The young man behind King Sylvarresta had dismounted, and now he helped Sylvarresta down from his horse.

Together with the young man and the ugly woman, Sylvarresta walked under the eaves of the building, up some stairs. He felt so tired. Walking the stairs hurt his legs, made them stretch uncomfortably. He wanted to rest, but the young man urged him forward, into a room thick with good smells of cooked food, where a warm fire burned.

A pair of dogs thumped their tails as King Sylvarresta approached, so that at first he did not really notice the two dozen men sitting at a table, eating things that smelled good.

Then he looked across the table and gasped. There sat a tall man, dark-haired and beautiful, with wide-set blue eyes and a square jaw beneath his beard.

Sylvarresta knew the man, knew him better than he knew anything else. A green man. In a green tunic, with a shimmering cape of green samite.

A warm sensation filled King Sylvarresta’s heart, an overwhelming joy. He recalled the man’s name. “Orden!”

At King Sylvarresta’s side, the young man shouted, “Father, if you want this poor man dead, at least have the decency to kill him yourself!”

King Orden half rose from the table, stepped hesitantly forward. He glanced back and forth between Sylvarresta and the young man. His eyes looked pained and angry, and his hand went to the hilt of his short sword. He struggled with it, as if he could not draw it, brought it halfway out.

Then in rage he slammed the sword back into its sheath and staggered forward, threw his arms around Sylvarresta’s shoulders, and began to weep.

King Orden sobbed, “My friend, my friend, what have we done? Forgive me. Forgive me!”

Sylvarresta let King Orden hold him for a long time, wondering what was wrong, until his friend’s sobbing lessened.

40

AN ORDER RESCINDED

Gaborn had never seen his father cry. No tears of sadness escaped him when Gaborn’s mother and infant brother were murdered. No tears of joy had ever glistened in King’s Orden’s eye when proposing a toast.

Now, as Gaborn’s father hugged king Sylvarresta, he wept tears of joy and relief.

King Mendellas Draken Orden cried in great racking sobs. Orden’s sorrow was such an embarrassing sight that the two dozen lords and dignitaries who had been breakfasting in the room now all took their leave, so that only Iome, King Sylvarresta, three Days, and Gaborn stood in the room.

For the barest moment, Gaborn glanced across the room, saw his Days and felt uncomfortable. He had been without a Days for nearly half a week, and had found it pleasant.