Shadows and Light

own.”
    “You’re getting a hug?” Ashk asked.
    “Indeed I am,” Padrick replied.
    The boy took a self-conscious step toward Ashk. Then another. When Ashk smiled at him, he closed the distance between them in a rush.
    Padrick looked over at the girl and winked. She gave him a sassy smile in reply.
    After a few moments, Padrick said, “Step aside now, lad. It’s my turn.”
    Evan squirmed out of his mother’s embrace and stepped aside, grinning.
    Padrick stepped forward—and received a bit more than a hug as a welcome.
    “I’m Caitlin. Who are you?”
    Morag turned her attention away from Ashk and the baron to the girl now standing beside her. She had blue eyes like the baron, but her hair was ash brown, like Ashk’s. And it was Ashk’s face looking up at her, younger and human, but the connection was still obvious.
    “Are you visiting from another Clan?” Caitlin asked.
    “Yes, I am.”
    “She’s Neall and Ari’s friend,” Evan said, joining them. “She’s staying with them. Father told me.”

    “He told me, too,” Caitlin said, sounding a little fierce. “I was just being polite.”
    Both children looked over at their parents, who were still embracing.
    “When I was little, I thought it was awful that men had to kiss ladies that way,” Evan said thoughtfully. “
    But now that I’m older, it doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. I may even try it some time. When I’m a bit older.”
    “Only husbands are allowed to kiss that way,” Caitlin said. “And they’re only allowed to kiss their wives.
    ”
    “Husbands are allowed to kiss other ladies.”
    “Are not.”
    “Are, too. Father kisses ladies who are friends. Like Ari.”
    “But not that way.”
    “Of course not that way.”
    “ ‘Cause if he did, Mother would tear Father’s throat out.”
    “And if Mother kissed another man that way, Father would throw her in the dungeon and not let her out until she promised never to do it again.”
    Caitlin scowled. “We don’t have a dungeon. And even if we did, Father would never do that to Mother.
    ”
    Evan frowned at his younger sister. “Guess not. But he would be very angry.”
    “Yes, he would,” Caitlin agreed.
    Bloodthirsty little beasts , Morag thought.
    Then they both looked at her, a bit too thoughtfully for her comfort.
    “What’s your gift?” Caitlin asked.
    Morag hesitated. “I’m the Gatherer.”
    She expected them to move away from her. The children in other Clans, once they learned who she was, had tended to keep their distance. Instead, Evan’s and Caitlin’s eyes brightened.
    “You’re the only one of Death’s Servants who can gather a spirit before the body dies,” Evan said excitedly. “Have you ever done it?”
    “There are times when it is kinder to let the spirit go on to the Summerland if the body is failing and the person is suffering,” Morag said carefully.
    “Have you ever gathered someone because they did a bad thing?” Caitlin asked.
    Morag thought of the Inquisitors she had gathered last summer when they were still healthy and whole in order to stop them from killing the witches. That wasn’t something she was going to try to explain to these children. “Mostly I gather those whose flesh has already returned to the Great Mother.”

    “But if someone did a bad thing, you would gather them, wouldn’t you?” Caitlin persisted.
    “Of course she would,” Evan replied. “She’s the Gatherer. So if sea thieves were attacking a merchant ship and she saw them doing it, she’d send the sea thieves to a watery grave to save the good merchants.
    Wouldn’t you?”
    “Ah ...” What was she supposed to say to this boy who was looking at her with such approval?
    “But she wouldn’t gather someone just because they did something that was a little bad,” Caitlin said. “
    Because that wouldn’t be fair. Would it?”
    “No, that wouldn’t be fair,” Morag said. “Did— Did your parents tell you that? That I— That the Gatherer would take you if you didn’t behave?”
    The children shook their heads.
    “Oh, no,” Caitlin said. “They would never say that. Besides, you have to take care of the important gathering, so you wouldn’t have time to gather everyone who did something a little bit bad.”
    “When we were little, Mother used to say if we did something very bad, she would dunk us in the privy,”
    Evan said.
    “And we wouldn’t be allowed back inside the Clan house until we washed ourselves and our clothes well