Roh kept pace with Chali and Dasai through the gates and into the main yard of the keep. At the bottom of a double stairwell that led up to the main door, a tall, thin man stood. He was dressed in a black ankle-length tunic stitched in silver, the sleeves wide, the collar high. He wore over it a short coat lined in white fur. His white hair was wound around his head and pinned close. Behind him stood three young men with shaved heads, dressed in drab gray tunics and short coats. They kept their gazes averted.

“Ora Dasai,” the white-haired man said as the riders entered the yard.

Roh handed off his bear, and he and Nioni helped Dasai dismount.

“It has been some time,” the white-haired man said. He held out his hands and clasped Dasai’s forearms without permission. Roh winced at it, though Dasai didn’t protest. The sanisi had largely kept their distance from them while traveling. But now that they were going to be among so many people who tried to touch him without asking, Roh was suddenly uncomfortable.

“Keeper Takanaa,” Dasai said in Saiduan, inclining his head. “I trust all is well in the house of your Patron?”

“As well as can be expected. Come, my assistants will bring your men inside. The Patron asks that you dine with him tonight.”

“Of course,” Dasai said.

Takanaa showed them into the hold and through many broad corridors, finally stopping at a great hall that ended in a hub, with six rooms facing a central foyer that boasted plush chairs and low tables at its center.

“These are your scholars’ quarters,” Takanaa said, “and your shared lounge. Does it please you?”

“Very much,” Dasai said.

Takanaa unlocked each of the doors. Roh and Kihin chose a room together. Roh was disappointed to see two narrow beds inside and a simple stone fireplace with banked coals. Two scuffed trunks.

“A little bare, isn’t it?” Kihin whispered.

“Maybe the others are better?” Roh said. Not even a temple drudge would be expected to sleep in such spare quarters. There wasn’t even a window. Roh searched for something to put onto the fire and found more coal and a few logs. He discovered candles in the trunks and lit a few to give them light to unpack by.

After Takanaa left, Roh went to look at Dasai’s room. Chali stood outside the door, and moved aside as he approached. Dasai’s room was much the same as Roh’s.

Aramey came up behind Roh. He was a beefy man in his forties, with a generous grin and broad hands. Unlike the others, he wasn’t gifted, but he had been a student of Dasai’s for two decades.

“It seems we’ll have to do something worthy to receive better quarters,” Aramey said.