had passed. Indeed, it seemed to Juraviel that Lady Dasslerond had claimed the child for Andur'Blough Inninness.
And then he understood those hopes of his lady even more clearly. This child, perhaps, so true of bloodline, so strong of limb and of thought, would have the power to heal Andur'Blough Inninness. This child of the ranger might aid Lady Dasslerond in her defense against the spreading rot, the stain the demon dactyl had placed upon the elven valley.
'He will be strong and swift, as was Elbryan,' Juraviel remarked, as much to measure the response as to speak the truth.
'More akin to his mother,' Lady Dasslerond replied.
Juraviel cocked an eyebrow in surprise that she would offer such a compliment to Jilseponie.
''Jilseponie is strong and swift with the sword, strong in bi'nelle dasada, as was her teacher,' Dasslerond explained. 'And though she was not as strong in the dance as Nightbird, she was the more complete of the parents, powerfully versed in the gemstone magic, as well. The complete human warrior. This child will be all that his mother was and is and more-for he will have the guidance of the Touel'alfar throughout his journey.'
Belli'mar Juraviel nodded, though he feared that Lady Dasslerond might be reaching a bit high here in her expectations. The child was but a few months old, after all, and though his bloodlines seemed as pure as those of any human-and Juraviel, who had loved both Elbryan and Pony, understood that more clearly than did Lady Dasslerond! — that was no guarantee of anything positive. Furthermore, Juraviel, apparently unlike Lady Dasslerond, appreciated that bringing up the infant in Andur'Blough Inninness was an experiment, an unknown.
''Jilseponie made mistakes that we cannot tolerate,' Lady Dasslerond stated flatly, a sudden and stern reminder to Juraviel of her feelings toward the woman, 'as Elbryan, our beloved Nightbird, erred in teaching her bi'nelle dasada. And do not doubt that we will continue to watch her from afar.'
Juraviel nodded. On that point, at least, he and his lady were in agreement. If Pony started sharing the elven sword dance, became an instructor in the finer points of bi'nella dasada, then the Touel'alfar would have to stop her. To Juraviel, that would have meant taking her into their homeland and keeping her there; but he held no illusions that Lady Dasslerond, whose responsibility concerned the very existence of the Touel'alfar, would be so merciful.
'Yet that was Nightbird's error,' he replied, 'and notJilseponie's.' 'Not yet.' Again, Juraviel nodded, taking well her point. He wasn't sure that he even agreed with his own last statement-that Elbryan's tutoring of Pony was a mistake at all. Juraviel had watched them fighting together, each sword complementing the other to the level of perfection, a weaving of form and of weapons so beautiful that it had brought tears of joy to the elf's eyes.
How could such a work of art be a mistake?
'You trust her,' Lady Dasslerond stated.
Juraviel didn't disagree.
'You love her as you love Touel'alfar,' she went on.
Juraviel looked at her but said nothing.
'You would have us forgive her and return to her the child.'
Juraviel swallowed hard. 'She would have made a fine ranger, had she been trained in Andur'Blough Inninness,' he dared to remark.
'Indeed,' she was quick to reply, 'but she was not. Never forget that, my friend. She was not.
'I'll not deny, diminish, or refute your feelings for the woman,' Lady Dasslerond went on. 'Indeed, your faith in her gives me hope that Nightbird's error will not lead to disaster. However, Jilseponie's role was in bearing the son of Elbryan. Understand that and accept it. He is ours now. Our tool, our weapon. He is our repayment for the sacrifice that we made to help the humans in their struggle with Bestesbulzibar, and our way to minimize the lasting effect of that sacrifice.'
Juraviel wanted to argue that the war against the demon dactyl was for the sake of elves as well as the humans, but he held his words.
'And thus, and because of your honest feelings, understand that you are to have no contact with the child,' she went on, and Juraviel's heart sank. 'He is not Nightbird-we will name him appropriately when he has shown to us the truth of his soul. But Belli'mar Juraviel will learn that truth in time, through the work of others more suited to the task.'
Juraviel was not happy at all with the news, but neither was he surprised. Through all these months, he had been complaining, and often, about the lack of interaction with the child, by him or by any other Touel'alfar, and complaining that what interaction there was came more often in the form of testing, and hardly ever the simple act of sharing a touch or a smile. That had bothered Juraviel profoundly, and he had spoken rather sharply to Lady Dasslerond about his fears.
And his words had not been met with sympathy.
So he was not surprised now, not at all.
'You know of the other? ' Lady Dasslerond asked him.
'Brynn Dharielle,' Juraviel replied, naming the other human currently under Touel'alfar tutelage, a young orphaned girl from To-gai, the western reach of the kingdom of Behren, the land of the greatest human horsemen in all the world.
'You will enjoy her,' Lady Dasslerond assured him, 'for she is possessed of more spirit than her little frame can contain, a creature of impulse and fire much akin to young Elbryan Wyndon.'
Juraviel nodded. He had heard as much concerning Brynn Dharielle. He hadn't yet met the novice ranger, for though Brynn had been in the care of the Touel'alfar for almost a year, and though Andur'Blough Inninness was not a large place, Juraviel's business had been elsewhere-his eyes, his heart, in the paths of Elbryan and Pony, his concern in the fate of the demon dactyl and Markwart and the turn of the human world. Those in the valley who knew of Brynn Dharielle had spoken highly of her talents and her spirit. Dare the Touel'alfar believe they had another Nightbird in training?
'I give you her charge,' Lady Dasslerond went on. 'You will see to her as you saw to Nightbird.'
'But do you not believe that I failed with Nightbird? ' Juraviel dared to ask, 'For did he not fail in his vow as ranger, in teaching bi'nelle dasada^ '
Lady Dasslerond laughed aloud-for all of her anger at Elbryan and his sharing of the elven sword dance with Pony, she knew, as all the elves knew, that he had not failed. Not at all. Nightbird had gone to Aida and battled Bestesbulzibar; and when the demon had found a new and more insidious and more dangerous host, Nightbird had given everything to win the day, for the humans and for all the goodly races, Touel'alfar included, of the world.
'You will learn from your mistakes then,' Lady Dasslerond replied. 'You will do even better with this one.'
Now it was Juraviel's turn to chuckle helplessly. Could his lady even begin to appreciate the standard to which she had just set Brynn Dharielle? Would his lady ever see past her immediate anger to the truth that was Elbryan the Nightbird, and the truth that remained in the heart of Jilseponie?
Or was he wrong? he had to wonder and to fear. Was he too blinded by friendship and love to accept the failings of his human companions?
Belli'mar Juraviel blew a long, long sigh.
Chapter 5
Constance Pemblebury watched the docks of Palmaris recede into the morning fog. She was glad to be away from the city, away from dead Markwart and his all-too-complicated Church, away from a populace so on the edge of hysteria and desperation, and, most of all, away from Jilseponie. Even thinking of the woman made her wince. Jilseponie. The heroic Pony, the savior of the north, who defeated the demon dactyl in Aida and in the corporeal vessel of Markwart. Jilseponie, who could become abbess of St. Precious with but a word and could cultivate that into something much greater, perhaps even become mother abbess of the entire Abellican Church. Jilseponie, the
