"I as well," Sangae said softly, drawing Kelis's eyes up to his. "Do not think me a traitor to Aliver because I doubt his sister. The prince was a son to me. You know that. I raised him at his father's request and I loved him as if his blood were mine."

Sinper cut in. "But we do not speak of Aliver. Not yet. Corinn is the one who concerns me. She has broken our noble families and tries to poison the minds of our children against their parents. She didn't stop the league from taking more of our children away. Her crimes or oversights are too numerous to name. She gave us water, yes, but that is not enough, and it was late in coming. My worries about her have become as a tumor lodged in my breast. Any day it might grow to kill me. I would cut it out, but I don't have a knife sharp enough. At least, I did not have such a knife…" He dropped his voice at the end of the sentence, leaving it frayed and incomplete.

Ioma, who had stood silent, whispered into the pause. "It may be that we have found that knife."

Kelis stared from him to Sangae, disbelieving his ears. It was not that he disputed that Corinn's rule was flawed. She had inherited a foul system from Hanish Mein, who had taken it from her father, who had perpetuated the crimes of the generations before him. None of them seemed willing to break the old order of the world. Corinn, perhaps, was more like Tinhadin's daughter than Leodan's. She might yet do great harm. But… "Why does this burn like treason in my ears?" he asked.

"Treason is a betrayal of one's accepted ruler," Ioma said, "but it is not treason to reject an usurper. In truth, it is a treason to accept a false rule once you know it is false."

Sinper inched forward on his seat, like an anxious youth. He pointed at Benabe. "Kelis, can you confirm that Aliver was intimate with this woman? You were his closest companion. If they were intimate, you surely-"

"Nobody can confirm what another man does in his tent," Kelis said.

"Oh, speak truth!" Benabe said. "I remember quite a bit about what you did-and with whom you did it. We weren't shy back then, were we? You know I lay with Aliver many times."

Benabe had always had a quick tongue. She was as easy with anger as she was with laughter. That ease was part of what had bothered him about her-that and the fact that Aliver had found the same traits so alluring. He heard himself say, "You weren't the only one."

"No, but I did not keep track like you did. If you can name another who was with him, you can likewise name that I was with him."

Kelis wiped at the heat that suddenly flushed through his face. They would think him bitter, jealous. Perhaps they would be right to think so. He controlled his voice as he added, "I cannot know what happened between these two, but if you ask me what I believe, then, yes, they were lovers."

This seemed to satisfy Sinper, though he demonstrated that with an expression more like a grimace than a smile. "So we have a witness."

"Not that we needed one," Ioma said. "Benabe's testimony should not be questioned."

"It will be, though," Sangae said. "It will be."

Benabe stared at Kelis so intently that he had to meet her gaze. "Thank you, Kelis. I know you loved him, too. Aliver knew it as well."

Another flash of heat surged across Kelis's face. Fortunately, his dark skin did not betray it. Yes, Aliver knew it, but he didn't return it-not, at least, in the physical manner Kelis would have welcomed. He had always been careful not to betray the true nature of his feelings for Aliver, and he did not want to now. He spoke as if he had not heard her. "A witness to what? I still don't understand what this is about."

The others exchanged glances.

"Bring the child, then," Sangae eventually said. "Let him see her."

"The child?"

Sangae nodded. "She is a beautiful child, Kelis. She is hope for us all. Call her, Benabe, and let her come on her two feet."

Hope for all of us? Kelis felt his fingertips begin to tingle. Hope for all of us?

Benabe rose and walked to the door at the other side of the room. The four men sat in silence as she spoke to somebody in the hallway. A few moments later she returned, leading a girl of perhaps nine years of age. The tingling in Kelis's fingers became a throb, a heartbeat that moved to the center of his palms.

Benabe said, "This is my daughter. She named herself. She likes us to call her Shen."

The girl walked with her eyes downcast, but as soon as she stopped before them, she raised her head and looked candidly at the four men. Her face was round and gentle, her mouth small, with thinner lips than her mother's. Her skin was a rich brown, but it had been stirred with a cream that lightened it. She looked out at them with remarkably large eyes. Though she said not a word, Kelis could not help but think her quite intelligent. Her features were familiar. They were Benabe's, yes, but that was only one way in which he knew them, had known them since before he ever saw her, before she was ever born. There was no denying it. The girl, Larashen-Shen-was Aliver Akaran's daughter. How could he have lived those years and not known-felt-her living?

"She named herself?" Kelis asked.

Benabe nodded but did not explain.

"Kelis Umae," the girl said. Her voice was clear and high, and the two words on her tongue were neither a greeting nor a question. Just a statement.

"You-you know me?"

"Yes. They've told me about you. You went as far as the river of the southern basin. There you waited, as good as your word."

"These people told you that? Your mother? Sangae?"

"The stones told me." She smiled, and then lowered her gaze, at moments looking no different than a shy girl.

"Stones…" He almost framed a question, but let it fade. The fine hairs on his forearms and the back of his neck were bristling. The pulse in his palms was actually painful now. He looked up at Benabe. "Who is this girl's father?"

"You know that already," Benabe said.

"She is a child of two nations," Ioma said. "Look at her, Kelis. She is our future. She is a trembler, but others have been so."

"Do not call her a trembler," Benabe snapped, and then rubbed her fingers into the girl's shoulders soothingly. "She has visions. She has fits during which she falls on the ground, shaking, insensible, but that is only what we see on the outside. Her mind goes to another place-that is why she trembles. She says that in those moments the stones call her. It is they that possess her body and seek to put things inside her. You know what stones she speaks of. Did not Aliver first see the Santoth as stones? He saw them rise and walk toward him. My daughter sees the same."

Sangae had moved closer to him, leaning in as if he wanted to see her from the same vantage as Kelis. He whispered. "What did I tell you? Nobody told the girl that; she told us of it, just as she told us her name… You ask who her father is, but you can see who she is as clearly as I can. What man would not recognize his brother's child? That's who she is. And we think she is in danger."

"Word of her could reach agents of the queen," Ioma said.

Sinper was silent for a moment and then added, not whispering this time, "We should talk of this privately."

"And why does this matter to you?" Kelis said, his voice edged by the unease all this stirred into him. Again, that was not one of the pressing questions he had, but it was what came out.

It was Ioma who answered. "Because, Kelis, Benabe is of the family Ou. Shen is my cousin. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, cousin." The girl nodded. She studied Kelis a moment, then stepped closer. She reached out with one hand and touched her fingertips to his forearm. "I have to go. I would like it if you would go with me. It would be good that way. They will keep me safe. They promised, so long as you take me."