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IT WAS A SILENT journey back, and seeates it was still daylight, although Aerin was sure it was the daylight of a week since hearing the villagers1 petition to her father for dragon-slaying The City streets were thronged, and while the sight of seven of the king’s e, the sight of the first sol riding a rather the worse for as, and their little co curious looks They can see rimly Whatever shadoas that I rode away in, I wish I knehere it had gone

Hornmar himself appeared at her elbow to take Talat off to the stables when they arrived in the royal courtyard Her escort see of stirrups and creak of girths She pulled down the bundles from behind Talat’s saddle and squared her shoulders She couldn’t help looking wistfully after the untroubled Talat, who readily followed Hornmar in the direction he was sure meant oats; but she jerked her attention back to herself and found Gebeth staring at her, frozen-faced, so she led the way into the castle

Even Arlbeth looked startled when they all appeared before hi hall, and sat surrounded by papers, scrolls, sealing wax, and emissaries He looked tired Not a word had passed between Aerin and her unwilling escort since they had left the village, but Aerin felt that she was being herded and had not tried to escape Gebeth would have reported to the king immediately upon his return, and so she must; it was perhaps just as well that she had so s to her one self-conscious sheep, because shehad she ridden back alone

"Sir," she said Arlbeth looked at Aerin, then at Gebeth and Gebeth’s frozen face, then back at Aerin

"Have you so to report?" he said, and the kindness in his voice was for both his daughter and his loyal, if scandalized, servant

Gebeth re with silence, so Aerin said: "I rode out alone this e their dragon Or - uon-killing report? She s if she’d thought a little further ahead She’d never particularly considered the after of killing dragons; the fact that she’d done it was supposed to be enough But now she felt like a child caught out in misbehavior Which at least in Gebeth’s eyes she was She unwrapped the bundle she carried under her aron heads on the floor before her father’s table Arlbeth stood up and ca down at them with a look on his face not unlike Gebeth’s when he first recognized as lying in the dust at his horse’s feet

"We arrived at the villageafter," said Gebeth, who chose not to look at Aerin’s ugly tokens of victory again, "and I offered our escort for Aerin-sol’s return"

At "offered our escort" a flicker of a smile crossed Arlbeth’s face, but he said very seriously, "I would speak to Aerin-sol alone" Everyone disappeared like mice into the walls, except they closed the doors behind the, but no one else who had been in the rooons could wait to start spreading the tale

Arlbeth said, "Well?" in so colorless a tone that Aerin was afraid that, despite the sry with her She did not knohere to begin her story, and as she looked back over the last years and reminded herself that he had set no barriers to her ith Talat, had trusted her judgment, she was ashamed of her secret; but the first words that caht if I told you first, you would not lettime "This is probably so," he said at last "And can you tell me why I should not have prevented you?"

Aerin exhaled a long breath "Have you read Astythet’s History?"

Arlbeth frowned a moment in recollection "Ibelieve I did, when I was a boy I do not relare, which is much fiercer than an ordinary ood deal of tiendary than practical"

"Yes," said Aerin "I read it, a while ago, when I wasill There’s a recipe of sorts for an ointonfire, in the back of it - "

Arlbeth’s frown returned and settled "A bit of superstitious nonsense"

"No," Aerin said firmly "It is not nonsense; it is rimace at her choice of understatement "I’ve spentwith that half a recipe A few o I finally found outorks" Arlbeth’s frown had lightened, but it was still visible "Look" Aerin unslung the heavy cloth roll she’d hung over her shoulder and pulled out the soft pouch of her oint as she did so that both hands were treht not stop her, she went to the fireplace and seized a burning branch froreasy yellow hand, and thrust her other hand directly into the flame that billowed out around it

Arlbeth’s frown had disappeared "You’ve made your point; now put the fire back into the hearth, for that is not a co to watch" He went back behind his table and sat down; the weary lines showed again in his face

Aerin ca her ashy hands on her leather leggings "Sit," said her father, looking up at her; and leaving charcoal fingerprints on a scroll she tried delicately to move, she cleared the nearest chair and sat down Her father eyed her, and then looked at the ragged gashes in her tunic "Was it easy, then, killing dragons when they could not burn you?"

She spread her dirty fingers on her knees and stared at them "No," she said quietly "I did not think beyond the fire It was not easy"

Arlbeth sighed "You have learned so" She looked up at her father with sudden hope

Arlbeth snorted, or chuckled "Don’t look atlook of a puppy that thinks itThink you that you deserve your thrashing?"

Aerin said nothing

"That’s notare you eligible for? You’re a bit old to be sent to your rooave you your autonomy from Teka’s dictates when I let you and Talat ride out alone" He paused "I suppose you needed to get far enough away froh to test your discovery thoroughly" Aerin still said nothing "I can’t forbid you Talat, for he’s your horse now, and I love hiain "You seem to be rather a military problem, but as you have no rank I cannot strip you of it, and as you do not bear a sword fro’s hands he can’t take it away froered for aby her side, but he did notone "Will you teach theof the fire ointment if I ask it? "

Aerin raised her head He could command her to explain it, and knew that she knew he could so coladly would learn it," and as she recognized that he did not coladly would learn frohter; for he knew, for all that it had never been spoken in his ears, what his second wife had been called

"I would learn" He reached for the sack of oint on his table, took a little of the yellow grease on his fingertips, and rubbed thuether He sniffed "I suppose this explains the tales of the first sol’s suddenly frequent visits to the apothecaries"

Aerin gulped and nodded "I would - would be honored to show you theof the kenet, sir"

Arlbeth stood up and cahter, and left his arm around her shoulders, mindless of the sleek fur of his sleeve and the condition of her leather tunic "Look, you silly young fool I understand why you have behaved as you have done, and I sympathize, and I ao around risking your life to prove any more points, will you? Coo away, and letafternoon’s work still ahead of me before you interrupted"

Aerin fled

A week later, when she finally dared face her father at breakfast again, whichsuch conversational gainning to feel ogreish I’" Tor, as there too, laughed, and so Aerin learned that Tor knew the dragon story as well She blushed hotly; but as the first rush of embarrassment subsided she had to admit to herself that there was probably no one in the City who did not know the story by now

Breakfast was got through without any further uncomfortable moments, but as Aerin rose to slink away - she still wasn’t recovered quite enough for the receiving-hall, and had been spending her daysTalat - Arlbeth said, "Wait just atheot up and disappeared from the room, and Arlbeth deliberately poured hih thetwo spears and her sone to her roo on the wall by her bed Tor for, his body bowed so that the outstretched arh as his head; and Aerin shivered, for the first sola should give such honor to nobody Arlbeth seeh, Tor, we already kno you feel about it," and Tor straightened up with a trace of a smile on his face

Arlbeth stood up and turned to Aerin, who stood up too, wide-eyed "First, I give you your sword," and he held it out to her with his hands one just below the hilt and one two-thirds down the scabbarded blade, and she cupped her hands around his He dropped the sword into her hands, and then cupped his fingers around her closed fingers "Thus you receive your first sword froo; and Aerin dropped her arhs She carried the sword of the king now; and so the king could call upon it and her whenever he had need - to do, or not to do, at his bidding The color came and went in her face, and she sed