had forbidden her to speak to Tryss. He was taking advantage of these meetings to look for a husband for her.

There was nothing she could do about it. Siyee law stated that parents could arrange their offspring’s first marriage. Marrying young had been essential in the past in order to increase the chances of more healthy children being born.