He moved away, joining the King on the dais, bending close to speak with him. “You were brave, Little K,” Simralin agreed.

The King was on his feet now, his healers moving away. With Ordanna Frae trailing, he walked over to where they sat, looking angry and determined. He shouted to his attendants to clean up the room, and they moved quickly to comply.

Kirisin and Simralin got to their feet at once. The King faced them, his strong features set.

“Erisha loved you,” he began, speaking directly to Kirisin. “She believed in you, and she trusted you. I know you fought from time to time, but you played together as children and have been each other’s friend since birth. You were—you are—a member of our family. I never wanted to think that you could harm Erisha. Even now, when I saw you again, come back to Arborlon, I didn’t want to believe it.”

For a moment, he couldn’t continue. It took everything he had to compose himself, but he managed to subdue his grief. “I have not been thinking clearly on this. Not for some time. I realize that now. I have been a fool. What I’ve witnessed here has convinced me of that.”

He paused, his eyes still locked on Kirisin. “When my daughter came to me about the Ellcrys and the Loden Elfstone, I turned to Culph for help. I asked him to look into the Elven histories to see what was recorded. He did so and told me that he had researched the histories front-to-back, as well as all the notes that might possibly bear on the matter of the missing Elfstones, and had found nothing. He lied, of course, but I did not realize it. He insisted there was nothing, even when I pressed him to look harder. But he said there were rumors he had heard as a child from other, wiser heads. Rumors warning that using a Loden Elfstone was dangerous. The user of such a magic, he had heard, was bound to it. What that meant, he warned, was that if this Elfstone were recovered and the Ellcrys placed within, the user must carry the Stone until the tree could be released. He cautioned that the weight of such responsibility was too much for my daughter to bear, too much for any child of Erisha’s temperament, and that I must do what I could to protect her. He suggested that it would be best if I discouraged her from being involved and left the matter to you.”