There are three—Alain, Vincent, and Emun. I was doubtful of Alain before I came here, because I had met him several years ago, and he seemed a little unsteady to me. I was right. Alain is impossible, ruined, though not, I think, by his laran, but by some other thing I have not discovered. But I had hopes of Vincent.
And now you don't. And Emun?
He is a frightened child, and I don't know if that can be remedied. I don't want to tell you too much, because I need to know what you think.
She chuckled at this. I can see that Marguerida has had a good influence on you.
What do you mean by that?
Only that in the past you did not care much for objectivity, brother. She sniffed the air as they came to the top of the stairs. You did not really prepare me for this forsaken place. No wonder the Elhalyn are so peculiar, living here.
You should have seen it before I had repairs done! It was a fine house, once, you know. I can't think why Priscilla has let it go to rack and ruin, but she is convinced that she is leaving here soon, though where she plans to go remains a mystery. There are a great many plants that grow here that I've never seen anywhere else, and the breeze from the sea of Dalereuth is very invigorating. At least, it was when I arrived here. I had no idea how awful it was in winter
Mikhail, stop avoiding what is eating at you! You are the most maddening of men sometimes.
Worse than Gabe?
Humph. In my experience, there is no one more maddening than our brother. But you are really trying my patience!
Sorry, Liri. I was not doing it deliberately. This place has demoralized me—more than I realized until this moment. When Regis asked me to be Regent before Midsummer. I wasn't very pleased, but I did not imagine it would be this difficult a job. I had no idea how the children had changed
in the four or so years since I last saw them, and I certainly did not expect Vincent to turn out the way he has.
And how is that?
I don't quite know how to describe it, because I've never encountered anything like it before. Priscilla has never said anything about Vincent's father, but I have been going on the assumption that he was the same man as Alain's father. She will not name him under any circumstances, just says that they are her sons.
What! No wonder she will not come to Thendara and has been keeping herself cooped up here for these past twenty years. Why, she could have had a dozen lovers!
There aren't many opportunities for sexual license out' here, Liri.
True enough. Has she said why she won't leave?
Something to do with this Guardian she keeps talking about, or, rather, refusing to talk about. I have asked and asked, but I just haven't gotten any good answers.
"Curiouser and curiouser."
This was one of Marguerida's favorite phrases, and the sound of it in Liriel's mind was a little disquieting. He took a deep breath and dropped one of the bags, so he could open the door to Liriel's room. "Exactly. This was the best I could do for you. I am at the other end of the hall, and the children's rooms are between us, so you will likely be awakened by_ nightmares."
"Now there's a pleasant prospect," she answered dryly. Tell me what is bothering you about Vincent.
Mikhail hesitated a moment. He had forgotten Liriel's habit of going directly to the heart of things, her impatience and the clarity of her mind. Too, she seemed different than he remembered her, more confident, even as he was less. He seems to take delight in projecting his nastiest emotions all over the place, and he particularly bullies his younger brother Emun. I have caught him torturing small animals— he hung a cat from the rafters, and it would have died but that Daryll discovered it first. There is just something about him that is bone mean—something that wasn't present when I saw him before.
Do you think he is the cause of the nightmares you spoke of?
Yes and no. He is the only child who sleeps soundly, but
he is completely untrained, so I don't know how he could manage it. The night I contacted you, Emun had one where he was trying to get away from something banshee-like that he said was trying to eat him. Then he told me that Vincent had told him some tale of banshee ghosts being unstoppable—where do children get these notions? But I cannot be sure if Vincent is merely feeding his brother and sisters' imaginations, or is actively up to some mischief.
I see. You seem to be of two minds about this. I've never known you to be so confused, Mik.
Damn right, Liri. I am at my wits end, or perhaps beyond that! I just don't know what to make of the situation, which is why I asked for your help. "This room faces away from the sea, so you won't have a lot of wind to bother you, and the bedding is clean—I made sure of that."
"That was very kind of you, brother. But after four days of racketing about in that carriage, I should be perfectly content with a straw mattress and a skimpy blanket. I have never been so glad to get out of a conveyance in my life— and the thought of the return journey is very disheartening." And if I read Priscilla Elhalyn rightly, she will want me to depart on the morrow. She paused, then turned toward the open door. "And who is this," she asked in a quite different tone of voice.
Bright eyes beneath a tumble of dark curls shone in the flickering light of the torches set along the hall. After a moment, an entire face emerged from its hiding place beside the door, and Valenta stepped out, looking both curious and shy. In the flickering light of the lampions, her high cheekbones and budlike mouth beneath a tiny and very unElhalyn nose, seemed something quite remarkable.
"Hello, Valenta.. Sister, may I present Valenta Elhalyn. This is my sister, Liriel Lanart-Hastur."
Liriel bent down, her tall, full body leaning until she was nearly at eye level with the child. She extended her hand slowly, and Valenta reached her own to grasp it. Liriel looked down at the small hand, with its six fingers, and nodded as if something had finally made sense to her.
"You are named for the moon," Valenta said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yes, I am."
"It is a very pretty name."
"Thank you." What an attractive girl, Mikhail. And I think I may know who her father was—no Ridenow, for certain. I think she may be half chieri.
Chieri? No one has seen one in years! I always thought they were gone, or only a legend. But that makes sense, now that you say it. I hadn't even thought of that—my brains must be turning to mush!
What of the other daughter? Is she like in form? Is she as beautiful?
No. She is red-haired—more typical in appearance than Valenta. A very beautiful girl. If I had seen her when I was seventeen, I would have broken my heart over her. She quite casts Valenta into the shade—though this does not seem to be a problem between them, for they are quite devoted to one another.
"Mother is very upset that you came here," Valenta announced. "Why is that? Are you going to take us away from her?" I hope so—because I hate this place.
"No one is going to take you away from your mother." Liriel sounded reassuring, but not as if she was certain she spoke the truth. "I am sorry she is upset."
Valenta shrugged, with the indifference of the young. "Mother is almost always upset about something, so I don't mind. But I wish you would take me away from here. Soon. Before Midwinter comes."
"Why is that?"
Valenta's eyes filled with tears, and she shook her small head until the curls danced around her brow. She began to tremble all over. "I must not tell you," she whispered, biting her little lips. Then she turned and bolted into the hall, and they could hear the patter of her footsteps, hurrying away.
Liriel and Mikhail stared at each other. Liriel was more startled than he was at Valenta's behavior. Her eyes goggled slightly and one of her pale red eyebrows lifted. It was a comical enough expression to bring a small bubble of merriment into his chest, a feeling of relief and gladness for the solid presence of his unflappable sister. Liriel asked, "Is this how she is, or is she being peculiar?"
The question, posed quite serio
usly, was too much and Mikhail laughed heartily, while Liriel looked annoyed. "Around here, that was fairly ordinary. Valenta is a good
girl, quite intelligent, and the least troubled of the bunch. In fact, she and her sister, Miralys, seem to be very normal young women. If I were permitted to choose a woman rather than a man for the throne, either of them might be fine. Until now, I have never completely understood what Marguerida meant when she rails against our customs.
"Really?" Liriel gave him a penetrating glance, and something like a grin began to play across her mouth.
"Yes. I started out assuming that she was just being Ter-ran, that she was thinking of things as they are on other worlds, not that she was actually being sensible. When she tells me that the best person for the job should have it, regardless of sex, my brain feels as if it is starting to fracture. And that is despite all the time I have spent with Lady Marilla, watching her nurture her pottery industry from one kiln to a dozen, and knowing full well that this was a rather remarkable thing. At the same time, I realize, I just thought she was keeping busy, not that she was doing something ... real."
"At least you can recognize that, which is more than we can say for Father. He is raging, cursing Lew Alton and Marguerida, as if they were put on Darkover just to irritate him. His latest plan is to go to the Cortes and demand that Gabe be made the heir to the Alton Domain, and that they force Marguerida to marry him. Mother told him not to be a fool, and to let her handle it, which led to an argument you could hear all over Arilinn, even if you had no laran. Father has not consulted our brother, or he would know that Gabe has taken the measure of our cousin, and now would not have her if she were the last woman on Darkover. He is properly frightened of her—ever since she used the Voice to send Donal off into the overworld."
"How did he find out about that? I thought we had managed to keep it a secret. I did warn Gabe that Marguerida was no one to make angry, but I don't think I told him about the Voice, or the rest of our strange adventure." Mikhail paused, remembering the night at Armida when Donal had tried to scare Margaret Alton by dressing up in a sheet and making spooky noises. He had awakened her suddenly, even though the little boy knew better, and she had spoken without either thought or any awareness that her voice alone might have powers. The command voice
was, like many other aspects of laran, impossible to predict. But Marguerida had it in full.
"Gabe is not stupid, even if he is not as clever as you are, and it finally penetrated his thick skull that Marguerida will never be the sort of woman he can manage to his own satisfaction."
"I can't imagine anyone managing her, not even me. No matter how hard she tries, she is always going to be very headstrong and independent."
"Of course you cannot!" Liriel gave a little snort of amusement. "She did not grow up here, and expecting her to behave according to our ways is ridiculous. At least you understand it. If only Father could be as realistic. I cannot imagine he will come to his senses. He resents Lew so much that he can hardly eat. And he wants to keep Armida, at whatever cost. It has become an obsession with him."
"If only he were not so stubborn!"
"If only the wind were not so chill. Now get out of here. I want to bathe and put on some fresh clothing. This robe is so foul it is ready to take on a life of its own. And with what little I have seen so far of Halyn House, it might just do that."
"Of course. The bathroom is two doors down the corridor on the left, and you will find it perhaps the most luxurious place in the entire house. But the towels are a little worn and thin. I sent for more from Thendara, but they have not yet arrived."
Liriel chuckled. "I'll wager you never gave a thought to towels in your life before you came here." Then her face became serious again. "There is something familiar about that Emelda creature—I just can't quite bring it to mind. I am sure I have seen her before." She sounded troubled as she spoke.
"Have you now? Interesting. I have not managed to find out anything about her, except she has been here with Priscilla and the children for about a year, and has a lot of influence that I mistrust. And I won't bet with you," he added. "I hate to lose."
He turned then and left the room. In the hall he discovered Miralys, looking curious, and Valenta as well. "What are you girls doing out here?"
"Waiting for you," Valenta informed him. "Tell us all about your sister!"
"Yes, do! Val says she is as tall as you, and very large." Miralys was a contrast to her younger sister, not only in her fairer coloring, but in her mannerisms. Where Valenta was pert and almost forward, Mira was serene and more retiring. She moved with complete if unconscious grace, and possessed a remarkable assurance. Mikhail had seen her stand up to Vincent, and she had even bloodied his nose on one occasion. This was remarkable, for Vincent was tall and strong, and Miralys at fourteen was not more than five foot three, and looked as fragile as a lily. But she was fast, and her hands were remarkably strong for her size.
"My sister Liriel is, indeed, large of body, but she cannot help that. She was always so, even when she was a child. She is younger than I am, by a year, and she has a twin, my sister Ariel. So, you see, my family is very like yours— I have two brothers and two sisters."
"Yes, yes. But what is she? She is not a leronis, is she?"
"No, she is not. Liriel is a technician. For the most part she lives at Tramontana Tower, but recently she has been at Arilinn instead, helping our cousin Marguerida Alton begin her studies, and also caring for our sister, who is not so strong."
"Why is she here?" Miralys demanded. "Mother says she has come to take us away from Halyn House, but Val says that isn't so!" If someone doesn't get me out of here soon, Vincent will hurt me!
Mikhail rocked at the thought that came from Miralys, for he sensed that the girl meant something which had not occurred to him until that moment. There was a sense of peril in her mind, as if she feared she would be ravished against her will. He was so stunned it was several moments before he answered. "She has come to test the two of you for laran, certainly."
"Oh. And if we have a lot of it, can we go away and become leroni?"
"Would you like that? It isn't easy, you know. You have to study a great many things.
"I would rather be on a moon than stay here another winter," Miralys interrupted him. She was quite calm as she spoke, but her mind was aflutter with unease, and there
was definitely a sexual component to it, one he had missed due to his own scrupulousness. Mikhail had been very careful with the girls, aware that his presence in the house had a quality of impropriety that could be misinterpreted by gossips.
Mikhail cursed himself for a fool. He should have guessed that as isolated as the Elhalyn children were, Vincent would present a potential threat to any likely female, including his own sisters. Alain was not a problem, his complete inability to make any decision preventing him from doing harm to another, and Emun was still too young. But Vincent, the bully, was another matter altogether. He realized it was his own upbringing which had prevented him from even imagining such a thing, for as much as he loved his sisters, it had never, as far as he could recall, crossed his mind to find them in the least desirable. When Mikhail had been an adolescent, he thought them both a terrible nuisance, and it was not until the past few years that he had come to realize that Liriel was a fascinating person in her own right. But he still tended to dismiss them from his mind, which made his asking Liri for help all the more amazing.
Incest was not unknown in the long history of the Domains, and for that reason there were very strong strictures concerning the relations between the sexes. Mikhail had been trained not to think of his sisters as women, and, he discovered to his dismay, he still regarded them as little girls, as children, even Liriel, who was as adult as he was himself. He likewise did not look upon women of his mother's generation as desirable, because that was also considered inappropriate. Those partners he had chosen, and they were few, were always girls near his own age, but not closer to him in
blood than cousin, and usually not even that.
But here, so far from the centers of Darkovan civilization, there were not a great many women from which to choose. The village which stood between Elhalyn Castle and Halyn House was small, supporting perhaps two hundred folk, most of whom worked the fields in summer, growing the hearty wheat that flourished there. Now the refusal of the local girls to work at Halyn House began to take on a sinister shape that had nothing to do with either Emelda or any ghosts.
It was one thing, he knew, for a member of the Comyn to father a nedestro child on a peasant girl with her compliance, and quite another if she was taken against her will. The young women around Armida had been accepting the favors of various Altons for generations—Gabe had at least one son that Mikhail knew of, and Rafael a daughter—but there was a tacit agreement between the two groups that such activity was conducted with respect for the woman involved. The children of such unions were provided for, and in some cases, even reared by the Domain family. Dom Gabriel had never, as far as he knew, strayed from his marriage to Javanne, and Mikhail was reasonably certain he did not have any unknown siblings. Dom Gabriel was unusual in his restraint.
Did Priscilla guess that Vincent was a threat to his sisters, and was that why she kept telling Mikhail to take him . away? And if this was the case, why hadn't the foolish female sent Vincent to Thendara or Arilinn long since. Then he remembered the séance, and the tone of Domna Elhalyn's voice when she spoke to her brother's ghost. What if ... It made him uncomfortable. He wrenched his mind away from these speculations, feeling uneasy and almost dirty. No, he must be wrong! Priscilla would never do something so unseemly.