White Road

began to pick at the laces as soon as Alec was done.
    “No!” Alec told him sternly. “Just sit there.” He retrieved his cup and downed the last of the milk, glad of the bite of the rassos burning his throat and belly. “What about Micum? He said he’d go home when we were somewhere safe.”
    Seregil took a swallow of his own drink and licked the lingering drops from his upper lip. “He hasn’t said yet.”
    “It will be snowing in Skala before long. He’d better make up his mind.”
    “About what?” Micum asked, coming down the slope to join them. “I’ve been looking all over for you, Alec.”
    “We were just talking about you,” Seregil told him, passing him the cup. “We’re here. We’re safe. You need to go home.”
    “Let me be the judge of that, eh? They’re waiting for you three inside. Adzriel sent me out to fetch you.”
    Seregil stood up and pulled Alec to his feet. “Don’t worry, talí. They just want to see him.”
    They shucked off their fleece coats in their bedchamber and Seregil led the way to a part of the house Alec hadn’t seen. He braced himself as they entered a sunny room, expecting a stern gathering glaring at him from behind a long table. Instead he found himself in a pretty room with warm pine wainscoting, pale green velvet furniture, and polished tea tables. Two ancient-looking women and two equally ancient-looking men were reclining at ease with Adzriel and Säaban, sipping tea and talking quietly together. They all looked up as Alec and Sebrahn came in, and some of the smiles faded.
    Adzriel stood and took Alec’s hand. “I present my brother’s talímenios, Alec í Amasa of Kerry, and of the Hâzadriëlfaie line. And Sebrahn, his rhekaro, foretold by prophecy at Sarikali.”
    “There’s no need to be so formal,” one of the women chided lightly. “Come here, Alec Two Lives. Don’t make an old woman get up, there’s a good boy.” She extended her hand, and after a moment’s hesitation Alec went to her and took it. “I am Zillina ä Sala, a great-aunt of the khirnari and her family. And this must be Sebrahn. May I touch him?”
    Sebrahn was clinging to the edge of Alec’s tunic, but he didn’t flinch as Zillina stroked his hair and cheek.
    “Well!” she said, sitting back and absently rubbing her hand. “I can see the dragon in him.”
    The other three did the same, with varying reactions. Trillius í Morin yanked his hand back as if he’d been stung; Ela ä Yhalina sniffed Sebrahn’s hair and smiled; Onir í Thalir just shrugged.
    “I see that he’s made of flowers,” Ela ä Yhalina told them. “Could you show us how it’s done?”
    Alec pricked Sebrahn’s finger over a goblet of water and made one of the dark lotus blossoms. The rhekaro scooped it out at once and brought it to Ela, placing it on her knee.
    It sank through the soft wool of her long tunic and trousers, and she let out a startled little cry as she flexed her leg. “By the Light, it’s true. It’s eased my rheumatism.”
    In the meantime Sebrahn had made a second and placed it on her other knee. She flexed both legs, then leaned forward and kissed Sebrahn on the top of his head. “Thank you, dragon child of flowers, for your lovely gift.” She turned to the others. “There is power in him, and great danger, but there’s a kindness there, as well. From what Seregil has told us, he even seeks out the ill to heal them.”
    “He does,” Alec assured her.
    “That may be so,” Trillius í Morin said doubtfully, “but all I felt was death. And it’s still blood magic.”
    “I felt nothing at all,” Onir í Thalir said, shaking his head.
    “Perhaps each feels what he or she needs to feel, or perhaps expects?” wondered Zillina ä Sala. “I see the dragon in his eyes, but I see the child in the dragon, too. I’ve never heard of such a being in any of the writings.”
    “Zillina is our greatest scholar,” Adzriel explained. “She’s studied at Sarikali and with the Khatme, as well.”
    “Do you know anything about the Hâzadriëlfaie?” Alec asked, then politely added, “Great-Aunt.”
    “Less than you, it would seem. The old story is that Hâzadriël had a vision and gathered only certain people from across the land to take away with her, never to be heard from again. As far as I know, they took their secret with them. But now, in this child of magic, I think I see their reason.” She took Alec’s hand in hers. Her skin was smooth and dry as vellum, but