No one had answered Ashara's question. Aunn still seemed lost in some aspect of his transformation, so Gaven cleared his throat. "I need to go to Stormhome," he said. "I have to find Rienne, and I want to find out why my father was corresponding with Kelas."
"Stormhome?" Aunn said. "Last time you were there, I had to break you out of manacles." His voice was deeper and clearer than it had been as Kelas.
"You were also part of the team of dwarves it took to get the manacles on me in the first place. They'll never capture me without your help."
"Rienne threw me into the kitchen. Believe me, I wasn't much help."
Gaven laughed, but it was strange to think of the man sitting across from him as the dwarf who had barged in through Thordren's back door, as well as Darraun, and also Kelas. The changeling could take any face, could be anyone. How could Gaven trust him?
"Nevertheless," Gaven said, "that's where I have to go."
"But there's so much we have to do here," Aunn said. "I have to make sure that the army takes Kathrik Mel seriously and prepares to meet him, instead of just fighting the Reachers. Kelas can do that. I need to figure out what Nara is going. And assuming Jorlanna doesn't give up on her plans just because the Dragon Forge is destroyed, we need to stop her from seizing the throne and stealing any more dragonmarks."
"So it seems our destinies lie along different paths," Gaven said.
Aunn frowned. "Nara said I should keep you here until the reunion, whatever that means. If you leave now, and she finds out about it, it's going to be very hard for me to explain."
"Are you thinking about locking me up after all?"
"Of course not. I'm just saying maybe you should wait, see what Nara has in mind-"
"And continue to be her pawn? No, I've done enough of that. Even when I thought I was doing what I wanted, I was playing into her hands."
Aunn leaned forward and opened his mouth, ready to argue, then slumped back on the bench. "What can I say to that?" he said. "Except that I'm sorry for the part I played in it all."
Gaven frowned. He had always liked Darraun, but he'd never quite understood his role in events so far. He had used his intelligence contacts to get himself invited along with Cart and Senya to free Gaven and Haldren-which meant that Kelas had arranged it, most likely. At Nara's command? When Gaven escaped Haldren's custody, it was Darraun that brought him back to Starcrag Plain, but not to help Haldren. Was Nara behind that as well? Then Darraun had faked his own death and disappeared. When Gaven saw him next, he'd just killed Kelas at the Dragon Forge. Presumably Nara had not ordered that, since she had addressed Aunn as Kelas without a hint of irony. He couldn't help it-he still liked Aunn, this new incarnation of Darraun, even if he couldn't think of a reason to trust him.
Aunn interrupted his musing. "Cart? Ashara?" The changeling's gaze flicked between the two of them, who had been listening in silence. "Where do your destinies lie?"
Ashara looked at Cart, and Gaven thought he saw her hold her breath.
"I was made to be a soldier," Cart said, looking at the table, "and trained to fight for Aundair."
Gaven smiled. "I'd be proud to fight the Blasphemer beside you, Cart."
"I hadn't finished," the warforged said. "Like you, Gaven, I think it's time to make my own decisions. And also like you, I need to follow my… heart."
"What?"
Cart turned his head so his gaze met Ashara's, and a smile spread across her face until it reached her eyes. "I don't know what the future holds for me," the warforged said, "but I know my destiny lies with you."
Gaven and Darraun had laughed at Cart's insistence that he was many-layered, and Gaven suddenly felt ashamed of his laughter. It was all too easy to think of the warforged as an automaton, with his expressionless face and his body formed of wood, stone, and metal. Whatever process House Cannith had used to imbue Cart with life, though, had clearly given him more than animation, more even than the capacity for reasoning thought. Gaven had been impressed before with Cart's loyalty, even when it seemed misplaced. At the Dragon Forge, the warforged had proven he had a moral compass after all, when he tried to rescue Gaven from Kelas's clutches. Why should Gaven be surprised, then, to learn that Cart was in love?
Ashara cleared her throat. "We'll help you stop Jorlanna, Aunn. I know the workings of House Cannith."
"Excellent," Aunn said. "I appreciate the help."
"So it seems I'll be traveling alone," Gaven said. It would be the first time in many years, he realized. But only until he found Rienne.
"I'll get you papers," Aunn said. "We'll get you on the lightning rail to Thaliost, get you there about midday tomorrow, then a ship to Stormhome-"
"I want to fly there," Gaven said. "An airship."
"I can't get you another airship," Aunn said. "At least, not quickly."
"So I'll buy a fare. There must be airships going to Stormhome daily."
"You want to travel right under the nose of House Lyrandar? Do you think that's wise?"
"It's faster. I'll cut my hair, and without my mark no one will know me."
"Few Lyrandars ever saw your mark," Aunn said.
"But anyone who's looking for me now will be looking for the mark. It was rather distinctive." Gaven put his hand on the pouch that held the dragonshard, fighting a sudden urge to look at the lines of his mark tracing through the crystal.
"Very well," Aunn said. "I'll get you traveling papers. Do you have identification?"
"Not any more." The papers Senya had secured for him were still in Rav Magar, or destroyed.
"Then I'll get you identification papers as well. Who do you want to be?"
The question caught Gaven off-guard. Aunn might be accustomed to changing faces and identities at a moment's notice, but Gaven found it harder to think of being anyone else. He wanted to be himself. More than that, he wanted to be the Gaven he'd been thirty years earlier-before Dreadhold, before he gained his dragonmark, before he attained the power of the Storm Dragon. He wanted Rienne back, and his father, and his family name. He wanted a clear conscience, without the weight of the dead Paelions on his shoulders. But Aunn couldn't give him any of that.
"I don't know," Gaven said. "I suppose I just want to be able to travel without being harassed."
"Is that all? I can give you a noble title, a military rank, a government post. You name it."
"I… I don't know. I guess I don't care."
"Very well, I'll take care of it. How about a name?"
Senya had made a good case to use a given name that was similar to his own. "Keven," he said. It was close enough that if someone shouted that name, he'd turn to look, and if he accidentally blurted his real name, listeners would hear what they expected to hear.
"Good choice." Aunn scratched some notes on a piece of paper he'd produced from a belt pouch, and sat back in the bench. "I'll need a few hours at the Tower of Eyes. It's probably best if I go alone, now that it's daylight." He opened another pouch and pulled out a handful of coins. "You don't have any money, do you?"
Gaven shook his head, and Aunn slid a small pile of coins, mostly gold galifars with a few silver and copper coins in the mix, across the table to him. "Thank you," Gaven said.
"Thank Kelas," Aunn said with a grin. "He's become uncharacteristically generous since his death." He turned to Cart. "Do you need any?"
"We're fine," Ashara said.
Aunn put his palms on the table. "Very well," he said. "Let's meet back here for dinner. In the meantime, everybody lie low, don't attract attention, don't get in trouble. Or start trouble. And Gaven-it's a nice day, and I don't think Fairhaven has too many more of those in store before winter. Don't ruin it."
Gaven laughed. "I'll try. No promises, though."