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becoming easier, if only slightly, for Cammon to keep his mind shut but his senses alert.
    “Better,” Jerril said when lessons were over. “Time for dinner. How do you feel?”
    “Just as hungry as yesterday, but not as tired.”
    Jerril nodded his bald head. “That’s progress.”
    Tonight, Areel had left his book behind and lectured instead on what he had been reading. Boring stuff, Cammon thought, scarcely paying attention. The first day he had arrived, Cammon had been able to tell that Areel was rife with magic, but it had been hard to define exactly what that magic was. Eventually he decided it had to do with things. Understanding them, finding them, fixing them, knowing how to put them to good use. If you lost your shoe or broke your spectacles, Areel was the man to see. If you wanted to buy a bolt of lace in a peculiar shade of pink, he could tell you exactly where such a thing might be found. He wasn’t especially good with people, except Jerril and Lynnette. Cammon liked him, but he wasn’t surprised when many others didn’t.
    “The sword was broken then, and shipped back to Karyndein, both of the jewels still in the hilt,” Areel was saying, finishing up some tale about a king who’d lived two hundred years ago, as far as Cammon could tell. “Never to be seen in Gillengaria again!”
    “Perhaps that’s just as well, all the trouble it’s caused,” Lynnette said. “Cam, would you like more potatoes? More meat?”
    He never refused, no matter how often she offered. “Yes, please.”
    “Lots of commotion today at the western gate of the city,” Jerril observed, handing Cammon the bread, too. “Did anyone get an idea of what was going on?”
    None of them had left the house this day, but all of them had ways of sensing the world around them. “I didn’t catch much,” Lynnette said. “Lots of horses, but I couldn’t tell you about their riders. The guards at the gate seemed impressed—that much I could tell.”
    “Five carriages,” said Areel. “And one of them had this glow to it—this weight—I think it was carrying some kind of treasure. Nothing I recognized, though.”
    Jerril nodded. “Foreigners, I think. From over the ocean. Largely impervious to us.”
    It was a regrettable fact that the magic of Gillengaria mystics only operated in Gillengaria. None of them could pick up much information about people or objects that were not native to the country.
    “Well, there were thirty horses, so if twenty of them were pulling carriages, ten were probably carrying riders,” Cammon said. He was surprised when the others all looked at him. “What?”
    “You sensed that much even while you were so busy fencing with me?” Jerril asked softly. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d have the energy.”
    Cammon grinned. “Well, it was hard to miss. There was a lot of excitement.”
    Areel returned to his food, but Jerril was still watching Cammon. “We might work on that next,” he said thoughtfully.
    “Work on what?”
    “Seeing if you can somehow begin to sense the presence and emotions of foreigners. That would be a valuable skill indeed.”
    “Can you ?”
    “No. But I might be able to teach you how to figure it out.”
    Cammon shook his head and helped himself to more vegetables. “I’ve always thought it was impossible. I saw Kirra try to change an object once—something that came from Sovenfeld. She couldn’t do it. And I bet Senneth can’t set something on fire if it comes from outside Gillengaria.”
    Now Jerril was amused. “We’ll have to ask her that sometime.”
    “Tomorrow, I suppose.” They all looked at him again. “What?”
    “Senneth’s coming by tomorrow, is she?” Lynnette asked.
    Cammon nodded. “Yes, but Tayse will stay behind.”
    Areel was staring at him from under his wild white brows. “You can hear them having that conversation?” he demanded in his fierce voice. “Clear as if they’re standing here in the room? Or are you just—” He waved