As his floater entered the Dizimaule Plaza outside the southern wing, Hissune was startled to see a delegation of welcomers waiting for him. Stasilaine was there, and Mirigant, and Elzandir, and a retinue of aides. But not Divvis.

"Have they come to hail you as Coronal?" Elsinome asked, and Hissune smiled and shook his head.

"I doubt that very much," he said.

As he strode toward them across the green porcelain cobblestones he wondered what changes had occurred here during his absence. Had Divvis proclaimed himself Coronal? Were his friends here to warn him to flee while he had the chance? No, no, they were smiling; they clustered round, they embraced him jubilantly.

"What news?" Hissune asked.

"Lord Valentine lives!" cried Stasilaine.

"The Divine be praised! Where is he now?"

"Suvrael," said Mirigant. "He is a guest at Palace Barjazid. So says the King of Dreams himself, and we have this very day had confirming word from the Coronal."

"Suvrael!" Hissune repeated in wonder, as though he had been told that Valentine had taken himself off to some unknown continent in the midst of the Great Sea, or to some other world entirely. "Why Suvrael?

How did he get there?"

"He came forth from Piurifayne in the land of Bellatule," Stasilaine replied, "and the unruliness of the dragons kept him from sailing north; and also Piliplok, as I think you know, is in rebellion. So the Bellatule folk took him to the southland, and there he has forged an alliance with the Barjazids, who will use their powers to bring the world back to sanity."

"A bold move."

"Indeed. He sails shortly for the Isle to meet again with the Lady."

"And then?" Hissune asked.

"That is not yet determined." Stasilaine peered closely at Hissune. "The shape of the months ahead is not clear to us."

"I think it is to me," said Hissune. "Where is Divvis?"

"He has gone hunting today," Elzandir said. "In the forest by Frangior."

"Why, that is an unlucky place for his family!" Hissune said. "Is that not where his father Lord Voriax was slain?"

"So it is," said Stasilaine.

"I hope he is more careful," Hissune said. "There are great tasks ahead for him. And it surprises me that he is not here, if he knew that this was the day of my return from the Labyrinth." To Alsimir he said, "Go, summon my lord Divvis: tell him there must be a session of the Council of Regency at once, and I await him." Then he turned to the others and said, "I have committed a grave discourtesy, my lords, in the first excitement of speaking here with you. For I have left this good woman to stand unintroduced, and that is not proper. This is the lady Elsinome, my mother, who for the first time in her life beholds the world that lies beyond the Labyrinth."

"My lords," she said, with color coming to her cheeks, but her face otherwise betraying no confusion, no embarrassment.