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It may have been just a question of holding off until the demon waiter had moved out of earshot. However, the twinkle in Claudio's eye as he leaned over the small café table toward Delluth, just as the doctor took his first mouthful of tea, lent color to the suspicion that his timing was deliberate.

"So, Doctor ... my parents are beginning to wonder if you mean to offer for Lovisa."

Delluth choked in a most gratifying manner. "Scamp!" he complained, coughing into his napkin. "See if I take you out to find worthy landscapes again." But his tone was not very serious; he was plainly stalling for time while he collected himself.

On a long breath, he said, "To answer the question you didn't quite ask, no. Not that she isn't a wonderful young woman," he added. "But I'm not ..."

"Not wonderful?" Claudio hazarded. "Or not looking?"

The doctor chuckled. "Both, when it comes down to it."

Claudio nodded, apparently unsurprised. "I fancy Lovisa falls into the latter category herself," he mused, stirring honey into his own tea, "to the despair of Mother and Father. They'd pretty much given up on her, but when they saw how well the two of you seem to get along ..." He turned a hand palm up.

"We do get along well," Delluth said. "She's a person worth knowing -- but I doubt that idea has crossed her mind any more than it has mine." He swirled the tea in his cup, staring into it. "I didn't intend to mislead your parents."

"I think you puzzle them," Claudio said. "You don't fit into their worldview."

"No, I don't suppose I do," he replied, meeting Claudio's gaze again and smiling. "A lot of people seem to feel that way."

Claudio laughed. "You've been part of my world so long that I guess I'm used to it," he said. "I don't suppose I would have thought twice about it if it weren't for other people's reactions. Mother's and Father's in particular, of course, but some of their other acquaintances too."

"Ah," Delluth said. "That ... Did your parents suggest you ask me about this, Claudio?"

"Oh, no, they wouldn't do that," Claudio assured him. "If they really wanted to know, or thought they'd better know, Father would talk to you himself. But that would be awkward and uncomfortable, so I figured it would be easier on everybody if I nipped the whole idea in the bud ... since I didn't actually think there was anything in it. Not that I mightn't have been wrong, of course," he added with a tilted smile.

"You're thoughtful and perceptive," Delluth approved, "but it is a good idea to keep that 'might be wrong' thought close by, just in case."

"I'm trying to learn to see what's there," the young artist confided. "Not what I wish were there, or expect to be there, or what's always been there before. Of course, then the next step is interpreting what I see, which is another level of difficulty altogether. That's going to take more experience."

"Good, very good," Delluth said, and shifted in his seat, which flowed a little to accommodate his new position. "Personally, on the whole, I do prefer being asked questions, however awkward, over uncertainty or incorrect assumptions. I can't count the situations I've seen or heard about where a direct question or two would have prevented a lot of trouble."

"I wish everyone felt that way about questions," Claudio said a little ruefully, then added, "But that's why I figured I could go ahead and just ask you."

"I'm fairly difficult to offend -- but that's definitely not true of everyone, unfortunately."

Claudio grinned. "Maybe that's why you and Lovisa get along so well."

"Could be," Delluth said cheerfully. "Or maybe it's the ravenous curiosity regarding just about everything."

"That too," Claudio agreed.

He cocked his head and regarded Delluth. "Is that why you've attached yourself to the Barimen clan? Rampant curiosity?"

"Ah," he said, trapped by his own statements, and sipped from the cup he had just lifted, before answering. "No, I just like you. Individually and collectively."

Claudio seemed to contemplate this for a moment before responding, "Well, that's good to know. But why?"

Delluth sighed and leaned back in his seat, cradling the teacup in his hands and staring into it as if he wished it contained something stronger than ginger-peppermint tea. "I could offer some platitude about likes and dislikes being irrational at a certain level," he said slowly. "But then, I have been taking selfish advantage of your family. Plus I don't think you'd buy it." His sometimes-brilliant smile flashed across his face and was gone again, but he did not look up.

"So, the truth. Or as much of it as I can bear to say ... I was raised in a pleasant, loving home, Claudio. I didn't appreciate it at the time. And I don't have it any more."

"Did you have a lot of brothers and sisters?" Claudio asked. "I know ... that is, I've heard about your wife. And your daughter, you've mentioned her, but not your parents or siblings."

"That's because I don't talk about them," Delluth said. His gaze flicked toward Claudio and away again. "It's painful."

"But you remember them." It wasn't a question, but Claudio followed it with one. "Are we ... like them?"

"Like? In some ways, here and there. Bits and pieces. ... My mother was an artist. A sculptor, mostly." He was looking in Claudio's direction now, but broodingly.

"What House did she come from?" Claudio wanted to know.

"Oh, she was born to Telutci. It was my father who came from outside -- from an even smaller House called Claburn, that merged with ours. Part of my great-uncle's plans." He grimaced slightly on the last word.

Claudio nodded understandingly. It was tacitly (and ruefully) acknowledged by the Barimens that his own father's ambitions for the family had probably led to the tussle with a demonic assassin that had ended in crippling Claudio. And it was only thanks to Delluth and his mentor, Skelton Corrino, that the outcome hadn't been worse.

"Ambition," he murmured, then added, looking up at Delluth, "It's no surprise that you avoid politics."

He seemed a little surprised that Claudio had noticed, but only shrugged. "That and the fact that I've little innate talent for it," he said candidly. "I do all right with a clear, specific problem to solve, or in the basic status game, but the higher levels?" He shook his head. "You need good instincts for that. And the consequences of making a mistake there ... well. As you said."

"I've never seen the point of it, either," Claudio said almost plaintively.

"Hmmm," Delluth said, plainly relieved to be moving onto a more abstract topic. "Some can't avoid it, if they're Head of their House, or an heir. To some it's exercising a talent, maybe-- the way you want to become a better artist."

Claudio nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose, in a way, it's making something ... or could be. Or in another way, a game, as you said."

"But I suspect that most have simply never thought to question what they've been taught is the way things are."

"That just pushes the 'why' back one generation," Claudio observed.

Delluth snorted. "More like infinite generations." He leaned forward a little. "As long as there are some people willing to trample on others to get what they want, there will be politics, complicated and deadly. The best the rest of us can hope for is to stay out of the way as much as possible."

"Unless what 'they' want is something we don't think they should have," countered Claudio. "Or if the people they're willing to trample on are ones we don't care to see hurt."

"So there you go. A feedback loop. That's why I said 'as much as possible.'"

Claudio took a sip of his tea. "Then I suppose I can also tell Mother that it's personal, not political."

"But not personal about Lovisa," the doctor agreed. "I ... would understand, you know, if your parents wished me to stop coming by. I've been imposing on you all, and I know it."

"Oh, no no!" Claudio waved his free hand vigorously in negation. "I think we'd all be very much disappointed if you did that. We like you too, Doctor," he added with a grin.

"Thank you," Delluth said, smiling back. "I like to think I'm a congenial fellow, but it's good to have some validation."

"You might say you're validating the lot of us, too," Claudio pointed out, his eyes twinkling.

"Don't let it go to your head," he advised dryly.

Claudio laughed. "I'll pass that on, too. But please get rid of the idea that you're 'imposing.' You're a friend of the family, and that's the long and the short of it. Halfway to being family, seems like, even if you don't intend to marry in."

"I wouldn't go quite that far," his friend demurred, though he was obviously pleased. "I owe my present House a great deal, even if they're not as ... cozy as I'd prefer."

"Collateral relation, then," Claudio suggested. "We all have connections all over the place anyway, don't we? That's what exogamy is all about."

"True enough," Delluth laughed.

After an interval in which Claudio selected a pastry and nibbled at it, he went on to ask Delluth, "Has Lovisa talked to you about essaying the Logrus? Because I'm pretty sure she wants to."

"Yes, a little," Delluth answered, brushing some crumbs off the front of his slightly out-of-fashion shirt. "She wants to get out and see things ... I can certainly understand that."

"She wants her own Ways, too, I think," said Claudio, smiling a little. "And a lot of other things. And it's not that I don't think she can do it. But..." He looked up at Delluth, no longer smiling. "You've done it. Would you know... How much is it likely to change her? Because I've heard things..."

Delluth also smiled, and nodded at Claudio's first remarks; apparently Lovisa had mentioned something about that to him. Then he also sobered. He looked down at the table, selected a pastry with a stripe of acid-green flavoring running through it, and consumed it with deliberate attention.

"It's impossible to predict," he said at last. "Some live, some die; some appear completely unscathed, others take many cycles to recover -- if they recover at all." He shrugged uncomfortably. "On my own experience, I wouldn't recommend it. But perhaps it would make a difference if it was approached with a real personal desire for the power."

"Power," repeated Claudio. He fiddled with his teacup. "Lovisa wants to know. Like you. Like me." He looked back up at Delluth. "But maybe she wants the power too, if only for the freedom it would give her." A reluctant half-smile tilted his mouth. "So she could tell people, 'Don't mess with me.'"

"That is a benefit, at least in theory," Delluth murmured. "But freedom ... is a trickier proposition.

"At any rate," he went on immediately, "of those who do survive the Logrus, I believe that most of them come out of it more or less all right. And I agree with you that Lovisa will be able to do it, if she determines to."

Claudio nodded, looking less anxious. "Lovisa's strong," he agreed. "And determined." After a pause he asked Delluth, "Is that why you did it?"

The doctor hesitated for a long moment, staring pensively in Claudio's direction. "It was a long time ago, and I was a different person," he said. "I believe I did it because my family wished me to. My great-uncle was the only Master in the family ... it was important to have another. And I was a bit of a prig, really."

Claudio blinked. "That didn't last," he commented.

"No," Delluth said dryly, pouring himself another cup of tea.

"I wouldn't expect the Logrus to have much affinity for prigs," Claudio said musingly.

Delluth laughed, and seemed very surprised that he had done so. Then he sat back and sipped his tea, suddenly much less tense.

After a moment Claudio went on, "If Lovisa does it, she'll be the only Master in the family. The immediate family, I mean."

"And that in itself could attract attention to her, and to your family. I'm not saying it definitely would, mind you, but -- there are risks beyond the actual act of essaying it. There aren't so many Masters around in general, after all."

"I suppose that would be a reason to separate herself from the family, once she's done it," said Claudio. "Not that she's probably thought of it in that light, but ... one more reason to be independent."

"Also separating herself from possible sources of protection," Delluth noted. "Of course, I'm just trying to get a look at all possible sides of the topic, Claudio. As usual."

Claudio nodded acknowledgement of this, but said, "If she thinks about it at all, Lovisa will be more concerned about protecting the rest of us than about us protecting her."

"Yes, indeed," Delluth said. He secured another pastry and asked, "So what's next for you in lessons?"

"Place Trumps," Claudio answered promptly. "Well, that was why I wanted to come look at landscapes." He gazed out from the café balcony where they sat at the rugged mountainscape that was its advertised attraction. "Master Nikoly says it's a matter of discerning the soul of a place -- which I find much trickier than doing the same with people. That which makes it unique and unlike any other, similar place. Otherwise you may find yourself linking to the wrong Shadow," he explained.

Delluth nodded. "You need a similar awareness when moving or searching with the Logrus." He looked at the table and its much-reduced contents. "I tend to think of it as finding the right 'taste,' though."

Claudio grinned in a way that said he was biting back the obvious comment. Instead he said, "I more or less know what you mean, but when doing Trumps one necessarily has to concentrate on the visual."

The doctor grinned back, then waved one hand airily in response to Claudio's remark. "Maybe, but you're still trying to capture traits that aren't really visual, or tasteable, or what have you. It's all translation into something our poor limited senses can deal with."

"How do we apprehend anything?" countered Claudio. "Not directly, for certain. There has to be a medium, and would have to be even if our senses didn't have the limitations they do. One might be able to see a broader range of wavelengths, for instance, but it would still be sight."

"A point," Delluth agreed. "Perhaps I should have said, something our poor limited brains can process. It's possible to alter one's senses, or use other powers to enhance perception, but it's often difficult to deal with the information. It takes practice, at the very least, and the temptation is to translate it into what is most familiar."

"Or the most useful in the circumstances," agreed Claudio. "It's an interesting speculation, though ... whether there could be an art that would be like Trump, but would use a medium other than the visual. Sound, for instance."

"I suppose it might be possible in theory, but in practice? There are sorceries that can record sound, but I've gathered that the making of a Trump requires a Trump artist's attention to the process."

"It does," Claudio replied, nodding. "Part of that is the initial perception, and part of it is transferring the perception to the medium while holding it in your mind."

"And I wonder how complex it would have to be. A Trump that required a full orchestra would be cumbersome even if it were somehow recorded."

"I'm not sure it would have to be recorded," Claudio mused. "Outside of one's memory, that is, if your memory was good enough. Since Trump is based on symbolism... I suppose you could symbolize that essence you're reaching for with music. It would be more abstract than the visual kind, I think. I don't know if it could be done."

"Might be interesting to figure out, one day," Delluth said. "I could probably do the music part, but I'd also have to learn how to make a Trump. ... So, in theory one could use a visual Trump from memory, also, is that right?"

"Oh yes, Master Nikoly's said so, though of course I'm not that advanced yet," said Claudio. "I didn't realize you were a musician, Doctor."

"No? I suppose not," he said after a moment's thought. "It's a hobby I've been giving more attention lately. Instead of something useful like, say, learning to make Trumps." As he spoke, he reached into his jacket and brought out a small object made of chromed metal. "I like this little instrument; it's easy to carry around."

He put the harmonica to his lips and played a short, lively, foot-tapping tune.

The music brought a smile to Claudio's face. "I like that," he said when Delluth had finished. People at other tables had also taken notice, and there was scattered clapping.

Delluth nodded and smiled a little bashfully at the attention, but put the harmonica away rather than play any more. "It's a wonderfully versatile little thing," he told Claudio. "It can sound jaunty or mournful or thrilling, whatever seems appropriate. And doesn't require translation, the way most singing does."

"Where did you find it?" Claudio wanted to know. "Did you just--" He made a weaving-and-plucking motion with one hand. "--randomly pick it out of somewhere?"

"No," Delluth said, taking the instrument out again in response to Claudio's curiosity, and handing it across the table. "It was a gift from a friend in a shadow I stayed in for a while. I call the shadow Shikawa after the city I arrived at."

Claudio took the harmonica carefully and, setting down his cup, turned the instrument over in his hands.

The harmonica bore what looked like a manufacturer's design and name on its chromed top, and on the bottom what almost had to be an engraved message; none of the writing was in Thari script. The non-metal parts in between seemed to be some kind of dark wood.

"What does the writing say?" Claudio asked.

"The top says, 'Ildonke's Instruments.' The engraving on the bottom says, 'To Dell from Halona. Good times.'" Since Delluth didn't bother to translate any of this into Thari, Claudio had to give him a pointed look before he relented and did so.

"Is this a folk instrument in Shikawa -- a characteristic one, I mean?" asked Claudio. "Or is there something else that would make it a memento?"

Delluth stopped smirking at his little joke and shrugged. "The shadow's technologically advanced; there was a wide variety of instruments available. The harmonica happened to be popular in the city around the time I was there, at least among the people who were exploring new styles of music. New to them, at least. I liked it for its sound and convenient size. I still have another that I bought for myself.

"But Halona gave me that one when I left because I'd been her lover." He paused reflectively; it was clear that he remembered this woman fondly. "She taught me to play it and let me practice with her guitar and even sing with her band sometimes."

Claudio nodded and then asked a little wistfully, "She was a Shadow person, then? What are Shadow people like? And what do you tell them when you go there -- about yourself, I mean?"

"As little as possible, as a rule," Delluth answered the last question first. "A lot of Shadow people believe their particular reality is the only one that exists; or they have peculiar ideas about other realities that they've only imagined. Or else contact between Shadows is extremely limited -- that happens often. It's easiest just to let them believe I belong there.

"The Shadow people in Shikawa were a mix of brown and pale-skinned human types. It was a big city by a lake, with many tall buildings of stone. They told me the whole place had burned down a few generations before, and they rebuilt in stone. The people lived in small family groups in separate houses and apartments. Rather like the people of Amber, now that I think of it ... I was there in Shikawa a little while before I started going to Amber."

"Is it close to Amber, as these things go?" asked Claudio. "Is that why they're alike, do you think?"

"It might be, but I didn't go there from Amber, so I'm not sure. And Shadow doesn't exist in tidy linear dimensions, Claudio. One can describe 'distance' as simply the effort it takes to get to a Shadow, or the length of time, but what does that really mean? Especially when the concept of 'direction' is so problematic."

"I know, and I didn't mean linear distance," said Claudio. "But people speak at least metaphorically of Chaos and Amber as being opposing poles of existence, and Shadow stretching between them. So in some sense any given Shadow is likely to be closer to one than the other."

"Well, when you put it that way, I suppose it was closer to there than here," Delluth said, looking out at the changing sky and flickering horizon. "Though the rate of time was more comparable to here than to there. And I believe the opposing poles idea works better as a metaphor than as a practical guide, as it were."

"Oversimplified, I'm sure," Claudio agreed. "But getting back to Shadow people ... Are they different from us? As a class, I mean, not individually."

"In general they're physically weaker than us, less skilled in many ways. Though there are always exceptions. And they tend to have shorter lives, by local time." Delluth paused to think. "There's so much variety, here and there, that it's difficult to point to anything else."

"What about people in Amber? How are they different?" Claudio wanted to know.

"That's a little easier -- comparing just one place. Let's see ... they're having to get used to non-humanoid sentients; if they had any before the conquest, they must have been rare. Still are, really. They don't have demons, you see; almost all their servants and workers look as human as you and me. A lot of the Shadows I've been to are like that, but some of us find it disconcerting."

"I've heard that a lot of demons wouldn't have been able to survive in Amber before the conquest," Claudio noted.

Delluth fortified himself with another pastry while he thought. "The Royal Family seems to have run things more or less as if the place were a House. Only it's huge; the city has half a million people or more, and then there's the adjacent regions and all the affiliated Shadows. I suppose you could think of the Castle as the Ways, and the city and so forth as the Shadows within its hegemony."

"Well, the Amber Royal Family is all one House, yes?" queried Claudio. He ought to know, he thought, since the House in question had the same origin as his own. "So perhaps that isn't too surprising."

"True. So that's really something that's the same. Except for the part where they used to pretend they'd never heard of the Courts. The people in general, though -- Amber by itself is so large that most of the people go about their lives without much reference to the people in the Castle. They seem to think of the House as something quite separate from, and irrelevant to, themselves."

"Maybe they can afford to," Claudio mused. "I mean... here in Chaos, it does take some continuing attention from those with power to keep all the various Ways suitable for human habitation. In Amber it's more stable, isn't it?"

"Now that's a good point," Delluth said. "I guess I've gotten used to stability. It was a bit disorienting at first, going back and forth, but I hardly notice it any more."

"You must like it there," said Claudio. "You keep on going back."

"I do. It's comfortably far away from Court politics, I find I enjoy teaching more than I expected to, and there's plenty of other things to do to keep me busy.

"It's not entirely safe, living there," the doctor added, "but that's probably just as well. And it's a little more satisfactory than staying in some ordinary Shadow or other."

"I should think it would be. And you're right, you wouldn't want to get too safe." There was a twinkle in Claudio's eye as he added, "After all, you might go soft. And we couldn't have that."

"Or complacent," Delluth said loftily. "That would never do."

Claudio laughed outright. "I find it hard to imagine you ever being complacent, Doctor!"

"Sometimes I think it would be nice," he sighed. "But then I come to my senses."

He grinned for a moment over that, then said, "Have I ever told you about the time I thought it was a good idea to go practice field surgery in a war off in Shadow?"

Claudio blinked. "Nothing like hands-on experience," he commented.

"Exactly! Of course, I had second and third thoughts about it during bombardments, despite the precautions I'd taken, but it turned out to be invaluable experience."

"Have you got caught in bombardments and things since then?" Claudio asked him.

"I've talked about this with Pavlo, but I see he didn't mention it to you," Delluth said. "I ran field hospitals for the Hendrake armies for pretty much all of the war with Amber, my lad. We were *supposed* to be well behind the lines, but it didn't always work out that way." He looked very serious, remembering this. "One time, my camp was nearly overrun by a batch of some shadowlings or other. That was a bit more dangerous than I care for."

"Pavlo doesn't talk much about warfare with me," said Claudio. "His training, sometimes. Sword Dancing, a lot." A fleeting, wistful smile flickered around his mouth; then his eyes grew intent on Delluth. "So what happened then?"

"What, when we were attacked? I defended the camp, of course. It was my command -- my responsibility. I sent off a shout for help and got to work. My staff weren't much good for that sort of thing -- they'd have been somewhere else if they were, but a hospital wasn't supposed to need much, of course. Fortunately there was a Master-Sergeant among the patients who was ambulatory, and he got things organized. Giororsin, his name is. I still go and have a drink with him sometimes."

Delluth could almost see pictures forming behind the grey eyes fixed on his face, layers being added to the images stored there.

"But you live and teach in Amber now," Claudio said. "Does all that..." He made a sweeping gesture with one hand. "...make a difference?"

"I wouldn't be there at all, if it weren't for the conquest," Delluth said, and sighed. "People there still resent things like the looting and destruction that happened to the city. But many of them understand it wasn't my personal fault. Or they just don't ask. I try not to press the issue or draw attention to where I'm from, much of the time."

Claudio nodded, but clarified, "I meant more, Does it make a difference to you?"

"In how I feel about Amber, do you mean? About being there?"

"Yes, that's what I meant."

He frowned in thought. "It does add a certain ambivalence about it, I suppose, but I don't think about the war if I can help it."

Claudio bit his lip. "You know, there seem to be an awful lot of things you don't think about."

Delluth stared at him for a long moment, a study in arrested motion.

"I'm sorry. Was that rude?" Claudio eventually said.

"Thoughtless," Delluth replied, and with an effort made himself appear to relax again. "If I'm going to avoid a subject, there are good reasons for that."

"I suppose. Only it seems like... one's mind must get cluttered after a while. Like a room full of unused furniture that you have to maneuver around all the time, preferably without barking your shins." Claudio's mouth twitched into a half-smile. "We have some like that in the Ways of Barimen."

"Ah. Well ... I suppose it is something like that. Only some items have extremely sharp edges on them, so to speak. At least for me."

"I suppose it keeps you alert," Claudio suggested wryly.

"No," Delluth sighed. "It makes me touchy about certain things, and inclined to brood about them if I don't watch myself. And that's a state of mind I prefer to avoid. I think you understand that, Claudio, in your own way." He gave the young man a direct look.

"In a way, I suppose I do," Claudio agreed, returning the look. "The things I have to stay away from ... the ones I can't get away from. And not brooding about it. Taking it all..." His gaze fell to his own hand, which curled into a loose fist as if holding an invisible substance. "...and making something out of it." The hand turned palm up, the fingers slowly opened.

"Just so," Delluth said, with a slight nod. He hesitated, until Claudio glanced up again. Very quietly, he said, "There was a time when I couldn't breathe without thinking of my family."

"That..." Claudio shook his head, contemplating Delluth's loss. "...I can't even imagine it. I'm not sure I want to."

"Don't try," Delluth advised, with a pained, sort-of smile.

"But I want to understand," said Claudio.

Delluth sighed. "And I don't want to go into it any more. Not now."

"No, I get that part," Claudio assured him. "What I meant was, I can't sheer off from imagining it -- or at least trying to -- if I'm going to understand how it was for you."

Delluth said, "I'm not sure I want to be understood that thoroughly."

"Why not?" asked Claudio, sounding as if he really wanted to know.

Delluth leaned forward and dropped some money on the table. "Let's walk," he said, holding out his hand for Claudio to return his harmonica.

Claudio gave him back the instrument and reached for his walking stick.

Keeping his pace down to Claudio's, Delluth led the way along the road, away from the cluster of houses and downward into the valley. Before long the road became more of a path, as if people didn't come this way very often.

Claudio's uneven stride was shorter than Delluth's, but his pace was brisk. He used his cane mostly for balance. While they walked, he continually looked around him, taking in the transition from village to countryside as the road dwindled. After a time, however, he glanced up at Delluth and remarked mildly, "If you're trying to distract me, Doctor, it won't work."

"Heh. I know." He looked around, paying attention to their location for the first time, and stopped. Another person might have shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched to express his feelings, but Delluth only stared at the tree-analogues that surrounded them. "Why don't I want to be understood that thoroughly?" he mused aloud. "I'm not sure I know."

He half-turned to look at Claudio. "Why to you want to try?"

"Apart from the persistent itch to know everything?" Claudio inquired rhetorically, then went on, "Because the better I understand people, the better my work will be. And the better I understand any particular individual, the better I can be to -- for -- that person."

"Hmmm." The doctor contemplated Claudio for a moment, his brown eyes looking very dark in the shade. "Only more time will really help me with this, I'm afraid," he said. "That, and having a few good friends."

"I hope to be a good friend," responded Claudio, "as you've been a good friend to me -- to us."

Delluth's expression softened, almost imperceptibly. "It's hard for our people to trust. Especially where weakness is concerned."

Sighing, he consulted the foliage again. "Once what had happened to my family had a chance to sink in ... I wanted to die, too." His gaze slid back to Claudio, and his mouth smiled faintly. "That's not a good frame of mind for a Logrus Master to be in."

"Because it's all too easy for a Logrus Master to get what he wants?" Claudio guessed.

"Yes -- and because he could easily take a large chunk of the local reality with him.

"Which didn't happen, obviously. I had one reason to live, and some help. But I still don't like to think about it, much less talk about it." Delluth managed a more natural-looking smile. "It's a subject that positively invites brooding."

"I can see why," said Claudio. Then he asked, "The one reason to live ... was that your daughter?"

"Yes. She was still a child. She needed me."

Claudio nodded, then asked, "And who was it who helped you?"

"Skelton was one," he replied, and grinned. "Believe it or not."

"I'm sure it was because he recognized your potential," replied Claudio, grinning back.

"Well, partly," Delluth said, "and I think also in part because I was too wrapped up in my own problems to really notice his, ah, lack of social skills."

Claudio laughed. "You mean he actually noticed that you didn't notice?"

"Anyway," the doctor went on, "the war didn't exactly help with any of this, but I'm still here."

"And I'm sure my family and I aren't the only ones with reason to be glad of that," said Claudio. Then he said musingly, "Do wars ever help anything?"

Delluth looked pleased, and more like his usual cheerful self, as he answered the question. "Only in the short term -- if that -- as far as I can see."

"I suppose they create chaos," offered Claudio. "Some might see that as an advantage."

He shrugged. "It doesn't seem to me that chaos needs much help, in general."

"Not now," Claudio countered wryly.

Delluth glanced up at the sky and added, "Speaking of conflict, I think it's about time you got home."

The younger man followed his gaze. "I suppose you're right. I should imagine it's nearing dinnertime, at home." He grinned at Delluth. "You'll stay, won't you, Doctor? I'm sure Mother will insist."

"No doubt she's laid in extra food, and I would hate to see it go to waste," he replied virtuously. "Shall we take the long way, or the short way?"

"Long way," Claudio responded. "I don't get to do that as often."

"All right," Delluth said, and looked around as if getting his bearings. "Hmm ... would you like to fly?"

Claudio looked intrigued. "Can we?"

"I believe I can carry you. In a flying form."

"Sounds like fun," said Claudio, grinning. "I'm always up for new perspectives."

Delluth smiled. "All right then. We need more room -- back this way, I think." He went up the trail a short distance, to where it crossed a patch of grassy ground that sloped steeply off to one side and then turned into a precipice.

Claudio followed him.

"This will do. I'll shift, and also call on the Logrus to make sure you don't fall off."

"I suppose that's easier than giving yourself handles," quipped Claudio. "Or straps." While the doctor made ready, Claudio freed up his hands by fastening his cane to the outside of his artist's satchel, using straps placed there for that purpose.

The doctor's face smoothed into a mask of concentration, emptied of all other personality.

Claudio could sense the Logrus energies slithering on the outside of his consciousness like tiny snakes.

After a few moments Delluth nodded to himself, and a few moments later his form shimmered and began to change.

The process was difficult to actually see, but it was soon obvious that the form would have a long, thin neck -- and then it settled into proper visibility, and Claudio was looking at a huge white swan. Next it became even larger, half again the size of the original man.

The slender neck bent around so he could look at Claudio directly. "Ready?" The voice was much higher and reedier than Delluth's normal tones, but still somewhat recognizable.

"Ready!" Claudio slung his satchel so that it was lying across his back, and approached the huge bird. "Should I sit with my legs in front of your wings, or lie along your back?" he asked Delluth.

"Lie along my back, please," he said, sitting down on the ground. "That will distribute your weight better. And I did give myself a couple of handles up there," he added, amusement in his tone. "I think you'll feel more secure with something to hold on to."

A Logrus tendril appeared in front of Claudio, then drifted down toward his feet. "Step on that and I'll help you climb up."

Claudio set his good foot on the tendril first, following up with the twisted one.

When he was balanced, the tendril began rising smoothly, lifting him up the great bird's side until he could easily crawl onto the space between its wings. It was rather like climbing into a featherbed.

Claudio settled himself along the swan's back, and put his arms around the tall neck.

"No, no," Delluth said. "That's a little too far forward. Balance is everything in flying, trust me."

Claudio obligingly scooted back a little. "How's that?"

Delluth peered down at his own back. "I see, I didn't make the hand-holds big enough, they're hidden by the feathers," he remarked. "Sorry about that." Shortly, a pair of smooth, bony protrusions like looped door-handles came into Claudio's view, a little aft of where the swan's shoulders started to become its neck. "Just rest your torso right about there. You can push yourself up on your arms and look around once we're in flight. Don't shift your weight suddenly, though, or we might be trying impromptu aerial somersaults."

"Or barrel rolls?" suggested Claudio. "No, I don't think that's something I want to try right now." He shifted back a little more and took hold of the handholds. "Is that better?"

"A little more to the right, if you would ... good." Claudio soon realized that several bands of what had to be Logrus tendrils had curved over his legs and lower back. They seemed wide enough that they would not accidentally cut into him, and when he moved, they gave a little; otherwise, they had no weight, and he wouldn't notice their presence. His upper body remained free -- no, there was another tendril draped below his shoulder blades, but much more loosely.

Delluth, still looking back over his own shoulder, nodded to himself. "Here we go then. Do keep in mind that taking off and landing are the least graceful parts of being a bird."

He lurched to his feet, extended his wings and flapped them experimentally, noting how the weight on his back affected their movement. Then he flapped in earnest, ran a few steps down the hill, and hauled himself and his young friend into the air over the valley.

Claudio's hands clenched involuntarily on the handgrips as they left the ground, but his eyes were already widening and his mouth stretching into a grin of manic proportions as the landscape spread out dizzily below them. His heart was hammering so hard with excitement that he wondered if Delluth could feel it.

The great swan's wings pumped rapidly until it achieved sufficient velocity and altitude, and then slowed to a more sedate and regular beat. Then he turned, the whole body tilting slightly, but the Logrus tendrils and his own grip held Claudio firmly in place. They passed the cluster of buildings and the café where they had eaten, some distance off and a little above, so he could just barely see the people looking up at them.

Claudio wondered what they thought and briefly considered waving, then discarded the idea; he was too busy looking. He wasn't likely to have such an experience again for a while, since none of his family or other friends could manage shapeshifting this complex. Sketching was impossible, so he'd have to imprint these vistas on his memory.

It had been too long since he had done this, Delluth thought, balancing on the wind. He could feel the edges of Claudio's delight, remembered his own exhilaration upon mastering this skill. Perhaps he really had been spending too much time in Amber, worrying about what people would think of such a display.

The rugged landscape smoothed out somewhat. Parts of the view - where no one had fixed it in place for their own convenience - showed the changeable aspect they expected: moving hills, color-changing vegetation, and more. Delluth turned to avoid the Ways of one of the smaller houses, and beyond that found the permanent road he intended to follow.

He flew a little lower, once he found it, not wishing to give the impression that he was trying to sneak anywhere. Plus, this would also give his passenger a better look at what was below.

The combination of rapid movement and shifting landscape made the experience, for Claudio, rather like being on the inside of a kaleidoscope. After a while he stopped trying to memorize it and just let it flow around and into him. Delluth could feel his passenger relax somewhat as his breathing and heartbeat evened out.

Ways were not placed directly beside the road, but at wide intervals they could be seen off to either side, fronted by grounds and gates according to the whims of their builders. Once, some lizardlike flying guardian swooped toward them, screeching. Delluth dove sharply and slapped its head with a Logrus tendril, half-stunning it; then it was tackled by one of its fellows, ridden by a smallish demon who bellowed a hasty apology as they rapidly left that place behind.

Claudio's stomach had lurched when Delluth went into his dive, but he soon realized it was well-nigh impossible for him to fall off.

"Touchy," he commented as the demons fell behind. "Manhanakorn, what do you bet?"

"Maybe," Delluth replied, turning his head back to answer. Then he straightened out and regained their lost height.

"That lizardy thing reminded me an awful lot of Jarka," said Claudio, referring to one of his sister Madalin's least-liked classmates.

They passed over a few conveyances on the road, and then something appeared off to their left that took Claudio a moment or two to recognize. It adjoined the road and spread off into the distance, featuring large gridded areas as well as a kaleidoscope of transplanted bits of Shadow all round and between: the sword-dancing grounds.

Claudio peered down at it curiously, wondering if Pavlo was at practice right now.

Since they were following the road, only the sections nearest it were clearly visible, with some people looking up at the passing bird and others ignoring it. Then they left it behind, and passed over more wildly varying territory. Delluth stretched his wings and flew faster for the sheer enjoyment of it.

A breathy chuckle from Claudio, as they sped up, hinted that he was enjoying it too.

Eventually he knew they were getting close, and slowed down again. He flew lower, and made a sharpish turn to follow the gravelled drive that met the road and led onto the Barimens' territory.

The drive led through a sylvan march of towering trees that, Delluth suddenly realized, were more than a little reminiscent of the Forest of Arden. But it wasn't long before the gravel shaded into cobbles running between ivy-covered grey stone statues and topiary gardens, then again to yellow brick with a Crayola-bright patchwork landscape on either side. Then it was a white stone path drawn straight as a ruler through a chessboard of dark and light turf, intersected with hedges and little rivers. Burbling came from a tulgey wood, and round a sundial, badgerlike creatures with corkscrew noses performed a solemn dance. Then suddenly a bridge of rainbow mosaic made a single, lovely arch over a river of stars and moonlight and there were trees again, with silvery-grey bark and leaves of gold. They were almost to the house, and the wide, paved courtyard before the doors.

Here again, small, brightly feathered flying creatures came to meet them, that vaguely resembled winged monkeys. They circled around Delluth and his passenger, but their whistling cries sounded more like a greeting than a challenge. One darted ahead, perhaps to alert the household to their arrival, while the others matched Delluth's pace on either side.

Delluth slowed even further, and Claudio felt the Logrus tendril across his shoulders tightening to hold him in place. The great swan wings beat rapidly, kicking up dust and bringing them in for a landing that was more of a controlled fall. He touched ground with a thump and, sighing, folded his wings.

"We have arrived," he intoned, turning his head to look benignly down at his passenger. "Please watch your step as you disembark."

"Thank you for flying Delluth Airlines," quipped Claudio, grinning up at the doctor.

Delluth chuckled.

When he tried to move, Claudio found that all but one of the Logrus tendrils had vanished, and the remaining one was positioned to help him down his friend's side just as it had helped him up.

With this aid, he was able to scramble down without much trouble, onto the varicolored flagstones of the courtyard. "Thank you, Doctor. That was ... exhilarating."

"You're welcome," was the slightly distracted response; the doctor was busy shifting back into his normal form.

Claudio ran his hands through his hair a few times in a mostly vain attempt to put it back into some kind of order.

He was just unstrapping his walking stick from his satchel when the carved wooden doors of the house opened, and Countess Barimen appeared at the top of the marble stairs. Claudio's sister Madalin was with her.

"Doctor Corrino! Welcome!" she greeted Delluth. "Did you have a pleasant outing?"

"Very much so," Delluth replied, already restored to his human self. He waited for Claudio to be ready before starting toward the house. "I hope we're not late?"

"Not at all," replied Ekaterina. She and Madalin started down the steps as Claudio came forward to greet them.

"You're just in time for dinner," Madalin piped up, with an impudent smile.

Delluth gave her a cheerful wink.

"I just sent the others up to dress," Ekaterin corrected, shooting a repressive look at her daughter. "You'll have time to change and refresh yourselves." She reached up to brush at her son's tousled hair as he bestowed a filial kiss on her cheek.

"Thank you, my lady," Delluth said, and bowed courteously over her hand, once the opportunity presented itself.

Then the two women turned and escorted the gentlemen up the stairs and into the house.

"You can use my rooms to freshen up in," offered Claudio, as they passed into the front hall. This was circular, ringed with slender pillars in the shape of sprouting wands. Doorways led off between them to different parts of the Ways -- though not always from, or to, the same place, as Delluth had found on earlier visits. Claudio, however, seemed sure of his direction.

"If you don't mind," Delluth replied.

"Of course not," said Claudio. He grinned over his shoulder at Delluth. "As long as you don't expect my clothes to fit..."

"Hah. No," he said, and nodded courteously to the two ladies before following Claudio off into the depths of the Ways.

They slipped between two of the pillars into a paneled hallway, which gave onto a cloister with flowerbeds splashed at its corners and a fountain in its center. From there they passed through a small door which revealed a spiral staircase. Claudio raised a hand to halt Delluth when they were both fairly on the stairs; the reason became apparent as the stairs began to move, carrying them upward.

"Lovisa's idea," Claudio said, letting his fingers trail lightly along the polished handrail. "It's even more convenient going down."

"Very nice," Delluth replied, studying the stairs' action with interest.

They moved smoothly and silently, which hinted at a sorcerous rather than a technological origin... though Delluth was aware that the two tended to blend into each other at the highest levels.

At the top of the stairs was a short, sunny corridor with walls and ceiling of glass, showing a double avenue of chestnut trees. It led to a door of carved green wood -- which appeared to be its natural color, rather than the product of paint or dye -- with bronze fittings. This swung open as they approached, to reveal Claudio's apartments, which Delluth could recall from his earliest visits to the House. It was here he and Skelton had battled to save a young boy from a poisoned wound dealt by a demonic assassin.

The furnishings had matured somewhat, of course, along with their owner. The sitting room contained more books and artwork; what had once been a playroom was now a small studio. The house demon that flew chittering to Claudio's shoulder looked familiar, though. Claudio smiled and scratched the little creature between its horns.

"As guest, you get first crack at the bathroom," he told Delluth, gesturing in the appropriate direction.

"Thanks," he said, and disappeared that way.

Claudio followed as far as the bedroom and rummaged in the tall wardrobe for a change of clothing, which he laid out on the bed: a soft, ruffled shirt the color of cream, and dark green dinner jacket and trousers with bronze trim.

Before long, Delluth emerged from the bathroom, his hair a little damp around the edges. His outfit had changed from one suitable for climbing on hillsides to a cut and style more appropriate to formal dining, and similar to that favored in House Barimen; the jacket had changed from brown to a shade closer to orange, with a brighter orange lining and a subtle pattern like scales, the trousers had changed to match, and his shirt had developed a much finer weave and narrow vertical gold stripes. The palm-sized Corrino badge that he usually wore was still pinned to the left breast of the jacket.

"Could I borrow something to use for a tie?" he inquired, touching the neck of his shirt.

Claudio opened a drawer. "Take your pick." He extracted a handful of the cravats he favored himself, in various colors and patterns.

"Thank you," Delluth said again, picked through and found a white one that a bit of gold trim on it, to go with his shirt, and started back toward the sitting-room while tying it on. "I hope I don't wander off still wearing it."

"I doubt I'd even miss it," laughed Claudio, as he disappeared in the direction of the bathroom.

Delluth studied the bookshelves in the sitting room while he waited, selecting one about a sculptor to sit down with.

Presently Claudio emerged, washed, brushed, and dressed in the garments he'd selected, with the addition of a cravat in a fractal pattern of greens, golds, and browns.

"The bell hasn't rung yet," he observed, "so we'll go to the loggia first."

"Sounds good," the doctor said, replacing the book on the shelf, and following Claudio back out into the hallway.

The Barimen clan customarily gathered before dinner in a roofed and pillared gallery overlooking a courtyard -- though it wasn't always the same courtyard. Tonight's version looked vaguely tropical, with broad-leaved, fernlike plants and darting, iridescent insects hunted by brightly colored lizard-birds. Countess Barimen and Madalin were already there to greet them, as were Count Barimen -- tall, thin, dark, and worried-looking -- and his stocky, stolid heir, Enriko. Pavlo, the second son of the house, arrived as the house demons were serving drinks to the company.

"Doctor Corrino! Good evening! I didn't realize you were joining us."

"Fortuitous timing," Delluth replied genially. "How have you been, Pavlo?"

"Pretty well, thank you," said the young officer. "Nearly to the end of my second round of training exercises, so I hope to be able to get back to Sword Dancing more seriously before too much longer," he added optimistically. "Rudin of Hendrake says he'd like to pair with me."

"Rudin," Delluth said thoughtfully. "Isn't he the one who pulled off that Peleski maneuver against Nerchez Corrino awhile back?"

"That's the one!" Pavlo said cheerfully. "We're training together at Hendrake, so we got to talking, and that's how it came about."

Claudio looked interested. He wasn't a Dancer himself, but had come to be an enthusiastic spectator through attending Pavlo's matches.

"You must have impressed him considerably," Delluth noted. "Hendrakes tend to look to each other first. Even more than is usual, that is."

Pavlo was about to reply, but at that moment the remaining two Barimen daughters entered the loggia.

At a glance it might be difficult to tell that Lovisa and Jonmari were sisters. Lovisa was tall and stocky in build, strong-featured, with the same light brown hair and grey eyes as Claudio. Jonmari was small and slender, with her father's dark hair and eyes and her mother's deceptively delicate prettiness. They appeared to be deep in conversation when they came in -- probably about gardening, to judge from scattered phrases about soil quality and necessary colors of light -- but they broke off as they entered and saw Delluth. Jonmari's face lit up with unaffected pleasure. Lovisa exclaimed heartily, "Doctor Corrino! It's good to see you!" but there was a distinctly wary look in her eyes.

"And a delight to see you ladies, as always," he replied, no more or less warmly than he had greeted any of the others. He bowed slightly toward them, but no more than courtesy required.

"Your brother was just telling me about his proposed sword-dancing partnership," Delluth continued, half-turning back toward him. "Is that really news, Pavlo, or just news to me?"

"I hadn't heard it before," volunteered Claudio.

Apparently Lovisa hadn't either, since she asked her brother, "What sword-dancing partnership is this?"

"Rudin of Hendrake," Pavlo informed her. "I've been training with him."

Lovisa nodded, though her interest in the sport was lukewarm at best. "Well, good luck to it. What have you been up to, Claudio?"

"The Doctor took me landscape sketching today," answered Claudio, then added with a grin, "and we happened to get back just in time for dinner." The twinkle in his eye as he said this seemed to put his sister more at her ease.

"I don't know if he got any sketches he considers worth sharing, though," Delluth said.

"Not at the dinner table," the Countess said firmly, appearing at Delluth's elbow just as a demon servitor stepped into the loggia to announce dinner. Having thus collared their guest, Ekaterina led the way to the dining room. There, as a male guest, Delluth found himself seated between the Countess and the eldest daughter present, who was of course Lovisa.

Unsurprised, Delluth sipped at the pale yellow drink he had previously acquired, smiled pleasantly at the Countess, and forbore to look toward Claudio's end of the table. Maybe he could still get through this without any embarrassment to anyone.

Claudio, while the first course was being set on the table, was giving Madalin an animated account of his ride home.

"Weren't you frightened? Even a little bit?" his sister asked him.

"Not really. I couldn't fall, so what was there to be afraid of? And the view--!" His expression grew dreamy. "I'll have to sketch it soon, while it's still fresh in my memory."

Lovisa, from across the table, appeared to be listening with interest. "It was good of you to take the trouble, Doctor," she said in a low voice to Delluth.

"Oh, no trouble," he said, with a self-deprecating shrug. "It was fun. I hadn't gone flying in some time -- far too long, in fact."

Her eyes lit. "I hope to learn how to do that someday."

He couldn't help but smile. "Like most things, it mainly takes practice."

"Like most things I want to do, anyway," she remarked, with her rich chuckle. "I need to find one of those Shadows that gives me ten years for every turning here, or something." She slanted a glance at her middle brother. "I'd get the jump on Pavlo, too, that way."

"Ah, well," Delluth said, also glancing toward the young warrior. "That would hardly be fair, would it?"

Lovisa grinned. "All's fair in love and war."

"So I've heard." His tone was not critical, yet there was some withdrawal in it; he smiled briefly and gave his attention to the food that had been placed in front of him.

"What's that about war?" Pavlo asked. He was seated on the other side of Lovisa, and the word caught his attention.

His sister smiled sweetly at him. "The Doctor and I were discussing the state of relations between siblings," she informed him.

Pavlo snorted good-humoredly. "Depends on the siblings," he commented. "Sometimes it seems like with realms: the closer they are, the more they clash."

"Claudio and Jonmari don't," Lovisa pointed out.

Pavlo shrugged. "Jonmari doesn't clash with anybody."

Delluth listened absently to this banter, eating his food no more quickly than was polite, but with an appetite whetted by mountain-climbing, shape-changing, and flying.

"What's the news from the capital, Doctor?" Ekaterina asked him after a few moments, adding apologetically, "We're sometimes a bit isolated here."

"I tend to be a bit isolated too," he noted. "But let me think ..." He did try to get updated about major events, whenever he visited the Courts, so he did have some bits of news. Including, he realized, news about a couple of upcoming inter-House marriages. But there was no help for that, and leaving those out might be noticeable.

Alfonso, from his end of the table, looked up interestedly.

"Arrests, executions, assassinations?" queried Lovisa, black-humorously. Her mother frowned at her.

"Not that I've heard," he replied, not quite as repressively as the Countess. "Though there was an attempt on somebody of Ysarn -- unless that was a personal dispute, which I've also heard." He managed, between bites of dinner, to mention one of the rumored marriages in passing, and switched to an emerging legal dispute between two middling-sized Houses.

This subject managed to rope in Enriko as well as the Count and Countess, as they discussed the legal situation and the argument on both sides. The younger Barimens listened politely, but only Madalin seemed to be following the thread of the argument.

Their analysis also left Delluth behind, which troubled him not at all, since the second course of dinner proved to be a dish he particularly liked.

After a little while, Lovisa seemed to take pity on him. She said in a voice pitched so as not to interrupt the ongoing conversation, "When we came in, Doctor, Jonmari and I were having a discussion about herbology. Is it true that there are some plants whose medicinal qualities are affected by the color of light they're grown under?"

"Oh, yes," he replied, also quietly. "Obviously it depends on the plant's shadow of origin and whether it's been moved to a significantly different environment, of course, but the principle's common enough across Shadow." He could continue a conversation on this subject for a while, if she was interested.

Apparently she was, either on her own or her sister's behalf, since she started coming up with specific examples.

Delluth soon forgot that he'd intended to not show any particular favor toward Lovisa, and supplied other examples and a correction or two. "That variant, I understand it needs a particular level of copper in the soil or water as well, or the light doesn't make any difference."

"Copper," Lovisa said, nodding. "I should make a note of that." She glanced down, rather ruefully, at the cloth napkin in her lap. "Only I don't think Mother would approve of scribbling on the napkins. Or passing notes to my sister at the table."

He chuckled and said, "Quite right. Mental notes are all that's acceptable at the dinner table."

"We'll have to go over the specifics again later, then," suggested Lovisa, "when I can take down amounts and proportions. I'll never keep them all in my head, much less be able to pass them on to Jonmari."

"Or we could both talk with Jonmari later," Delluth replied. "Since I've taken up teaching, I've gotten used to repeating myself." This was definitely intended as one of his quiet jokes.

Lovisa caught his intent, and chuckled. "I'll bet. Yes, we should do that."

He smiled and nodded, and checked to see how his hosts' legal conversation was going.

It seemed to be winding down, with nothing firmly decided except that it would be best all around that the Barimens not get involved.

"Claudio showed me your moving staircase," he said to Lovisa. "It's a very impressive piece of work."

"Well, I only found it, you know. I didn't devise it," she disclaimed.

"Oh? I misunderstood what he said, then. However did you find it?"

"By looking under my feet," answered Lovisa, with a grin. "It was in a shopping complex I visited with a friend of mine, out in Shadow. Not part of the merchandise, unfortunately, but we managed to work around that."

"You walked off with a piece of the building?" Delluth said, vastly amused. "That must have been quite a trick."

"It wasn't quite as simple as that," said Lovisa, making a balancing motion with one hand. "I don't know how much Shadow manipulation you've done..."

He shrugged. "Enough to know something like that isn't simple. I'm curious as to how you accomplished it."

"I didn't do it all myself," said Lovisa, "though I'm learning. But the trick of it has to do with fiddling the time axis along with the spatial coordinates. That way you get the use of it after its own timeline is finished with it. So to speak."

Delluth nodded his comprehension. "I've never tried to retrieve anything that sophisticated myself, as it happens." Then he sat back in his seat, so the serving demons could clear his plate away and replace it with another.

"Aha, dessert!" said Lovisa, clearly delighted. Since dessert proved to be a complicated confection involving pastry, cream, and generous amounts of chocolate, her anticipation was easy to understand.

To no one's surprise, Delluth also was pleased by the dessert, and was not inclined toward conversation for several minutes, once it arrived.

Neither was Lovisa, but he heard Claudio's amused voice from across the table. "Now I know why that mountainscape today looked so eerily familiar." He gestured with his spoon toward the high-piled confection on his plate. "The cream can be the snow, and those chocolate curls can be the trees..."

Delluth glanced over and smiled, but had no other comment.

Madalin, sitting next to Claudio, rolled her eyes in fond exasperation.

Lovisa demolished about half her dessert before resuming her conversation with Delluth. Gesturing with her spoon, she said, "You see what I mean, though, about everything I want to learn being something that takes lots of practice."

The doctor swallowed his mouthful of the treat and said, "Just about anything worth doing takes practice."

Lovisa grinned. "At least you're assuming that everything I want to do is worth doing."

"I'm a generous sort of person," he replied, with another glimmer of understated humor.

"Not," Lovisa said darkly, "like Some." She studiously looked at her plate, rather than at anyone at the table, as she said this.

Delluth glanced uncertainly at her, then around the table, wondering if anyone else had heard.

No one apparently had. Pavlo was sitting on Lovisa's other side, and he didn't seem to be paying her any attention at the moment.

Lovisa poked at her dessert. "I suppose it's a great thing to know one's limitations..." she said wryly.

"In theory, that helps one keep out of trouble," Delluth agreed cautiously.

"In practice, though," Lovisa said, scowling, "I'd just as soon find mine for myself rather than have someone else take a guess."

"Ah, hmm," he said, wondering if she thought he knew what she was talking about, or was simply venting into a sympathetic ear. Several platitudes occurred to him, but he decided to leave them unsaid. Which left him with nothing in particular to say.

After a few more moments of her moodiness, he asked hesitantly, "What exactly is bothering you, Lovisa?"

"Mm." Her glance shifted from one end of the table to the other, where her parents were sitting. "Did Claudio ... say something?" she asked elliptically.

With an effort, he avoided looking around also. "Yes," he said, very quietly. "But I'm not sure what to do about it."

"'Nothing' might be a good choice," Lovisa suggested hopefully, then looked uncertain. "Unless..." She took a deep breath. "Unless I'm mistaken."

"I was planning to pretend I knew nothing about it," Delluth offered, polishing off the last of his dessert.

"That sounds like a good strategy," said Lovisa, brightening.

He looked at her, ruefully admitting to himself that it stung a bit, learning so directly that she didn't want him. "I just hope it doesn't get awkward," he said, aware that this long and nearly whispered (and therefore slightly rude) conversation ought to have been interrupted by now.

As it happened, their conversation was interrupted by the demon servitors coming to clear the dessert plates. This was followed by the Countess rising to conduct her daughters from the room, so as to leave the gentlemen to their wine for a while.

Lovisa must have caught something in Delluth's voice or eye, for she gave him a concerned frown as she rose, and murmured, "Later."

He nodded politely to her, then to the Countess, then sat back in his chair to sip his wine. He was trying to look as if nothing at all was troubling him.

Whether he fooled Claudio was questionable, though. At least, after a keen look across the table at the Doctor, the youngest Barimen son immediately fired a question about Sword Dancing at Pavlo. Delluth had occasionally seen this ploy before when he dined with the Barimens. Pavlo and Claudio were enthusiasts of the sport, but Count Barimen and Enriko were not. Therefore it didn't take long -- no more than one glass of wine -- before Alfonso smiled indulgently and suggested that they join the ladies.

Amused, and with his equilibrium restored by this respite, Delluth agreed with him -- though not, he hoped, with too much enthusiasm.

The Count led them out of the dining room, down a gently curving corridor of warm red sandstone, carved with figures of diverse form and unknown provenance, till they stepped into the cool blues of the Countess's drawing room. Ekaterina rose to greet them, and to send a servitor for the tea tray.

In one corner, Lovisa and Jonmari had their heads together, bent over what looked like an illustrated herbal laid out on a small table of lapis lazuli. They looked up as the men entered; Lovisa caught Delluth's eye and beckoned him over.

He paused long enough to greet the Countess properly, and to refuse her offer of tea, then made his way casually over to the two young women. "Good evening, again," he said, smiling.

The two sisters greeted him in return. Then Lovisa flipped a few pages of the book and pointed. "Is this the plant you were talking about?" she asked Delluth. "That needs copper in the soil?"

Obligingly, he stepped closer and looked at the illustration. "I think so. I see here it claims it came originally from Abyssinia, but I've been there and I'm not convinced." As he spoke, he glanced inquiringly at Lovisa.

"Well, Tiresa sent Jonmari a few specimens just the other day, and we have them planted in the knot garden. Would you like to come and take a look?" Lovisa invited him.

"I'd be glad to," he said. Linking arms with both of them, just as he would have done yesterday, he started explaining why he thought the plant's origin was somewhere other than Abyssinia as they went along.

Both sisters accompanied him readily enough. It was hard to tell if Jonmari's dark, earnest eyes on his face showed more than a lively interest in his herblore.

The knot garden was a walled oval with raised beds of different soils and a light cycle adapted to non-Chaosian plants. The thick-leaved, spiny plant they were discussing had been placed on a sandy bank near the center of the garden.

"It looks like a desert plant, so we're trying it out here," said Lovisa, "but if that's not the case..."

"Well, there are deserts in shadows besides Abyssinia," Delluth remarked, approaching the object of their discussion and looking down at it. "But since, as I said, the Abyssinian plants I saw are indifferent to the presence of copper, this may not be from there. Of course it's a very old strain of plant, if it's the one I'm thinking of; I've seen it in Juliexe's Herbal. It's possible that it was altered a long time ago, even from an Abyssinian plant, and the fact has been forgotten."

As he finished speaking, he glanced around the garden and back the way they had come, then looked at Lovisa and Jonmari with a more serious expression than the conversation really warranted.

Lovisa, who had been squatting next to the plant in order to poke at the soil around its roots, rose and dusted off her hands. She looked back at Delluth in her usual straightforward fashion.

"Look, Doctor, if you've been talking with Claudio, you probably know that my parents have been ... suggesting, to put it no stronger ... that I start thinking about marriage. My opinion is that there are a lot of other things I'd rather think about." She raised a hand. "Mind you, if I did entertain the notion, you'd be way out in front of most of the men I know. It's just that ... I don't think it's for me."

Delluth smiled. "Now that's what I call coming to the point," he approved. "If I was looking to get married, I would certainly think of you, Lovisa. But the fact is I'm not. Or not yet, anyway." He glanced aside, his expression sobering for a moment.

"But not if you're not interested," he continued briskly. "No one's likely to suggest I ought to marry, so if I chose to, I would pick someone who would be ... interested." His gaze on hers was forthright as he said this last; he wondered if she had heard anything about him at school or elsewhere.

Her mouth twitched into a smile. "Of which there would be no lack, I'm sure," she observed. Evidently she had, but judging from her expression, she found it more amusing than anything else.

"I can hope," he said wryly. Then he held out his hand and said, "Friends?"

"Friends!" Her smile broadened as she took his hand in a firm clasp. Jonmari smiled also, seemingly relieved.

"Good," he said happily, shaking on it. Then he let go and looked down. "Now, about this plant of yours..."