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by the window, almost like white rain, it was so heavy.
    “Verlyt! I’d better get home. No one knows where I am!”
    “Sammis. Wait a bit. You said yourself that no one’s likely to be home. And a few minutes more won’t make that much difference. You need to warm up and have something else to eat.”
    Still on the edge of my chair, I reached for one of the crumb rolls, forcing myself to eat it slowly, with an occasional sip of cider. Nothing seemed to make sense—not the snow, for we seldom had snow in Bremarlyn; nor the cold, which was more like Southpoint; nor the soldiers. Especially not the soldiers.
    “The soldiers again?”
    I nodded, since my mouth was full.
    “It doesn’t make much sense.” Allyson paused. “Could your mother be one of the Hands?”
    “ … ouughchchouupphh …” I had all I could do to keep from choking on the spot. My mother, my well-educated and scholarly mother, an Imperial Hand? One of the emperor’s unknown but highly trusted agents?
    “Well … it does make sense, Sammis. She travels, and no one, not even her family, knows where. She is brilliant and well-educated. She is in fantastic shape, and no one in Inequital or anywhere else would know anything about her.”
    All of what Allyson said was true, but the whole idea was ridiculous. My well-tailored and devoted mother? With her flynyx coat?
    “No, that’s ridiculous …”
    “Then why the soldiers?”
    “You might as well ask ‘Why the snow?’, Allyson.” I shrugged. “It’s got to be tied up with the Mithradan mess … but without power we can’t even hear the news.”
    “You don’t have batteries?”
    “Do you?”
    “No … Father says they’re too expensive.”
    I grinned. “Sounds like mine.” I knew I needed something to eat. The midday meal at the Academy had been yellow fish stew, which tasted worse than it sounded. But I wanted to gulp the rolls and cheese down and start home. My guts were tightening just thinking about Allyson’s suggestion, which made far too much sense. And I was afraid that the soldiers around my home meant nothing good. Nothing at all good.
    “Now I’ve got you worried, don’t I?”
    “Just a little …”
    Her hand touched mine, covered it, and I sat there, enjoying her touch and still worrying.
    “Let me come with you.”
    I shook my head. “No. If there’s no problem, then there’s no reason for you to freeze. If there is a problem, I wouldn’t want you involved.”
    She nodded, understanding what I meant. The roundups after the Eastron cleanup had been thorough, very thorough.
    I slowly chewed a second slice of cheese, not tasting it. I swallowed and felt it settle like ice in my stomach. Even a sip of cider didn’t seem to warm the cold weight there. So I stood up.
    Allyson did also. “Please be careful.”
    “I’ll try.” I tried to grin, but it was forced.
    “Before you go … let me show you something.”
    Show me something? Allyson displayed concern, but not the almost romantic implications of her statement.
    She blushed as I considered her words.
    “That sounds … different … from what I meant … just follow me …” She went from the side room into the kitchen and then opened a narrow doorway leading downward into a lower level of the house, toward the old servant’s quarters, not that very many of the gentry had servants any longer, as we had Shaera. But the stairway was clean, as was the hallway. At the end was a heavy door to the outside, which opened onto the rear hillside underneath the veranda.
    I’d seen the door from the lawn before, and wondered where it went. Now I was seeing it from the inside. Although the lower level was not heated, it wasn’t that cold, and I could feel the residual warmth from above and from the main solar tap.
    Allyson stepped back from the outside doorway and eased open one of the hallway doors into a small room with a single bed—one covered mattress on a simple wooden frame—and a lamp. The room had