"All right. Can you start from the beginning? I'm really confused, Kirin. I thought we were going to Brighthelm to protect your cover until we work out how to get me back to the north without raising suspicions. Why are we moving west?"

"Did I tell you that Clovis had lost a hand?"

She shook her head.

"Well, I couldn't understand it so after you pushed me away I went looking for the baker. I wanted to see where Clovis was found. He organized for me to be taken to the spot where his body was discovered."

"And?"

"And I found the remains of someone's hand."

"Ugh," she exclaimed. "Where?"

"It was in the remains of the fire. The villagers hadn't even looked at it. I suppose the excitement and terror of finding a murdered man was enough to make them careless."

"All right, so you found a hand. Why in the fire? Had the killer tried to burn the evidence?"

Kirin gave her a soft look of irony. "Why leave the body of Clovis in plain sight then? No, only a hand was in the fire. Bits had been pulled off."

Lily felt her stomach turn over. "What do you mean, pulled off?"

"It had been cooked, Lily. Bits of the cooked flesh were pulled from the bones. A finger was missing. I found the bones of that finger in the grass nearby. They were picked at."

She shrugged. "You're being ghoulish, Kirin. Couldn't it have been animals?"

"Animals would have dragged the hand out of the cooled embers, probably eaten most of it. This looked to be carefully done, the hand was left mainly intact, apart from the finger in the grass and the meat that was pulled from it."

"What are you surmising?"

"The killer did this."

She looked at him as though he were demented. "The killer ate the flesh of someone's hand and killed Clovis?" she said, then shook her head. "He must be as mad as you are."

Kirin looked away, said nothing.

Lily waited but he didn't respond, just fell silent again. She felt immediately uncomfortable again. "All right. Tell me what you think has occurred."

"I think I'll be wasting my time," he replied.

"No, I need to understand what you believe. I know it's important to you." She tugged at his sleeve. "Please, Kirin. I won't jeer at what ever you say."

Another thing she liked about Kirin was that he didn't hold a grudge. Kilt would have gone silent on her for the rest of the journey. Kirin seemed to have the wherewithal to not take her disbelief so personally that he needed to punish her.

"Tell me," she urged.

"I don't suppose you've ever heard of the legend of an aegis?"

She shook her head and frowned. "Should I know it?"

"No, not really. I honestly believed it was just an old story of our ancients. I've told you about Freath," he began. At her nod, he continued, "Well, he believed deeply in the existence of an aegis. So did King Brennus."

"And an aegis is what?"

Kirin sighed. "It is said that the aegis is one of the Vested; hugely empowered, although you would never know because an aegis would keep that magic secret from everyone."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Yes, very, because it's so powerful. But he, or she, doesn't want anyone to know he possesses this. According to legend, it actually belongs to the Valisars...and only the Valisars. It is said there is an aegis born for each heir. If the heir can find an aegis, he can bond him by a rather brutal method known as trammeling. To trammel an aegis requires the Valisar to consume some of him."

"What? Eat him?"

"I'm afraid so. That's another reason why a Vested who knows he is an aegis will avoid recognition."

"Wait, how is he recognized?"

Kirin shrugged. "That's his only protection-secrecy. He protects his own knowledge if he can. It's tricky, though, because an aegis is helplessly drawn to the Valisars. It takes enormous will, apparently, to resist the call. I suppose a person who spends years avoiding the city or any place the royals go, becomes more adept as he matures at resisting the urge, or an aegis too young to recognize his inherent skill doesn't feel the attraction until later."

"But they'd know from childhood?"

"I honestly don't know. I think one is born an aegis, so presumably, yes, they'd know of their difference, certainly."

"But say an aegis can resist the call to the Valisars-can't he just hide and the royal would be none the wiser?"

"Well, yes, and that's what most want to do. They don't want to have bits cut off them and they don't want to be under someone else's will. But there's one more hurdle. Each aegis is marked somehow."

"You mean like a visible sign-a birthmark or something like that?"

"Indeed, or it could be more subtle. I sound as though I am knowledgeable about this matter but in truth I know little-only what Freath told me and what I vaguely learned from my days at the Academy. My understanding is that if an aegis comes face to face with his own Valisar, both will know it instantly. But let's say a Valisar stumbled upon an aegis-not his own-then unless he is warned or touched by magic, he wouldn't necessarily know of the magical connection. I believe that's how it works. The aegis, however, always knows and so would have to work very hard to keep themselves secret and resist the call of the Valisar."

"And you say Freath knows more?"

"Yes." Kirin's face clouded. "He will be devastated by Clovis's death. He was clinging to the hope that Clovis would deliver someone very important."

Lily frowned. "Who? Important how?"

Kirin slapped the reins on the horse's rump. "It's a long tale..." He began to tell Lily how he met Clovis, when they were delivered as prisoners to Brighthelm soon after the overthrow of Penraven.

Roddy watched in shock as the raven stretched its neck, its head pulled back. Its shriek turned into a keening that sounded like despair. His head was hurting from the pressure of the air around him, now throbbing with magic, visible magic that appeared to shake the air until it looked as though the world was trembling. He realized he could no longer hear the waves, nor the lonely call of gulls-just Ravan and his terrible cries.

Roddy was beginning to feel dizzy from the pain in his head and the noise. Instinctively he reached out to the bird.

Ravan! Ravan!

And in his mind he heard a groan.

What's happening? he begged of the bird, who, like the air, seemed to be expanding.

It hurts, Ravan cried.

Buffeted by what seemed to be swirling winds now, Roddy pushed against the air, forcing his way to Ravan. He was shocked to realize that the bird appeared to have swollen to ten times his normal size and was still growing. He could no longer recognize him as the raven; now he looked like a formless dark shape.

The screaming intensified, the pressure became impossibly worse and Roddy began to feel that he was losing consciousness.

Ravan! he yelled. Forgive me.

Roddy's world turned black.

"Piven?" Lily queried, her tone filled with disbelief. "Leo's adopted brother?"

Kirin nodded. "Piven, or perhaps someone who is protecting him. It doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Not at all. Why? More importantly, how? He's not even Valisar, is he?"

Kirin looked perplexed. "No, you're right, logic says it can't be him. He was an orphan child taken in by the Valisars. But, if it was someone else, he couldn't trammel an aegis."

"So, logic aside, what makes you think this was Piven's work anyway? He'd be about..." Lily frowned. "...about fifteen anni or thereabouts."

Kirin shrugged. "I don't know-instinct, I think. Clovis had found the lost Valisar, we know that much. I know, I know," he said, raising a hand against the protestation that he could see leaping to her lips. "But we think of him as Valisar. Freath and I have held out hope for the child for a decade. Clovis was excited and was going to meet the person he thought was Piven at a small place called Minton Woodlet in the far south. Originally, you see, Freath charged Clovis and me both with finding an aegis and Clovis additionally with finding Piven. Now, ten anni later, Piven is found, Clovis makes contact after a decade of silence, and he's discovered murdered in a lonely spot with what looks like the remains of a trammeling. Am I imagining it, or is this too close for comfort?"

"The latter," she said, thoughtfully, her face filled with consternation. "So a Valisar, presumably, has trammeled an aegis."

"That's what it looks like. However, that supposition could be wrong. Someone else could have attempted to trammel a Vested. It is possible that the body that owns that hand is lying in the forest somewhere or someone is moving around minus their hand and pretty angry about it." He shrugged.

"But your instincts scream differently?"

"Yes," he said, frowning. "Screaming loudly, in fact."

"Could it be that Leo has found his aegis?"

"How? You said you only left him a day or so ago in the north."

"Mmm, that's true," she admitted. "Who are the other Valisars alive?"

Kirin gave a lopsided grin. "Exactly my point! I keep coming back to Piven. I've looked at this every way I can." He began counting off fingers. "Brennus is dead. Leo is alive but it's impossible that he could be here. The daughter died soon after being born-we even saw her ashes scattered from the parapet of Brighthelm. There are no heirs left, save Piven."

"But Piven isn't Valisar!"

Kirin stared at her, his gaze narrowing.

Lily frowned as she watched him. She knew he wanted her to make some sort of mental leap with him but she couldn't work it out. An idea slithered through her mind...but that was ridiculous, wasn't it? She glanced at Kirin. He refused to help, just kept looking at her with a glint of something dangerous in his expression.

"Say it!" he said.

"Say what? I'm not thinking anything."

"You are. You're my smart wife, Lily. Say it!"

She took a breath. "All right. What if Piven is Valisar?"

Kirin clapped and grinned. He leaned over and kissed the the top of her head in his excitement. She returned his grin. "Clever, Lily. But more so, clever, clever Brennus and Iselda!"

"You've gone mad, you know that, don't you?"

"Well, I could be laughably wrong but history tells me that the Valisars have been a secretive lot down the ages. Freath once said that he'd never met a more furtive man than Brennus. What if the whole notion of Piven as an orphan was one enormous and elaborate lie to protect the second heir to the throne?"

Lily shook her head with wonder. "Who would know?"

Kirin looked equally awed. "No one, I don't think. Everyone who might know is probably now dead. Perhaps only Freath is still standing who was close enough to the royals to share some secrets but I truly believe Freath was honest with me."

"You can't be sure-"

"No, I can't. But the more I consider it, the more likely it seems that Brennus and Iselda masterminded a devious plan to give absolute protection to Piven at birth. Perhaps what they didn't count on was his illness. He was an invalid and that offered a mea sure of protection that Leo could never have enjoyed. Loethar liked the child, treated him as a pet."

"But the ruse obviously worked, then," Lily remarked.

"Spectacularly! Loethar didn't feel threatened by Piven; no one felt threatened by Piven. He was considered fondly by all-even our infamous enemy."

"All right, I'll go along with this. Let's say Piven did do this trammeling."

He nodded.

"Tell me how a youth who, according to Leo, has the mental capacity of an infant, can achieve what you're suggesting?"

Kirin's face clouded. "That is my stumbling block. There are only two possibilities. The first is that someone else is controlling Piven's actions."

She looked doubtful. "Another person showing him how to hack off someone's hand, eat the flesh and bond another man to him? I can't imagine it."

"Neither can I," Kirin agreed.

"So what's your other suggestion, although I suspect I can guess," she said disdainfully.

"Go ahead," he invited.

"You now want me to believe that somehow in the intervening years of his disappearance, Piven has overcome his disability and is now a rational, intelligent fifteen-anni-old youth, strong enough to overpower a man and do this terrible deed."

"That's about the sum of it," he admitted.

She nodded, saying nothing for a few moments and they rode in thoughtful silence. "Why would Piven want an aegis?" she finally asked, thinking aloud.

"That's what I've been trying to fathom. How does he know about one, how did he find one, why would he do this?"

"Did you come up with answers?"

He looked at her doubtfully. "Only suppositions, I'm afraid. It's illogical, but the only rationale I can put together is that Piven either inherently knows, or has always had the ability to absorb information and thus understands the legend of an aegis and had the capacity to trammel him."

Lily bit her lip in thought. "But, Kirin, why? Why would he do this?"

"Fear. If he understands the concept of the aegis, he understands his own vulnerability at Loethar's hands if his new sanity is discovered. He needs protection."