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  An odd chirruping sound overhead made her jump; she looked up, and met the bright, shining eyes of a bird with plumage as fantastic as anything she had ever created in her garden. It chirped at her again, and before she could even mink to call it to her hand, it flew down to her shoulder, and from there, to the hand she held automatically outstretched. She began to pet it, a smile coming to her lips without an effort. It had a long, sweeping tail, a high, upraised crest, and pale pink feathers as soft as thistledown. It leaned into her caress and closed its eyes with pleasure, crooning musically to itself.

  A moment later, a young doe stepped out of the shadows and begged for a caress of its own. As Rena continued to look around, she spotted more tamed birds and animals wandering among the guests—mostly being ignored, which was a pity, for they seemed to crave attention and petting.

  There must be a spell on them to keep them away from the refreshments, and to keep them from soiling someone's clothing, she thought, practicality intruding on the romance. And sure enough, just as that occurred to her, the bird took off and sought a perch a little distance away, making a discreet deposit before returning to her hand.

  This was exactly the kind of fete Rena had read about, from the old days, when the elven lords were secure in their power and before they had begun to feud among themselves again. Was Lord Ardeyn trying to imply something by this?

  Oh, probably not; he's probably just trying to impress the High Lords who remember what the old days were like.

  Would my lady care for wine?

  Rena controlled herself this time, and did not jump or let out a squeak when the voice came from behind her. The doe scampered away and the bird took off for the branches as she turned, to find herself confronted by a creature that did not in the least resemble the human slave she had expected.

  Instead, the servant politely offering a tray of exquisitely fluted crystal goblets had the head of a stork, feather-covered hands and arms, and two definite claws instead of feet. But the feathers were brilliant blue and scarlet, the head boasted a crest never worn by any stork Rena had ever seen, and the body beneath the tunic in Hernalth colors seemed human enough.

  Yes, she said, as the bird-man cocked his head to one side and examined her with one bright eye. I believe I would. Thank you.

  The bird-man extended the tray, gracefully, and stalked, like a stork wading through water, off toward another guest. Rena blinked and watched him go.

  After a moment, it occurred to her that her mouth felt terribly dry, and she sipped her wine. It didn't taste like anything she had ever drunk before, but that was no surprise; elven feasts and fetes were full of these little subtleties. The wine was faintly sweet, with a perfume like the flowers; it tingled on the tongue, and left a crisp, refreshing aftertaste behind.

  As her eyes became accustomed to the light, and she began to distinguish the servers from the guests, it seemed that there were no openly human servants here tonight. They had all been transformed by illusion into half-bird or half-animal creatures. Or even half-insect; she caught sight of one with huge, faceted eyes, begemmed antennae, and gently waving butterfly wings. It seemed that Lord Ardeyn was making a deliberate attempt to conjure up the glory days of conquest, when human slaves were never allowed into the presence of their masters without some illusion or disguise to cloak their nature.

  As long as she had the wineglass in her hand, none of the tamed birds or animals would approach her; when she gave the empty glass to another half-bird servant, a fox came out of the trees and rubbed against her legs like a cat. She bent down to pet it, and it arched its back against her outstretched hand.

  She would have been perfectly happy to stay at the edge of the woods and play with the animals—

  But if Father finds me here, instead of out there, he'll be angry with me.

  Glumly she accepted another glass of wine, and tossed it off without pausing to admire the taste, hoping to drink down some courage with the sparkling vintage. Then, with much reluctance, she made her way toward the center of the glade, working her way through the strolling guests in their rainbow-hued costumes with some difficulty. No one seemed to even notice she was there; she might just as well have been one of the servants.

  There was a cluster of multicolored lights there, illuminating a small number of musicians and a group of people whose understated elegance told her without words that they were very important indeed. Only a person of supreme importance could afford to look unimportant at a gathering like this one.

  Lord Tylar was among them, managing to look dignified, although Rena knew from his very faint frown that he was vexed about something. Maybe he's annoyed that he overdressed? Whatever it was, the frown did not clear away when she appeared, standing uncertainly just within his line of sight, so it was either something she had nothing to do with, or she was the cause and her mere appearance had not set things straight.

  Whatever it was that had brought that frown to his face, if it was her fault, she would probably find out about it when they arrived home—unless she did something else that was worse between then and now.

  He gestured to her abruptly, and she managed to make her way through the crush to his side, still, as far as she could tell, without anyone noticing that she was there.

  He took her arm as soon as she was near enough, and pulled her through a gap between two of the other guests. She found herself standing beside him, and facing two men, one young, one very old—she knew that the second was very old because he actually showed the signs of age. No elven lord ever did that until he was near his own end. No matter what the humans were led to believe, elves were not immortal—though to short-lived humans, they probably seemed that way. Both men were engrossed in conversation with three ladies, one of them the vivacious Katarina an Vines, who was smiling raptly up into the younger man's face.

  Lord Ardeyn, Lord Edres, may I present my daughter, Sheyrena? Lord Tylar said into the first break in the conversation.

  The older man smiled into her eyes; the younger bowed over her hand without looking at her at all. Lord Ardeyn's attention was fixed entirely on Katarina to the point of ignoring everything else—not that Rena could blame him. Why would anyone even look at her, when Katarina was in the same room?

  Charmed, Lord Ardeyn said absently, then resumed his conversation with Katarina, who had no need of cosmetics or jewels to enhance her beauty.

  I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance, my dear, Lord Edres said, taking her hand as quickly as Lord Ardeyn had dropped it. The wrinkles around his eyes deepened as he smiled at her. I hope you will enjoy our little fete. He actually kissed her hand, as Rena blushed with confusion, then released it and turned to her father.

  You have a most charming child, Tylar, the old man said, transferring his smile from the daughter to the father. Sweet, modest, fresh and innocent I am sure she will make a good match for you.

  That was clearly a dismissal, and Lord Tylar was not too dense to know it

  That is my hope, my lord, Lord Tylar replied, and with a tug on Rena's arm, took her out of the circle of Ardeyn's intimates.

  She cringed inside, waiting to hear his immediate censure, but to her immense relief, Lord Tylar was not ready to take her head off for not captivating the guest of honor.

  That went better than I expected, he said quietly, as he continued to draw her along to some new destination. Fortunately for her neck, he was important enough that people noticed her trailing train, and did not step on it. Lord Edres seems to like you. I suppose you must remind him of his daughter.

  Oh, charming, I remind him of a half-wit, who can't even dress herself without help.

  I didn't really hope that Ardeyn would pay you any attention; it seems that other girl was one of the first to arrive, and he hasn't left her side all evening. Lord Tylar made a sound that for any other man might have been taken as a small sigh of regret. Well, I can't fault his taste. You're hardly any competition for that beauty.

  Even though she had though
t that herself, it hurt to hear it from her father. Now she blushed again, but this time with shame.

  Never mind, there are plenty of other young lords here, and I haven't seen one of them that would make a bad alliance. He stopped, and gave her a brusque push in the direction of another group, this time of dancers. Go on, get over there, let yourself be seen, talk to people. You know what you have to do, or you should by now.

  With those gentle words, he left her, striding purposefully after another knot of men with that indefinable air of importance about them, leaving her standing stupidly at the edge of the group of dancers.

  This time someone did step on her train. Fortunately, she wasn't moving.

  Oh, bother, I've gone and done something stupid again! the young man said, a little thickly, and she immediately suspected he'd been drinking too much. He managed to get himself off the train without tangling his feet in it, and turned toward her, giving her a better look at him.

  He wasn't very handsome, and his eyes had the sort of vagueness about them that she tended to associate with too much to drink.

  In other words—he's the same version of Lord Ardeyn that I am of Katarina. A bad, blurred copy, and rather flawed.

  Excuse me awfully, would you? Terribly sorry and all that. I'm a clumsy brute, or so they all keep telling me. He laughed a little, a high titter, and she realized at that moment that it wasn't the wine that was making him silly—he was that way all on his own.

  Correction. On his copy of Lord Ardeyn, they forgot to pour in the brains as well.

  I don't suppose you'd care to have a dance with a clumsy brute now, would you? he asked hopefully, with another titter for his own cleverness.

  Perhaps if you'd loop up that tail thing, I wouldn't get tangled up in it again, and we could have a pleasant turn or two around the floor, eh? He stared at her hopefully, and added, They say I'm a silly ass, but they all admit I'm a good dancer.

  Under other circumstances, she might have declined his awkward invitation, with an awkward refusal of her own. But she felt rather sorry for him—here he was, quite probably dragged here by his father as she had been dragged by hers, and for the same reason. He was supposed to be making the acquaintance of eligible females with good alliance potential.

  In fact, it has to be harder for him! I just have to stand here, properly modest, and hope someone notices me. He has to make advances.

  So she smiled kindly at him, and his dull eyes lit up with pathetic cheer as she nodded.

  He must have been turned down an awful lot this evening to be so happy to dance with me. I'm not exactly a prize beauty.

  His name, it transpired, was V'keln Gildor er-Lord Kyndreth; scion of one of the older and more powerful Houses. And he was probably quite a disappointment to his noble High Lord father. Everything he said to her about his lord father indicated that the patriarch of the family had more than once wished there were some way he could prove poor Gildor was someone else's offspring. She felt so sorry for him that she even danced with him again, several times, and let him bring her wine and a few refreshments.

  He wasn't a really good dancer, although he wasn't a bad one, either. Passable ; that was what her own dancing master would have called him. He didn't know anything but the most old-fashioned of dances, either, which left them standing on the sidelines watching, more often than not. He tried to make clever conversation, but he was, unfortunately, just as dull and stupid as she had feared he was. Still, he was company of a sort, and be seemed to like the tame animals—though he kept talking about how exciting it would be to hunt them instead of petting them. And as long as she was with a male, she was obeying Lord Tylar's orders, and he certainly couldn't take exception to that.

  Finally, though, he spotted an older man making his way purposefully toward them, and said, with a trace of apprehension, Oh, curse it. There's my lord father, and it looks as if he wants me. It's been grand—

  And he was off like a called dog, bumbling his way through the crowd as if summoned to his father's side by a whistle, without another word to her.

  She sighed, and worked her way back through a thin crowd of onlookers toward the edge of the illusory forest. Evidently her lack of charms—or perhaps, lack of status—was noticeable even to a dolt like Gildor. He hadn't even offered to introduce her to his father, which probably meant he didn't think she was worth introducing to him.

  Well, the rabbits and birds didn't care if she looked like a wax doll in an absurd costume—and while she stood here, in the shadows of the overhanging boughs, there wasn't anyone treading on her train.

  If this had been some other occasion, she might even have managed to enjoy herself. The birds and animals were very sweet. The expected headache did not manifest itself, due either to Myre's careful work with her hairdressing, or to the rather excessive amounts of wine she'd been drinking.

  In fact, she felt very flushed, and not entirely steady, now that she came to think about it. Maybe all that wine had been a mistake.

  I'm not used to drinking this much, but Gildor kept pressing wine on me. Rather desperately, actually. I think perhaps he'd been told to make sure whatever lady he was with always had a glass of wine in her hand when she wasn't dancing. That was probably a good idea, really; if he made sure his partners were tipsy enough, they might not notice he was such a dolt. Anything seems amusing when you're intoxicated.

  She thought seriously about asking one of the servants to find something for her to sit on, and was just at the point of intercepting one, when her own father came striding through the crowd, clearly looking for her.

  He sported her, too, as the animals scattered into hiding, perhaps sensing her surge of apprehension. He made straight for her with an air of determination, as the crowd of young on-lookers parted respectfully for him.

  He took her arm again, and this time she was grateful for his support and did not resist at all as he pulled her along, back toward the entrance to the ballroom-cum-glade.

  Are we leaving, Father? she asked, hopefully.

  He didn't notice the hope in her voice. I won't be getting any more business done tonight, he said shortly. And the wine's flowing a bit too freely for my liking. It's time we all went home.

  Has he noticed that I'm tipsy? She thought, panic making her go cold.

  Ardeyn has some fairly wild friends—he's in thick with Lady Triana's crowd—and I don't want you around them if they start to get rowdy, he continued. I've heard tales of that one—well, never mind. He'll be safe enough, shortly. The match with the House of Vittes is all but confirmed; I expect there'll be an announcement tomorrow.

  Why am I not surprised?

  She wondered if she ought to make some kind of comment, but he didn't seem to expect one.

  It's not the best match—you would be better, insofar as inherited power would go—but it's satisfactory, and the old man seems bent on indulging the boy by letting him make his own choice. The tone of his voice said what his words did not: I'd never allow my son to be spoiled in such a fashion.

  Yes, sir, she said automatically. He hardly noticed.

  Viridina has already gone ahead; I was just looking for you. Finally, as they broke through the edge of the crowd and entered the deserted corridor, he turned to look at her. Did you do as I told you? Did you make yourself agreeable to some of the young men?

  Now she was more than grateful to Gildor the Dolt, and not just for his company; he had made it possible for her to tell the truth to her father.

  Yes, sir, she said, earnestly. I was even asked to dance several times.

  Lord Tylar did not smile, but there was some grudging approval in his nod. Good.

  That was the last thing he said to her; he simply towed her along like so much baggage, through the first Portal, across the floor of the Council Hall, and through the second. Once on the other side of the two Portals and back in the pink-marble hall of his own manor, he abandoned her, taking her escort of guards with him, and leaving her to make her own exhausted way
back to her rooms and the sullen ministrations of the blond slave waiting there for her. Whether it was the wine or her own exhaustion, she hardly noticed the girl's surly manner; it barely intruded on her dazed thoughts.

  And when her head touched the downy pillow of her own bed, she fell asleep immediately, and did not dream at all.

  Chapter 3

  RENA WOKE BY herself, which was unusual; morning generally brought three slaves to wake her early, on her father's standing orders. He felt that no girl should be allowed to lie abed much past dawn; he said such practices encouraged indolence. She had no idea why he should feel that way—how could she or her mother possibly be more idle than they already were?

  But idleness was not indolence, nor was it laziness. Being forced to sit with folded hands did not mean they were indulging themselves.

  Probably it was just one more way to impose his will on them; it really hardly mattered, since if she happened to stay up late in bed reading, she could always dream in the garden once the servants were done dressing her.

  Today was an exception, however. Either she had somehow awakened much earlier than usual, or—far more likely—he had left orders to allow her to sleep late to recover from her unusually long evening and the presumed excitement of the fete. At least he was treating her with the same consideration he would give one of his prize horses this morning.

  She touched a carved flower on the headboard of her bed, and a dim pink mage-light (just enough to read by) appeared just over her head. It was impossible to tell exactly what time it was, since she couldn't see the water clock in the sitting room or the sun outside the manor, but she had the feeling that it was an hour or two past dawn, rather than before dawn.

  There was a faint headache just behind her eyes, but otherwise she was none the worse for all the wine she had drunk last night. That was a pleasant surprise. I know that Lorryn's complained about feeling much worse than this after a party. Either that wine wasn't as strong as I thought it was, or I didn't drink as much as I thought I had.