herself on horseback before dawn the next morning, riding east toward the Desert. She turned only once to look back at the castle on the cliffs. Blue-gray veils of mist swirled around it, and the sky beyond was still night-dark over the sea. She knew she should have taken time to ask her future of the Mothertree, but there had been no chance. She felt only mild regret, however; the things of Goddess Keep were past now, and she was riding to her future.
A future with a man she didn’t even know.
The first night they stopped before dusk beside a branch of the Kadar River, having made excellent progress during a hard day’s riding. With Sioned were lifelong friends—Antoun, Meath, Mardeem, Palevna, Hildreth, all around her own age and with whom she had gone through faradhi training—as well as several others with relatives along the way who would be glad of a sight of their faradhi kin and would provide shelter for a night. There were younger men and girls who were responsible for the horses and provisions, making the ordered total of twenty. Sioned was amazed that so many people had been willing to ride so far for her sake on such ridiculous notice.
Most of them sat around the fire after their meal, Mardeem idly singing a love song and glancing slyly at Sioned whenever he reached a particularly suggestive lyric. Camigwen sat within the secure circle of Ostvel’s arm and fretted that there wasn’t light enough left to continue sewing the bride-gown. Sioned joined in the laughter as Ostvel teased her, wondering if the same kind of loving, playful relationship waited for her with him. She didn’t know him, had only seen his face years ago in the Fire. She was still a girl enchanted by blue eyes and her own fantasies of what she thought was in them. Why was she riding so many hundreds of measures to marry a man she didn’t know?
“Are you tired or just thinking?” Ostvel asked with a kind smile.
“A little of both,” Sioned replied. “And dreading the idea of crossing the Faolain in a few days.”
“It’s the last river you’ll have to cross for a good long while,” he reminded her, amusement making his gray eyes sparkle in the firelight. “The Desert is just the place for you Sunrunner types. Tell me, Sioned, are you like Camigwen, who gets queasy looking at a bathtub?”
Cami fisted him in the ribs. “Watch what you say or I’ll be sure to get sick all over you when we cross!”
Grunting, Ostvel gathered long legs under him and stood. “Come on, Meath, Antoun—let’s go check the horses before my dainty and gentle beloved decides to break my arm.”
Mardeem, unable to cause more than a blush in Sioned with his songs, declared himself out of voice and in need of sleep. Most of the others followed his example and rolled themselves in blankets on the ground nearby, tactfully out of earshot of the fire where Sioned and Camigwen lingered. It was too quiet without music. Sioned reached for a twig, pulling it from the fire, moodily watching the little flame.
“Cami—will you and Ostvel stay with me there for a little while? After I’m—” She couldn’t bring herself to say married, and the word princess was for the woman she’d seen in the Fire years ago. “I think I’m going to need somebody to talk to,” she finished lamely.
“We’ll stay as long as you like. But you won’t need us, Sioned. You’ll have him.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she muttered.
“What’s the matter? You’ve hoped for years that this would happen, and you’ve been so happy all day today.”
“What if we can’t talk to each other?” Sioned burst out. “What if we find we have nothing to say? Cami, look at me. I’m nothing. A six-ring Sunrunner who barely knows her craft, born in a holding nobody’s ever heard of! Can you seriously see me as a princess?”
“You’re shadow-fearing, Sunrunner,” Camigwen said briskly. “Stop being so silly. Of course you’re going to love each other.”
“But what if we can’t? I don’t know him, and he certainly doesn’t know me. I don’t want to tie myself to a man I can’t love.”
“Listen to me, Sioned. Look into the Fire. There aren’t any shadows to lose yourself in and never come out. There’s only the light.”
At her friend’s coaxing, Sioned dropped the twig back into the fire and faced the flames, and within them was his face. She flinched at the