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make sure you have taken no harm from it”
    Carolin’s eyes stung and he felt shaken to his bones. He was grateful when Cerriana dismissed the class. All he wanted was to be left alone. He clenched the starstone, pressing it to his heart. His fingers throbbed where he’d touched the burning feather. The muscles of his belly quivered. But he was Hastur, heir to the throne, and it was not proper that he behave like a whimpering child.
    Only a moment had passed. Cerriana still waited for the answer to her request. As an Arilinn-trained monitor, she scrupulously observed the formalities of permission. This was not an emergency; she would not enter the energy fields of his body against his will. Finally, he lifted his head and gestured to Cerriana that he was ready.
    As she worked, relief and a sense of well-being spread throughout his body. Frayed nerves relaxed and the burns on his fingers cooled. His heartbeat steadied and his breathing came more freely.
    A short time later, she announced with a smile that he had not been damaged by either the fire or the accidental contact with his starstone.
    “I don’t understand,” Carolin said. Although he felt physically well enough, except for the fading heat on his palms, he couldn’t think straight. His skull seemed to be packed with feathers. “Other people have handled my stone before—Hanna at home, you and Fidelis and Auster here. I’ve never had a reaction like this.”
    “It’s usually safe enough at this stage,” Cerriana answered. “Few of the novices have keyed into their stones strongly enough to carry any risk in a trained monitor handling them. You certainly hadn‘t, not at the beginning of our session. Whatever you were doing must have accelerated the process.” She looked thoughtful. “Sometimes there’s a plateau in laran development and then a cascading effect. Contact with a catalyst telepath will do it, too.”
    She sat back, still studying him with renewed composure. “Listen, Carolin. This is very important. Now that you have attuned with your matrix, you must never let anyone touch it except a Keeper, and then it should be only your own Keeper. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. Even though I am trained to oversee the physical and psychic well-being of those entrusted to my care, I am only a monitor. With all the best intentions, I could have seriously injured you. The only reason I did not is that I held your stone for only a moment. Do you understand?”
    “Oh,” he said with a wry smile, “I have no intention of repeating that experience.” With hands that still trembled a little, he folded the starstone back into its pouch of insulating silk.
    She nodded gravely. “I don’t think you have the aptitude for psychokinesis. The question remains whether you have a separate talent for creating fire or whether this—” she gestured at the few bits of charred feather on the table, “—was due simply to the energies generated by keying into your starstone.”
    “Well,” Carolin said with his usual levity, “at least it’ll be better than staring at those damned feathers.”

    The next morning, Carolin and Eduin passed beneath the arch-ways of the Tower on their way into Arilinn City, headed for the morning marketplace accompanied by one of the kyrri. Since only nonhumans and Comyn could pass the Veil, everyone took turns with daily household tasks, even the youngest novices. The autumn day was crisp. Last night’s rain had washed any hint of dust from the air and the city sparkled. Beyond it loomed the Twin Peaks, their pinnacles shimmering.
    Carolin paused at the place where the Ridenow boy had stood. Although no visible trace remained, no stain or mark on the age-smoothed stone, Carolin felt a sense of lingering presence so strong he could have sworn there was indeed someone there. Images flashed through his mind, half memory, half something else. He pictured the boy, not as young as he’d first supposed, only thin and