Magic's Promise

we haven't identified yet. The gods only know what it is; I haven't got it nor have you. But it's a sensitivity she shares with Yfandes.'

'Treesa? Sensitive like a Companion?” Savil gave him a look of complete incredulity. 'Be damned! I never thought to test her.”

He nodded. 'The channel's in 'Fandes, wide open. The same channel Treesa has, only hers is to 'Fandes the way a melting icicle is to a waterfall. I don't know what it is, but I'd say we shouldn't discount feelings of unease just because Treesa shares them. She could very truly be feeling something.'

'Huh,' Radevel said, after a moment. Then he grinned. 'I got a homely plain man's notion. That mare of yours ever dropped a foal?'

'Why, yes, now that you mention it. Two, a colt and a filly-both before she Chose me. Dancer and Megwyn. Why?'

'Just that about every mother I ever saw, human to hound, knew damned well when somebody had bad feelings toward her children, no matter how much that somebody tried to make out like it wasn't true. Even Milady Treesa.' He grinned as Vanyel's jaw fell, and Savil's expression mirrored his. 'Now Savil, you never had children, and it'd take a miracle from the Twain themselves to make Van a momma. So, no - what you call - channel. Make sense?''

'Damned good sense, cousin,' Vanyel managed to get out around his astonishment. 'For somebody who has no magic of his own, you have an uncanny grasp of principles.'

Savil nodded. 'You know, this enmity could also be partially that the man was pushed into the priesthood by his family and hates it. A priest with no vocation is worse than no priest at all.'

'Could be,' Radevel replied. 'One thing for sure, it wasn't this bad 'fore Van came home. It's like something about Van brings out the worst in the old crow. Thought I'd say something.' He shrugged. 'I don't like him, Jervis don't like him. Jervis's got a feel for things like enemies sneakin' up on your back. You might want to keep an eye on Leren.'

Oh, yes, cousin, Vanyel thought quietly. If you are seeing the hint of trouble, stolid as you are, I will surely keep an eye on him.

:Things in your bed again?: Yfandes asked sweetly.

Vanyel snarled, hung the lantern he was carrying on a hook, climbed up on the railings of the box, and hauled his bedroll down from the rafters above her stall. 'This is not my idea of a good time,' he replied. 'I didn't come home with the intention of sleeping in the stable!' The bedroll landed on the floor, and he jumped down off the top rail to land beside it. 'Here I thought I'd get past her by getting dinner with the babies and sneaking up to my room at sunset, and there she is waiting for me, bold as a bad penny. Not nude this time, but in my bed. 'Fandes, this is the third night in a row! Has the woman no shame? And I locked the damned door!'

:Why didn't you just put her out the door?:

He glared at her, and heaved the bedding into the stall. 'I do not,' he said between clenched teeth, 'feel like engaging in a wrestling match with the woman. Dammit, there's going to be frost on the ground in the morning. It's getting chilly at night.'

:Poor abused baby. I know somebody who 'II gladly keep you warm.:

He glared at her again, poised halfway over the railings of the box - stall, one foot on either side. ' 'Fandes, you're pushing my patience.'

:Me.:

'Oh, 'Fandes. ...' His tone cooled a little, and he swung his leg over the top rail of the stall, and hopped down beside her to hug her neck. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't take the fact that I'm ready to kill her out on you.”

She rubbed her cheek against his, her smooth coat softer than any satin, and nibbled at his hair. Her breath puffed warm against his ear, sweet, and hay-scented. Farther down in the stable, beyond the light of Vanyel's lantern, one of the horses whickered sleepily, and another stamped.

:I'm rather selfishly glad to have you with me,: she said, watching him heap up straw and spread his sleeping roll on it :I like having you here with no danger to keep us wakeful, a quiet night, nothing to really disturb us.

Remember how you used to spend nights out in the Vale with me, watching the stars?:

'And waiting for Starwind to take a header out of his treehouse!' Vanyel laughed, with her rich chuckle bubbling in his mind. 'You're right; that was a good time, even if I did spend the first few months of it in various states of hurting. Gods of Light, 'Fandes, I