Cammon was smiling and shaking his head. “How do you do that? I’m looking for you, and I can’t tell you’re there.”
She was smiling, pleased with herself. She bent down to stroke Donnal’s head. “I used to be able to conceal myself only at night. But now I’ve found that the magic works in daylight, too.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why.”
Cammon glanced at Jerril. “And I have no idea how to countermand her magic,” he said. “How can we even practice?”
Jerril looked intrigued. “This will take some experimentation,” he said. “Ellynor, will you indulge us? Can you assume your cloaks as we’re standing here watching you?”
She tilted her head to one side. Her long dark hair was braided and wrapped around her head, but here and there Cammon could see the blonder markings of her clan pattern dyed into the black. She looked very neat and compact and serious. “I think so.”
“Cammon, focus on her,” Jerril directed. “Ellynor-disappear.”
Before their very eyes, Ellynor seemed to drop into a well of shadows, which smoothed away and left only ordinary sunlight behind.
“I want to do that,” Senneth exclaimed. “Next time I’m invited to dinner at the king’s table.”
Cammon was staring at the place where she’d been but was completely unable to tell if she was still there. Donnal, however, had grown alert. His pointed nose swung in a slow circle as if he tracked a particularly tasty piece of game.
“Donnal, can you find her?” Jerril asked in a quiet voice. “Show us.”
Donnal bounded forward and made a low leap, and suddenly he and Ellynor were tussling on the ground. Ellynor was laughing as she tried to dodge his tongue. “That’s not fair! I can’t outrun him.” She pushed Donnal aside and rose gracefully to her feet. “I thought the dog might be more difficult to trick than the mystic.”
“But we want Donnal to be able to pick you out even when he doesn’t know where you are,” Jerril said.
“I can’t pick her out even when I do,” Cammon said gloomily.
“Concentrate on the spaces around her,” Jerril suggested. “When she takes a step, she disturbs the shrubs, the vines-the birds, the squirrels. See if you can sense the disruption she causes in the world, if you can’t sense her.”
Cammon widened his eyes. “That’s awfully subtle.”
Jerril smiled. “It’s a delicate magic.”
They spent the next two hours hunting for Ellynor. Donnal experienced significantly more success than Cammon did, and even he could only find her three times out of seven. Jerril had Ellynor increase her magic by stages, gradually becoming less and less perceptible to the others, and that was a fascinating exercise. Like lifting weights that were successively heavier, Cammon thought. The last round had been possible, so surely the next one should be as well-but there was a point at which he could discern her, and a point at which he could not, and not all his straining changed that.
All of them were exhausted by the end of two hours of effort. Well, not Senneth and Kirra-they had stayed comfortable and lazy against the wall, calling out derision or encouragement as the mood took them.
Jerril finally said, “I think we’ve had enough for the day. I’ll come back tomorrow and the day after that, and we’ll work on this some more.”
“I want to try one more thing,” Cammon said, and he pulled Ellynor over to whisper in her ear. Three minutes later, the Lirren girl had crept invisibly over to the wall and dumped a canteen of water on the other two women.
Kirra shrieked and melted into lioness shape, leaping straight through the dead shrubbery for Cammon. He ran, of course, but she caught him in three steps, and they tumbled on the ground together until she stilled him completely by standing with her great golden paws heavy on his chest. She stared down at him with liquid blue eyes-Kirra’s eyes even in the cat’s shape, or maybe it was just that Cammon still saw her as Kirra-and yowled in triumph.
“Bite him!” Senneth was shouting. “Have him for dinner!” But, instead, Kirra just dropped her head and ran her rough tongue across his face, practically lifting off his skin. Then she jumped down and loped to Donnal’s side.
Jerril helped Cammon up. “She is impressive,” he said. “One hears stories about Kirra Danalustrous, but to see her up close like that-well.”
Cammon brushed off his clothes and grinned. “No one quite like her.”
Jerril’s eyes wandered thoughtfully over the whole group: Senneth still lounging on the ground, Ellynor now corporeal and kneeling beside her, Kirra and Donnal chasing each other across the width of the garden and back. “It’s quite a group of friends you’ve gathered,” the older man said. “With an astonishing array of powers.”
“Senneth gathered us,” Cammon said. “And Justin and Tayse.”
“Yes,” Jerril said, “Senneth was always good at knowing what was valuable. She just didn’t used to be so good at keeping the things and people that mattered to her. I am glad to see that she has learned to hold on.”
Cammon laughed. “Or maybe we’re the ones who’ve learned to hold on to her.”
Jerril smiled. “The result is excellent, either way.”
CHAPTER 12
ELLYNOR had been at the palace for just over a week before she had an audience with the king. Justin told Cammon that Baryn always made a point of introducing himself to the Riders’ brides because, as he said, “If these women are competing with me for my Riders’ attention, I should at least know what they look like.”
Justin escorted Ellynor to a semiformal room, all dark blue and bright gilt. Cammon followed, curious to see how the meeting would go. The king waited in a high-backed chair only a little less imposing than his throne, and Valri and Amalie sat on either side of him. Baryn and Amalie wore welcoming smiles, but Valri looked brooding and just a little on edge.
Justin shepherded Ellynor to the king’s chair and offered a Rider’s deep bow, right fist to left shoulder, and pulled Ellynor down in a curtsey beside him. Ellynor looked particularly pretty this day, Cammon thought, for she was wearing a midnight-blue dress that matched her eyes and her face was flushed with color. Her black hair was unbound and flowed down her back so that everyone could see those stylized clan markings dyed into it. Coming to a halt behind Ellynor, Cammon studied the pattern, which looked a bit like a flower, a bird, and a scythe, repeated in rows down the whole river of her hair.
“Liege, may I present to you Ellynor Alowa, of the Domen sebahta and the Lahja sebahta-ris, and lately made my wife,” Justin said, rising. Cammon had heard Justin rehearse this about a hundred times last night, and he didn’t mispronounce a single syllable now. “I hope you will welcome her to Ghosenhall.”
“And so I do,” Baryn said, holding out his hands. Ellynor stepped forward and laid her hands in his, and he kissed them before releasing her. “How is it that you found a way to tame my most ferocious Rider, Ellynor Alowa? I didn’t think Justin would ever be won over.”
Ellynor blushed and glanced at Justin. “He’s won me over, sire.”
“Ah, well, there is no resisting Justin,” Baryn said with a smile. “If he set his heart on you, you would have no choice in the matter.” Justin laughed aloud and Ellynor blushed even more deeply. His smile broadening, Baryn made a graceful gesture at Amalie. “Let me also introduce you to my daughter, Amalie, who is just as pleased to meet you as I am.”
Ellynor made another curtsey, but Amalie drew her forward and kissed her on the cheek. “I think you’re brave to marry a Rider,” the princess said. “They’re very fierce.”
“Justin isn’t always fierce,” Ellynor replied, and then she blushed again.