Cazaril hesitated. "Dy Joal had a personal grudge against me, but... the world knew merely that I'd ridden to Valenda. Dy Joal could only have had surmise of my true route from dy Jironal. Therefore, we may be certain dy Jironal had some report of me from his spies in Ibra. His knowledge of our real aim lags—but not, I think, by much. Dy Joal was a stopgap, hurriedly dispatched. And certainly not the only such agent. Something else must follow."

"How soon?"

"I don't know. Dy Jironal commands the Order of the Son; he can draw on its men as soon as he can evolve a plausible enough lie by which to move them."

Bergon tapped his sheathed sword against his leather-clad thigh, and frowned up at the sky, which was clearing as evening fell. The mountain spines to the west were black silhouettes against a lingering green glow, and the first stars shone overhead. The grizzled man's tale of an approaching blizzard had proved a mere decoy, although a light snow squall that had blown through earlier might have been the seed of the idea. "The moon is nearly full, and will be well up by midnight. If we ride both night and day, perchance we can push across this disturbed country before dy Jironal can bring up any more reinforcements."

Cazaril nodded. "Let him rush his men to patrol a border that we're already across? Good. I like it."

Bergon studied him in doubt. "But... will you be able to ride, Caz?"

"I'd rather ride than fight."

Bergon sighed agreement. "Yes."

THE GRATEFUL, GRIEVING CASTILLAR DY ZAVAR pressed all the refreshment his disrupted household could spare upon them. Bergon decided to leave the mules, injured grooms, and lamed horses in his care, to follow on when they could, and lighten his own party thereby. Ferda selected the fastest, soundest horses, and made sure they were rubbed down well and fed and rested until time to start. March dy Sould had recovered after a few hours of rest in this more nourishing air, and insisted on accompanying the royse. Dy Cembuer, who had suffered a broken arm and some freely bleeding cuts in the courtyard fight, undertook to stay with the grooms and baggage and assist dy Zavar until all were ready to travel.

The problem of justice upon the brigands, Cazaril was relieved to leave to their victims. Bergon's midnight departure would spare them having to witness the hangings at dawn. He left the scattered portion of Dondo's pearls for the stricken household to collect, and tucked the remains of the rope back in his saddlebag.

The royse's cavalcade took to the road again when the moon rose over the hills before them, filling the snowy vales with liquid light. There would be no turning aside now before Valenda.

They retraced Cazaril's outbound route across western Chalion, changing horses at obscure rural posts of the Daughter's Order. At every stop he inquired anxiously for any further ciphered messages from Iselle or news from Valenda that might reveal the tactical situation into which they rushed. He grew increasingly uneasy at the absence of letters. In the original plan, they had envisioned Iselle waiting with her grandmother and mother, guarded by her uncle dy Baocia's troops. Cazaril feared this ideal condition no longer held.

They checked at midevening twenty-five miles short of Valenda at the village of Palma. The region around Palma was noted for its fine pasturage; a post of the Daughter's Order there devoted itself to raising and training remounts for the Temple. Cazaril was certain of obtaining fresh horses in Palma. He prayed for fresh intelligence as well.

Cazaril did not so much dismount from his blown horse as fall slowly, all in a piece, as if his body were carved from a single block of wood. Both Ferda and Foix had to support him through the order's sprawling compound. They brought him into a shabbily comfortable chamber, where a bright fire burned in a fieldstone fireplace. A plain pine table had been hastily cleared of someone's card game. The dedicat-commander of the post hurried in to wait upon them. The man glanced uncertainly from dy Tagille to dy Sould; his gaze passed over Bergon, who'd dressed as a groom since the border for caution's sake. The commander fell into apologetic confusion when the royse was introduced, and sent his lieutenant scurrying for food and drink to offer his distinguished company.

Cazaril sat by the table in a cushioned chair, wonderfully unlike a saddle even if the room did still seem to be rocking around him. He was beginning to dislike horses almost as much as he disliked boats. His head felt stuffed with wool, and his body didn't bear thinking about. He broke into the exchange of courtly amenities to croak, "What word have you from Valenda? Do you hold any new messages from the Royesse Iselle?" Ferda pressed a glass of watered wine into his hand, and he gulped half of it at once.

The dedicat-commander gave him a little understanding headshake, his lips tightening. "Chancellor dy Jironal marched a thousand more of his men into the town last week. He has another thousand bivouacked along the river. They patrol the countryside, looking for you. Searchers have stopped here twice. He holds Valenda tight in his grip."

"Didn't Provincar dy Baocia have any men there?"

"Yes, two companies, but they were badly outnumbered. No one would start the fight at Royse Teidez's interment, and after that they dared not."

"Have you heard from March dy Palliar?"

"He used to bring the letters. We've had no direct word from the royesse for five days. It's rumored that she is very ill and sees no one."

Bergon's eyes widened in alarm. Cazaril squinted and rubbed his aching head. "Ill? Iselle? Well... maybe. Or else held close-confined by dy Jironal, and the illness a tale put about." Had one of Cazaril's letters fallen into the wrong hands? He had feared they might have to either spirit the royesse out of Valenda, or break her free by force of arms, preferably the former. He hadn't planned what to do if she had fallen, perhaps, too sick to ride at this critical moment.

His muzzy brain evolved a mad vision of somehow sneaking Bergon in to her, over the rooftops and balconies like a lover in a poem. No. A night of secret love between them might break the curse, channel it back somehow to the gods who had spilled it, but he couldn't see how it would miraculously make away with two thousand or so very fleshly soldiers.

"Does Orico still live?" he asked at last.

"As far as we've heard."

"We can do nothing more tonight." He wouldn't trust any plan that came out of his tired brain tonight. "Tomorrow, Foix and Ferda and I will go into Valenda on foot, in disguise, and reconnoiter. I promise you I can pass for a road vagabond. If we can't see our way clear, then fall back to Provincar dy Baocia's people in Taryoon, and plan again."

"Can you walk, my lord?" asked Foix in a dubious voice.

Right now, he wasn't sure if he could stand up. He glowered helplessly at Foix, who was tired but resilient, pink rather than gray after days in the saddle. Youth. Eh. "By tomorrow, I will." He rubbed his face. "Do dy Jironal's men realize they are not guardians but prison-keepers? That they are being led into possible treason against the rightful Heiress?"

The dedicat-commander sat back, and opened his hands. "Such charges are being flung about like snowballs from both parties right now. Rumors that the royesse has sent agents into Ibra to contract a marriage with the new Heir are flying everywhere." He gave Royse Bergon an apologetic nod.

So much for the secrecy of his mission. He considered the pitfalls of potential party lines in Chalion. Iselle and Orico versus dy Jironal, all right. Iselle versus Orico and Dy Jironal... hideously dangerous.

"The news has had a mixed reception," the commander continued. "The ladies look on Bergon with approval and want to make a romance of it all, because it's said that he is brave and well-favored. Soberer heads worry that Iselle may sell Chalion to the Fox, because she is, ah, young and inexperienced."

In other words, foolish and flighty. Sober heads had much to learn. Cazaril's lips drew back on a dry grin. "No," he mumbled. "We have not done that." He realized that he was speaking to his knees, his forehead having unaccountably sunk to the table and anchored there.

After about a minute Bergon's voice murmured gently in his ear, "Caz? Are you awake?"

"Mm."

"Would you like to go to bed, my lord?" the dedicat-commander inquired after another pause.

"Mm."

He whimpered a little as strong hands under each arm forced him to his feet. Ferda and Foix, leading him off somewhere, cruelly. The table had been soft enough... He didn't even remember falling into the bed.

SOMEONE WAS SHAKING HIS SHOULDER.

A hideously cheerful voice bellowed in his ear, "Rise and ride, Captain Sunshine!"

He spasmed and clawed at his covers, tried to sit up, and thought better of the effort. He pulled open his glued-shut eyelids, blinking in the candlelight. The identity of the voice finally penetrated. "Palli! You're alive!" He meant to shout joyfully. At least it came out audibly. "What time is it?" He struggled again to sit up, making it onto one elbow. He seemed to be in some evicted officer-dedicat's plainly furnished bedchamber.

"About an hour before dawn. We've been riding all night. Iselle sent me to find you." He raised his brace of candles higher. Bergon was standing anxiously at his shoulder, and Foix too. "Bastard's demons, Caz, you look like death on a trencher."

"That... has been observed." He lay back down. Palli was here. Palli was here, and all was well. He could shove Bergon and all his burdens off onto him, lie here, and not get up. Die alone and in peace, taking Dondo out of the world with him. "Take Royse Bergon and his company to Iselle. Leave me—"

"What, for dy Jironal's patrols to find? Not if I value my future fortune as a courtier! Iselle wants you safe with her in Taryoon."

"Taryoon? Not Valenda?" He blinked. "Safe?" This time he did struggle up, and all the way to his feet, where he passed out.

The black fog lifted, and he found Bergon, round-eyed, holding him slumped on the edge of the bed.

"Sit a minute with your head down," Palli advised.

Cazaril obediently bent over his aching belly. If Dondo had visited him last night, he'd not been home. The ghost had kicked him a few times in his sleep, though, it felt like. From the inside out.

Bergon said softly, "He ate nothing when we came in last night. He collapsed straightaway, and we put him to bed."

"Right," said Palli, and jerked his thumb at the hovering Foix, who nodded and slipped out of the room.

"Taryoon?" Cazaril mumbled from the vicinity of his knees.

"Aye. She gave all two thousand of dy Jironal's men the slip, she did. Well, first of all, before that, her uncle dy Baocia pulled his men out and went home. The fools let him go; thought it was a danger removed from their midst. Yes, and made free to move at will! Then Iselle rode out five days running, always with a troop of dy Jironal's cavalry for escort, and gave them more exercise than they cared for. Had 'em absolutely convinced she meant to escape while riding. So when she and Lady Betriz went walking out one day with old Lady dy Hueltar, they let her go by. I was waiting with two saddled horses, and two women to change cloaks with 'em and go back with the old lady. We were gone down that ravine so fast... The old Provincara undertook to conceal she'd flown for as long as possible, pass it off that she was ill in her mother's chambers. They've doubtless tumbled to it by now, but I'll wager she was safe with her uncle in Taryoon before Valenda knew she was gone. Five gods, those girls can ride! Sixty miles cross-country between dusk and dawn under a full moon, and only one change of horses."

"Girls?" said Cazaril. "Is Lady Betriz safe, too?"

"Oh, aye. Both of 'em chipper as songbirds, when I left 'em. Made me feel old."

Cazaril squinted up at Palli, five years his junior, but let this pass. "Ser dy Ferrej... the Provincara, Lady Ista?"

Palli's face sobered. "Still hostages in Valenda. They all told the girls to go on, you know."

"Ah."

Foix brought him a bowl of bean porridge, hot and aromatic, on a tray, and Bergon himself arranged his pillows and helped him sit up to eat it. Cazaril had thought he was ravenous, yet found himself unable to force down more than a few bites. Palli was keen to get away while the darkness still cloaked their numbers. Cazaril struggled to oblige, letting Foix help him back into his clothes. He dreaded the attempt to ride again.

In the post's stable yard, he found that their escort, a dozen men of the Daughter's Order who'd followed Palli from Taryoon, waited with a horse litter slung between two mounts. Indignant at first, he let Bergon persuade him into it, and the cavalcade swung away into the graying dark. The rough back roads and trails they took made the litter jounce and sway nauseatingly. After half an hour of this, he cried for mercy, and undertook to climb on a horse. Someone had thought to bring along a smooth-paced ambler for this very purpose, and he clung to the saddle and endured its rippling gait while they swung wide around Valenda and its occupiers' patrols.

In the afternoon, they dropped down from some wooded slopes onto a wider road, and Palli rode alongside him. Palli eyed him curiously, a little sideways.

"I hear you do miracles with mules."

"Not me. The goddess." Cazaril's smile twisted. "She has a way with mules, it seems."

"I'm also told you're strangely hard on brigands."

"We were a strong company, well armed. If the brigands hadn't been set onto us by dy Joal, they would never have attempted us."

"Dy Joal was one of dy Jironal's best swords. Foix says you took him down in seconds."

"That was a mistake. Besides, his foot slipped."

Palli's lips twitched. "You don't have to go around telling people that, you know." He stared ahead between his horse's bobbing ears for a time. "So, the boy you defended on the Roknari galley was Bergon himself."