Doc individuals and parties had sometimes ventured through the lightless tunnels, and To-gai-ru humans had exited them on the northern side of the mountains, most who entered those dark ways had never been heard from again.
"Do you think it wise that one of us accompany them?" King Eltiraaz asked, again surprising Cazzira.
"I do," she blurted before she could even sort through a more thorough and informative response.
Eltiraaz settled back, allowing her to collect her thoughts.
"This is an opportunity that we must explore," Cazzira went on after a while. ?I did not wish to believe Belli'mar Juraviel when first I encountered and spoke with him. I thought him even worse, even more dangerous, than the human intruders who sometimes cross our lands. Here was a creature above those humans, a kin of ours, who perhaps held the power to destroy us utterly. We cannot let him walk away unobserved."
"And yet, I have come to understand that there is no such malice in Belli'mar Juraviel's heart, and if the rest of his people are of similar feelings toward the Doc'alfar" - King Eltiraaz stumbled over that Touel'alfar word, mimicking JuraviePs voice inflections as closely as possible - "then I believe we would be wise to make contact with our lost kin."
"It may be no more than wishful thinking."
King Eltiraaz gave a great sigh. ?Perhaps. I feel that there is sincerity in Belli'mar Juraviel's words of friendship, but I am afraid," King Eltiraaz ad-mitted. ?In making such a choice to let him and Brynn Dharielle go, I am putting all of Tymwyvenne in danger."
"In allowing Belli'mar Juraviel and Brynn Dharielle to live, you are doing Cazzira replied. ?Yet I do not, nor does anyone else, suggest that you Ikhem now. Indeed, if you chose to give Brynn to the bog and execute or Turaviel, you would find opposition to that course, silent if not overt." "From your ?No."
King Eltiraaz laughed at the honesty of those words. Cazzira was speakand it seemed to Eltiraaz that she, too, preferred their present urse toward the strangers. But fierce Cazzira never let compassion get in e way of prudence. ?Yet I am not ready boldly to approach Lady Das-Jerond," he admitted. ?I am not ready to confront the past of Tylwyn Doc and Tylwyn Tou. I know my intuition toward Belli 'mar Juraviel and his ranger companion, but it is just that, intuition. I will need more than that to attempt to bring the alfar together again."
Cazzira nodded with every word, understanding completely. ?Then you need not ask me," she said. ?It is right that one of us accompany Belli'mar Turaviel, to the south and then back again, if this way he comes. And it is right that I am the one. I first saw the pair."
"But it was Lozan Duk who suggested that Belli'mar Juraviel ancL-Bfynn Dharielle be captured and not killed,"
Eltiraaz reasoned.
"Qui'mielle Duk is with child," Cazzira replied without the slightest hesi-tation, referring to Lozan Duk's wife, who was indeed pregnant - the first pregnancy in Tymwyvenne in nearly forty years. ?Lozan-T>uk^shouTa not leave. ?
King Eltiraaz stared long and hard into Cazzira's icy blue eyes, measuring her resolve.
Juraviel and Brynn removed their hoods on Cazzira's command, blink-ing their eyes against the brilliant late-summer sunlight. Despite Juraviel's original decision against a long delay, they had spent several weeks in Tym-wyvenne, where the sun did not shine, and now the brilliant warmth felt good indeed!
So good that it took Juraviel a long while to realize that he and Cazzira and Brynn were apparently alone, with no sign of the contingent of more than a dozen other Doc'alfar who had accompanied them out of the city.
They were in the foothills of the giant mountains, so close that Juraviel derstood that this area just north of the divide would be bathed in shadow at this time of day in a few weeks, when the sun lowered in the sky Wither to the south.
"Where are we?" Brynn asked. ?And where are your kinfolk?"
We are where you said you wanted to be," Cazzira answered. ?Close to - at least. And why would the Tylwyn Doc wish to accompany you to the J-L Starless Night, a place where we do not often choose to go?" Then why are you here?"
Juraviel was sharing a stare with Cazzira as Brynn asked the question reading her thoughts. ?You intend to come with us," he reasoned, and when there came no immediate argument, he went on, ?This is our road, one cho-sen by fate and