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before she
rose from the table. “Calia, will you see me to bed, please? No,
Mairne, stay where you are and enjoy the rest of your pudding. You
needn’t attend me this evening.
    “I have some particular instructions for
Calia. Garit, my lad, you may sit up as long as you like, but I am
an old lady and I need my rest.”
    With that, she headed for the steps to the
solar and her bedchamber beyond, leaving Garit to stare after her
in astonishment that she would ever admit to weariness. Unless she
wasn’t tired at all, but wanted to escape from further discussion
of his foolish stepmother and her new husband.
    Garit watched Calia follow in silence, with
her head bowed. She hadn’t looked at him, nor bid him a good night.
He saw Mairne gaping open-mouthed at her mistress’s departing back
and he guessed she was as surprised by Lady Elgida’s abrupt
departure as he was. Then he noticed Anders looking at him and when
their glances met, Anders winked. Garit relaxed a little, knowing
that Anders would question Mairne so cleverly that she’d never
realize she was giving up information. Hiding a smile, certain he’d
soon learn what secrets were being kept at Saumar Manor, Garit
pulled his trencher closer and began to eat again.

Chapter 3
     
     
    “Shut the door, Calia, and latch it,” Lady
Elgida commanded. “I want to speak with you in private and without
any interruptions.”
    “Yes, my lady.” Calia did as ordered, then
stood waiting with her hands clasped at her waist.
    “Oh, do sit down, child.” With a look of
impatience Lady Elgida gestured to a stool set next to the low
brazier where a small fire burned. On the other side of the brazier
and close to its warmth a chair with a back and wide arms awaited
the mistress of Saumar. Striding past the large, blue-curtained bed
that took up most of the room, Lady Elgida sank into the
embroidered woolen cushions that padded the back and seat of the
chair. She placed a hand on each arm and her feet on a low
footstool.
    Calia thought the posture made her appear
rather like a queen who was considering what punishment to decree
for a recalcitrant subject. Her next words offered little comfort
to Calia’s frayed emotions.
    “Sit down,” Lady Elgida repeated, “and stop
wringing your hands like a martyr who’s about to be sent to the
scaffold.”
    Calia sat, but her hands seemed to flutter of
their own accord, so she folded them in her lap and tried not to
wring them.
    “Now, what do you want to tell me?” Lady
Elgida demanded.
    “Tell you? My lady, I thought you said you
wanted to speak with me.”
    “I should have said that I want to listen to
you.” Lady Elgida fixed her gaze on Calia’s face and Calia stared
back, feeling once again like a snared bird, only this time her
wings fluttered helplessly against the net as she sought a way to
escape. She knew she was wringing her hands, but she could not stop
the motion.
    “Speak!” Lady Elgida ordered. “Or, by the
heavenly blue sky above us, I’ll turn you out of Saumar this very
night, and Mairne with you.”
    “My lady, please, Mairne knows very little
about my past. She is not to blame.”
    “And you are to blame? For what? What have
you done, Calia?”
    “It’s not what I’ve done, but what I haven’t
done. It’s who I am. Mairne had nothing to do with this. I know I
should have told you everything on the first day I came to Saumar.
But I liked you at once and I wanted to stay. I could see that
Mairne wanted to stay, too. Neither of us could bear the thought of
returning to Talier Beguinage. It’s not that anyone there was ever
cruel to us, just that neither Mairne nor I belonged at Talier.
Neither of us has the proper vocation for the work the lady mages
do there, nor does Mairne have any Power at all.
    “So I delayed giving the explanation you
deserved,” Calia went on. “I promised myself that I’d confess
everything soon, in a day, or a week, after you and I knew each
other better, after I’d