I think." She took a deep breath. "So I'm going to tell you the things that we didn't tell you when you invited us to journey with you to Taela. It will take a while, and I am no Bard. I ask for your patience just the same."
"I am Seraph, Raven of Isolda the Silent and wife to Tieragan of Redern, Owl in his own right, though he has not a drop of Traveler blood..."
By the time she brought them into the present she was hoarse. Benroln refilled her cup and urged it upon her solicitously - as if they had not just fought a battle over a farmer's field.
As clan leader, it was his place to respond, so everyone sat silently while he considered her story.
"This Path," he said, "they have been taking our people for years and stealing their Orders?"
Seraph nodded.
"You have some of the stones?" asked Brewydd.
Seraph had thought the old Healer was asleep.
"Yes."
"I'd like to see them," Brewydd murmured. "Bring them here when we are done and we'll sit in the Librarian's home, you and I, Hennea and Benroln, and see just what evil the solsenti have wrought."
"All right," Seraph said and then changed the subject. "Tomorrow, my family and I will continue on to Taela where my husband is being kept."
"You say your husband is Ordered," said Isfain. "But he is a solsenti?"
"That's right."
"Could this Secret Path you told us about be the reason that the solsenti laws have become so stringent against us?" asked Kors.
Seraph thought that they could look to themselves and to other clans who had gone after gold rather than fighting evil for the cause of the antipathy solsenti had toward Travelers, but she wasn't such a fool as to say so.
Benroln, unaware of Seraph's thoughts, nodded intently. "It could be. If what we have heard tonight is true, this Path could be very powerful." He nodded his head once more. "Then this is what we will do. Isfain, send out messages to the other clans we know of and warn them of this Path and their methods. See to it that they in turn pass the message on." He waited until Isfain nodded. "Tomorrow we also strike out at speed for Taela."
He turned to Seraph. "There are things that we can do to help. We have friends in Taela."
Seraph looked at his eager face. "I would be very grateful for any help you can give," she said.
Seraph was exhausted, but she found herself as unable to say no to the old Healer as everyone else was. Besides, she wanted to know what the Healer could tell her about the rings. So it was that she found herself inside the house of Rongier the Librarian with Hennea, Benroln, and Brewydd.
Rongier's home had been larger and more prosperous than Isolda's. His library had a table large enough to seat eight or ten people.
Seraph took the seat next to Brewydd and dumped the bag of rings on the table.
Brewydd hesitated and lightly fingered each ring before settling on an old ring set with a stone of rose quartz.
"Well," she murmured, "how did they do that then? You told me that they took the Orders and bound them to a ring."
"Right," said Seraph. "That's what Hennea said, and that's what seems to have happened."
"Indeed." Brewydd put the ring down and pushed it away from her. Her hand was shaking a little. "So that's one of the reasons," she murmured.
"Reasons for what, Brewydd?" asked Benroln. He'd made no move to look closer at the rings.
"There were only ever so many Orders," she said. "I don't know the numbers, I'm not certain where to find an exact count of most of them - but there were only ever ten healers. One would die and another would be born. But now there are only six." She pointed at the ring she'd been handling. "That one is one of the missing."
"Do you mean to say that the Orders are... like a..." Seraph searched for a proper comparison.
"Like a suit of armor," said Brewydd. "One that is fitted at birth and stays with you, grows to be a part of you until it is like your skin. When you die, the skin sloughs off and cleanses itself of everything that was yours - your scent, your shape, the sound of your voice. Then, once more only a suit of armor, it goes off and seeks the next person to fit itself to."