Storm Warning

you!'

Belatedly he remembered that if she knew enough to quote the Writ correctly, she also knew that Priests of Vkandis took no vows of celibacy and only a modified vow of chastity. Which meant she knew that he was as free to pay court to young women as anyone here. He guessed she was encouraging him to do just that, and blushed.

Still, he found her very easy to talk to, and more so with every moment. She invited confidences and made it easy to give them to her—a lot like his own mother, in fact. Mother used to adopt every stray that happened by the inn, from motherless horseboys to kittens. Talia must be like my mother—that's why she stopped when she thought I looked unhappy.

She chuckled at his flush and his slow smile. 'I hope you don't mind my teasing,' she said, then added wryly, 'we aren't as far apart in age as you might think. It wasn't all that long ago that I was your age, and if I wasn't happily wedded and very much in love with Dirk—' She laughed and wrinkled her nose at him. 'Well, consider my reaction representative of what the young women of the Court are probably thinking about you.'

His cheeks heated, and he blinked. Her reaction? She considered him attractive? No female, girl or woman, had ever told him that!

She shook her head. 'Listen to me—'if I was your age'—I sound like I think I'm an old crone! My, motherhood certainly has taken the ginger out of me!'

He had to laugh at that. 'My mother says the same thing,' he told her. 'She swears that we each added five years to her age with every prank we pulled!'

'Some days I would agree with her,' Talia replied, and sighed. 'I don't remember littles being this much trouble to my parents! You have brothers and sisters?'

'One brother and several sisters,' he told her, then found himself talking about his family while she simply stood there and listened to him with no evidence of boredom. She even asked him questions that proved she had really been listening, and not just pretending to pay attention.

He progressed from telling her about his family, to finally confessing his own depression and loneliness. It seemed natural, after the way she listened to him about everything else. After all, if Hansa trusted her, why shouldn't he?

'I don't even know where they took Trenor,' he sighed, after talking for what seemed to be the better part of a mark. 'He's Karsite, too, after all... and horses have always been as much my friends as people. I'd love to go riding, but I don't know where I would be allowed to go, even if I could find him, and I don't know what people would think if I asked for the stables.' He shrugged. 'They might think I was some kind of spy, looking for a way off the grounds to pass messages on, when all I want to do is ride my horse.'

She brightened at that. 'Havens, at least that is one thing I can help you with,' she told him. 'I certainly know where the stables are, and there are riding paths all through Companion's Field; there's no reason why you can't ride your gelding in there. Plenty of people ride their Companions on the paths. I can't imagine why anyone would forbid you riding Trenor in there. Would you like me to show you where the stables are right now, and get you acquainted with the stable-master? Once he knows who you are, he can have Trenor set up for a daily ride for you, if you'd like.'

He stared at her for a moment; this was the last thing he had expected, and the one thing that would help! He had a little trouble replying, until he got his wits back about him. 'Thank you!' he exclaimed. 'Oh, that is exactly what I do want! Thank you so much!'

But she waved away his thanks. 'Not to worry, Karal. I'm glad that there is at least one remedy I can give you for your homesickness that will work right now. Time, I fear, is the only other remedy.' She laughed at his grimace. 'I know, I know, the one thing a young man hates to hear is that the only cure for anything is time! It can't be helped, though; it's a cliche precisely because it's so often true. When problems are big, it's usually because they're swallowing up everything else you would be thinking about. When you have some time, new things come up, and make the old problems seem smaller when you look back at them. So let some time pass, do a few things you really enjoy, and let your mind rest.'

He stood up quickly as she gestured for him to follow her, and she led him off at a brisk pace, pointing out exactly where they were and what places they were passing. 'Here's the rose garden, the maze is just through there; if you look through the rose trees you can just see the end of the Courtier's Wing of the Palace. That's where your suite is, though most Courtiers don't live here, they have their own manors outside the walls—' That helped him orient himself, and he began to suspect that Alberich had led him in circles that first day, when he had taken Karal to the library. Perhaps it had not been deliberate; perhaps it was simply in the man's cautious nature to attempt to confuse. Perhaps there had been work going on that required they make some elaborate detours. But from the outside, at least, the Palace and the buildings around it were laid out in a logical fashion. He knew that the library was on the first floor of the wing that contained most of the other rooms used for 'official' purposes, and that wing lay directly across from his, according to Talia.

But she was pointing out other buildings now, buildings that were separate from the Palace. 'That's Healer's Collegium, and that's Bardic—look, there are the stables, you can see them from here, just on the other side of those trees.'

But it was not the stables that caught his attention, but the huge wooded field to their right. It seemed to be full of horses.

Then he realized why his mind had phrased it that way, for the 'horses' were all white. There wasn't another color of four-legged beast to be seen. Which meant, surely—