Luck in the Shadows

somewhere down in the vaults, but most were carried off for safekeeping by other wizards. The head is the most dangerous part. That was sealed in a lead casket and dropped into the sea."
    Seregil savored a shiver of his own, imagining the head locked in darkness beneath the chill waters, dreaming perhaps, or screaming its hatred to the unheeding creatures of the mud. On the heels of that pleasant thought came another, however. When was the last time he'd seen the hands move as much as this?
    "Are there any other dead things in here?" asked Alec, moving to another case.
    "Not ones that move."
    "Good!"
    They wandered on awhile longer, but Seregil's strength soon flagged.
    There was no use trying to hide the fact from Alec. "You're looking pale again," he said. "Come on, a walk outside in the air might not be such a bad idea after all."
    The pale winter sky overhead presaged snow, but inside the walls the gardens were bathed with fragrant breezes, and the soft turf beneath their feet was redolent with chamomile and creeping thyme.
    Seregil was leaning more heavily on his arm than he had earlier, Alec noted, wondering if it had been a mistake not going back to their room.
    "There," Seregil said, pointing the way to a nearby fountain. Reaching it, he collapsed on the grass and leaned back against its basin.
    Alec looked him over with renewed concern. "You're as white as this marble!"
    Seregil dipped a hand in the water and pressed it to his brow "Just let me get my breath."
    "He's only doing it to spite Valerius, you know," a familiar voice interrupted.
    A pair of women sauntered up. Both wore the green and white uniform of the Queen's Horse Guard. The shorter of the two, Alec realized with a start, was Princess Klia. Her companion, a dark, serious-looking woman, stood at ease beside her.
    Klia flopped down unceremoniously in front of Seregil but ignored him completely, addressing Alec as if they were old friends.
    "Now, if Valerius had ordered him to get up and about as soon as possible, he'd have clung in bed 'til spring. You're better turned out than when we met last, I must say. What name are you going by today?"
    He grinned sheepishly. "Alec."
    "Hello again, Alec. This is Captain Myrhini."
    The dark woman surprised him with a flashing smile as she joined them on the grass.
    "I wondered afterward at meeting another Silverleaf," Klia went on cheerfully. "If I'd known Seregil was with you, the two of you could have ridden back with us."
    "I was indisposed at the time," Seregil said, drawing her teasing gaze at last. "How did you know I was back?"
    "I met Nysander on his way to a meeting with Mother and Lord Barien last night." Her blue eyes shone fiercely. "From what she said this morning, it sounds like things may get interesting again."
    Seregil grimaced. "I should think you'd have seen enough of battle last year. That piece of fun nearly cost you your arm and Myrhini both."
    Myrhini gave the toe of Klia's boot a playful kick. "You know her. She's Sakor-touched. It only makes
    her hotter for the next fight."
    "As if you're not just as bad." Klia grinned.
    "Either one of us could be at home with a babe or two already if we didn't care more for battle than we do for a handsome face! Seregil, come see the horse Alec helped me buy in Cirna. Hwerlu is looking him over for me at the grove."
    Klia helped Seregil to his feet, then wrapped a supporting arm around his waist as they set off for a nearby stand of oaks.
    "I know one handsome face she favors, if only its owner had the wit to see," Myrhini whispered to Alec, winking in Seregil's direction as they followed the others.
    Entering the little grove, Alec was delighted to find that Hwerlu was the centaur he'd glimpsed his first day in Rhнminee.
    The creature was even more imposing at close quarters; his chestnut-colored horse body was a good twenty hands tall at the shoulder, while his man parts were those of a giant. Klia's unusual black and white and another Aurлnfaie horse stood by him,
    and he patted them with his large, blunt hands as if they were hounds. Seregil and Klia looked like a pair of children standing next to him.
    "Come here!" Seregil called to Alec. "I seem to recall you once referring to centaurs as mere legend."
    When Hwerlu bent to greet him, Alec noticed that he had the eyes of a horse, large and dark, showing no white.
    "Greetings, little Alec." Hwerlu's voice rumbled richly from the depths of his huge chest. "The light of Illior shines brightly in