That night after supper, Dasai and Nioni gathered in the sitting room and went over the day’s work. Luna and Kihin sat up in the room Kihin and Roh shared, arguing about old Dhai verb tenses. Roh sat in the main room on the armrest of one of the chairs and listened to the older men talk.

“I cannot, in good conscience, force any of my scholars that far north,” Dasai said, “and I certainly doubt my own ability to survive such a journey.”

“Someone has to go,” Nioni said. “I’ll take them if I must. The records here are incomplete, and Bael says there was an untouched archive farther north. If we find nothing here, we’ll have come all this way for naught.”

“This may be all there is,” Dasai said. “It’s possible the invaders have already destroyed what they came for.”

“Then we’ve come all this way for nothing,” Nioni said, “and you know my time is precious.” Aramey hushed him.

Chali sighed. “We’ve hardly begun.”

“What do you think, Rohinmey?” Dasai asked.

“I think there’s a reason empires aren’t made by old men.”

“No,” Dasai said, “but they are certainly maintained by old men.” He waved a hand. “Enough for tonight. It’s too early to give our tongues to the cat. We have time yet.”

“And when we run out of time?” Chali said.

Aramey looked stricken. Roh imagined them all as great frozen bodies caked in ice and buried in some snow drift.

“There is time,” Dasai said. “Roh, take my arm and help me to my room, please.”

Roh took his arm and escorted him to his chambers. Dasai had been slowing down as the days passed. Every step he took looked painful. He complained often and bitterly about the cold, despite wearing warmer clothes than all of them.

“The dancing lessons are going well?” Dasai asked as he slipped off his shoes.

“They’re good,” Roh said, pulling back the blankets from Dasai’s bed.

“A clipped response,” Dasai said, “from one once so talkative. You could once iron my head with your chatter.”

“I don’t know what to say. We get along all right. They’re vain, but most dancers are like that.”

“I don’t like you wandering about the keep on your own,” Dasai said.

“I’m not alone,” Roh said. “Kihin goes everywhere with me.”

“You think I’m blind as well as arthritic? I know he doesn’t go everywhere with you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I’m just an old man,” Dasai said, pulling the blankets up over himself. He settled back on the pillows. The spill of his white hair trailed down one shoulder. “Go on, now, and sleep tonight. I want you to continue practicing your defense forms with Kihin. You’ve grown lax in that.”

“Ora Dasai, you’ve already got me dancing three hours in the morning and running errands all–”