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had his dark hair and wide mouth.
    â€œAlinath,” said Bandor. “I believe you have a visitor.”
    She turned toward Tier with a polite smile and opened her mouth, but when her eyes caught his face no sound left her lips. She dropped the basket on the ground, spilling rolls everywhere, then she was over the top of the counter and wrapped tightly around him.
    â€œTier,” she said in a muffled voice. “Oh, Tier. We thought you were dead.”
    He hugged her back, lifting her off the floor. “Hey, sprite,” he said, and his voice was as choked as hers.
    â€œWe kept it for you,” said Alinath. “We kept the bakery for you.”
    Alinath pulled back, tears running freely down her face. She took a step away from him and then punched him in the belly, turning her shoulder to put the full force of her body into the blow.
    â€œNine years,” she said hotly. “Nine years, Tier, and not even a note to say that you were still alive. Damn you, Tier.”
    Tier was bent over wheezing, but he held up three fingers.
    â€œWe received nothing,” she said angrily. “I didn’t even know where to send you word when Father died.”
    â€œI sent three letters the first year,” he said, huffing for breath. “When I had no reply, I assumed Father washed his hands of me.”
    Alinath put her hands to her mouth. “If he ever got your letters, he didn’t say anything to me. Darn my fiendish temper. I’m sorry I hit you, Tier.”
    Tier shook his head, denying the need for apology. “Father told me that someday I’d be sorry I taught you how to hit.”
    â€œCome with me,” she said. “Mother will want to see you.” She tugged him from the room, leaving Seraph alone with the man at the counter.
    â€œWelcome,” Bandor said after a long awkward moment. “I am Bandor, journeyman baker, and husband to Alinath of the Bakers of Redern.”
    â€œSeraph, Raven of the Clan of Isolda the Silent,” Seraph replied with outward composure, knowing her words would tell him no more than his eyes had already noticed.
    He nodded, bent to right the basket Alinath had dropped, and began to collect the rolls that had fallen on the floor.
    When he was finished he said, “Alinath will be busy withTier; I’d best get to the baking.” He turned on his heel and headed back through the door that Alinath and Tier had taken, leaving Seraph truly alone.
    Uncomfortable and out of place, Seraph sat on a small bench and waited. She should have left on her own as soon as Tier had killed the nobleman who pursued her. She’d have been safe enough then. Here in Tier’s village she was as out of place as a crow in a hummingbird nest.
    But she stayed where she was until Tier returned alone.
    â€œMy apologies,” he said. “I shouldn’t have left you here alone.”
    She shrugged. “I am hardly going to come to harm here, nor do I have a place in your reunion.”
    He gave her a faint smile. “Yes, well, come with me and I’ll make you known to my sister and mother.”
    She stood up. “I’m sorry that your father was not here as well.”
    His smile turned wry. “I don’t know if I’d have been welcomed here if my father were still alive.”
    â€œMaybe not right away, but you’re persuasive. He’d have relented eventually.” She found herself patting his arm and stopped as soon as she realized what she was doing.
    Â 
    Tier’s mother and sister awaited them in a small room that had been arranged for a sick person. Alinath sat on a stool next to the bed where Tier’s mother held court. The older woman’s hair was the same dark color as her children’s, though streaked with spiderwebs of age. She wasn’t old, not by Traveler standards, but her skin was yellow with illness.
    Both women looked upon Seraph without favor as Tier made his