White Road

gardens and left their horses with an attendant. Climbing the broad steps, they entered the huge, echoing atrium and strode across the great dragon mosaic floor to the stairway. Five stories of elaborately carved balconies and walkways were lost in shadow, except for lanterns hung at intervals along each.
    Thero was uncommonly disheveled when he answered their knock. His blue robe looked slept in, and there werepurple ink stains on his fingers and right cheek. “There you are! I didn’t expect you until tomorrow.” He looked them over, taking in their mud-spattered boots and trousers, and the saddlebag and oo’lus Seregil carried over one shoulder. “Where is Sebrahn?” he asked as they came into the workshop. The smell of a brazier hung on the air, and the stink of some spell.
    “He’s safe. I’ll tell you the tale in a while,” Seregil said quietly with a meaningful look in Alec’s direction. “When we’ve had some wine.”
    “Very well. I’ve had some news of my own, today. Ulan í Sathil died in Riga.”
    “When?”
    “Not long after you left, I’d say. He was carried back to Virésse in state with a boatload of ransomed slaves, a hero to his people.”
    “A hero?” Alec exclaimed.
    “It’s all right,” Seregil told him. “He’s more use to everyone that way. No good could come of the truth.”
    “But, still, it’s sort of ironic, isn’t? Us keeping his secret for him?”
    Seregil gave him a wry smile. “Life does tend to work out that way sometimes.”
    “Did you find the book?” asked Thero.
    “Books, as it turned out,” Seregil told him.
    Seregil set the saddlebag down on one of the workbenches and took out the three halved volumes.
    Thero looked at them in dismay. “What happened?”
    “I split them with a Hâzadriëlfaie captain we got to know, with the idea that it was safer with no one having all of any of them. I did try to salvage the best bits, though.”
    Thero gaped at them. “Hâzadriëlfaie? Really?”
    “That’s who was chasing us when we met you at the Bell and Bridle,” Alec told him. “It’s a long, long story after that.”
    “Another one. Then you’d better come downstairs and tell them.”
    “Is Magyana still awake?” asked Seregil. “She’ll want to hear it, too.”
    “She went down to Rhina to visit Hermeus. I’ll send word to her tomorrow.”
    “Oh, and before we go any farther?” Seregil pointed to Alec’s hair; Thero’s magic had not worn off and it was still brown. “Will you please put this right?”
    “Of course.” Thero stood behind Alec and ran his hands over his head. When he was through Alec’s hair was back to its normal honey blond.
    “Ah, that’s much better!”
    “And these,” said Alec, pushing his sleeve back to show him the slave brand.
    Thero removed those as well, and led them down the back stair to his tidy sitting room.
    The room hadn’t changed since Nysander’s day. There was still the band of mural around the room, magical as well as decorative, and the old comfortable furnishings. A dining table stood at the center of the room, with armchairs by the hearth beyond. The walls were filled with bookcases, scroll racks, and dusty objects of uncertain origin.
    Thero wove a quick spell on the air with one finger and a burlap-wrapped wine jar appeared on the table, still crusted with snow from Mount Apos. He poured them goblets of the chilled Mycenian apple wine and they sat down at the table with the books.
    Seregil took a long sip of the cold wine and sat back in his chair. “Oh, I have missed that!”
    “The books?” Thero asked impatiently.
    “I think you’ll find this one of the most interest.” Seregil said, showing him the one with the most drawings of rhekaros. “I don’t know if the whole thing is about the making of them, but I tried to get as much of it for you as I could.”
    “Excellent!” Thero looked as happy as Micum’s daughter Illia with a new necklace. “This is wonderful! Given Yhakobin’s skills, this could prove very useful, even if it is incomplete. I’ll need your expertise in figuring out the code, I’m sure.”
    “Once we get settled in again,” Seregil promised, then presented Thero with the oo’lus. “I thought you’d like these, too.”
    “Also part of the long story,” Alec told him.
    Thero refilled the cups. “I’m ready to hear it.”
    It did take quite a while, even with two of them telling it. When they were done, Thero shook his head. “I’m sorry