Mouse and Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page B

my well-wishes—and Patch's. Come back when you're able, Pilot, and we'll dance in earnest."
    Another sip emptied the cup. She sat holding it while the last message played out.
    "Scholar Caylon, it is Qiarta tel'Ozan, the least of your students." Unlike the others, Qiarta spoke in the High Tongue, in the mode between student and honored instructor. "I have seen the news, Scholar. I would be honored to serve you, in whatever fashion that you may require. Please do not hesitate to call upon me, at any hour."
    Tears pricked. Aelliana closed her eyes.
    "Tea, Pilot?" a respectful voice inquired.
    She opened her eyes and looked down slightly, into Daav's lean, clever face, a novel view. Her fingers twitched as though she would reach out and touch his cheek, which would, she told herself, take wrongful advantage of him—and perhaps dismay the Healers, her kind hosts.
    Even seated as he was, cross-legged on the pale blue rug, Daav was tall enough to reach the tray. As if to prove it, he hefted the teapot, quirked an eyebrow and glanced down. Following his glance, she saw the cup cradled in her hands, and held it up, whereupon he poured.
    "There are sandwiches left, if you'd like another one or two," he commented, pouring for himself before setting the pot back onto the tray.
    "Another!" she exclaimed, looking once more to the tea tray. In fact, the sandwich plate was empty, save for precisely two, cut into the shapes of a crescent moon and a star.
    "Did I—I never ate all of those!" she exclaimed, remembering the pleasant tastes of mint and vehna . "Did I?"
    "I accounted for three or four," Daav said calmly, raising his cup to sip. "Yesterday's lunch was quite some time gone."
    She sipped her tea and considered the remaining sandwiches.
    "The stars are mint and vehna ," Daav murmured. "The crescents are cress and cheese."
    She was, Aelliana thought, hungry. Not ravenous, surely, but—another sandwich would taste . . .  good .
    "I'll have the star if you'll have the crescent," she said, giving Daav a sidelong glance from beneath her lashes.
    "Done!" he said merrily, and swooped the plate up, offering it first to her.
    She took the star, and bit into it, sighing in pleasure. It was a dainty thing, gone in two bites, which was, she supposed, how she had managed to eat several while listening to her messages.
    That, and a vigilant Scout, who had no doubt made sure that a new sandwich came into her hand as soon as it was empty.
    "I can see," she said, "that I will have to be on my mettle."
    "You were . . . a bit . . . distracted," Daav admitted. "Which is rarely the case." He stretched to put his cup on the tray, and looked back to her, black eyes serious.
    "What do you require of me, Aelliana?"
    There it was, she thought. Daav had the gift of asking the question she hesitated to ask of herself. In this instance, what was required of Aelliana Caylon?
    "It would seem," she said slowly, "that I have amends to make, and reassurances to present. My sister—she is only a halfling, the youngest of us. To thwart Ran Eld—was not in her power. I must show her that I find her blameless. Clonak—I could put him in danger no more than you. I thought he had understood . . ."
    She finished her tea and put the cup on the tray. "For the rest—people are far too good— far too good to me."
    "In the case of your comrades at Binjali's," Daav said slowly. "They offer what a comrade will. You have not stinted them; they do not stint you. Clonak, if one who loves him may say it, is not so ridiculous as he makes himself seem. That he blames himself for not insisting that you take his escort—I think you are correct in thinking so. That he blames you—"
    "But it is not his blame to take!" she cried. "The burden of blame rests entirely upon me, for ignoring the best advice of my comrades, and for believing that my right to see the delm would shield me from harm. Ran Eld—I do not know how Ran Eld came to be . . . as he is. Was.