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state of his clothing.  He’d traveled hard and fast to get here.  “Her family’s in trouble.  A wealthy townsman holds her father’s markers, and he can no longer pay.  The man demands Cinnia to forgive the debt, or her father will face imprisonment.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question.  Why did you bring her to Ketach Tor?”
    “Protection.  Time.”  Gavin began to pace.  “I need the time to court her and keep her safe while I do it.  I can’t if Jimenin...”
    Ambrose interrupted him.  “Who?”
    “Don Gabrilla Jimenin.  The man who holds Hallis’s markers.  I can’t court her with him stalking her and threatening her father every minute.”
    Ballard still didn’t understand the problem.  “Then just kill him and pay the blot wite .”
    Gavin laughed.  “If he challenged me I would, but that isn’t how it works.  Don Jimenin is a powerful citizen of the town.  Influential and rich.  He has a private militia of mercenaries and henchmen.  The only reason he hasn’t outright abducted Cinnia is he wants to maintain a good name.  Besides, blood fines are obsolete.  No court in the land will accept one.  I’d swing from the gallows instead.”
    Ballard snorted.  Things had changed a great deal in a few centuries.  A man’s reputation had once rested on his prowess in battle and his loyalty to his king, not the manner in which he got his bride to the altar.
    Ambrose worried the embroidery edging one of his sleeves.  “You could have stayed in Monteblanco to protect her, but you’ve been called back by the flux.”
    “Aye.  I started feeling the effects last week.”  Gavin looked to Ballard.  “I couldn’t leave her, Father.  Her widowed sister is a capable guardian and a force to be reckoned with but still no match for Jimenin.”
    The girl had a sister.  Ballard wondered idly if the siblings resembled each other.  He pitied their father if such were true.  One child with the face of a goddess would be hard enough to defend; two, a nightmare of constant vigilance.  “If you’re called back and the flux runs high, then either Ambrose’s conjectures are wrong...”
    Ambrose gave an indignant huff.  “They’re not wrong.”
    “Or Mistress Hallis doesn’t love you.  It’s obvious she came of her own accord, but did she do so because she returns your affections or because her father needs money to avoid a prison cell, and she wants to avoid an unwanted bridegroom?”
    Gavin shrugged.  “All three.  They aren’t ignoble reasons, and it was I who offered to pay her father’s debts.  She didn’t ask.  Even her sister rebuffed me when I made the offer.”
    “Can you blame them?  Beholden to one man or another, they’re trapped by their sire’s debt, and the girl is reduced to nothing more than a halsefang to keep him out of prison.”
    “I don’t see her as payment,” Gavin snapped.  “I want her to wife because I love her.  I just need time to court her.  Even if she rejects me in the end, I’ve promised her family will hold no debt to us.”  His tone turned beseeching.  “Cinnia cares for me.  Away from Jimenin and without worries that her father will be jailed, I believe she’ll come to love me and agree to be my wife.”
    Ambrose stroked his beard.  “It might work, dominus .  Winter’s set in.  No decent roads for traveling, even in this age.  She has only a father and sister, so I doubt we’ll have an angry pack of relatives descending on us to defend her honor.
    Gavin chortled.  “I wouldn’t say that.  You haven’t met the sister.  Louvaen Duenda is her own militia.  Expect her at the gates in a few days to rescue Cinnia from our clutches.”
    One of Ballard’s eyebrows rose.  It didn’t speak well for Cinnia’s father that one of his daughters would play the savior to the other one instead of him.  “When the flux peaks, you’ll have to give your beloved some reason for the noises below the hall and why you’ve