Gate of Ivrel

"Are you bound for the territory of Chya?"

"I am clan-welcome there," she said, "but I doubt it would be the same warmth of welcome I knew if I were to go there now. Tell me of yourself, Chya Liell. How does Leth fare these days?"

Liell waved an elegant hand at their surroundings. He was a graceful man, handsome and silver-haired; his dress was modest, night-blue. His 66

Gate of Ivrel

shoulders lifted in a sigh. "You see how things are, lady, I am well sure. I manage to keep Leth whole, against the tide of events. As long as Kasedre keeps to his entertainments, Leth thrives. But its thin blood will not breed another generation. The sons and grandsons of Chya Zri— who, I know, found no favor in your eyes— still are the bulwark of Leth in its old age.

They serve me well. That in hall— that is the get of Leth, such as remains."

Morgaine refrained from comment. They began to mount the stairs. A pinched little face peered at them from the turning, withdrew quickly.

"The twins," said Vanye.

"Ah," said Liell. "Hshi and Tlim. Nasty characters, those."

"Clever with their hands," said Vanye sourly.

"They are Leth. Hshi is the harpist in hall. Tlin sings. They also steal. Do not let them in your rooms. I suspect it was Tlin who is responsible for your being here. The report was very like her misbehaviors."

"Hardly necessary that she trouble herself," said Morgaine. "My path necessarily led to Ra-leth. I had the mood to come this way. The girl could prove a noisome pest."

"Please," said Liell. "Leave the twins to me. They will not trouble you….

What set Kasedre off tonight?"

"He became overexcited," said Morgaine. "I take it that he does not often meet outsiders."

"Not of quality, and not under these circumstances."

They wound up the remaining stairs and came into the hall where their apartments were. The servants were busy at their tasks, lighting the lamps.

They made great bows as Liell and Morgaine swept past them.

"Did you eat well?" Liell asked.

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"We had sufficient," she said.

"Sleep soundly, lady. Nothing will trouble you." He made a formal bow as Morgaine went inside her own door, but as Vanye would have followed her, Liell prevented him with an outthrust arm.

Vanye stopped, hand upon hilt, but Liell's purpose seemed speech, not violence. He leaned close, set a hand upon Vanye's shoulder, a familiarity a man might use with a servant, talking to him quickly in whispers.

"She is in great danger," said Liell. "Only I fear what she may do. She must leave here, and tonight. Earnestly I tell you this." He leaned closer until Vanye's back was against the wall, and the hand gripped his shoulder with great intensity. "Do not trust Flis and do not trust the twins above all else, and beware of any of Kasedre's people."

"Which you are not?"

"I have no interest in seeing this hall ruined— which could happen if Morgaine takes offense. Please. I know what she is seeking. Come with me and I will show you."

Vanye considered it, gazed into the dark, sober eyes of the man. There was peculiar sadness in them, a magnetism that compelled trust. The strong fingers pressed into the flesh of his shoulder, at once intimate and compelling.

"No," he said. It was hard to force the words. "I am ilin.I take her orders. I do not arrange her business for her."

And he tore himself from Liell's fingers and sought the door, trembling so that he missed the latch, opened it and thrust it closed, securely, behind him. Morgaine looked at him questioningly, even offering concern. He said nothing to her. He felt sick inside, still fearing that he should have trusted Liell, and yet glad that he had not.

"We must get out of this place," he urged her. "Now."

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"There are things yet to learn," she said. "I only found the begi

There was no disputing Morgaine. He curled up near their own little hearth, a small and smoky fireplace that heated the room from a common duct, warming himself on the stones. He left her the bed, did she choose to use it.

She did not. She paced. Eventually the restlessness assumed a kind of rhythm, and ceased to be maddening. Just when he had grown used to that, she settled. He saw her by the window, staring out into the dark, through a crack in the shutters, an opening that let a further draft into their chill room.

"Folk never seem to sleep in Leth-hall," she commented to him finally, when he had changed his posture to keep his joints from going stiff.

"There are torches about in the snow."

He muttered an answer and sighed, glanced away uncomfortably as she turned from the window then and began to turn down the bed. She slipped off the overrobe and laid it across the foot, laid aside her other gear, hung upon the endpost, and cloth tunic and the fine, light mail, itself the worth of many kings of the present age, boots and the warmth of her leather undertunic, stretched in the luxury of freedom from the weight of armor, slim and womanly, in riding breeches and a thin lawn shirt. He averted his eyes a second time toward nothing in particular, heard her ease within the bed, make herself comfortable.

"Thee does not have to be overnice," she murmured when he looked back.

"Thee is welcome to thy half."

"It is warm here," he answered, miserable on the hard stone and wishing that he had not seen her as he had seen her. She meant the letter of her offer, no more; he knew it firmly, and did not blame her. He sat by the fire, ilinand trying to remind himself so, his arms locked together until his muscles ached. Servant to this. Walking behind her. To lie unarmored next to her was harmless only so long as she meant to keep it so.

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Qujal.He clenched that thought within his mind and cooled his blood with that remembrance. Qujal,and deadly. A man of honest human birth had no business to think otherwise.

He remembered Liell's urging. The sanity in the man's eyes attracted him, promised, assured him that there did exist reason somewhere. He regretted more and more that he had not listened to him. There was no longer the excuse of his well-being that kept them in Ra-leth. His fever was less. He examine I his hand that her medications had treated, found it scaobed over and only a little red about the wound, the swelling abated. He was weak in the joints but he could ride. There was no further excuse for her staying, but that she wanted something of Kasedre and his mad crew, something important enough to risk both their lives.

It was intolerable. He felt sympathy for Liell, a sane man condemned to live in this nightmare. He understood that such a man might yearn for something other, would be concerned to watch another man of sense fall into the web.

"Lady." He came and knelt by the bed, disturbing her sleep. "Lady, let us be out of here."

"Go to sleep," she bade him. "There is nothing to be done tonight. The place is astir like a broken hive."

He returned to his misery by the fire, and after a time began to nod.

There was a scratching at the door. Minute as it was, it became sinister in all that silence. It would not cease. He started to wake Morgaine, but he had disturbed her once; he did not venture her patience again. He sought his sword, both frightened and self-embarrassed at his fear: it was likely only the rats.