THE COLD AND A CRAMPED STIFFNESS WOKE DEVIN ABOUT AN hour before su took him a moment to remember where he was. It was still dark in the room. He massaged his ned listeo Catrianas quiet breathing from under her blas in the bed. A rueful expression crossed his face.
It was strange, he reflected, twisting his head from side to side to try to ease the soreness, how only a few hours in a soft armchair could leave one feeling more knotted and unfortable than a whole night out on cold ground He felt surprisingly awake though, given the night hed just had and the fact that he couldnt have been asleep for more than three hours or so. He sidered going back to his own bed but realized that he wasnt going to be able to sleep any more that night. He decided to go down to the kits and see if any of the household staff could be io make him a pot of khav.
He left the room, trating on closing the door silently behind him. So much so that when he saw Alessan standing in the hallway watg him from in front of his own door he jumped involuntarily.
The Prince walked over, eyebrows arched.
Devin shook his head firmly. "We just talked. I slept in the chair. Got a kink in my o show for it.」
"Im sure," Alessan murmured.
"No, really," Devin insisted.
"Im sure," Alessaed. He smiled. "I believe you. If you had essayed more I would have heard screaming—yours with an unpleasant injury, most likely.」
"Very likely," Devin agreed. They walked away from Catrianas door.
"How was Alienor though?」
Devi himself going red. "How . . . ?" he began, then gradually became aware of the dition of his clothing and the amused scrutiny Alessan was giving him, "Iing," he offered.
Alessan smiled again. "e downstairs with me and help solve a problem. I need some khav for the road anyhow.」
"I was on the way to the kits myself. Give me two mio ge my clothes.」
"Not a bad idea," Alessan murmured, eyeing the torn shirt. "Ill meet you down there.」
Devin ducked into his own chamber and quickly ged. Food measure he pulled on the vest Alais had sent him. Thinking of her, of her sheltered, quiet innoce, took him back—by polarity—to what had happened last night. He stood stock-still in the middle of his room for a moment and tried to prrasp what he had done, and had doo him.
Iing, he had just called it. Language. The process of sharing with words seemed such a futile exercise sometimes. A remnant of the sadness hed felt, leaving Alienor, washed back over him and it picked up Catrianas sorrows too. He felt as if hed been washed up by the sea on some grey beach at a bleak hour.
"Khav," Devin said aloud. "Or Ill never get out of this mood.」
On the way downstairs he realized, belatedly, what Alessan had meant by "for the road." His meeting, wherever it was, was today— the enter theyd been pointing toward for half a year.
And after that he would be ridi. To Tigana. Where his mother lay dying in a Sanctuary of Eanna.
Wide awake, his mind snapping from night refles into the sharper agitations of the day, Devin followed a glow of light to the huge kits of Castle Borso and he paused in the arched doorway, looking within.
Sitting by the r fire, Alessan was carefully sipping steaming khav from an oversized mug. In a chair beside him Erlein di Senzio was doing the same. The two men were both gazing into the flames while all around them there was already a purposeful stir and bustle i.