As Alec unwrapped Sebrahn and smoothed his tousled hair, Magyana said nothing but regarded the rhekaro for a long time in silence.

"He can heal?" she asked at last.

Alec filled a cup with water and showed her the trick. She lifted the blue flower from the water and smelled it, then set it aside without comment. Taking the rhekaro's hand in hers, she stroked the hair back from his face.

"Well?" he demanded, unnerved by her silence.

"In all my travels, I've never encountered such a thing," she replied. Rising, she left the room, gesturing for Thero to come with her.

Thero followed her into the next room and closed the door. She cast a seal on it, ensuring that they would not be overheard.

"What do you see when you look at it?" she asked.

"I see an aura of light, and the hint of another form."

Magyana nodded, pressing her folded hands under her chin and closing her eyes.

"What do you see?" Thero asked, as the surge of her power filled the room.

Without opening her eyes, she replied softly, "I don't understand how it is possible, but I see a dragon."

Epilogue.

WINTER CAME EARLY this year, before the end of Erasin. Looking out from the shelter of the domed this year, before the end of Erasin. Looking out from the shelter of the domed colos colos on the roof of the clan house, Seneth a Matriel Danata Hazadriel admired the way the moonlight glistened on the new fallen snow. From here she could see the entire valley below, her beautiful fai'thast, and the warm glimmer of lights in the villages and steadings. Her lands stretched from the head of the long valley to the gleaming peaks of the Ravensfell Pa.s.s far to the south. Here and there, in the highlands above, distant fires marked the villages of their neighbors, the Retha'noi. on the roof of the clan house, Seneth a Matriel Danata Hazadriel admired the way the moonlight glistened on the new fallen snow. From here she could see the entire valley below, her beautiful fai'thast, and the warm glimmer of lights in the villages and steadings. Her lands stretched from the head of the long valley to the gleaming peaks of the Ravensfell Pa.s.s far to the south. Here and there, in the highlands above, distant fires marked the villages of their neighbors, the Retha'noi.

How long had it been, since she'd slept a whole night through? Weeks, it seemed. Night after night she woke from a sound sleep, feeling like she'd forgotten something very important. She usually ended up here, while the household slumbered below.

Tonight she found her gaze straying to the Pa.s.s again. Twin watch fires burned there, steady and bright, but the sight gave her little comfort.

Just then Uri knocked at the doorframe behind her. "Khirnari, you have a visitor."

"At this hour?" She turned and found her old friend, the seer Belan a Talia, standing just behind the servant, and with her a stooped little Retha'noi man. Seneth did not know him, but recognized the witch marks that covered his face and neck under his wild grey curls. The shoulders of their cloaks were dusted with snow, and the hems heavy with little ice b.a.l.l.s. Both of them were shivering.

"My friends, come warm yourselves!" Seneth urged them downstairs to the great hearth in the hall. "Uri, fetch shawls and hot mead for our guests."

"Thank you, Khirnari," the Retha'noi said as he warmed his bony little hands over the flames. More witch marks, the gift of the Retha'noi mother G.o.ddess, covered them and what she could see of his arms. She'd never seen so many on one witch, and wondered how she'd never met him before.

Uri hurried back with one of the young cousins of the house, carrying the shawls and steaming cups. Seneth wrapped both her guests up snugly on the bench closest to the hearth.

Belan wrapped her hands gratefully around the mug of honey wine. "I would not have disturbed you at such an hour, Khirnari, but I've had strange dreams lately, and tonight this witch man, Turmay, came to me with the same vision." She paused, and Seneth saw that her hands were shaking. "I believe a white child has been made in the south."

For a long moment Seneth could only stare at her friend; this was the last thing she'd ever expected to hear.

"And so I saw," Turmay said, nodding emphatically. "It meant nothing to me, but the Mother guided me to friend Belan."

"What did you see?" Seneth asked.

"A child that is not a child, Khirnari. One with a dragon in its eyes."

Seneth clasped her hands together in her lap. "How? How did this happen?"

Belan looked away uneasily. "I can think of only one possibility, Khirnari."

Seneth closed her eyes as old pain gripped her heart. Twenty years had pa.s.sed since Ireya a Shaar's name had been spoken aloud in this valley. She could not bring herself to say it now. "It isn't possible! The blood was mixed in half parts."

"But I believe something has happened," Belan told her. "What shall we do, Khirnari?"

Seneth gathered her will and hardened her heart. "The Ebrados Ebrados must hunt again." must hunt again."

About the Author.

LYNN FLEWELLING'S ONGOING Nightrunner series and her Tamir Triad have received worldwide acclaim and are, at last count, in print in thirteen countries. Nightrunner series and her Tamir Triad have received worldwide acclaim and are, at last count, in print in thirteen countries.

Peripatetic Maine natives that they are, she and the love of her life, Dr. Doug, have currently come to rest in Redlands, California, where they have developed a deep appreciation for palm trees, feral parrots, earthquake monitoring, and going to the mailbox barefoot in February. When not slaving over a hot computer, she can be found at her Live Journal, and at the Flewelling Yahoo! Group. In addition to sundry ramblings, she frequently posts updates, cruelly teasing snippets of works in progress, and answers to readers' questions about the books, including how to p.r.o.nounce those words she makes up.

Website: www.sff.net/people/Lynn.Flewelling Live Journal: otterdance.livejournal.com

Fans of Alec and Seregil fear not!

Your favorite nightrunners will return for a thrilling, all-new adventure in

The White Road

LYNN FLEWELLING.

NOT EVEN THE best nightrunners can escape the past. best nightrunners can escape the past.

Unwilling to abandon the mysterious and enigmatic Sebrahn-Alec's unnatural child of no mother-Seregil and Alec have no choice but to go in search of the only people who might know the true meaning of its existence: the Hazadrielfaie. Bad enough is the Hazad's reputation for killing outsiders-including Alec's father. But even worse, enemies from all quarters are intent on not only taking Sebrahn for their own ends, but reclaiming the only source of creation for more: Alec.

Seregil, the self-professed disbeliever in fate, now finds himself and his small band of friends inexorably bound by the echoes of their collective pasts as they are forced to choose between loyalty and conscience, peril and peace, and perhaps even between mercy and murder....

Coming in Summer 2009 from Bantam Spectra.

ALSO BY LYNN FLEWELLING.

Luck in the Shadows

Stalking Darkness

Traitor's Moon

and

The Bone Doll's Twin

Hidden Warrior

The Oracle's Queen