He cleared his throat. "FitzChivalry," he said, and drew a breath to speak. Then he let half of it out. "I am so weary," he said piteously. "And there is still so much to do." He gestured at the dragon behind him. Ponderously he sank, to sit beside the statue. "I tried so hard," he said to no one in particular.

The Fool recovered his senses before I did mine. "My lord Prince Verity," he began, then paused. "My king. It is I, the Fool. May I be of service to you?"

Verity looked up at the slender pale man who stood before him. "I would be honored," he said after a moment. His head swayed on his neck. "To accept the fealty and service of one who served both my father and my queen so well." For an instant I glimpsed something of the old Verity. Then the certainty flickered out of his face again.

The Fool advanced and then knelt suddenly beside him. He patted Verity on the shoulder, sending up a small cloud of rock dust. "I will take care of you," he said. "As I did your father." He stood up suddenly and turned to me. "I am going to fetch firewood, and find clean water," he announced. He glanced past me to the women. "Is Kettle all right?" he asked Starling.

"She nearly fainted," Starling began. But Kettle cut in abruptly with, "I was shocked to my core, Fool. And I am in no hurry to stand up. But Starling is free to go do whatever must be done."

"Ah. Good." The Fool appeared to have taken complete control of the situation. He sounded as if he were organizing tea. "Then, if you would be so kind, Mistress Starling, would you see to the setting up of the tent? Or two tents, if such a thing can be contrived. See what food we have left, and plan a meal. A generous meal, for I think we all need it. I shall return shortly with firewood, and water. And greens, if I am lucky." He cast a quick look at me. "See to the king," he said in a low voice. Then he strode away. Starling was left gaping. Then she arose and went in search of the straying jeppas. Kettle followed her more slowly.

And so, after all that time and travel, I was left standing alone before my King. "Come to me," he had told me, and I had. There was an instant of peace in realizing that that nagging voice was finally stilled. "Well, I am here, my king," I said quietly, to myself as much as to him.

Verity made no reply. He had turned his back to me and was busy digging at the statue with his sword. He knelt, clutching the sword by the pommel and by the blade and scraped the tip along the stone at the edge of the dragon's foreleg. I stepped close to watch him scratching at the black rock of the dais. His face was so intent, his movement so precise that I did not know what to make of it. "Verity, what are you doing?" I asked softly.

He did not even glance up at me. "Carving a dragon," he replied.

Several hours later, he still toiled at the same task. The monotonous scrape, scrape, scrape of the blade against the stone set my teeth on edge and shredded every nerve in my body. I had remained on the dais with him. Starling and the Fool had set up our tent, and a second smaller one cobbled together from our now excess winter blankets. A fire was burning. Kettle presided over a bubbling pot. The Fool was sorting the greens and roots he had gathered while Starling arranged bedding in the tents. Kettricken had rejoined us briefly, but only to get her bow and quiver from the jeppas' packs. She had announced she was going hunting with Nighteyes. He had given me one lambent glance from his dark eyes, and I had held my tongue.

I knew but little more than I had when we had first found Verity. His Skill walls were high and tight. I received almost no sense of the Skill from him. What I discovered when I quested toward him was even more unnerving. I grasped the fluttering Wit-sense I had of him, but could not understand it. It was as if his life and awareness fluctuated between his body and the great statue of the dragon. I recalled the last time I had encountered such a thing. It had been between the Wit-man and his bear. They had shared the same flowing of life. I suspected that if anyone had quested toward the wolf and me, they would discover the same sort of pattern. We had shared minds for so long that in some ways we were one creature. But that did not explain to me how Verity could have bonded with a statue, nor why he persisted in scraping at it with his sword. I longed to grab hold of the sword and snatch it from his grasp, but I refrained. In truth, he seemed so obsessed with what he did that I almost feared to interrupt him.

Earlier I had tried asking him questions. When I asked him what had become of those who left with him, he had shaken his head slowly. "They harried us as a flock of crows will haunt an eagle. Coming close, squawking and pecking, and fleeing when we-turned to attack them."

"Crows?" I had asked him, blankly.

He shook his head at my stupidity. "Hired soldiers. They shot at us from cover. They came at us at night, sometimes. And some of my men were baffled by the coterie's Skill. I could not shield the minds of those who were susceptible. Night fears they sent to stalk them, and suspicion of one another. So I bid them go back; I pressed my own Skill-command into their minds, to save them from any other." It was almost the only question he truly answered. Of the others I asked, he did not choose to answer many, and the answers he did give were either inappropriate or evasive. So I gave it up. Instead, I found myself reporting to him. It was a long accounting, for I began with the day I had watched him ride away. Much of what I told him, I was sure he already knew, but I repeated it anyway. If his mind was wandering, as I feared, it might anchor him to refresh his memory. And if my king's mind was as sharp as ever beneath this dusty demeanor, then it could not hurt for all the events to be put in perspective and order. I could think of no other way to reach him.

I had begun it, I think, to try to make him realize all, we had gone through to be here. Also, I wished to awaken him to what was happening in his kingdom while he loitered here with his dragon. Perhaps I hoped to wake in him some sense of responsibility for his folk again. As I spoke, he seemed dispassionate, but occasionally he would nod gravely, as if I had confirmed some secret fear of his. And all the time the sword tip moved against the black stone, scrape, scrape, scrape.

It was verging on full dark when I heard the scuff of Kettle's footsteps behind me. I paused in recounting my adventures in the ruined city and turned to look at her. "I've brought you both some hot tea," she announced.

"Thank you," I said, and took my mug from her, but Verity only glanced up from his perpetual scraping.

For a time, Kettle stood proffering the cup to Verity. When she spoke, it was not to remind him of tea. "What are you doing?" she asked in a gentle voice.

The scraping stopped abruptly. He turned to stare at her, then glanced at me as if to see if I, too, had heard her ridiculous question. The querying look I wore seemed to amaze him. He cleared his throat. "I am carving a dragon."

"With your sword blade?" she asked. In her tone was curiosity, no more.

"Only the rough parts," he told her. "For the finer work, I use my knife. And then, for finest of all, my fingers and nails." He turned his head slowly, surveying the immense statue. "I would like to say it is nearly done," he said falteringly. "But how can I say that when there is still so much to do? So very much to do… and I fear it will all be too late. If it is not already too late."

"Too late for what?" I asked him, my voice as gentle as Kettle's had been.

"Why… too late to save the folk of the Six Duchies." He peered at me as if I were simple. "Why else would I be doing it? Why else would I leave my land and my queen, to come here?"

I tried to grasp what he was telling me, but one overwhelming question popped out of my mouth. "You believe you have carved this whole dragon?"