“It will rain the rest of the day,” she said. “As long you don’t mind that, we can keep walking and still hope to reach the Heart Temple I have in mind for our night’s lodging. But if you don’t mind my saying so, I recommend not using loud whistles for signals. Sound carries a long way up here. Besides swalters, there are desperate people who live outside proper Moats and Ditches, in the hills. They may see a small party like this one as a tempting target.”

“Yet you walk alone on these paths.”

“I carry nothing of value to them. Well, except my boots.”

He looked puzzled as he glanced at her boots, unsure if she was joking. All the wardens wore fine boots of the most elegant leather, next to which hers must appear like poor cousins.

With a gust of wind, the rain began to fall in earnest. Elen made her way back to the path. Kem stood at the rear, hood pulled low. The haunt had his hood thrown back and his face raised to the rain. There was something so sensual about the way he parted his mouth to let raindrops slip past his lips, as if purest elixir. As if the touch of the world was a caress. She could not look away from his closed eyes and ecstatic expression.

The others stood, hesitant, not sure what to do.

At length, Simo said, “Your Highness, best to cover your head, if I may be so bold. The deputy courier says the rain will last the rest of the afternoon.”

“Does she?” remarked the haunt in a silky tone, aimed at her, although he so carefully did not look at her that she could almost feel the arrow of his thoughts in her direction.

When all else fails, start walking.

31 TEARS ARE A LUXURY

She led, and they followed, as they must. In the dark days of childhood she’d always led Ao forward, holding her sister’s hand. Very early on, very young, she’d figured out that the atoner who walked in front was slightly less likely to fall afoul of Spore than the ones who walked alongside the main entourage or at the rear. Did the Spore slumber and only stir awake when a tremor of mobile life woke it? Did it have a mind that had to first recognize and then decide to attack its prey? Or was it simply a mindless growth? Perhaps her childhood fancy that she and Ao were better protected by always taking the frightening vanguard was merely something she had trained herself to believe because it made the fear easier to deal with.