Brightly Burning

'Not until his friend Tuck is also ready.' Pol seized on that as a delaying tactic. 'I want Tuck's help; he needs his friends to keep him steady.'

'Hmm. I can see that. We don't want an emotional youngster with that particular Gift feeling friendless.' Theran nodded. 'Jedin, have a word with the other boy's teachers. Has he any other friends?'

'Pol's daughter,' Jedin volunteered. 'Young Healer, well in advance of the rest of the Trainees her age. Ready to go into full Greens, from what I hear. Mind-Healer.'

'Which we will have need of there, and she can see to it that he stays sane. Good. See if she wants to volunteer as well,' Theran decreed.

Pol blanched, but held his peace. There was always the chance that Elenor would not volunteer....

With a chance to follow Lan? You're fooling yourself, old man. He felt even sicker, now. But they'll be protected; they're all too valuable to let anything happen to them—

'They'll be as safe, or safer, than if they were here, Pol,' Theran added, with a hint of sympathy. 'Lavan Firestarter may be the one person who can turn this war for us. When his Sun-Priests start incinerating, the Son of the Sun may think better of prosecuting this idiocy and pull back behind the Border again.'

'Lan is all right burning inanimate objects, but he has serious mental difficulties—' Pol began.

Jedin interrupted him. 'I have good reason to think he'll lose those reservations when he actually sees fighting,' the King's Own said grimly.

What kind of good reason? Is it that bad out there? Pol wondered. He'd heard vague rumors of things the Karsite Sun-Priests were doing. Were those rumors based in fact?

He didn't get any time to contemplate that; Theran was already going on. 'Given that your daughter will be with you, do you still want to have your wife return to Healer's Collegium when you leave?' he asked. 'Or would you rather have the three of you together?'

'Let me think about it,' he temporized, 'and let me see if I can get a message to her. I don't think that I want to make a decision about this without asking her opinion first.'

:That may be the wisest thing you've ever said,: Satiran observed.

:Hush.:

'That's a reasonable request,' the King agreed. 'Jedin, put it on your agenda. We can schedule your departure as soon as we know what your lady thinks.'

:Rolan is going to think he's nothing but a messenger service.: This time Satiran was actually snickering. Pol let him; there was little enough these days to be amused about.

The discussion turned to other Trainees, older than Lan, who might be candidates for assignment to the Border, but none of them were as ready as the ones who had already left, or as necessary as Lavan. Pol listened, but didn't often need to give his opinion, and he was relieved when no one, not even the King, thought that there were any more Trainees who should be hurried into Whites. Ten—twelve, if you counted Lan and Tuck—were enough.

:Good gods—twelve—and twelve Companions went out. All we're doing is replacing Trainees.: Somehow that made him feel much better.

In Healers' Collegium, and to a lesser extent, Bardic, this same discussion was taking place. If Pol closed his eyes, he could sense the flood of resources, the redirection of attention, to the south. This war did not yet command the entirety of Valdemar, but it soon would, and it would continue to devour lives and resources until it ended.

However it ended.

Valdemar would be perfectly willing to end the war with the withdrawal of Karsite troops back across their own border. Karse, however, would not stop short of destroying Valdemar, unless the war became so expensive that their religious and secular leader, the self-styled Son of the Sun, called a retreat. This particular Son of the Sun was so firmly on the Sun Throne that it would take a great deal before his rule was shaken. And not until then would he give way. This was a holy crusade in their eyes, and they had been planning it for most of Pol's life.

'I believe that will be all for now,' the King decreed, and Pol pulled himself out of his own thoughts to rise and bow himself out with the rest.

Had spring already begun down there? He longed for spring with all of his being, and yet dreaded it. Spring would allow the freer movement of troops; with spring, the slaughter would begin in earnest.

:This has been hanging over our heads all our lives,: Satiran observed sadly, as Pol reached his own quarters and went inside. :And now that it's here—even for me, it doesn't seem quite real.:

:Ah, old friend, it will be real enough, all too soon,: he replied. :Be grateful for the respite.:

He knew that he was. He would have to tell the youngsters that they were going soon, and then he would savor every single moment of every day until word came from Ilea. And that, he feared, would be very, very soon.

*

'SO we're both going!' Tuck said happily, sprawled over Lan's bed, while Lan occupied a pile of cushions in front of the fire, soaking up heat like a cat. 'I was afraid they'd leave me behind!'

'I almost wish they would,' Lan replied. At Tuck's stricken look, he added hastily, 'Not because I don't want you along! But, Tuck, this isn't a lark, or a training exercise—'

'I know that!' Tuck said scornfully, interrupting him. 'But you're my best friend, and I don't want you to go off anywhere without me along! Besides, Ma would skin me if I wasn't there; she'd want to know we were together so we could watch each other's backs.' He lolled his head over the side of the bed and gave Lan what he probably