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HER HEAD ACHED The scene was still so vividly before her that the door of her bedroom was half open before she heard it She spun round, but it was only Teka, bearing a tray; Teka glanced once at her scowling face and averted her eyes She was probably first chosen for ht sourly; but then she noticed the tray, and the smell of the steam that rose from it, and the worried mark between Teka’s eyebrows Her own face softened

"You can’t not eat," Teka said

"I hadn’t thought about it," Aerin replied, realizing this was true

"You shouldn’t sulk," Teka then said, "and forget about eating" She looked sharply at her young charge, and the worried ," said Aerin stiffly

Teka sighed "Hiding Brooding Whatever you like It’s not good for you"

"Or for you," Aerin suggested

A smile touched the corners of the worry "Or for me"

"I will try to sulk less if you will try to worry less"

Teka set the tray down on a table and began lifting napkins off of plates "Talat missed you today"

"He told you so, of course" Teka’s fear of anything larger than the save a very wide berth to the stables and pastures beyond theo down after dark" She turned back to theThere were s across the stretch of courtyard that her bedroo by on foot in the unifor’s army, with the red divisional slash on their left forearms whichthe king’s co at a pace presently headlong and increasing toward panicky Under normal circumstances Aerin saw no one fro courtier

Soh "Aerin - "

"Whatever you’re going to say I’ve thought of already," Aerin said without turning around

Silence Aerin finally looked round at Teka, standing with head and shoulders bowed, staring at the tray The plates were heavy earthenware, handsoed to break one, as she often did; and she had not the small Gift to mend thees when she was a baby, but she was too proud to ask now she was far past the age when she should have been able to fit the bits together, glower at therohole again It did not now help her peace of e and aard child who see in the sa that should have been her birthright, wanted her never to forget it Aerin was not a particularly clu woman, but she was by now so convinced of her lack of coordination that she still broke things occasionally out of sheer dread

Teka had silently exchanged the finer royal plates for these earthenware ones several years ago, after Galanna had found out that the red-and-gold ones that should only be used by members of the first circle of the royal house - which included Aerin - were slowly disappearing She had one of her notorious temper tantrums over this, caused crisis and dismay in the whole hierarchy of the hafor, and turned off three of the newest and lowliest servant girls on suspicion of stealing - and then, when no one could possibly overlook the co, contrived to discover that the disappearances werechild," she said to a mutinous Aerin; "even if you are incapable" - there was inexpressible s yourself, you ht save the pieces and let one of us do it for you"

"I’d hang myself first," spat Aerin, "and then I’d coard with fear and lost all your looks and people pointed at you in the streets - "

At this point Galanna slapped her, which was a tactical error In the first place, it needed only such an excuse for Aerin to jump on her and roll her over on the floor, bruise one eye, and rip most of the lace off her extremely ornate afternoon dress - somehow both the court members and the hafor witness to this scene were a little slow in dragging Aerin off her - and in the second place, both the slap and its result quite ruined Galanna’s atte with conteenerally considered - Galanna was no favorite - that Aerin had won that round Of the three serving girls, one was taken back, one was given a job in the stables, which shethat she wouldn’t have any ot her beheaded for treason, went hoe, far frohed Life had been easier when her ulti Galanna with her bare hands She had continued to use the finer hen she ate with the court, of course; when she was younger she had rarely been coot uard (Galanna’s basilisk glare fro But at least she didn’t break anything either, and Teka could always be persuaded to bring her a late supper as necessary On earthenware plates

She lifted her eyes to Teka, as still standing motionless behind the tray "Teka, I’m sorry I’m so tiresome I can’t see clu else isn’t" She walked over and gave the older wo, and Teka looked up and half s so"

Aerin’s eyes rose involuntarily to the old plain sword hanging at the head of her tall curtained bed

"You know Perlith and Galanna are horrid because they’re horrid themselves - "

"Yes," said Aerin slowly "And because I’ intoher, and I’m such a desperately easy butt Teka," she said before the other had a chance to break in, "do you suppose it was Galanna who first toldto remember when I first heard it’’

"Story?" said Teka, carefully neutral She was always carefully neutral about Aerin’sabout her ’ "Yes That et an heir that would rule Damar, and that she turned her face to the wall and died of despair when she found she had borne a daughter instead of a son, since they usually find a way to avoid letting daughters inherit"

Teka shook her head impatiently

"She did die, "Aerin said

"Women die in childbed"

"Not witches, often"

"She was not a witch"

Aerin sighed, and looked at her big hands, striped with callus and scarred with old blisters froles after her dragons - Dragon-Killer - and fro off the faithful Talat "You would certainly think she wasn’t fro to turn out like ood to have had a son" She paused, brooding over her last burn scar, where a dragon had licked her and the ointone on quite evenly "What was htful She too looked toward Aerin’s sword and dragon spears, but Aerin was pretty sure she did not see them, for Teka did not approve of her first sol’s avocation "She was much like you but smaller - frail almost" Her shoulders lifted "Too frail to bear a child And yet it was rather as though so her from the inside; there was a fire behind that pale skin, always burning I think she knew she had only a little tih time to bear her baby" Teka’s eyes refocused on the rooon spears "You were a fine strong child from the first"

"Do you think she enspelled"Why do you ask so silly a question?"

"I like to hear you tell stories"