The two girls bowed gravely to Richina and then more deeply to Secca and Alcaren.

"Have them enter," called the Matriarch.

As Secca stepped into the formal receiving hall, past the two girls, walking slowly beside Alcaren, her eyes went first to Alya, standing on the dais before the blue. crystalline chair- throne, a throne sparkling with an inner light that created an aura around the Matriarch. The diffuse light from the floor-to-ceiling windows on each side of the chamber somehow emphasized the warm bluish aura.

Alcaren's parents stood on the left side of the receiving room, their backs to the long windows, while a slender man with blond-and-silver hair, presumably the Matriarch's consort, stood by himself on the right. He was attired entirely in white, except for a dark blue belt and matching dark blue boots.

Both Carenya and Nedya wore white tunics with lace collars over dark blue trousers, while Todyl wore a blue tunic over white trousers. All three wore crimson leather belts.

Richina stepped forward, and then moved to the right, beside the Matriarch's consort, before turning to face Carenya.

Secca and Alcaren stopped two paces short of the dais and the Matriarch.

Alya smiled warmly. "I would like to say that I never would have guessed that this consorting would come to be. I cannot tell you, and all those here, how happy I am that you two have found each other, and happiness in each other." She paused. "The ceremony is simple."

There was a moment of silence. Then, the Matriarch glanced out across the modest formal hall.

"Do any here have any objection to this consorting?"

After a pause, she looked at Secca. "Do you, Secca, Lady of Loiseau and Flossbend, enter this consorting of your own free will, without coercing another, and without coercion by any other being, and in joy, hope, and honesty?'

"I do." Secca felt a lump in her throat, and, somehow, she wished Anna could have been them to see the ceremony, and . . . somehow. . . she felt sad that her mentor had never felt able to consort to Lord Jecks.

"Do you, Alcaren of Encora, enter this consorting of your own free will, without coercing another, and without coercion by any other being, and in joy, hope, and honesty?"

"I do"

Alya looked to Secca once more. "If you would repeat after me . . ."

Secca nodded.

"I, Secca, in the sight and song of the harmonies, offer myself as your consort, forsaking all others. I accept you and no other as my consort for so long as shall the harmonies declare, through all times of trouble, all times of joy, and the times that are neither."

"Alcaren, if you would repeat after me . . ."

Alcaren smiled and squared his shoulders ever so slightly before repeating the words. "I, Alcaren, in the sight and song of the hannonies, offer myself as your consort, forsaking all others. I accept you and no other as my consort for so long as shall the harmonies declare, through all times of trouble, all times of joy, and the times that are neither."

After just a moment of silence, Alya raised her left hand, drawing a circle in the air.

Secca could see the faintest shimmer of a blue orb hanging before the Matriarch for a long instant before Alya again spoke.

"As Matriarch of Ranuak, I declare you are consorts in body, in spirit, and in harmony."

Secca turned toward Alcaren, lifting her head slightly, as his arms went around her ever so gent ly. Their lips met.

Someone sighed.

As she and Alcaren embraced and kissed before the Matriarch, Secca could feel a sense of warmth and peace- flow over them, and she didn't want the moment to end.

8 Envaryl, Dumar The sharp-faced man in the crimson tunic of the Lord High Counselor of Dumar stands with his back to the low coals in the hearth of the villa's study. "A cold winter this has been. Few have seen one this chill."

The man in gray nods. The two other men, one wearing the uniform of an overcaptain, the other the gold collar insignia that proclaim him an arms commander, do not.

"We watch, and yet your glass, Elyzar, it shows nothing," continues the Lord High Counselor.

"The glass shows what is, Lord Fehern. It does not show what we wish," replies the sorcerer.

"I do not see why the Sturinnese do not move against us," offers the arms commander. "The roads are firm. The mud is gone, and yet they advance not. Or so slowly that they might be a giant tortoise."

"That may be, Halyt," says Fehern. "That indeed may be, but they hold all of our lands save this miserable western province. They rode quickly enough in the fall. Now, they do not. Can your glass tell us why, Elyzar?"

"It can show what happens. It does not show what is in men' s hearts." The broad-shouldered sorcerer fingers his neatly trimmed and square-cut black beard.

"It is clear that they wait for something," states Arms Commander Halyt. "Could it be that they fear the Liedfuhr will strike them from the north?"

"Kestrin won't do that." Fehern snorts. "He worries far more about his sister and her daughter.

My dear younger brother Eryhal should have consorted with the elder. Then, there would be less support for this Belmar."

"One cannot undo what is done, lord," offers Elyzar unctuously. "One can but take the opportunities offered to change the future."

"We can't do anything about Neserea," points out Halyt. "We needs must prepare for the onslaught here."

"How . . . with more quick skinnishes that kill Sturinnese, but scarcely stop them? Or do you have a score of sorcerers or thirtyscore companies of lancers coming to our aid from somewhere?" Fehern laughs hollowly. "Not a word, and not a single lancer from that old woman of Defalk. All these years we have sent tribute and fealty, and what do we receive in our time of trouble? Not a thing. A sad thing it is when the best ruler of Defalk was a woman and but a regent. She was more a man than the men of Defalk."

"All the mountains are too deep with snow . . ." murmurs the overcaptain.

"Now . . .but were they that deep when the Sturinnese landed in Narial? When aid would have truly helped?"

Neither officer speaks for a time.

Fehern looks hard at the sorcerer. "Your glass has no answers as to why the Sturinnese tarry. Do you, Elyzar?"

"They wait for something, lord. It could be that they think that waiting will gain them more than attacking."

"We have supplies, more than enough. What we do not have is sorcerers who can do battle work and lancers adequate to stop the white tide. You know that." Fehem glares at Elyzar. "So must they."

"They must know something." Halyt laughs heartily. "Otherwise, we would see them on the river road."

"They must. But what?" Fehern turns from the sorcerer, cocking his head slightly. "What could it possibly be?"

Elyzar offers an emgmatic smile, but does not reply.

9.

The cold and clear skies that had graced Secca's consorting had departed, and for the two days afterward gray clouds and misty rain had blanketed Encora, not that Seeca or Alcaren had paid much attention to the weather for the first day or so.

A stolen pair of days of bliss were all Secca dared take, and Alcaren had but nodded knowingly that morning as she made ready to visit the Matriarch once more. Now, she rode through the light and cold rain, with Alcaren beside her, back northward along the avenue to the Matriarch's compact palace. Behind them rode a company of Defalkan lancers, and before them a squad of SouthWomen in their crimson-trimmed blue jackets.

"I will not accompany you inside her receiving room," Alcaren said. "Neither your people, nor Lord Robero, nor the Ladies of the Shadows would wish to see me as exerting greater influence."

"That would be best," Secca admitted, relieved that she had not been the one to have to make that statement, and pleased that Alcaren had both seen the problem and made the offer not to accompany her. "The Matriarch will still know I listen to you."

"She listens to her consort, and all know that. In Ranuak, consorts are meant to be heard, in private."

"That is also true in Defalk, save that the consorts heard in private, until the Lady Anna changed matters, were all women."

"Some lords, would not be loath to see that custom return?"

"There are doubtless some, but more in Neserea than in Defalk, and that is why so many rally behind Belmar."

"You worry about what will happen there, almost more than what awaits us in Dumar."

"I do." Secca couldn't have explained the dread she felt when considering Neserea, almost as if that land posed a greater danger than Dumar, yet nothing she knew would support that. "I cannot say why, but I do."

"I cannot see that, my lady, but I would not go against your senses for that" Alcaren paused. "I would ask that you consider why you may feel that way. In that fashion, we will not be so surprised as might otherwise be the case."

"I don't think its Belmar . . ." Secca shook her head. "I'll have to think." She could still recall Anna's words about trusting her feelings, If only she could put words and ideas to why she felt as she did.

Alcaren did not press her, and shortly they rode under the archway into the Matriarch's grounds and reined up under the covered portico, where a pair of guards in pale blue stood by the archway.

"You are expected, Lady Secca," offered the taller, even before Secca had finished reining up beside the mounting block.

"Thank you," she replied, dismounting easily, then handing the gray's reins to Gorkon, who also took the reins to Alcaren's gelding.

Secca and her consort entered the foyer, then climbed the stairs to the upper level, where Alcaren stopped at the upper landing, well short of the Matriarch's guard.

Secca stepped forward, and the guard turned to the door, opening it just a trace.

"The lady Secca to see you, Matriarch." Almost before completing the announcement, and before the Matriarch's words to admit Secca were completed; the guard opened the door.

Secca walked toward the dais, stopped, and bowed before Alya, who was again seated on the blue crystalline throne-chair.

"You had asked to see me, Lady Secca?" asked the Matriarch.

Secca bowed. "I would like to inquire as to how might our transportation to Dumar be coming?'

"As quickly as we can finish fitting out the vessels. Alter all, after freeing our ports and providing us with six more vessels," replied the Matriarch with a smile, "how could I refuse?"

"Especially since it would remove two sorceresses and a sorcerer, from Encora," countered Secca.

"But I would be losing my favorite cousin." Alya laughed warmly, before a more serious expression reappeared. "I cannot tell you how happy I am for both of you. I have not seen Alcaren so joyous in all his life. He does not tell others, but I can sense and see that"

"I fear I am carrying him into great danger," Secca said. "That may be, but it is a danger that you may be able to overcome together. The dangers he faced here could never have been conquered."

Secca nodded. From what she had seen of the Ladies of the Shadows, she understood.

'Do you know where our ships would carry you? When we spoke before, you had not decided, and Narial remains in Sturinnese hands. . ." ventured the Matriarch.

"I had thought the small port of Stygia, south of Envaryl. We are still using the glasses to study Dumar, but, before we went farther, I wished to ask if that destination would be one where you could assist us."

Alya laughed gently. "I think everyone in Ranuak would like to help you on your way, wherever it be in Dumar, if not for the same reasons. The SouthWomen want to follow you into battle. The Exchange wants you to defeat the Sturinnese as soon as possible. The Ladies of the Shadows would like you and Alcaren out of Encora before you corrupt the land to a greater extent, and I will feel great relief, if sadness, once you are safely departed?" Alya's expression returned to a somber cast. "You know the SouthWomen have requested to accompany you? All five companies?'

"I had heard rumors of such."

'Would you have them?"

"Gladly," Secca replied. "Five companies would help greatly."

"I had thought as much. They have asked if you would accept Delcetta as their overcaptain. She would take orders still from Alcaren, or from you, as you see fit."

"I have no problem with her being an overcaptain. With the demands of sorcery, I would leave direct command to Alcaren."

The Matriarch nodded. "I will convey both my approval and yours to the Council of SouthWomen . . .not that they need mine, nor have they always heeded the Matriarch, but it is better when we do agree." Alya's last words were delivered with a dryly sardonic tone.

"How soon can we leave?" pressed Secca.

"Before your consorting I had asked the Exchange to make ready the ships. Three days from now, I am told, if there are no storms, and if you are ready."

"We will be ready."

"I will send word." Alya stood. "I wish that times were otherwise."

"So do we all." Secca bowed. "Thank you."

"We owe you the far greater thanks, Lady Secca. Perhaps in time, all in Ranuak will understand that"

"You are kind." Secca doubted that the Ladies of the Shadows would ever be thankful, and with what she might have to do in the weeks and seasons ahead, they would be even less pleased. "We will do our best" With a faint smile, she bowed again and turned.

Outside, Alcaren was still standing by the top of the stairs. He glanced at her.

Secca nodded slightly, and they started down the steps.

"Three days," she murmured, as she and Alcaren crossed the foyer toward the archway leading out to the portico.

"Wilten will not be pleased."

They both laughed softly as they stepped out of the building and under the portico.

Gorkon led their mounts to them, and Secca mounted quickly, and as gracefully as possible, she thought, for a woman as small as she was.

She said nothing as they rode out from under the portico and into the rain that had let up and become more like an icy mist.