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Priscilla had left the
    place. Halyn House was the old dower residence ten miles closer to the sea and he only
    hoped it was in a better state than the moldering castle, which even from a distance
    looked rundown and depressing.
    But even if it wasn't any better kept, he believed he could put up with it so long as he
    knew it was not going to be forever, that long before he entered his dotage he would be
    free of either the Regency or the possibility of taking Regis' place once and for all.
    Odd. Once he had wanted that—had longed for the thankless job that Regis had done
    so ably for two decades. That was long before he met Marguerida. He let out a soft
    chuckle that made Charger prick his ears. Mikhail let himself remember the lists he
    had made as a youngster, of things he intended to do when he took the throne. They
    had been, he suspected, both idealistic and extremely foolish.
    The wind shifted a little, and the smell of the Sea of Dalereuth wafted toward him. It
    was a sharp scent, full of salt and something he could not put a name to. Marguerida
    would know, for she had grown up on an oceanic world after she left Darkover at the
    age of five. Even with the impressions of Thetis he had gotten from her mind over the
    months, Mikhail had no real sense of what it was like to live beside a rolling ocean,
    full of odd creatures shaped like stars, or the leaping sea-mammals she called delfins.
    Sometimes, he knew, she longed for Thetis, for its warmth, and Mikhail wondered if
    she would ever be completely happy on Darkover. He hoped she would, because he
    could not be happy without her, and if she left, he could not bear it. And after her
    training in the Tower was complete, she would be free to do just that—leave Darkover.
    It was not a happy thought. If she chose to depart, it would create havoc and likely ruin
    whatever plans Regis was hatching.
    A strange croak from overhead made him look up, letting go of his morbid thoughts.
    There was a large bird, some sort .of crow, but a type he had never seen before. It was
    shining black, with patches of white feathers across the edges of the wings. It looked at
    him with a suspicious red eye, cried again, and circled above him three times. He
    flinched a little, for the bird looked dangerous with its large talons and sharp beak.
    Mikhail watched the bird wheeling in the air, enjoying the perfection of its flight. He
    followed it until it vanished, then urged his horse ahead. It was still several miles to
    Halyn House, and if he wanted to arrive before dusk, he needed to hurry.
    As he rode, Mikhail experienced a slight frisson of uneasiness that had been lurking in
    the back of his mind for miles. Then he silently cursed himself for a superstitious fool.
    That sea crow had been no omen, no portent of doom. He was just out of sorts from
    being given a task he did not wish for and did not want.
    He began to sing, his voice lifting in a rather naughty ditty he had learned from
    Marguerida, a student drinking
    song from her days at University. It was quite wicked, and he could hear the
    Guardsmen chuckling behind him, a cheerful noise that so lightened his heart that he
    nearly forgot his cares as he rode toward Halyn House.
    2
    It was such a beautiful day, Margaret Alton reflected, that it was a shame it was being
    ruined by her headache. Sitting on a low bench in the fragrance garden at Arilinn, she
    tried to use the methods she had learned during her four months in the Tower to
    alleviate the pain. But although she had mastered the technique, her headache
    stubbornly refused to stop pounding in her skull.
    She flinched as the intensity of the pain seemed to increase, until it felt as if someone
    were stabbing stilettos into her brow, just above the eyes. She could feel the pulse of
    her blood, hot in her veins, and she suddenly realized this was no ordinary headache.
    No, Margaret decided, this was something entirely different from the dreadful
    sensation she got in her head