Then Berit came up the deck, and Sparhawk remembered something. He read through the letter again and made a quick decision. ‘Berit,’ he called, ‘do you suppose I could have a word with you?’

‘Of course, Sir Sparhawk.’

‘I thought you might like to see this.’ Sparhawk handed him the letter.

Berit looked at it. ‘But this is personal, Sir Sparhawk,’ he objected.

‘It concerns you, I think. It may help you to deal with a problem you’ve been having lately.’

Berit read through the letter, and a strange expression came over his face.

‘Does that help at all?’ Sparhawk asked him.

Berit flushed. ‘Y-you knew?’ he stammered.

Sparhawk smiled a bit wryly. ‘I know it may be hard for you to believe, my friend, but I was young once myself. What’s happened to you has probably happened to every young man who’s ever lived. In my case, it was when I first went to court. She was a young noblewoman, and I was absolutely certain that the sun rose and set in her eyes. I still think of her on occasion – rather fondly, actually. She’s older now, of course, but her eyes still make me weak when she looks at me.’

‘But you’re married, Sir Sparhawk.’

‘That’s fairly recent, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with what I felt for that young noblewoman. You’ll waste a lot of dreams on Ehlana, I expect. We all do that in these cases, but maybe it makes better men of us.’

‘Surely you won’t tell the queen.’ Berit seemed shocked.

‘Probably not, no. It doesn’t really concern her, so why should I worry her about it? The point I’m trying to make here, Berit, is that what you’re feeling is a part of growing up. Everybody goes through the same thing – if he’s lucky.’

‘You don’t hate me then, Sir Sparhawk?’

‘Hate you? God no, Berit. I’d be disappointed in you if you didn’t feel this way about some young, pretty girl.’

Berit sighed. ‘Thank you, Sir Sparhawk,’ he said.

‘Berit, before very long, you’re going to be a full-fledged Pandion Knight, and then we’ll be brothers. Do you suppose we could drop that “sir”? Just “Sparhawk” will do. I more or less recognize the name.’

‘If you wish, Sparhawk,’ Berit said. He offered his friend the letter.

‘Why don’t you keep it for me? I’ve got a lot of clutter in my saddlebags, and I wouldn’t want to lose it.’

Then the two of them, their shoulders almost touching, went aft to see if Kurik needed any help with the ship.

They rigged a sea-anchor that evening, and when they awoke the following morning, they found that the rain and snow had passed, though the sky was still lead-grey.