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.“Hear me, Hweilan,” said the queen.“You would do well not to trust the words of that one.He holds them only as long as they seem comfortable to him.”With that, the queen turned away.Her throne was back, and she sat again.“I … I don’t know what you mean,” said Hweilan.The queen had lowered her gaze and seemed to be staring off into nowhere.She motioned to Menduarthis with a flick of one finger.“Tell her,” she said.Menduarthis bowed, then began to pace the room, circling Hweilan like a bird searching for a safe place to roost.“Your Lendri is not the most reputable of pups around here.We found him, years ago, wandering the valleys where our people hunt when it suits them.Our lord, uh …” He seemed at a loss for words, and looked to Kunin Gatar.“You may say his name,” said the queen, still not lookingup.“Our lord at the time, Miel Edellon”he stopped his pacing a moment and bowed to Kunin Gatar”our lady’s beloved, decided to hunt your friend.But Lendri… a tricksy little cur that one.He evaded the hunt again and again, and when it became clear he could not get away, he turned on the hunters.Lord Edellon was so impressed that after he caught Lendrifor he did catch him at lastrather than take his tail for a pennant, he brought him home and offered him a place among our people.An offer that Lendri accepted.”“He swore oaths,” said Kunin Gatar.“So he did,” said Menduarthis.“Loyalty, keeping oursecrets, preserving our waysall that.But … well, it seemed his heart wasn’t in it.”“Wh-what do you mean?” said Hweilan.“Faithless cur, he” The queen stopped, and Hweilan was shocked to see a glimmering tear fall down one cheek.For a moment, she really did seem a bereft girl, no more than Hweilan’s age, heartbroken and alone.“Understand,” said Menduarthis.“Our world, our society … it isn’t like the outside world.The mortal world … your so-called lords and kings, they swear oaths and vows like they wear clotheseasily sloughed off when they become uncomfortable.Here, that isn’t so.Here, once you are one of us, the only way out is death.There is no …” He chewed the inside of his cheek, considering.“There is no change of heart.Here, you change your heart, we’ll feed it to you.”Hweilan swallowed.The halbdol must be wearing off, she thought, for her face suddenly felt very cold, almost too chilled to move, to speak.“You’re saying … Lendri left?”“Left?”the queen shrieked.“That whorespawn murdered my beloved!”Hweilan looked to Menduarthis, who nodded.“Killed our lord, yes.That he did.Killed our beloved Lord Miel Edellon and ran.”A murderer … no.Worse.A traitor.Someone who killed his own lord … among the Damarans, even trying that meant hanging.Among the Nar, they were even less merciful.They slit open a traitor’s stomach, tied the entrails to his own horse, then slapped the beast into a gallop.Once the traitor stopped screaming, his own family would hack him to pieces and leave the remains for wolves and ravens.“I don’t believe you,” said Hweilan.“You doubt me?” Menduarthis frowned, but it was a theatrical gesture.Mocking.“After all I’ve done for you?”“Roakh!” the queen called.“Bring him!”Hweilan heard a snap! like someone breaking a dry stick, then turned to see Roakh entering the room, leaning awayfrom a series of black cords, dragging Lendri behind him.Lendri didn’t resist.Didn’t even move.As Roakh passed Hweilan, he grinned at her and said, “Heavy, your friend.Dragging him makes me … peckish.”He stopped halfway between Hweilan and the throne, then stepped back beside Menduarthis, who frowned down on the smaller figure.But Roakh didn’t notice.His hungry eyes never left Hweilan.Kunin Gatar flicked her hand, and shards of ice shot up under Lendri, encasing his torso, arms, and lifting him off the floor.She walked over, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and pulled up his head.Hweilan saw icicles forming around hergrip-She shook him.“Wake!”A groan escaped Lendri, but his eyes did not open.The queen looked to Roakh and spat an order in her strange language.Roakh shuffled forward and pulled a black phial from inside his jerkin.He pulled what looked like a wet ‘ wad of leaves from the mouth, then dumped the contents I into Lendri’s mouth.Lendri coughed, spraying Roakh and the floor between them with the green liquid.Roakh poured more, and clamped the elf’s jaw shut.Lendri swallowed, and his eyes opened.Roakh shuffled back to stand beside Menduarthis.“Look at me,” said Kunin Gatar, and she gave Lendri’s hair a cruel twist.Lendri glanced at Hweilan, a look of sadness passing between them, then up at the queen.“Your new pet here,” said the queen, “thinks Menduarthis a liar.Tell her.Tell her what you are.What you did.”Lendri swallowed and licked his lips.“That would be a long tale.”Kunin Gatar looked down on him, stood absolutely still for a long moment, then brought her free hand around, one finger pointing
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