Eduin watched Saravio for any reaction, but the other man's expression continued as eager and innocent as before.

Good, Eduin thought. Now we can get to work.

21

The whole castle buzzed with daily reports of Romilla Aillard's decline. The girl had been unable to eat or sleep, becoming agitated whenever anyone approached her. By the time Lord Brynon sent a second, desperate plea for the intercession of Sandoval the Blessed, Saravio had recovered sufficiently.

Lord Brynon led the way into his daughter's chamber, followed by Mhari, the household leronis, Lady Romilla's nurse, and the physician. Dom Rodrigo insinuated his stout form as close to his Lord as was seemly, effectively placing himself as a barrier between Lord Brynon and Eduin and Saravio. He directed his attention entirely toward his noble patron. In unguarded moments, however, the lines around his mouth deepened. Mhari spoke little, although her gaze followed each of the others as they entered the chamber of her young charge.

Eduin took in the scene in an instant. The room was smaller than he'd expected for a young woman of Romilla's rank. Perhaps it had been hers as a child. It was richly furnished, overly so. The ornately carved furniture seemed to overpower the delicacy of the chamber's proportions. It might have been a pleasant room, if it were less crowded and if the curtains had been drawn back from the beautiful mullioned windows. As it was, he glimpsed those windows, with their garden view, only when Lord Brynon ordered a servant to open the curtains.

"No, no!" Romilla shrieked, her voice like the cry of a stricken dove. She thrashed on her bed.

Dom Rodrigo rushed to her side, and Eduin saw that the girl's arms and body had been tied to the bed with lengths of white cloth. The physician checked and tightened the bonds. "She must have rest-complete rest! Why were these restraints loosened? I gave no orders to that effect!"

"The light-I am burning!" Romilla cried. "The fire is coming! It will destroy us all!"

"Close the drapes! Quickly, man!" shouted Lord Brynon, even as the servant hurried to obey.

Eduin halted inside the door. Indeed, there was almost no room for the addition of any other person, with servants, physician, nurse, leronis, and father all rushing about. He could scarcely see Romilla.

He touched Saravio's arm and felt the instant response. "Go. She needs you."

Somehow Saravio managed to steal his way to the bedside. No one paid attention to him and he had long ago developed the ability to move unobtrusively through a crowd. To Eduin's relief, Saravio gave no sign he'd ever mistaken the girl for Naotalba.

Through the raised voices, Eduin caught the low, familiar murmur. "Be not troubled, sweet lady, for help is at hand. Soon all will be well. Rest easy, as I am here with you. There is nothing to fear."

Eduin moved a step or two into the room, close enough to see Saravio crouch beside the bed. The girl's slender white fingers lay in Saravio's larger hand. Her face turned toward him, rapt.

Yes, that is good, Eduin thought, although Saravio could not hear him.

Establish physical contact.

There was no need to encourage Saravio further. He was doing what he did instinctively, perhaps what he had been born to do.

Romilla's distraught features relaxed. Eduin, his laran sense focused on the scene before him, knew the moment Saravio touched her mind. Eduin sensed a shifting of invisible colors, a spreading warmth. Pleasure surged through him and with it, the sudden lifting of pain, of sorrow, of struggle.

He allowed himself to soar on the moment, knowing it would not last, but lacking the strength of will to break it off.

Romilla's eyes opened with a look of incredulous relief.

"Get away from her, you barbarian! How dare you lay hands upon the lady!"

Dom Rodrigo grabbed the nape of Saravio's black robe and attempted to pull him away.

Saravio gave the physician not the slightest heed. His attention remained focused on the girl. Their gazes locked, unself-conscious bliss mirrored on their faces.

I knew you had come to save me. Her lips shaped the words, inaudible above the din and clatter, but readily discernible to Eduin's laran.

"Guards! Summon the guards!" With a prodigious heave, Dom Rodrigo yanked Saravio off balance.

Her concentration shattered, the girl began screaming again. Lord Brynon, who had been supervising the drawing of the curtains, moved toward them.

Eduin leaped into action. He cut through the crowded room, angling to intercept the lord.

"Vai dom," Eduin cried. "I appeal to you, put a stop to this interference. Did you not ask for our help? Then let the Blessed Sandoval do his work!"

At these words, the physician spun around. Dusky blood suffused his features. He looked ready to strike Eduin but for the nearness of his master.

"The damisela is under my professional care," Dom Rodrigo said with stiff dignity. "I need not remind you that her continued recovery is due to myministrations! She is too fragile for this kind of-of overstimulation, this-melodrama. It is highly detrimental to her progress. In fact, I classify it as outright abuse!"

"We see how well she has prospered with you!" Eduin flamed. "What are you afraid of, that someone else may succeed where you have failed?"

"Stop it!" Romilla wailed. "I want Sandoval!"

"Enough!" Lord Brynon bellowed. "Stand down, both of you! I will not tolerate such behavior! It belongs on the practice fields, not in my daughter's bedchamber! Stand down, I say, or I will have both of you taken away in chains!"

Eduin instantly regretted his rash words. His self-control was not what it should be, or such an officious, prattling fool would never have caused him to lose his temper.

"I cannot believe you are seriously considering these charlatans from who knows where!" Dom Rodrigo said. "They are no more qualified in these matters than Durraman's donkey!"

"Yet they-or rather Dom Sandoval-were able to help little Kevan when the dog slashed his throat." Mhari glided to stand at the right hand of her Lord.

Though her expression remained neutral, her eyes flickered over Rodrigo's face.

Now Eduin was certain of the rivalry between leronis and physician. Clearly, Rodrigo had stepped in when Mhari failed to resolve Romilla's depression and had usurped her position of influence with Lord Brynon. Mhari was not a woman to easily forget or forgive.

"A happy accident!" Rodrigo shot back. "The boy must have been less badly hurt than it first appeared. Blood flows freely from certain kinds of superficial wounds, giving them the appearance of greater severity. Clearly, that was the case. He would have recovered just as well with the attentions of-of a stable hand!"

Mhari's voice remained serene, a counterpoint to the physician's rising frenzy. "There have been other stories of Sandoval's abilities-cures for the mind and spirit beyond the power of any ordinary medicine. They cannot all be accidents."

"Mere rumors! I have heard them, too, down in the village. Tales to prey upon the credulous have no place in educated society. I will not be responsible for the consequences of the slightest disruption in Lady Romilla's treatment regimen! I demand that these men be removed immediately and-"

"Papa, please! Make them stop!" Romilla sobbed. "The noise, it hurts my head!"

"That will be enough," Lord Brynon said in a deadly quiet voice. He beckoned to the guards stationed just inside the door.

Before the physician could protest further, the guards each took one of his arms in a joint lock and escorted him, white-faced, from the room. Eduin permitted himself a moment to watch, although he was careful not to allow any hint of exultation to leak through his psychic barriers.

Mhari, he noticed, refrained from pressing her own advantage. Instead, she drew up a low bench and, helping Saravio to rise, placed him upon it. In her very action, she reasserted her own position; she was no lowly servant, easily dismissed. She might serve the Lord and his family, but her status as a trained leronis gave her the dignity of rank.

"My little love," Mhari murmured, "here is Dom Sandoval to tend you, just as you asked."

"Vai dom, I beg your forgiveness for my outburst," Eduin bowed to the Aillard Lord. "I spoke only from my concern for Lady Romilla, although it was not my place in this great company to do so."

Lord Brynon pardoned the breach with a slight inclination of his head. His attention returned to his daughter, for Saravio had once more taken her hand.

Murmuring in his soft, hypnotic tones, Saravio reestablished contact with the pleasure centers of her brain. Eduin felt the pulse of receding despair, as if a wave of living light flooded through the dark corridors of her mind. This time, however, he steeled himself against his own response. He had to move quickly, think clearly, act rationally. He could not afford to indulge in even a moment's peace. That fool of a physician had almost ruined everything. Eduin swore to himself he would never be caught off-guard again. If he were ever to achieve his goal, his eventual release from his father's compulsion spell, then he must set aside all immediate personal gratification. He must become an instrument of his own will.

Mhari stood behind Saravio's bench, swaying slightly, almost close enough for her skirts to brush his shoulder. She had closed her eyes, her lips curving in a half-smile. Saravio's talent was strong enough to overwhelm her defenses.

Of course, Eduin thought. With her laran sensitivity, she could not help being affected, too. In addition, she had recently fallen from favor, perhaps had even been publicly humiliated. On a daily basis, she would see the evidence of her failure, both in the person of her ailing mistress and the bombastic exultation of her rival. The burst of pleasure must be balm to her shredded nerves.

After a time, Eduin spoke to Lord Brynon.They must not overtax Sandoval's strength. It would be advisable to schedule another treatment. Perhaps that afternoon? Was there a solarium or some other bright, cheerful room?

Would Lady Mhari be available as companion and chaperone, since she knew the young damisela well?

Lord Brynon replied that was an excellent idea. One look at Mhari's dreamy expression told Eduin that she would be a pliant and enthusiastic ally.

The solarium had once been Lady Aillard's favorite room, facing south and east to receive the morning sun. The windows were thick and almost flawless, a marvel of glassmaker's art, and set between ribs of fine-grained white stone carved with stylized flowers. The room had been little used in the last few years, so Eduin, acting in Saravio's name, ordered new plants to be brought in to replace the yellowed, elderly specimens. Fresh cushions brought new life to chairs and divan.

The first time Romilla entered the rejuvenated chamber, she clapped her hands and exclaimed in surprise. Even Mhari colored and smiled.

Romilla still bore her cadaverous paleness, and the liollows around her eyes told of yet another night of tortured dreams. For the first time, Eduin wondered if Saravio's song alone would be enough to lift her desolation. He dared not leave the outcome to chance. He must act, and pray that he would not be discovered. The soporific effect of Saravio's singing would, he hoped, mask his own efforts.

Eduin placed the ladies to either side of Saravio, having arranged the seating so that Saravio occupied a position apart and slightly elevated above the others.

"Do not speak of Naotalba," Eduin had cautioned Saravio. "They must first become attuned to her wisdom."

Saravio had no difficulty with this logic. He took his place on the divan, apparently oblivious to the luxury around him. Eduin had placed a low bench on a front diagonal.

Eduin gestured to a servant to bring in the warmed wine and cakes. The cook had prepared both to his specifications. An herb with mildly soporific qualities had been added to the wine, its taste masked by the extra dose of honey.

"Ladies, we have a special delight for you today," Eduin said, bowing low.

"Sandoval the Blessed will sing for you. If you, damisela, will accompany him on the rrylT "With pleasure," Romilla replied, "although I do not play at all well."

"Together, you will make beautiful music," Eduin said.

Romilla accepted the instrument from Eduin and moved from her chair to the low stool. She plucked a few chords, her six fingers moving with some hesitation over the strings.

Saravio began singing the same lullaby he had used with the innkeeper's dying daughter back in Thendara. After a few wrong notes, Romilla settled into the simple chord sequence.

Eduin let his eyes drift out of focus and softened his psychic shields.

Saravio's voice, weaving through the sweet notes of the lap harp, evoked a sense of deep relaxation. Though he knew it was risky in the presence of the leronis, Eduin opened his laran senses. He had an idea how he might lift Romilla's depression, which involved imprinting her with the imagery that Saravio's vision had once evoked in his own mind.

The colors of the room shifted subtly, as if a thick, warm mist settled there.

The music lingered in the air, huge round gobbets of soporific sound. Eduin swayed with it. The" faint, remembered thrill spread through his body. He felt the pressure of Saravio's talent, manipulating, stimulating.

Eduin's vision blurred. The diffuse golden light of the solarium turned gray and then silvery. Trees, slender and graceful, rose from the mist. In the distance, growing closer with each heartbeat, came the bell-clear voices. He drifted toward them. Figures moved within the mist, weaving among the trees, passing one another, joining hands...

He reached out to them, sensed their response, and at the same time reached out to Romilla's mind. She was open, almost expectant, yet robed in shadow. Only her face shone, a pale mask. No wonder Saravio had mistaken her for Naotalba. She reached slender fingers toward Eduin, inviting him to join her in the growing darkness.

Come instead into the light, he urged.

He clasped her hand and drew her closer. The shadows fell away and she stood beside him. Around them stretched the forest, moon-touched and old beyond reckoning. The voices were nearer now, rising and falling, sweet and sad. Silvery hair glinted, tapering, six-fingered hands gestured in welcome.

A fragrance rose from their bodies, of morning, of hope, of endless seasons beneath the stars ...

He let the moment linger and then slowly dissolve.

In the real solarium, color had risen to the girl's cheeks and throat. Her lips parted, breath deepening, head tilted back, and eyes half-closed.

Mhari leaned back in her chair, hands loose in her lap. Her gaze met Eduin's. Her expression revealed only dreamy contentment. Behind her, the young court ladies of Romilla's retinue swayed in time to the music.

Saravio finished the song and proceeded to another and then a third, all slow and rhythmic, melodies designed to calm a fretful babe. When he reached the end of the last one, no one stirred. By their slow, measured breathing, the women might have been asleep, or deep in trance. By the time they opened their eyes, one by one, Eduin's head was clear.

Romilla got to her feet, stretched, and took a couple of dancelike steps. "I remember how much my mother loved this room. It's so full of light! I feel so peaceful here, I-I could almost be happy. Sandoval, will you sing to me tomorrow?"

"Yes, indeed, damisela," Eduin replied, "if that is your wish."

"Come now, little love," said Mhari, "it is time to rest."

As Romilla and her ladies prepared to depart, Mhari drew Eduin aside.

"Your friend is very-" she paused momentarily, "-talented."

Eduin kept his face impassive, the polite mask of a subordinate to a person of her modest rank.

"As are you," she added.

"You are perceptive," he responded. "Your own training does you credit."

"Alas, I have not been able to accomplish what your-" again that faint hesitation, this time accompanied by a whisper-light contact of laran, "- brother has done so well."

So Mhari had seen through their disguise, but had made no move to expose them. She had been waiting and watching to see how events unfolded.

"You have restored my young mistress to health, or will surely do so with time," she went on. "Do not believe me envious or wishing you ill because of it. Believe instead there are those who do not share my joy at her recovery.

Others who would rather keep her in darkness, than see another succeed."

She lifted one eyebrow. Do you take my meaning?

"A warning?" he asked, keeping his tone light. The physician is a buffoon, not to be taken seriously.

Mhari's smile faded. "I might have done as well for her, if I had been allowed to work without interference. I would not have your friend's good beginning meet the same fate as my own efforts. Even a buffoon is capable of intrigue."

Eduin bowed again, for the little procession had formed and Romilla had finished her leave-taking of Saravio. Mhari followed in her proper place without a backward glance.

Saravio and Eduin attended Romilla in the solarium every day. Each time, the girl's vitality improved. She laughed and played her ryll with a new level of enthusiasm and obvious regular practice. She grew less thin and the bruised look around her eyes disappeared. Eduin knew without asking that she now slept soundly, dreaming only a young woman's normal dreams.

Despite the shortening days and gray skies of oncoming winter, the entire castle seemed to come alive. The kitchen buzzed with stories of romances and the smells of festive meals. Servants sang as they went about their duties.