When dinner was finished, Ellich asked if she would take a walk with him. Jera began to clean up and refused Aphenglow’s offer to help, insisting that she accompany her uncle. It wasn’t hard to figure out that this was something they had talked about before she arrived and been thinking about all through the meal. Aphen knew she wasn’t going to like whatever it was her uncle wanted to talk about, if he and Jera were this nervous about bringing it up, but didn’t see any reasonable way to avoid it.

Ellich took her outside into the clear, cool night air. The sky was filled with stars and the city was wrapped in silence. Side by side they walked down the lane that bordered the surrounding cottages, neither of them speaking. Aphenglow was conscious of how alike they would appear to anyone passing—both of them tall and lean, fair-haired and blue-eyed, and both possessed of a long, swinging gait and a confident presence. This wasn’t entirely an accident or even the result of genetics. Aphenglow had been raised as much by Ellich and Jera as by her own parents, and as a little girl she had tried very hard to emulate everything her uncle said or did, following him around for hours like a devoted puppy.

That had been a long time ago, but some of what she had taken from him she had kept as her own, from the way she walked to her slow, careful approach to solving problems and uncovering mysteries.

“I’m worried about you,” her uncle said finally, apparently deciding it was time to address whatever was bothering him.

“You needn’t be,” she answered at once. “I’m fine.”

“Which would explain the burn marks around your neck, I’m sure.”

She had worn a scarf to conceal those, but somehow he had caught a glimpse of them anyway. “All right, I’m not entirely fine. Someone attacked me, but I drove him off. No harm.”

Her uncle glanced over. “No harm this time. But what about the next? You’ve attracted enemies with your decision to serve the Druids, Aphen. You can’t pretend otherwise. I’ve heard the talk, and people are usually careful about what they say around me. But they don’t like what you are doing, and as a consequence they don’t much like you.”

“I’m aware.”

“Well, then. What I want to ask is whether you’ve given any thought to withdrawing from the order and coming back here to live permanently.”

She sighed. “I haven’t given it one moment’s thought, Ellich. I like what I am doing and I like the people I am doing it with. I can’t help it that certain Elves are angry with this. I would have thought Elves, of all people, would be less inclined to discriminate. But maybe I’m not seeing this as clearly as I should.”