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"I’d made an oath," he said "To myself To protect her And I failed"

Laren’s shoulders slurief or outrage When she’d learned of the dangerous an and Zachary, she’d tried to quell it for the sake of the realan away on errands, kept them separated, but to no avail And now there was this She would never have wished to keep them separate in this manner

"She iswasa Green Rider," Laren replied "If you exerted your will to protect her from all harm, she would not have been able to perfor That surely would have killed her just as readily as her stepping into Blackveil"

"I know it," he said, gaze downcast "But still, I could have--"

"Stop!" He looked at her, startled by her sharpness Lost "There is nothing you could have done She was the best one to send into Blackveil I knew it, and you knew it Yes, I question ht, in the back of my mind, but I con a Rider to an errand, I wonder if they’ll return, and sometiet in the way of the realet done The realm would not ly because they believe in their country and their an believed no less than any other"

She reached into the inner pocket of her shortcoat and pulled out an envelope with "King Zachary" written across it in Karigan’s exacting hand She had considered not bringing it to hian even in her death, and she did not want it to coht act for the good of the realan’s roos to her father" Laren reorgeous but was now in rough shape; hair ribbons and coht have seee that there were not many personal iteer service required that they often be on the road and rarely hoan’s cat, Ghost Kitty, he’d taken to sleeping with Mara, but could still be found hanging about Karigan’s room much of the time

"As we packed," Laren continued, "we discovered soood chance she was not co to hi at the ht And, she left one for you"

She strode over to him, by the , took his hand in hers and squeezed it, then pressed Karigan’s letter into it She excused herself with a bow, but she didn’t think he noticed her departure A final glance revealed hi out the , the letter unread in his hand

• • •

They were difficult, these gatherings, but as captain, Larenfor her Riders They’d had too many of thesehollow in the empty corridor she walked to the records roohts, to steel herself for the siive in to emotion Afterward, when she was alone in her quarters with no one to serve as witness It made it harder that they hadn’t even a body, no idea of precisely what befell Karigan, but it also made this cereround of ritual and leavetaking, allowed the Riders to acknowledge her passing and to comprehend for themselves the finality of her absence In this way they could an for whoan who had brought it back to the Riders of the present from the time of the First Rider There was a circularity about it that seemed appropriate

Laren had not hurried, but she arrived at the records room all too soon and no that she would not have the chalassworkers--hired to do the special cleaning of the stained glass do A fretful Dakrias Brown came to her side

"I’m sorry, Captain, I told the up," she replied, observing the the scaffolding

The Weapons Fastion, Ellen, and Willis arrived They would assist with the cerelass dolass would be obstructed by the crisscrossed network of scaffolding high above

Then to Laren’s surprise,and queen And still nized from the toht up the rear, dressed not in his training gear, but in the black of a Weapon

Fastion, noting Laren’s wonder, said, "Rider G’ladheon was our sister-at-arms, an honorary Weapon Any of us ere not required elsewhere would of course be here"

The Weapons lassman a of tools in the other

"A good evening to you, Captain," he said, bushy side whiskers wavering in air currents