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TOR THOUGHT that night she looked radiant and wished, wistfully, that it had so to do with hireatly, he told her as they spun through the figures of the dance that she was beautiful, she laughed at hio she would have blushed scarlet and turned to wood in my arms "It’s the ribbons roundsurpassed itself in atrocity today, and Teka said it was this or going barefoot"

"I areen eyes; and she said without flinching: "Then you should be, dearest cousin, for you have never seen me thus bedecked previously, nor likely are ever to see ain"

Thorped’s wispy son could barely take his eyes off her He ree Thorped, who liked a wohtly off with - not that the opportunity had ever presented itself, but it was an appealing standard of measurement - said ah, hmm Galanna, who didn’t like wispyat Aerin, and snuggled relentlessly with Perlith She was about resigned to being married to him; Tor was truly hopeless If only Perlith would play up a bitthe center of attention at every gathering (well, nearly); a little jealousy when beautiful young men wrote her poems, as she was able occasionally to persuade the attitude that his carefully chosen offer for her hand had conferred upon her a favor By the gods! She was a good match, after all

But then so was he Neither of theet it for aSince she was first sol, she never had the e able to sit out She wasn’t particularly aware that - ht; and she was accustomed to the polite protests, at the end of each set when partners were exchanged, of what a pleasure it was to dance with her, and her thoughts were so far away that she failed to catch the unusual ring of truth in her dancing partners’ voices She didn’t even ures with Thorped’s son (as his naht did not distress her, his chinlessness, on another occasion, would have

She did notice when she danced with Perlith that there was an unwonted depth ofas biting hiown make his skin look sallow? But Perlith too had noticed Thorped’s son’s adhter, and it irritated him almost as much as it irritated Galanna Perlith knew quite well that when Galanna had stopped playing hard to get back in the days when he was punctiliously courting her it was because she had decided to make a virtue of necessity after it becaet But a second sola was an ie, and Perlith wanted everyone to envy him his victory to the considerable extent that his blue blood and irresistible charm - and of course Galanna’s perfect beauty-deserved How dare this co Perlith, he had, of course, timed his courtship to coincide with the moment that Galanna admitted defeat on the score of future queenship; but he’d never been able to bring hi’s daughter as anyone - what a pity she had to have orange hair and enor’s daughter or no, with that co to make her fall in love with him In his conscious mind he preferred to think that he hadn’t made her fall in love with him by choice; in a bleaker moment it had occurred to hi flirted with, and that his notorious charht have had no effect on her whatsoever He had banished the thought immediately, and his well-trained self-esteem had buried it forever

He could adht; he’d never seen her in the fashionable ribbons before, and she had nice trim ankles, in spite of the feet This realization did not soften his attitude; he glared at his dancing partner, and Aerin could feel the glare, though she knew that if she looked into his face his expression would be one of lazy pleasure, with only a deep glint in his heavy-lidded eyes to tell her what he was thinking At a pause in the dance he plucked several golden specks out of the air that were suddenly there for hiers around theain, and a posy of yellow and white ringaling flowers - the flowers Aerin had carried at his wedding - sprang up between his thuer

"For the loveliest lady here tonight," he said, with a bow, to Aerin

Aerin turned white and backed up a step, her hands behind her She bumped into the next couple as they waited for the in, and they turned, ; and suddenly the entire hall atching The allery laid down their instruments when they should have played their first notes; it didn’t occur to the thwarted, was formidably Gifted

A little space cleared around Perlith and Aerin, and the focal point of the vast hall was a little bouquet of yellow and white flowers Tor , and dropped his partner’s hand, much to that lady’s annoyance (she would feel resentful of the orange-haired sol for weeks after); but he was on the far side of the hall froh the company were frozen where they stood, for he had difficulty threading his way through them, and no one tried to ic flowers they would turn to frogs, or burst in an explosion that anyone who s couldn’t help but notice; or, worst of all, make her sick on the floor at Perlith’s feet Perlith knew it too Magic had made her queasy since early adolescence, when her Gift should have been asserting itself and wasn’t; and since her illness her reaction to anything to do with other royal Gifts was much more violent She stood helpless and could think of no words to say; even if she asked hiic about his hands and face would reain iently at her, his arlint in his eye was very bright

And then the flowers leaped fros, and beca "Aerin, Aerin" as sweetly as golden harps, and as they disappeared into the darkness of the ceiling the ain, and Tor’s arms were around her, and Perlith was left to make his way out of the circle of dancers Aerin stepped on Tor’s feet several tiic was strong in her nostrils, and though what Tor had done had been done at a distance, it still clung to him too He held her up by o, cousin, you’re tearing the waistband right out of my skirt"

He released her at once, and she put a hand out - to a chair, not to his outstretched arht"

"You are never clumsy," she said with bitterness, and Tor was silent, for he ishing that she would lean on him instead of on the chair, and did not notice that most of the bitterness was for Perlith, who had hoped to embarrass her before the entire court, and a little for herself, and none at all for hiht Two years ago he would have said, "Nonsense, you are still pale, and I will not leave you"; but it wasn’t two years ago, and he said merely, "As you wish," and left her to find his deserted partner and make his excuses

Perlith ca on, sipping froht her "I beghis eyes till only the ot that you - ah - do not care for such - ah - tokens"

Aerin looked at him levelly "I know perfectly hat you were about this evening I accept your apology for precisely what it is worth"

Perlith blinked at this unexpected intransigence and was, very briefly, at a loss for a reply "If you accept y for what it is worth," he said smoothly, "then I know I need have no fear that you will bear e for hed, which surprised her as much as it surprised hie for this evening’s entertainment Our es" She curtsied hastily and left the hall, for fear that he would think of so else to say to her; Perlith never lost verbal skir as she could the extraordinary sensation of having scored points against him

Later, in the darkness of her bedroo, and sri a day, and she was too tired; her head always spun froht as soon as she deflected her thoughts from Perlith and Tor and yellow birds they ion fire oint back to her laboratory, but soht where only axe handles should be She had never mentioned that she had taken over the old shed, but she doubted anyone would care so long as lights didn’t start showing at peculiar hours - and hoould she explain what she was doing?

At last she cliown Tor had given her, and h back hallways and seldohest balcony in her father’s castle It looked out to the rear of the courtyard; beyond were the stables, beyond them the pastures, and beyond them all the sharp rise of the Hills From where she stood, the wide plateau where the pastures and training grounds were laid out stretched directly in front of her; but to her left the Hills crept close to the castle walls, so that the ground and first-floor rooht, and the courtyard as carved out of the Hills thehest point in the City, though the walls around its courtyard prevented anyone standing at ground level within the the City spread out on the lower slopes But from the third - and fourth-story s and balconies overlooking the front of the castle the higher roofs of the City could be seen, grey stone and black stone and dull red stone, in slabs and thin shingle-chips; and chi above all Fro’s way, the paved road which fell straight froates, al cornered by monoliths, a short way beyond the City wails

But froht look up and see the Hills that cradled theates was narrow enough not to be easily recognizable as such The pass between Vasth and Kar, two peaks of the taller Hills that surrounded the low rolling forested land that lay before the City and circled round to meet the Hills behind the castle, was not visible at all Aerin loved the Hills; they were green in spring and summer, rust and brown and yellow in the fall, and white in the winter with the snow they sheltered the City from; and they never told her that she was a nuisance and a disappointment and a half blood

She paced around the balcony and looked at the stars, and the glealassy s she’d just endured had quenchedThat a bit of yellow grease could protect a finger fro about its preventive properties in dealings with dragons; she’d heard the hunters hoon fire was bitter stuff, and burned like no hearthfire

On her third trip around the balcony she found Tor lurking in the shadow of one of the battlemented peaks "You walk very quietly," he said

"Bare feet," she said succinctly

"If Teka should catch you so and the night air so chill, she would scold"

"She would; but Teka sleeps the sleep of the just, and it is long past hed, and rubbed his forehead with one hand

"I’oes on till dawn"