“It was a bit mean having him taken, but we didn’t have time to think of anything else,” Mairae murmured. She met his eyes. “All I can say is it wasn’t my idea.”

Danjin stared back at her. “Mischief? He was a diversion, wasn’t he? To keep me away from the war council.”

She shrugged non committally. Or my guess is not quite right.

“And Auraya. It was to keep me away from Auraya.”

Her chin dropped slightly in a subtle nod.

Why? He had his suspicions, but he made himself consider other reasons. Either they wanted to conceal something from me, or prevent me from telling Auraya something. If they wanted to conceal something from me there was no need for deception. They only had to ask me to leave the war council. There was no need to have Mischief abducted.

So it is more likely they wanted to prevent me telling Auraya something. Or prevent Auraya reading my mind. Foremost in my mind had been Mairae’s suggestion that Auraya had a lover.

He drew in a deep breath. “So. Is it true? Were my suspicions right?”

Mairae smiled crookedly. “I thought you believed they were just friends?”

“So they weren’t?”

Her smile faded. “No. This you must swear to tell no other.”

“I swear I will not.”

Auraya and Leiard. Why hadn’t I seen it? Did I so badly need to believe her judgment was faultless that I could not see what I didn’t want to see?

Mairae looked away and sighed. “I feel for her. One can’t force the heart to choose wisely. It has a way of choosing for itself. Juran sent him away. It’ll take a while before she forgives Juran, I think.”

“Where is she?”

She turned to regard him. “We don’t know. She refuses to answer our calls. I believe she isn’t far away. She will return when the war begins, if not earlier.”

“Of course,” he agreed. For some reason saying it aloud made him feel better. She would come back. Perhaps only at the last moment, perhaps full of accusations, but she would come back.

Mairae chuckled. “Don’t blame yourself, Danjin Spear. If anyone is to blame for this it is me, not the least for urging you to consider who Auraya might be visiting. I think you have to agree that separating them will be for the best. For her and Northern Ithania.”

He nodded. She was right, yet he couldn’t help feeling a fatherly disappointment in Auraya. Of all the men of the world, she couldn’t have chosen a more inappropriate lover. Leiard, too, should have seen the consequences of their affair and ended it.

His respect for the Dreamweaver had diminished. Apparently even wise heathen healers can be fools in the face of love, he thought wryly.