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worry this way, Andrew. Leonie’s not an ogre. She loves Callista. The bonds of a Tower circle
    are the closest bonds we know. She’ll know what Callista really wants.”
    “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Andrew said through a dry throat. “Maybe Callista doesn’t know what she wants. Maybe she turned to me only because she was alone and afraid. I’m afraid of that old woman’s hold on her. The grip of the Tower—I’m afraid it’s too strong.”
    Damon sighed. “Yet it can be broken. I broke it. It was hard—I can’t begin to tell you how hard—yet Ihave built another life at last. And if you should lose Callista that way, better now than when it’s too lateto return.”
    “It’s already too late for me,” Andrew said, and Damon nodded, with a troubled smile.
    “I don’t want to lose you either, my friend,” Damon said, but to himself he thought:   You are part of this new life I have built with so much pain. You, and Ellemir, and Callista. I cannot endure another amputation   . But Damon did not speak the words; he only sighed, standing beside Andrew. The silence in the greenhouse stretched so long that the red sun, angling from the zenith, lost strength in the greenhouse and Damon, sighing, went to adjust the solar collectors. Andrew flung at him, “How can you wait so calmly? What is that old woman saying to her?”
    Yet Andrew had already learned that telepathic eavesdropping was considered one of the most shamefulcrimes possible in a caste of telepaths. He dared not even try to reach Callista that way. All hisfrustrations went into pacing the greenhouse floor.
    “Easy, easy,” Damon remonstrated. “Callista loves you. She won’t let Leonie persuade her out of that.”
    “I’m not even sure of that anymore,” Andrew said in desperation. “She won’t let me touch her, kiss
    her—”
    Damon said gently, “I thought I had explained that to you; she   cannot   . These are… reflexes. They godeeper than you could imagine. The habit of years cannot be undone in a few days, yet I can tell that sheis trying hard to overcome this… this deep conditioning. You know, do you not, that in a Tower, it wouldbe unthinkable for her to take your hand, as I saw her do, to let you kiss even her fingertips. Have you

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    any idea what a struggle that must have been, against years of training, of conditioning?”
    Against his will Damon was remembering a time in his life he had taught himself, painfully,   not   toremember: a lonely struggle, all the worse because it was not physical at all, to quench his own awarenessof Leonie, to control even his thoughts, so that she should never guess what he was concealing. He wouldnever have dared to imagine a finger-tip-touch such as Callista bestowed on Andrew in the hall, justbefore she went up to Leonie.
    With relief, he saw that Ellemir had come into the greenhouse. She walked between the rows of greenplants, knelt before a heavily laden vine. She rose with satisfaction, saying, “If there is sunlight for anotherday, these will be ripened for the wedding.” Then her smile slid off as she saw Damon’s strained face, Andrew’s desperate quiet. She came and stood on tiptoe, putting her arms around Damon, sensing heneeded the comfort of her presence, her touch. She wished she could comfort Andrew too, as he said indistress, “Even if Leonie gives her consent, what of her father? Will   he   consent? I do not think he likesme much…”
    “He likes you well,” Ellemir said, “but you must understand that he is a proud man. He thought me too good for Damon, but I am old enough to do my own will. If he had offered me to Aran Elhalyn, who warms the throne at Then-dara, Father would still have thought him not good enough. For Callista, no man ever born of woman would be good enough, not if he was rich as the Lord of Carthon, and born bastard to a god! And of course, even in these days, it is a great thing to have a child at Arilinn.