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did not need to be reminded how badly Verdanta needed this alliance. It was not so long ago that children even younger than Kristlin were forced into matings in order to breed exotic new strains of laran.
    “ Dom Rumail assures me that no true marriage will take place until Kristlin is of a suitable age, which will not be for some years,” Beltran said. “Today she will be handfasted by proxy and the contract signed, nothing more.”
    Coryn caught the edge of his father’s thought, A handfasting is not a marriage. I pray this one will hold until the alliance can be made irrevocable.
    “She—I’m not sure she understands that, Father,” Coryn said.
    “But in time, she will,” his father said. “If things were otherwise, I would have done my best to make a good marriage to someone else for her. She would have had to leave her own home for her husband’s. That is the way of things in this world. As it is, this is a far better match than she could have ever hoped for. With a future Queen for a sister, the other girls may look in higher places for their own marriages, so everyone benefits from the match.”
    Rumail turned and Coryn could not evade his glance.
    “And I—I am to go to a Tower?” He posed it as a question, although he already knew the answer.
    “I thought you might have heard a word or two while you waited outside,” his father said. One corner of his mouth quirked upward, as it did when he was trying not to smile. “ Dom Rumail has already told you that you may be gifted with laran —”
    “Not may be, ” Rumail interrupted, with a resonance in his voice which bespoke his years of Tower authority. “He has a powerful gift. We must not lose it, or him.”
    Beltran went on without missing a breath, “—and that for your own health, you require the care of people who know how to treat threshold sickness, how to teach you to use your laran. If you truly do not want to leave home,” he went on, ignoring Rumail’s pointed frown, “it might be possible to arrange for someone from Neskaya or Tramontana to come here.”
    “I do want to go to a Tower,” Coryn blurted out. His voice shook, but perhaps only he could hear it. But not to Neskaya. He knew nothing of the Tower, beyond that was where Rumail served. He shifted uneasily under the laranzu’s gaze.
    “I thought you might look upon it as yet another adventure,” his father said, sighing. “And I much prefer this be of your own choosing. When you knocked on the door, we were just discussing the matter of which Tower.”
    “I am, of course, most familiar with Neskaya,” Rumail said. “The workers are highly skilled, and have great matrix screens capable of almost any laran work which can be imagined. But when I left, several new commissions required their combined attention. With those priorities, they already have all the young people they can properly train. I am not returning directly there, so I could not escort Master Coryn in any event. But Tramontana is just as qualified to begin his training. I will be happy to arrange it.”
    Tramontana . . . Relief, like a cool breeze in the stillness of a sultry summer night, swept through Coryn.
    “Yes, that makes sense.” Beltran nodded. “To get there, you must take the longer route to avoid crossing into High Kinnally lands, but the weather is mild, so that is not a problem. In addition, we have distant kin at Tramontana, and it would be well to cement those ties, come next fire season.”
    “When I have learned to use my powers, I will summon Tower gliders and their chemicals,” Coryn said. “We will have no further need of outsider help.”
    Rumail looked at him sharply, but Beltran chuckled and said, “That is true enough, should you still want to return to us after seeing the wide world. Now, go and find your little sister, so we can explain to her that she need not leave home quite yet.”

    The doors had been thrown open to the warm summer night. Coryn stood at the threshold,