As Quelyt and his pteridon landed, Dainyl turned to Fa-lyna. "Thank you. Good landing, especially in these conditions."

"Comes with the task, sir."

They both smiled.

"You and Quelyt will have to check on when we head back, but it won't be for a week at the very earliest."

"Yes, sir."

Then Dainyl turned and walked swiftly across the courtyard and into the headquarters building. Zorclyt was waiting for him.

"Is the marshal around?" asked Dainyl.

"The marshal is with the Highest, sir," replied the senior squad leader.

"He left word that, if you arrived this afternoon or this evening, you were free to do what you wished and that he would see you here in the morning a glass after muster." Zorclyt grinned. "Oh... you can use the duty coach to take you home."

"I appreciate that." Dainyl lifted his gear, light, since he'd left much in Dramuria, and headed for the main entrance and the coach waiting outside. He did not need another invitation.

By the time the coach reached the entrance to his house, fat and wet flakes of snow had begun to drift down out of the wall of clouds just to thenorth of the city.

"Thank you!" he called to Convyl, one of the youngest Myrmidons without a pteridon assignment, and thus one of those saddled with coach duties.

"You're more than welcome, sir."

Dainyl opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him against the snow that was beginning to intensify.

One of the housegirls-Zistele-jumped back from where she had been sweeping-desultorily-the tiles in the entry foyer. "Colonel, sir!"

"I'm back for a time. Is Lystrana here?"

"No, sir. She said she might be home earlier today, but she's not here yet."

Dainyl set his gear on the bottom step of the stairs to the upper level.

"Is there-"

He broke off as the door opened behind him, and he turned.

Lystrana smiled broadly as she looked at Dainyl standing there in his shimmering blue riding jacket. She took two quick steps.

The embrace was long and warm.

"I had heard that you might be recalled for consultations," she said, finally breaking away from him.

For a long moment, he just looked at her, taking in her violet eyes, her clear alabaster skin, and the black hair that seemed to hold an energy all its own.

"I'm happy to see you, but I'm not pleased at the recall," he replied.

She raised a single eyebrow.

He laughed.

"We both need to eat. Even bread and cheese," she said. "You're lookingtired."

"You look wonderful."

"I might, but I'm famished." Lystrana turned her head. "Sentya?"

"Yes, alectress?"

"If you would set out some bread and cheese on the table in the kitchen? And some of the red wine? The Vyan Grande?" Lystrana turned back to her husband. "It's warmer there."

"It's almost ready, alectress," answered Zistele.

Arm in arm, the two walked into the kitchen, where Sentya had set out a basket of bread still warm enough from the oven that Dainyl could feel the heat. Zistele had placed a tray on the smaller kitchen table. On it were three different wedges of cheese. After pouring the wine, Sentya slipped out of the kitchen, following the younger serving girl.

"Another long day?" asked Dainyl as he seated himself, glad to be where chairs were of proper height and breadth.

"They've all been long. I'll tell you later..." She inclined her head toward the front of the house.

Dainyl nodded. He broke off a chunk of the still-warm bread and took a mouthful, following it with a small wedge of cheese, then a sip from the purple-tinged crystal goblet.

"How are things going for you?" Lystrana asked.

"Not all that well," he admitted. "I can't help but feel that there wouldn't have been all this unrest in Dramur if the Cadmians hadn't been sent there." He sipped the wine slowly, enjoying the taste, as well as the warmth of the kitchen, boosted by the still-heated stove.

"That makes sense," Lystrana replied. "It has often been a technique used by the High Alector of Justice. They look at places where there is some unrest and likely to be more. Then they provoke violence before the perpetrators can become well organized.""What am I doing there, then?"

"You are there to make sure that matters don't get out of hand. The technique is proved, from what I've been able to discover, but it is also dangerous."

"Did you know this before I left?"

Lystrana shook her head. "After your letter, I went into the archives. I also made some suggestions to Zestafyn, and his reactions confirmed my suspicions. It's nothing we could prove, dearest, but I'm convinced that is what is Planned for Dramur."

"But why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I was hoping that what you could tell me might help in finding out why."

"I can tell you more than you want to know... about many things."

"Later." A broad smile crossed her face. "Later."

62.

Despite the long flights to Elcien, on Quinti, Dainyl woke at dawn to the wind wailing outside the windows. When he opened his eyes, Lystrana was awake and looking at him.

"You still sleep like a child at times," she said.

"That's when I'm so tired I forget to worry," he replied, slowly struggling into a half-sitting position. "The older I get, the more tired I have to be."

"Breakfast won't be ready for a while, and you were going to tell me what the problems were in Dramuria." Lystrana propped herself up in the wide bed and looked directly at him.

He understood why she wanted to talk in their bedroom. "I was...

except someone had other ideas." Dainyl grinned mischievously.

"Oh... I didn't see much protesting from a certain colonel." Her eyes smiled.They both laughed, but only for a moment.

"What's happening in Dramur follows what you suggested last night, but there are things that don't fit. I'm certain that the marshal used Talent on the majer in charge of the Third Battalion of Cadmians, so that he would issue foolish orders and keep his captains from using their initiative..." Dainyl gave a summary of the events, including the unmarked Cadmian rifles, the smugglers, the uniformed horse troopers of the west, and the trooper who had been Talent-manipulated and committed two murders.

"Is that all?" asked Lystrana dryly.

"I wish it were. I've also run into an ancient and her creatures-"

"A real ancient?" interrupted Lystrana. "You're sure? Of course you are.

But..." She shook her head. "There aren't any mentions, even in the archives, and I've read most of them."

"A very real ancient..." He went on to describe both his encounters with the soarer and her words. "There's a power there that's frightening. It's not just their power to transport themselves places, either. I can see that.

Their mirror seems equivalent to a Table."

"You said that the creatures disappeared into the rock. I'd wager the soarer could do that as well."

Dainyl thought about that. "I wouldn't be surprised, but if they're so powerful, why haven't they shown themselves?"

"There can't be that many, not compared to all the landers and indigens. The only ruins we've found are in high and cold places. Even this tunnel is in the mountains, you said. We don't like either, and we're the ones most likely to sense them."

"Except for the landers with Talent," he said.

"They aren't many of them, and you know what the Views of the Highest says about that. There wouldn't be any if we could find them early enough."

"That's true." Dainyl paused, thinking about Captain Mykel for amoment.

"You think they're dangerous, even if there can't be very many?"

"I do. I couldn't say why, though." He paused. "I still can't figure out what she meant by changing or perishing, and not being a part of the world."

"The second part is true, dearest. We're not really a part of Acorus, not totally. We're linked through the Tables back o Ifryn. Even if the Archon decides to bring the master scepter here, our link to this world will be through it."

"But they don't regard the landers and indigens that way."

"No." Lystrana laughed sardonically. "They feed on some of them, though, it sounds like. It could be that they :an't do that to us."

"Why not?"

"Because we're from Ifryn, even if we're born here. We're different. The landers and the indigens are partly Ifryn, but mostly adapted to and part of Acorus."

That made sense to Dainyl, but it left another question. "Why are they showing up now?"

"Maybe they aren't," suggested Lystrana. "There have always been disappearances. Maybe this is one of those times when an alector with strong shields encountered them."

"Neither Falyna nor Quelyt sensed them."

"I'd wager that they've always been around."

"You think that the Highest and the Duarches have hushed up reports about them?"

"It's almost certain," Lystrana concluded. "There would be pressure to find them, and that would divert resources and a great amount of lifeforce."

"And that would not please the Archon.""No. And, if it's as it appears, trying to root them out of high places would be most costly. When there are so few of them, the Duarches are most likely just watching and waiting for them to finish dying off. There can't be that many left"

"I'm not so certain. The soarers are somehow behind the miners'

escapes and attacks."

"I don't think a handful of escaped miners presents that real a threat to the Duarchy," she said.

"No, they don't. But why are the marshal and the Highest behind the contraband arms? I just wish I knew why."

"They could be using the miners as cover for their strategy to preempt trouble, couldn't they?" asked Lystrana.

"They might be, but there's more there. I just don't know what it could be." He shook his head. "As soon as I take over and get rid of the officer who's creating more trouble than he's solving, I get recalled here for consultations. They want things to get worse in Dramur. And I'm not in a position where I can do anything. I have to think that Tyanylt discovered something and didn't like it."

"You're probably right." Lystrana frowned. "There's no proof, except for the contraband rifles, and the High Alector of Justice can claim they were part of a strategy to preempt later trouble because, if the seltyrs were allowed to gather forces and arms more slowly, they would have a broader base of support. They also might start developing artillery."

Dainyl winced. Life-reinforced garments and Talent-shields didn't work against artillery. "So there's no way you can go to your Highest or to the Duarch?"

"Not unless we find out more," Lystrana replied. "When do you meet with the marshal?"

"In about two glasses, and I suppose I'd better start getting washed up and dressed."

Left unsaid as they climbed out of bed and into the chill air was the understanding that the meeting with the marshal would not be likely toproduce anything resembling evidence.

In the end, Dainyl had to hurry through dressing and eating, and because he couldn't count on getting a coach to the Myrmidon compound, he left early, and walked, trying to think out what he could ask the marshal that was in character with what he was supposed to know.

The snow of the previous night had mostly melted, although the skies were still gray, and a wind blew out of the northwest. Dainyl was more than happy to step out of the raw morning and into the comparative warmth of the headquarters building, and glad that he was early enough to warm up before his scheduled meeting with Marshal Shastylt.

Before he headed to his study, he stopped at the duty desk, where Undercaptain Zernylta looked up, waiting. "Is the marshal in yet?"

"No, sir," she replied.