She saw the understanding dawn in his eyes, the shadow of all the centuries of sacrifice which had claimed its victims in the name of joy and love, and she nodded slowly.

“The fusion is so deep and so complete, from their side, at least, that it leaves a huge void deep inside them when they lose their other half. Most of them simply choose not to live after that. King Roger’s ’cat Monroe would almost certainly have starved himself to death if—”

She stopped herself abruptly. The fact that Queen Elizabeth’s father had been assassinated by Havenite proxies was a secret known only to a handful of her subjects. Honor was one of them, and she knew William Alexander was, too, because they’d both been told at the same time. But they’d also been sworn to secrecy.

“He probably would have starved himself to death if Prince Justin—who wasn’t Prince Consort at the time, of course; he and Elizabeth were engaged, but they hadn’t married yet—hadn’t been attacked by a lunatic while he was trying to get Monroe to eat,” she went on instead. “That roused Monroe, and in the ensuing fight against the lunatic, he and Justin adopted one another, which is the only reason Monroe is alive today. Well, the situation was similar with Samantha and Nimitz, because as far as we know, they’re the only mated pair ever who have both adopted, and her bond with Nimitz was powerful enough to make her stay with us.”

“I see.” White Haven gazed at her for a moment, then reached back across to Samantha and stroked the soft, thick fur of her spine.

“Where you lonely?” he asked her quietly. “Was that it?”

The small, slender treecat looked back up at him out of bottomless grass-green eyes, then turned those same eyes to Honor and rose to sit higher on her true-feet so that she could sign.

Her right true-hand’s raised thumb tucked under her chin, then drew out and forward in a slight arc. Then both true-hands came up in front of her, little fingers upright and half a centimeter apart before she brought them together and separated them again three or four times. And then her right true-hand positioned itself horizontally below her left, palms facing and fingers curled, and circled in opposite directions.

“She says she was confused, not lonely,” Honor translated, but then Samantha’s hands moved more urgently.

<Listen before you tell,> the flashing fingers commanded. <You hurt. He hurts. Nimitz and I feel your pain. It hurts us as much as it does you, but understand. This is a two-leg pain, because all but you are mind-blind. Your People can’t taste what People taste, and there are reasons you and he can’t mate. But that doesn’t change what you need to do, and not doing makes you hurt worse. When he came, your pain was very great. Great enough even mind-blind could taste it, and he did. And it made his pain much, much worse. Pain is a terrible thing, but can make the mind-glow even stronger, and did. For the first time, truly tasted him, not just on own, but through you, as well, and his mind-glow captured. Did not plan it. Did not want it. But now, is a wonderful thing. Am sorry it will make hard things harder, but would not-could not—change it.>