Master Aidan most certainly did. Master Aidan and those other good, sensible, down-to-earth people who’d saved King Amber. People who tried to understand those they were supposed to lead, who brought them together and got them to concentrate only on their goal.

“All right,” Kevin began.

Nobody noticed.

“I said right!”

As the others turned to him, he added sternly, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? Did you really mean to rob Count Volmar?”

Ha, that made them start. “What do you mean?” Eliathanis asked coldly. “I am not a thief.”

“No? You certainly aren’t earning your keep! You were hired to rescue the Lady Charina—not to fight with each other! But bickering seems to be all you can do!”

“Now, Kevin,” Lydia began, “that’s hardly fair—”

“Let me finish!” He glared at them all. “You, Eliathanis and you, Naitachal: I know there are long hatreds between White and Dark Elves. 1 know those hatreds go back for generations. I don’t expect either one of you to settle such ancient grudges overnight. I don’t even ask you to try! But I don’t think elves of either race had anything to do with the kidnapping and if you really mean to show your peoples’ innocence the way you boasted, you had better stop fighting and show some of that famous elvish self-control! Or is that just a myth to make humans respect you?”

“It’s not,” Naitachal said shortly. “And you do have a point, bardling.”

Tich’ki snickered. “Such a daring boy—”

“And you,” Kevin’s finger stabbed at her with such fervor that she flinched. “You’ve done nothing so far but snipe at everyone else—I don’t care about your background, I don’t care what unhappiness you’re trying to hide —”

“I’m not!” she protested.

“—but I ‘m beginning to wonder if you’re in the pay of the enemy!”

The fairy froze in mid-air. “I most certainly am not!”

“Then stop acting like it!”

Lydia cleared her throat. “Don’t you think that’s going a bit far, kid?”

Kevin whirled to her. “And as for you, Lydia: look, I know I’m young, I know that compared to you I’m as ignorant of the world as they come. But one thing I am not is an idiot!”

“Oh, I never said—”

“But you think it. And as long as you go on thinking it, you’re not letting me do my job.”

“Which is?”

“The same as all of us: freeing Charina!”

They were getting restless. These weren’t naughty children, after all. If he didn’t change his tone, Kevin realized, he was going to lose them.

“Listen to me.” The bardling pitched his voice as smoothly as ever he’d been taught. “Lydia and I learned something truly alarming, something that makes all our quarrelling the petty thing it is. Carlotta is alive.”

“The sorceress?” Eliathanis exclaimed. “But that’s impossible! Everyone knows she died years ago!”

“So we were led to think. Carlotta, I repeat, is very much alive. And you and I know there is nothing she would like better than to discredit King Amber’s reign.” Kevin look a deep breath, stalling, trying to figure out what he was going to say next. “Look you, we all know there’s always been an undercurrent of uneasiness, of mistrust, between the different races in the realm. That’s not so surprising. It may not be logical, but elf or human, we fear the unknown. And if that unknown takes the form of someone with a different shade of skin “—he glanced at Naitachal—” or a different way of life—” this time his glance took in Lydia “—well, it’s all too easy to let fear turn to hate.”

“True enough,” muttered the Dark Elf, and Eliathanis nodded.

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