Hissune had not expected that. A great surge of excitement arose in him. Zimroel too! That unimaginably distant place of forests and vast rivers and great cities, more than half legendary to him—magical cities with magical names—

"Ah, if that is the new plan, how splendid it sounds, my lord!" he said, smiling broadly. "I had thought never to see that land, except in dreams! Will we go to Ni-moya? And Pidruid, Til-omon, Narabal—"

"Quite likely I will," said the Coronal in an oddly flat voice that fell upon Hissune's ears like a cudgel.

" I, my lord?" said Hissune with sudden alarm.

Softly Lord Valentine said, "Another of the changes of plan. You will not be accompanying me on the grand processional."

A terrible chill swept through Hissune then, as if the wind that blows between the stars had descended and was scouring out the deepest chambers of the Labyrinth. He trembled, and his soul shriveled under that cold blast, and he felt himself withering away to a husk.

"Am I then dismissed from your service, lordship?"

"Dismissed? Not at all! Surely you understand that I have important plans for you!"

"So you have said, several times, my lord. But the processional—"

"Is not the right preparation for the tasks you someday will be called upon to perform. No, Hissune, I can't afford to let you spend the next year or two bounding around from province to province at my side.

You're to leave for Castle Mount as soon as possible."

"Castle Mount, my lord?"

"To begin the training appropriate to a knight-initiate."

"My lord?" said Hissune in amazement.

"You are—what, eighteen? So you're years behind the others. But you're quick: you'll make up for the lost time, you'll rise to your true level soon enough. You must, Hissune. We have no idea what evil is about to come upon our world, but I know now that I must expect the worst, and prepare for it by preparing others to stand beside me when the worst arrives. So there will be no grand processional for you, Hissune."

"I understand, my lord."

"Do you? Yes, I think you do. There'll be time later for you to see Piliplok and Ni-moya and Pidruid, won't there? But now—now—"

Hissune nodded, though in truth he hardly dared to think that he comprehended what Lord Valentine appeared to be telling him. For a long moment the Coronal stared at him; and Hissune met the gaze of those weary blue eyes steadily and evenly, though he was beginning to feel an exhaustion beyond anything he had ever known. The audience, he realized, had come to its end, though no word of dismissal had been uttered.

In silence he made the starburst gesture and backed from the room.

He wanted nothing more than sleep now, a week of it, a month. This bewildering night had drained him of all his strength. Only two days ago this same Lord Valentine had summoned him to this very room, and told him to make ready at once to leave the Labyrinth, for he was to set forth as part of the royal entourage that was making the grand processional through Alhanroel; and yesterday he had been named one of the Coronal's aides, and given a seat at the high table of tonight's banquet; and now the banquet had come and gone in mysterious chaos, and he had beheld the Coronal haggard and all too human in his confusion, and the gift of the grand processional had been snatched back, and now—Castle Mount? A knight-initiate?