"You told him about us, didn't you?"

She nodded and then smiled, feeling a little foolish. "I think the day I found myself pouring my heart out to Misha about what a cad you were was the day it occurred to me who I really loved."

Dirk didn't reply. They kept walking along the sh.o.r.e with nothing but the distant honking of an aggravated swan disturbing the silence.

"Misha's right, I suppose. I guess that's why I said I'd come. To clear the air. I don't know how you did it, Dirk, not really. I mean I understand what you did, I even think I know why, but how you could do all those terrible things and never let on to anyone, never share it..." She shrugged. "I'm not sure I'm saying this right."

"I think I understand."

Tia hesitated, not sure what else to say. "Perhaps we'll see you in Avacas for the coronation? Misha would like it if you came."

"I think my presence is required. The Lord of the Suns is supposed to crown the Lion of Senet, I believe. I have to return to Avacas for the trial, in any case. Ella's dead, but Madalan and Yuri still need to be dealt with."

She suddenly couldn't meet his eyes. "You'll understand if you're not invited to the wedding, won't you? I mean, it's only going to be a small affair. Misha hates making a fuss."

"It's all right. I won't be offended."

He didn't sound offended, but there was no way of telling if he meant it or not. She looked at him uncertainly. "Look...I just wanted to say one more thing...when I first learned you were Johan's son...when I found out who you were... it wasn't easy for me... for any of us. You're so like him in some ways, and other ways you're so different. I wanted...Oh, d.a.m.n...I'm not making any sense. I wanted you to be like him, I suppose. I so badly wanted you to be proud, and honorable, and n.o.ble...

all the things I thought Johan was."

"And I wasn't?"

"Johan's pride cost him Dhevyn, Dirk. You got it back for him. You got it back in a way Johan was incapable of even imagining."

"Is that a compliment or a condemnation?" he asked with a wry smile. "And I truly don't deserve any credit for freeing Dhevyn. That was your doing, Tia, not mine."

"What I'm trying to say, Dirk," she said, "is that I think Johan would have been proud of you." She smiled then, and realized it was probably going to be all right between them. "Your methods probably would have given him apoplexy..."

"My lord?"

Dirk turned to the servant who had hailed him. "Yes?"

"There is another new acolyte waiting to see you, my lord. This one is very insistent."

"Tell him I'll be right there," Dirk ordered, before turning back to Tia. "I'm sorry. I really have to go."

"A new acolyte?"

"We've been flooded with them recently. It's suddenly fashionable to be a Sundancer again."She nodded. "Then I shouldn't keep you any longer. Goodbye, Dirk."

"Good-bye, Tia."

"Dirk!" she called after him.

He stopped to look at her over his shoulder.

"Do you remember the day we arrived in Omaxin? You told me one day I'd have to admit you were on my side."

Dirk nodded slowly. "I also remember you telling me I'd have to do something fairly spectacular to convince you."

"You certainly did that."

He smiled at her. "Misha's a lucky man, Tia. You can tell him I said so, if you want."

"I will," she promised.

Dirk walked back toward the palace without looking back. Tia watched him leave with an odd feeling it took her a little while to define. She smiled to herself when she realized it wasn't so much what she was feeling, but what she wasn't feeling.

For the first time she could remember, she wasn't angry at Dirk Provin.

Chapter 93.

The new acolyte was waiting for Dirk in the morning room, looking out over the gardens toward the lake. She was wearing a dark blue riding habit and had obviously not even waited to change before demanding to see him. She turned when she heard him enter.

"Jacinta?"

"Please don't say my name like that. You sound like my mother."

"What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing more than usual," she shrugged. "Was that who I think it was just now with you on the lawn?"

"Tia Veran," he confirmed. "Although she'll be Princess Tia Latanya soon."

"I'm a little surprised to find her seeking an audience with the Lord of the Suns," Jacinta remarked with a raised brow. "I got the distinct impression you two didn't get along."

"We had a few loose ends that needed to be settled." Dirk walked across the room and stopped a few paces from her. "Did Alenor send you?"

"No."

The thought she had come here of her own volition filled him with a strange sense of antic.i.p.ation.

"Then what are you doing here? I thought you'd be married to Raban Seranov by now."

She laughed. "Like that was ever going to happen while I still had breath in my body."

"Your mother called off the wedding?"

"I called it off," she told him defiantly."So you've run away again," he concluded with a smile.

"Running away is something children do, Dirk. I happen to feel I have a higher calling than making babies to perpetuate the Seranov line."

"A higher calling?"

"Actually, it was my mother who gave me the idea. You see, I discovered it was far easier to be a dutiful daughter of Dhevyn hundreds of miles away in Omaxin than when actually confronted with Raban Seranov in person. In one of our many rather heated discussions, my mother threatened to pack me off to a temple somewhere if I didn't toe the line." She smiled airily. "It suddenly occurred to me I wanted nothing more than to serve the G.o.ddess."

"You want to join the Sundancers?" he asked skeptically. "What about that n.o.ble speech you gave me about the stability of Dhevyn requiring the union of the Seranov and D'Orlon houses?"

"Alenor married Alexin," she shrugged. "With the Queen of Dhevyn married to the Duke of Grannon Rock's second son, I didn't really think my contribution would make that much difference, do you?"

"We don't just accept anybody into the Sundancers, my lady," he said.

"Well, you'd better let me in or there'll be h.e.l.l to pay," she threatened. "I didn't come all this way to have you refuse me. Anyway, changing the world's not a thing you can tackle on your own, Dirk. Even someone like you is going to need a hand from time to time."

"And if I did need a hand, what makes you think I'd ask you?"

"I'm the only one who understands you."

"Is that so?"

"Well, maybe not the only one. I think Misha understands you better than you'd like. He worked out what you were up to long before anyone else did."

"You've seen him recently?"

She nodded. "At Alenor's wedding. He's a good man. Tia is a very lucky girl. If he wasn't already taken, I might have made a play for him myself. Come to think of it, I did ask him to marry me once."

"I thought you weren't interested in finding a husband?"

"I'm willing to make an exception for someone exceptional."

"How exceptional, exactly?"

She smiled coyly. "Are you flirting with me?"

"Are you flirting with me, would be more to the point." He reached out and took her hand. "Why did you really come?" he asked, drawing her closer.

"You need my help, Dirk. We still need to study all those notes from Omaxin. We need to finish dismantling the Shadowdancers. We need to find out when the next Age of Shadows is due..."

"No, we don't."

"You don't want to know when the next Age of Shadows is due?"

"Well... actually... I already know," he said. "Neris told me before I left Mil."

Jacinta stared at him, open-mouthed.

"But that means..." She was too shocked to finish the sentence. It took her a moment to recover and then she swore in a very unladylike manner. "You've known all along?"

"The knowledge is useless, Jacinta. That was the reason Neris refused to tell anybody. He figured hewas better off keeping Belagren in the dark than letting her discover she didn't have anything to worry about. He destroyed the murals in Omaxin that would give it away, built the traps in the Labyrinth and faked his death...all of it, just to prevent the Shadowdancers from learning they really had nothing to fear."

Jacinta appeared too shocked to be angry at him. "So why did he tell you?"

"He had to tell someone, I suppose."

"But... I mean...d.a.m.n it, Dirk! Why didn't you say something? Why go through all of this? And what do you mean, the information is useless? We have to make plans! We have to prepare!"

"There's no point."

"That's the whole point, Dirk!"

"The next Age of Shadows is about fifteen hundred years away, Jacinta."

He'd never seen her lost for words before. She was almost too stunned to speak.

"So... so you went to Omaxin and pretended to look for the answers in the ruins. You made up that whole eclipse thing... you drove Antonov insane..." she spluttered. "You even went to war over it.

You're unbelievable! Does anybody else know?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. That's one of the challenges ahead of us. To find a way to make it known so that fifteen hundred years from now people will be ready for it and another Belagren doesn't appear on the scene claiming it's a divine event and repeat the whole d.a.m.n sorry business." He grinned suddenly. "Maybe we'll rewrite the Book of Ranadon and make it compulsory reading in every school.

There's a certain irony in that, don't you think?"

Jacinta shook her head, still having difficulty accepting Dirk had known the most valuable secret on Ranadon and not breathed a word of it to anyone. Then as if something else had just occurred to her, she looked up at him, searching his face. "You said we."

"Well, if you insist on helping..." he said, raising her hand to his lips.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand from his. "Isn't the Lord of the Suns supposed to take a vow of celibacy or something?"

"Not required. I checked."

"You did? Why?"

He smiled. "Because a certain very well-bred lady asked me once to do her a favor. I couldn't, in all conscience, let the matter go without checking to see if the next time she asked me to make mad, unbridled, pa.s.sionate love to her, I was in a position to refuse."

Jacinta scowled at him. "I don't know if I want anything to do with you after hearing you've known all along when the Age of Shadows was due. No wonder Tia never trusted you. What else are you plotting, Dirk Provin? What other terrible plans and secrets are lurking in that strange and devious mind of yours?"

"Don't worry. I plan to lead a very long and boring life from now on. I've done most of the terrible things I had to do."

"Only most of them? You single-handedly changed the face of Ranadon, Dirk. Dear G.o.ddess!

What else is there left to do?"

"I want to find out if lions are real," he said.Character List ALENOR D'ORLON- Princess of Dhevyn. Heir to the throne. Rainan's daughter.

ALEXIN SERANOV- Second son of the current Duke of Grannon Rock. Reithan's cousin.

a.n.a.lEE LATANYA- Deceased. Princess of Damita. Wife of Antonov. Mother of Misha, Kirshov and Gunta.

ANTONOV LATANYA- The Lion of Senet. Father of Misha, Kirshov and Gunta. Husband of a.n.a.lee of Damita.

BALONAN- Seneschal of Elcast castle.