he whispered, his voice cracking.
"As real as such things get," Tris told him. "Keep the seeing things part between you and me for now. Briar and Daja already guessed that you can hear like I can, but they don't know about me seeing things."
"Why not?" Zhegorz asked simply. "They love you."
Tris sighed, troubled. "Because the chances of someone learning to see on the winds are tiny. They'll think I think I'm better than they are." Seeing the man's frown,Tris grimaced. "They gave me a hard time all the way here about going to university," she explained. "And other mages — when they found out I could do it, when so many fail... they decided I was prideful, and conceited. I don't want Briar and Daja and Sandry to be that way with me. And Briar already said having a credential from Winding Circle isn't good enough for me. This would just make it worse. You know how family gets, once you turn different."
Zhegorz nodded. "Maybe you're too sensitive," he suggested.
Tris stared at him, flabbergasted, then began to laugh. "Look who says so!"
Slowly, as if he weren't quite sure how to go about it, Zhegorz smiled.
*
Everyone felt better after hot baths and clean clothes. Best of all, Ealaga was too wise to subject them to a formal banquet after a day's travel. Instead, they took their suppers in a small, informal dining room rather than in the great main hall with its dais, hangings, musicians' gallery, and massive fireplace. That treat was reserved for the next night.
For that night's meal the courtiers provided light talk, jokes, and news for the company. Rizu managed to coax a funny story about learning to skate in Kugisko from Daja, while Jak flirted and teased Sandry until she laughingly talked about Duke Vedris and some of the mishaps her student Pasco had gotten into. In the withdrawing room after supper the servants brought wine, tea, and fruit juice for them all, as well as cheeses and biscuits. Chime enchanted them with her flights in the air, candles and firelight throwing brightly coloured flashes from her glassy body. When the travellers began to show weariness, Ealaga instructed the maids to show them to their rooms.
Sandry was asleep the moment she crawled under the blankets. She didn't know how long she stayed that way before someone grabbed her hand. She sat bolt upright, ready to launch a fistful of power against her attacker's clothes, and opened her eyes to darkness.
Dark! she thought, horrified. Someone's grabbing me and it's dark, where's my light, my lamp!
Then she saw a nimbus of light around the darkness over her. The person who had woken her stood between her and the chunk of crystal that was her protection against ever being left to wake in the dark. Sandry pushed the person back a step, allowing more light to flow over the intruder's shoulder. A woman of thirty or so stood beside Sandry. Her face ran with tears. She continued to hang on to one of Sandry's hands as if her life depended on it.
"Clehame, I beg you, don't call for the servants!" the woman begged softly. "Please, I mean you no harm, I swear it on my mother's name!"
"You silly creature!" the girl snapped, trying to tug free. "I don't have to call the servants — didn't they tell you I'm a mage? I might have hurt you! Especially when you got between me and the light, for Mila's sake."
The woman refused to let go of her. "Please, Clehame, I don't know if they said you were a mage, but it wouldn't make any difference. I would be better off killed by magic than live on as I live now!"
Sandry pushed herself upright until she could lean over and grab the crystal with her free hand. Holding it, she brought the light closer to her captor's features. The woman flinched back from it, but her grip on Sandry's hand did not case, and her haggard dark eyes never left Sandry's face.
The stranger looked as if she'd been lovely as a girl, and had not yet lost all trace of her looks. Her hair was light brown and coarse, tumbling out of its pins. Her nose looked as if it had been broken once, and deep lines bracketed her nose and wide mouth. She wore a coarse white undergown and practical dark overgown, short-sleeved and calf-length to reveal the embroideries underneath. The clothing was good in its weave and stitching, the embroideries well-done.