Luck in the Shadows

the best judge of that, my patient love."
    At the meal's end, Micum pushed back from the table. "I should be getting over to Lord Quineas' soon. I promised him a game of nine stones the other day. You'll come with me, won't you, Kari? You haven't seen Lady Madrina in weeks."
    "Me, too! Me, too!" Illia shouted, jumping into her father's arms. "I want to show Naria the charm Uncle Seregil brought."
    "Well, let's just take the whole bunch of you, then," Micum cried, swinging the little girl into the air.
    Beka exchanged a glance with Alec. "We were going to hunt along the river trail."
    "She doesn't want to see Ranik," Illia taunted.
    "Let him fawn over Elsbet for a change," Beka shot back. "She's the one who thinks he's such a fine
    gentleman."
    "And he is," Elsbet retorted primly.
    "He's a scholar, and a poet as well. Just because he isn't always out shooting at things the way you are—"
    "That's a lucky thing for the neighborhood,"
    Beka scoffed, that donkey-handed looby couldn't shoot a bull in the arse if it was standing on his foot. Come on, Alec. You can ride Windrunner again."
    Horses nickered expectantly as Alec and Beka entered the stable. Going to Windrunner, he heaved the blanket and saddle over the chestnut stallion's glossy back. He felt a bit guilty when Patch craned her neck over the stall at him; still, the chance at an Aurлnfaie mount was something he wasn't about to turn down.
    "There's something special I want to show you," Beka said, giving him a mysterious look as she buckled her horse's saddle girth.
    Setting out across country, they gave their mounts free rein. Plumes of new snow trailed after them as they galloped and wheeled over the bare fields. Alec tried to explain the maneuvers he'd seen Captain Myrhini's riders perform and they dashed back and forth, yelling and tilting their bows for lances.
    "I can hardly believe it!" Beka cried, reining in beside him. "In a few days I'll be with them."
    "Won't you miss your family?" ventured Alec.
    His short stay at Watermead had shown him a life he'd never known. It was a noisy, bustling household with servants, dogs, and Illia underfoot much of the day but, like the Cockerel, there was an air of warmth and security about it that he liked.
    Beka looked away over the hills, watching the last of the ragged clouds scudding across the sky.
    "Of course," she said, heading her mare toward the river. "But I can't stay here forever, can I? I'm not cut out to be like Mother, raising a family and waiting around for a man who goes off for months at a time. I want to be the one who's gone. I should think you'd understand that."
    Alec smiled. "I was just thinking how nice your life must have been, being in one place all the time. Still, I know what you mean. My father and I wandered around in the same forests my whole life. Then along comes Seregil with his tales of far-off places, wonders I could hardly imagine—I guess I didn't take much convincing."
    "You're lucky, being with him the way you are," Beka said with a trace of envy. "He and Father—all they've done together? Someday I want to ride with them, but first I need to make my own way. That's why I wanted so badly to join the Queen's Horse."
    They rode for a moment in silence, then Beka asked, "What is it like, anyway, being with him?"
    "You'd like it. It's never the same from one day to the next. I don't think there's anything he doesn't know at least something about. And then there's Nysander. I've tried telling Elsbet about him, but it's hard to explain how someone can be so powerful and so ordinary at the same time."
    "I've met him. Do you know it was he who first suggested I join the Guards? Then he laughed and made me promise never to tell Mother he said so. Isn't that odd?"
    Alec thought he could see what the old wizard had been up to; Beka would make a fine Watcher.
    The swans had abandoned the frozen stream. Turning upstream, they rode a mile or more without seeing any sign of game. Giving up the hunt, they challenged each other at clout and wand shooting. Beka's grey-and-white fletched shafts seldom came closer to the mark than his red ones.
    "Come on," she said at last, noticing how low the sun had fallen, "we'd better gather our arrows. I want to show you my surprise."
    Following the stream again, they reached the wooded hills and rode into the trees. At a bend they dismounted and Beka led the way to a broad, half-frozen pool. Signing for Alec to keep quiet, she settled behind a fallen tree