"She has spoken to you?" Saravio said breathlessly.

"She has warnedme," Eduin replied, "of danger in this place, of a hidden enemy." Pointedly, he looked down at the tray. "Who seeks to destroy those who serve her. With poison."

Saravio's features hardened. "Truly, there are many who have not heard her call... or who do not wish to. They might well seek to silence her messenger.

They must not prevail." He looked down at the tray in horror.

"They shall not," Eduin responded. "Naotalba will protect you. She will reveal the villains. Meanwhile, we must let them believe they have won. You must stay hidden, as if you had been taken ill. I will take away this tainted food and prepare some that is safe."

Eduin rushed back to the kitchen, staying well away from the corridors that the courtiers, including Dom Rodrigo, used. The cook was putting the final decorative touches, vines and leaves of pastry dough, on the filled pies. She looked puzzled as he spun out a story of Saravio receiving a vision commanding him to abstain from meat, but put together a meal of bread, cheese, and stewed vegetables. She balked when Eduin asked her to safeguard the first tray.

"Why, what is wrong with my cooking?"

Eduin gave an ingenuous shrug, as if he, too, was confounded by the whims of the great healer. "Perhaps he will want it later. It is a simple thing to set it aside where it will not be touched by anyone else, is it not?"

"Aye, 'tis no problem at all. Many's the time our young mistress has sent back some dish, saying she could not abide it, and then changed her mind.

I've a shelf in the back pantry where it's nice and cool. Mind you, the stew won't stay good forever."

That evening, Dom Rodrigo approached Eduin and inquired after Saravio's health. The physician's guilt hung about him like a psychic fog.

Eduin assumed an anxious expression. "The Blessed Sandoval is not able to leave his quarters."

"Is he ill? Shall I attend him?" the physician asked. "We would not want such an important personage to go wanting."

"No, no, it is a temporary indisposition," Eduin said, raising the pitch of his voice so that he would sound worried. "He will be better shortly. I am sure of that. If you will excuse me, I must go now to consult with DomnaMhari."

As Eduin turned away, he caught the edge of Rodrigo's thought, Yes, go seek the counsel of the little witch. She cannot help you, or even herself, in matters of the court. And as for what ails your friend, it is already too late.

Eduin thought with dark amusement that it was not Saravio for whom it was too late.

23

Yes, I still have my key." Mhari looked surprised when, after breakfast the next morning, Eduin asked if she could show him the still room. "I have not used it for some time, not since I was last called upon to attend a patient. I thought I might need some of the things stored there for my own use, since there is now no one in the castle at risk for threshold sickness."

Eduin did not ask for the loan of the key. He wanted Mhari to remain an unimpeachable witness to what he suspected they would find there. She might be only recently back in favor, but as the household leronis, her word was above question.

The still room lay some short distance from the root cellars, a little stone- walled chamber perfect for storing various medicines. Bunches of dried flowers and herbs hung from the rafters, and bottles, vials and oiled packets sat in neat rows on the shelves. Eduin paused, inhaling the mixture of scents, some familiar and reassuring, others odd. He recognized the distinctive, but very faint, tang of raw kireseth.

What can cure, can kill. Or drive a man mad.

Only someone properly trained could handle the dried blossoms safely, for the unrefined pollen was a potent hallucinogen. From it, a variety of extracts could be prepared for the treatment of threshold sickness and other ailments related to laran.

Eduin approached the nearest cabinet, scanning the contents. The doors were unglassed, but tightly-meshed and locked.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?" Mhari asked.

With a surge of elation, he pointed to a shelf. The vial looked very much as he remembered it in DomRodrigo's hand. "What is in that container?"

Frowning, Mhari bent to look. "That's odd, it's not in its usual place. Look, the dust has been disturbed." She straightened up, eyes narrowing. "What is it you aren't telling me? Why are you so interested?"

"First, tell me what it is."

"Shallavan." She practically spat the word at him.

Eduin felt sick. Shallavan was one of the more treacherous distillations known to the Towers. Auster, Keeper of Arilinn, had banned its use as too dangerous. In diluted quantities, it could quell the upheavals of newly- aroused laran.More concentrated, it could cripple a laranzu'smind, leaving him senseless and paralyzed. An even greater dose ...

Dom Rodrigo, who was no fool, must have guessed Saravio had laran, that Saravio used his mental gifts to cure Romilla.

"Take it out," Eduin said. "Tell me who last handled it."

The cabinet unlocked with a little key attached to the main key. Mhari removed the vial and cupped it in both hands. Eduin felt her mind scanning the surface of the glass for the lingering imprint of personality. After several long moments, she drew in a hissing breath. When she spoke, her voice rang like steel.

"How did you know-"

"I saw Dom Rodrigo pour some of it into a meal intended for Saravio."

Too late, he realized he had used Saravio's true name, not the alias of the Blessed Sandoval. Mhari seemed not to notice, or perhaps she too was distracted, focused on the puzzle that was even now resolving itself.

Eduin felt her surge of elation, saw her fingers curl white-knuckled around the vial. He had, he knew, just handed her an instrument of revenge against the man who had tried to usurp her place. She was not a woman capable of easy forgiveness.

"And your friend?" she asked.

"Tasted nothing of the dish."

"What happened to the food?"

"I asked the cook to keep it in a hidden place."

"Show me where."

Mhari carefully locked the cabinet, retaining the blue-green vial, and escorted Eduin from the still room. The cook was, for once, not busy with some preparation, but sitting comfortably with two of her young helpers, stirring honey into mugs of jaco. They rose as the leronis entered, the girls flushed with alarm. The cook disappeared into the back reaches of the pantry and emerged a moment later with the tray. She had been as good as her word, for not even the cloth cover had been disturbed. It was exactly as Eduin had left it, askew and with a triangular rumple in one corner.

Cook held it out to DomnaMhari as if it contained a nest of venomous serpents.

"Put it down," Mhari said, gesturing at the end of the worktable, which had been cleared and scrubbed clean. She bent over the tray, her nostrils flaring very slightly, corners of her mouth tight, and brought out her star-stone.

She carried it in a silken pouch on a long braided cord around her neck.

"Now remove the covering."

The woman did so, holding the cloth by the edge of one corner. Eduin suspected the offending item would mostly likely end up in the fire rather than the laundry.

Fingers spread wide, Mhari passed her free hand over the covered dishes.

She half-closed her eyes, searching with her laran for psychic residues. Eduin did not need to follow her with his own thoughts to know what she would find.

I have him now! Triumph flared within her mind, filtered through a veil of simmering resentment.

Mhari would do his work for him, and no one, not even Lord Brynon, need ever know that it was Eduin and not she who had discovered the poison attempt. Let her keep all the credit for herself; he wanted no fame. All she would have to say was, I have learned that someone has tried to murder Sandoval-the Blessed Sandoval, the savior of the heiress of Kirella-and I wish to examine the suspect under truthspell.

Her eyes gleaming, Mhari commanded the cook to safeguard the evidence and then swept from the kitchen.

"Well!" the cook exclaimed, when she returned from replacing the tray in its hiding place. "What do you suppose that was about?"

"I don't know," Eduin lied, "but I expect we will soon find out."

They did not have to wait for long. Within the hour, Lord Aillard commanded the cook to produce the tray, and the Blessed Sandoval, along with his assistant, to attend him directly in his presence chamber. Saravio followed Eduin without comment, uninterested in the happening.

The chamber was already filled with every person of importance in the castle, so that the atmosphere, laced with tension, was thick and close. Even without laran, Eduin would have recoiled from the jangle of nervous energy.

Lord Brynon sat in his accustomed place, with Romilla on a smaller throne at his side. The girl's face was as set and pale as the first day Eduin had seen her, but her expression was grim and her eyes alight with inner fire. Domna Mhari stood a little to the side, her hands cupped between her breasts.

As Eduin and Saravio entered, a courtier came forward and escorted them to two chairs near the front of the room. As they took their places, the crowd fell silent except for the occasional nervous cough or rustle of a lady's skirts.

Lord Brynon gestured to the captain of his guard and a moment later, two armed men brought out the physician. One held each elbow. They halted before Lord Brynon. Dom Rodrigo delivered a formal bow with the same ease as if he were a welcome guest and not a prisoner. Even so, fear rose like a dark mist from his mind.

"Vai dom!" the physician cried. "I beg of you, tell me why I have been brought before you in such an unseemly manner. I am no common thief, to be thus surrounded by armed men." Shrugging his robes into place, he jerked away from his guards. "If some malcontent has laid a complaint against me, let me hear it from his own lips, that I may refute the scoundrel!"

"Silence!" Lord Brynon's voice rang out above the rumbling of the court.

"Let there be not a single word spoken until all is prepared," he nodded to DomnaMhari, "and let us speedily reach the heart of this matter, for the very thought of such treachery is abhorrent to me."

Mhari turned her palms upward. The blue-white fire of her starstone flashed in her cupped hands. She bent her face over the gem, as if breathing in its power.

Eduin braced himself for the first stirrings of the truthspell, although he had no reason to fear it. He had done nothing to injure any person within these walls.

Old habits of secrecy died hard, and he had carried secrets for as long as he could remember-his true identity as the son of the outlaw laranzu, Rumail Deslucido, his unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Prince Carolin Hastur, he who was now king, his successful murder of Felicia Leynier, the circle he had illegally gathered to defend Hestral Tower, his role in the riot at Hali Lake . . . Depending upon how the questions were phrased, it might become apparent that he was hiding something. There was so much to hide. If pressed, he could draw upon the Deslucido Gift, as he had in the past. That was the greatest and most terrible secret of all.

The leronis began the ritual phrases that would establish the spell. "By the fire of this jewel, let the truth lighten this room in which we stand."

Eduin had seen the setting of truthspell a number of times, and had been trained to do it himself; he knew that he alone possessed the ability to nullify it, and yet the process stirred him on some deep and wordless level.

From the small blue jewel in Mhari's hands, a glow began, slowly suffusing her features. It filled the room, creeping slowly from face to face as if it were a living thing with an intelligence of its own. He felt it shimmer across his skin, cool as polished glass, saw it bathe Saravio in a twilit glow.

The blue light touched each according to his nature, heightening the essence of the person. Romilla looked as if she had been carven from alabaster, her father a cragged bird of prey. DomRodrigo's features turned blotched, the folds and lines of his face becoming crevices of darkness.

Mhari lifted her head. In that moment, she seemed taller, worthy of her own pride. "It is done, my lord. While this light endures, the truth alone may be spoken here."

"Now, we will have the truth of this business." Lord Brynon's voice deepened, like distant thunder. Hearing it, Eduin remembered the unnatural storms over Thendara, the crackle of unspent lightning, the taste of power in the air.

"Dom Rodrigo Halloran, stand forth."

Visibly gathering himself, the physician stepped away from his guards. He licked his lips and bowed deeply to his lord. "I am here, and ready to serve to the full capacity of my skill and training." He paused, then added with a trace of his old arrogance and a sidelong glance at Saravio, "As I always have."

"You say you have always served this house?" Lord Brynon asked.

"I have ever sought the health and welfare of every member of the ruling family." The blue light remained, clear and steady, on Rodrigo's features.

"And all who dwell within these walls?"

The physician hesitated before replying, "That I cannot swear for certain, my lord, for I do not know all of them. I am bound by the oaths of my profession to harm no one, regardless of my personal feelings."

"So there are none whom you dislike here in this company?"

Dom Rodrigo remained silent.

"Make him answer!" Romilla cried, half-rising. "He must not hide behind silence!"

"None whom you wished any ill? What about Sandoval, who saved young Kevan's life? Who succeeded in restoring Lady Romilla to sound mind when you had failed?"

"My lord, I cannot-" Rodrigo lifted his arms in a piteous gesture. His hands shook.

Lord Brynon rose slowly to his feet and pointed to Saravio. "Did you attempt to harm that man?"

Dom Rodrigo fell to his knees. The only sound that emerged from his mouth was an incoherent stammer. "I-I-" The blue light on his face wavered and then went out.

For a moment, stunned silence hung over the room. Eduin jumped to his feet. "My lord, I ask you-on behalf of the Blessed Sandoval-permit me a question or two before you pronounce judgment."

Romilla touched her father's arm. "Yes, let him speak. Let us know the will of Sandoval in this affair, for it is he to whom I am indebted and he who has been injured by this treacherous villain."

Eduin bent over until his mouth was beside Saravio's ear. "Attend carefully to what I say, and watch this man's reactions.

Remember that it is Naotalba's will that all men love her and rejoice in her service, and also that they suffer in the presence of her enemies."

Saravio nodded.

Taking a step toward the cowering physician, Eduin pitched his voice so that the entire assembly could hear him clearly. "Dom Rodrigo, for the moment let us set aside the matter of whether you acted alone or at the orders of some other party. Instead, I ask this on behalf of the man you would have harmed: What do you know of Naotalba?"

In an instant, DomRodrigo's expression went from guilt to confusion. The blue light of truthspell flickered across his features once more. "Naotalba?

I-I know nothing-have nothing to do with her. Why should I? She does not even exist, except as a tale to frighten foolish maidens."

Eduin bent over Saravio again, giving the appearance of consulting about the next question. "Do you hear? He denies even her existence."

Saravio's eyes glinted in response. The muscles of his jaw clenched.

"But he is no leader," Eduin went on. "We must find out whom he serves."

Eduin straightened and asked, in the same tone of voice. "What about Varzil Ridenow? Do you also know nothing of him?"

"Of course, I do! I am no ignorant simpleton!" Regaining a measure of composure, Dom Rodrigo heaved himself to one foot and then the other, standing. Now the blue glow steadied. "Varzil of Neskaya was first trained at Arilinn Tower and is perhaps the most notable Keeper of our time."

"So you approve of him? Believe in him?" As he spoke the words, Eduin felt a lash of fear and anger from Saravio. Romilla flinched visibly. Mhari paled within the aura of blue light.