asked in her mind.
I wanted to know that she was safe and happy.
Myrmeen realized that this moment had played a thousand times in the theater of her mind. In her fantasy, she told Lynelle the truth and the girl embraced her, turning her back on the life she had led for the past fourteen years. Tearfully, they rode off together, beginning a cherished journey of exploration, embarking on a quest that would have no conclusion, as the raising of a child was an adventure that lasted until a parent's final days, no matter what age mother and daughter attained.
'Mistress Lhal?'
Myrmeen was abruptly snapped from her revery by the child's voice.
You are my daughter. Say it.
'Mistress Lhal, you haven't said why you wished to see me. I am-very curious.'
The child was becoming worried. There was no other reason for her slip of etiquette, at least by the standards of Sul-dolphor. It was not proper to ask a caller his or her business; a decent host waited until visitors felt that the time had come to announce their purpose. The child would know this and understand the breech in conduct.
Tell her.
Myrmeen hesitated, looking into the deep jade-green eyes of her daughter, and was reminded of Dak. Each time she had found Krystin staring into the emerald locket, she had wanted to say, Your father had eyes like this. They were the first thing that attracted me to the man.
Myrmeen felt it odd that she was thinking of Krystin at a moment like this. Suddenly she understood why, knew what Reisz had been trying to tell her all along:
All quests had an ending. If they did not, they would not be quests, simply life, the seemingly endless stretch of days leading to twilight and eternal darkness. By filling her mind and her heart with an endless string of quests, she had been ignoring her life, and it was going on without her. That was why she had felt so hollow and empty that night in Arabel, when she looked out at the storm with longing and desire for something she could not identify. That explained why she had felt that, despite her many achievements, she had accomplished nothing with her life.
Staring into Lynelle's eyes, she knew she had to make a choice, embark on a quest that would shatter this child's peaceful existence, or walk away from it finally, content with the knowledge that her little girl had been raised with love and had been given from infancy more than Myrmeen ever had been equipped to provide for her.
There was no choice.
'My father was a poet,' she said softly, 'a lyricist. I had hoped that perhaps you had heard of him, and that your vast libraries might hold some of his work, something that would help me remember him, now that the past is slipping away.'
Lynelle nodded slowly and asked Myrmeen her father's name. The fighter told her, then added that there was no reason to hurry in this pursuit. Myrmeen would be in Arabel for a very long time. If the girl came across anything, her kindness in forwarding copies of the poems would be appreciated.
'It would be my honor, Mistress Lhal.'
'You may go. My time is short, and I have a pressing engagement.'
'Of course,' the child said as she bowed again, the top of her head showing the roots beneath her resplendent headdress.
'I have one last question,' Myrmeen said. 'Why do you dye your hair?'
Lynelle blushed. 'To look more like my mother. It seems I inherited the hair of my grandmother on my father's side, who died giving birth to my father. It's vanity, I know.'
'Not at all,' Myrmeen said. 'You're very lovely.'
With a wide, embarrassed smile, Lynelle half bowed and left the room with a lightness of step that she had not displayed when she had entered. Two figures, Krystin and Ord, stood in the doorway as Lynelle departed.
As Krystin entered the hall, Ord drew back and shut the door, leaving them alone together.
'Was she everything you had dreamt she would be?' Krystin asked.
Myrmeen swallowed hard. 'No,' she said, trying to hold back the tears welling up inside her, 'but you are.'
Krystin was shaken. She had no idea how to respond. She surprised them both by throwing her arms around Myrmeen and holding the woman as tightly as she could. The tears came, and Myrmeen clutched Krystin's back tightly. Krystin responded with strength matching that of the older woman.
There was a dawn somewhere in this bleak, terrible world, and Myrmeen knew she would no longer have to search for it alone.
