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Sobering, Erin touched her co of which the rime speaks so far has corown so afraid of you now that she has withdrawn into her palace of cold white stone and will not show herself" The dark girl shrugged "In all events, it’s no use worrying I am certain that soon you will discover the last of the ri, just a little Erin always cheered her But herher lip

"It’s Irrylath I am most uneasy for He is still within her reach--and the dreams she sends him are dire

I fear for him"

"I don’t," said Erin sourly "He is so full of his army and this war--he spends more time in the company of Avarclon and that Sabr than he does in yours He never speaks to you; he does not send for you Is he not your husband?"

"Peace, Erin," Aeriel said wearily "There will be tiirl shook her head

"I have heard the ru all over camp, all about this enchantment the White Witch still holds on him," she exclaimed, "that he may not lie with you or anyone while the White Witch lives--but I tell you from experience that that is very little of what ht touch you, or talk to you, or even look at you when you are in his company--but no, it is ever ’my troops," and ’the warhost," and ’My steed calls ered bandit, dotes on him"

Aeriel tensed "She is his cousin"

"So are you And which of you is his wife?"

Aeriel felt the knot beneath her breastbone tighten She gripped a handful of desiccated sand suddenly as though she hed in the wind Aeriel opened her fingers and let the sand trickle away "I’ll not speak of this"

"No, you never will," snapped Erin She gazed off across the cahost blue, and mauve The set of her jaw told Aeriel that her own refusal to speak had hurt her friend

"It is not…" she began, groping "It is only that we hardly know one another, Irrylath and I"

Erin looked back at her sidelong "I have known you far less time than he," she said softly, "and already I love you well"

A stone rose in Aeriel’s throat She put her arirl For a lad you did not go back to your people after Orth You ca up, Erin shook her head and patted Aeriel’s cheek Her palm was cool and dry "No, dear one," she said "For mine I never had a friend before"

She rose

"But I will leave you now," she said, "for I see you want to be alone I will be at the caue"

Aeriel o No less confounded than before by the White Witch and by Irrylath, she nonetheless felt easier now for having spoken with Erin The dark girl bent and kissed her brow

"But you will forgive reat fool for not loving you," Erin said very gently "And you an even greater one for wanting hih the close-staked pavilions, encountering no one Those who gliave her a wide berth: all seehed, lonely suddenly for sonize her instantly and draay

She was sorry now to have let Erin leave her, and was just turning to find her way out of the jumble of tentbacks and supply pavilions that surrounded her when a snatch of conversation reached her ear She paused, frowning, seeing no one else about

A great green silk tent looht desert breeze She felt the air’s coolness against her cheek and the touch of the sandy grit it bore The slapping of the open tent flap only deepened the stillness Puzzled, she found herself listening, straining, but for long ain, a low muffle of voices--one of them unmistakably Irrylath’s

"If you positioned your horse-troops like so, my mother’s boo the faint rasp of ainst metal Another spoke

"Then our foot could be divided here and here"

Sabr’s voice She recognized it now, iger The rasp of er sheathed

"You never did tell ave you"

A teasing tone had stolen into Sabr’s voice Aeriel blinked Banter fro of parchment

"I broke it," came Irrylath’s short reply

Their voices did not co nearer the dark pavilion Its back stood close behind the backs of a rose and a saffron tent, cutting off a kind of courtyard from the open space around

"How, pray?" the prince’s cousin was asking "The blade was Bernean steel"

Aeriel stood very still beside the green pavilion, listening Silence froe Sabr and Irrylath stood in the courtyard beyond They were alone, without the usual swarm of aides and attendants Half-turned from his cousin, the prince of Avaric bent over a scroll Sabr toyed with her own Bernean blade