"Good evening, Alessa," he began. Seeing Solveig coming up behind him, he seemed at a loss to know whether or not his service was still required. After a brief moment, he withdrew quietly. Alessa tried not to smile.
"Just in time for dinner," Solveig said. Solveig was the tallest woman Alessa had ever seen, taller even than most men. Her long hair, which she usually wore in a single loose braid, was a pale gold in color, so pale that it was almost white in sunlight.
"I hope I'm not intruding," Alessa said. "I couldn't help noticing that there's a griffon in the old warehouse, so I wondered if Captain Glantri was here for a visit."
"No," Solveig said, standing back so that the sorceress could enter. "A messenger arrived this afternoon bearing a report from Emperor Cornelius."
"I hope he didn't bring bad news," Alessa commented with some apprehension, pausing to give Taeryn her shawl before she followed Solveig into the dining room.
"Good news, actually," Solveig explained. "Everything appears to be generally peaceful in the east. There's been no evidence that the Alphatians and the dragons are still in conflict, so it seems that they've finally made their peace."
Alessa frowned. "Meaning that the Alphatians have finally learned that they are not to trespass in lands the dragons claim as their own. I've heard that they lost at least a third of their fleet."
"I'm still amazed that they were so determined to take on the dragons."
"I'm not," Alessa commented sourly. "The Alphatians are related to my people. In taking on the Nation of Dragons, they displayed much the same hardheaded self-righteousness that leads the Flaem to believe that we can defeat the Alphatians."
They took their places at the table, and Alessa waited silently while Taeryn served dinner. She was thinking, as she always did, of her first night in that house, seated at that same table with Thelvyn and the others. She was embarrassed now to think how she had confidently weaved her schemes in what she had assumed to be a wizardly manner, immediately betraying Byen Kalestraan when the old villain had sent her into that house as his spy. The place always reminded her very much of Thelvyn, especially since Solveig had changed nothing in the few months that he had been gone.
"Have you heard anything from Thelvyn or Sir George?" she asked.
"Not since the last time you asked," Solveig replied, with no hint in her expression about whether she was amused. She paused a moment while Taeryn set her plate before her. "You don't miss Thelvyn, do you?"
"I just recall that he did not have much cause to think well of me the last time we spoke," Alessa admitted. "I've come to think that I would like to amend that. Do you ever regret that
you didn't go with them?"
"From time to time," Solveig answered. "But mostly as a matter of curiosity. Then I remind myself where they were going, and that cures me. I'm not ready for the company of dragons, especially dragons who don't yet think much of Thelvyn and even less of his friends. I wonder if he's already found a way to break the spell that has always prevented him from assuming his true dragon form, or if that still is years away. I wonder what he looks like as a dragon, and if he's happier that way."
"Do you suppose that we'll ever see him again, or does his fate now entirely rest with the dragons?"
Solveig made a small helpless gesture. "I can't say for certain, but I suspect that we'll see him soon enough. Somehow I feel that all this business with the dragons is not yet finished, that there are still matters remaining unsettled."
They waited while Taeryn brought in glasses and a bottle of wine, then took out a corkscrew to pull the cork. Taeryn took a special delight in this particular task, and they were not about to interrupt. He extracted the cork deftly, and it slipped out with a satisfying pop.
"I would very much like to see Kharendaen again," he commented as he poured the wine. "She was a very nice dragon. Very polite."
"I wonder how polite she would be if she knew that you've been stabling griffons in her lair," Alessa observed. "And speaking of griffons, I was thinking that it must be about time for Darius Glantri to visit again. That's why I wondered if he were here tonight. It's been a while."
"Perhaps it has," Solveig agreed vaguely.
"So what about Darius?" Alessa continued. "How can the two of you have any meaningful relationship if weeks and weeks go by between visits from halfway across a continent? I know Darius visits every chance he gets, on the pretext of delivering important messages, but usually he's here only one night before he has to go home. You've never told me much about the relationship between the two of you, but if he's willing to go through that much trouble to visit you, something serious must be happening. You grew up in Thyatis, didn't you? Have you ever thought about going back? Might he consider coming here?"
"You're inquisitive tonight," Solveig remarked evasively.
"Are you going to avoid the question?"
"I don't know," she was forced to admit. "I've always thought that I would go back to Thyatis someday, but I can't abandon my responsibilities here in the Highlands any time soon. Darius and I both have important duties in our own lands, duties that we can't forsake at a time when all the known world is in such an unsettled state."
"What drove you away in the first place?" Alessa asked, then hastened to interrupt Solveig before she could answer. "I know the story people tell about how your barbarian heart just longed to be free, and also how you were sold into slavery by the northlanders and bought by one of the first families of Thyatis so that they would have a daughter to present to society. But I've always had the feeling that you left Thyatis for someone's peace of mind, and I'm not certain it was your own."
Solveig frowned. "Actually, that's the exact reason. As I was growing up, I realized that everything I was being taught was to prepare me to be the type of person my adopted parents expected me to be. And being naturally rebellious and contrary, I of course wanted to do exactly the opposite. Since I was supposed to be gentile, I wanted to be a warrior. Since I was supposed to be dignified and respectable, I wanted to be an unsavory adventurer. When I found out that my father was already planning my marriage to someone who would be an advantage to the family, I decided to get out of Thyatis until I was too old to be married away."
"And then Darius Glantri came along," Alessa observed.
"Yes, that's the irony of it. In the course of being everything I wasn't supposed to be, I actually found a Thyatian who is a far more prestigious match than my father could have ever arranged for me. But what about you? Let's discuss your personal life for a while."
"I don't have one," Alessa said with a hint of honest regret. "That's the problem with my profession. I only have my spell-book to keep me company at night."
"If you don't have anything else to distract you, I was wondering if you've discovered anything new about the Collar of the Dragons," Solveig said, pouring herself another glass of wine. "I keep thinking, now that winter has passed, the dragons could be coming back here at any time wanting to know what we've done about finding their collar. The last I heard, you were certain that Kalestraan must have had some part in stealing it."
"Not only that, but I'm also fairly sure that he was the one who hid it," Alessa said, then smiled in almost comic self-sat-isfaction. "In fact, I've run across one of Kalestraan's secrets just tonight. I don't know if it will help us find the collar, but it's the only possible clue I've managed to find in a long while. I'll need a little time to probe the secrets of this thing safely."
"If the dragons come back, I don't know how understanding they'll be about our excuses."
"Do you think Thelvyn would intercede on our behalf?" Alessa asked.