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attention because one of the whisperers was Gel, and there was a tone inthe
man's voice he'd never heard before.
He took a quick glance over the top of the manuscript. Sureenough,
there wasn't a great deal of shelving going on, but Gel and the pretty little
concubine certainly had their heads closetogether.
Well, well, well! The granite crag cracks at last!
He didn't know whether to laugh or be annoyed. Not thathewanted the
girl; oh, she was attractive and talented enough, but so were the two other
girls his mother had purchased for him. But of all the times for his
tough-minded partner to pick to gosoft over a woman, this had to be the worst!
On the other hand, this wasGel he was talking about. Gel,who had
taught him the business of war and fighting, Gel who stuck by his side like a
faithful dog, Gel who had never askedfor anything for himself. How could he
possibly be annoyed that Gel had finally found someone who touched his heart?
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Oh, Ancestors.
Now how was he going to juggle all this? Hidden rebels,possible
treachery from his superiors, the hunt for his father and now Gel in love?
What next?
As he stared at the not-so-young lover, he felt a tap on his
shoulder. Lady Moth had come into the library without his noticing, and she
wore her mask-face, the one that generally meant that she was well, up to
something.
"We have a visitor that I believe you will want to meet your-self,"
she whispered, after a glance at Gel and the girl who were completely
oblivious to anything else going on around them.
Oh no not Triana
"You may tell Lady Triana that " he began.
But Moth's eyebrows shot up, and she interrupted him. "I don't know
why you should be expectingher," Moth replied, "but it's not Lady Triana. And
I do think you should put down that stupid journal written by an equally
stupid blockhead andcome with me. Now."
Seeing that she was not to be denied, Kyrtian sighed, marked the
place where he was leaving off, and stood up.
The lovers never noticed that he was leaving. That in itself was an
indication of just how hard Gel had fallen.
Oh, Ancestors, I only hope that Triana didn 't place that girlwith me
to get at Gel rather than me. . . .
With his thoughts flitting between amusement and concern, he wasn't
paying a great deal of attention when Moth broughthim into a tiny chamber
kitted out as a sitting-room, where a
young woman waited, pacing up and down in front of the win-dows,
displaying no great patience herself. All he noticed atfirst was that she was
red-haired and green-eyed, clothed in the same sort of tunic, boots, and trews
as a common laborer, with the physique of someone who was athletic and very
much usedto taking care of herself in any and all circumstances. He couldn't
imagine why Moth had insisted he meet this person unless, perhaps, she was one
of Moth's human servants and had information about the Young Lords?
"Lord Kyrtian," Moth said formally, "I believe that you have many
things to discuss with Lashana." She tipped her head tothe side as he sighed
with exasperation, still wondering what she was getting at. She pursed her
lips, but her green eyes heldthe ghost of amusement in them. "I believe you
might know her by another name.Elvenbane."
WHAT?
He lost every vestige of exasperation, annoyance, impatiencein that
moment. He stared at the woman, who stood poised like a deer about to flee,
trying to make his mind believe what his ears had just heard.
Red hair but elven eyes. And the ears. Wizard blood, unlessit's an
illusion
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But Moth would never have been fooled by an illusion. Mothhad met
Wizards. Moth's friend Viridina her son was a wizard.
"Lashana arrived bearing a letter from Viridina's halfbloodson,
verifying her identity," Moth said, as if divining histhoughts.
She probably is, the old schemer! She doesn 't need to readthoughts,
she knows me like her favorite sonnet!
"I am fascinated to meet you, Lashana," he said carefully."Or should
I call you 'Elvenbane?'"
"Pleasedon't," the young woman said firmly. She was stilltense and
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