“Hey!” Tats protested, while Rapskal peered at her and said, “What? I don’t get it.”

“Nothing to get,” she reassured him. Then she turned to Sylve and rolled her eyes in Rapskal’s direction. The other girl grinned.

Sylve sprang suddenly to her feet. “Look! They’re coming for us, to take us to see the dragons.”

Thymara came to her feet more slowly. Her pack from home was already on her back. She slung the supply pack they’d issued her over one shoulder. “Well. I guess we should go,” she said quietly. Involuntarily, she glanced up the trunk toward the canopy top and home. She was surprised but not shocked to see that her father had lingered and was watching her from the wide staircase that wound up the tree’s immense trunk. She waved at him a final time and made a small shooing motion for him to go home.

Tats had followed the direction of her glance. He waved wildly at her father and then impetuously shouted up to him, “Don’t worry, Jerup! I’ll watch over her!”

“You’ll watch over me?” she scoffed, uttering the words loud enough that she hoped they’d reach her father’s ears. Then, with a final wave, she turned and trooped after the others. They were headed for the river dock, and the boats that would carry them upstream from Trehaug to Cassarick and the dragons’ hatching grounds.

“HE DOESN’T FEEL right to me.”

Leftrin scratched his cheek. He needed to shave, but lately his skin had begun to scale more on his cheekbones and the angle of his jaw. Scales he could live with, if they’d hurry up and grow in. Whiskers and a beard annoyed him. Unfortunately, trying to shave near scales usually resulted in lots of nasty little cuts.

“He’s just not his old self.”

The two comments in swift succession was as good as a speech coming from Swarge. Leftrin shrugged at the tillerman. “He’s bound to be changed. We knew that going in. He knew it and accepted it. It was what he wanted.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“Of course I’m sure. Tarman’s my ship, the liveship of my family. The bond is there, Swarge. I know what he wants.”

“I been on his decks close to fifteen years. No stranger to him myself. He seems, well, anxious. Waiting.”

“I think I know what that’s about.” Leftrin stared out over the ship’s wake in the river. Overhead, the stars shone in a wide path of open sky. To either side of them, the tall trees of the Rain Wilds leaned in curiously. It was a peaceful time. From the riverbanks came the usual night sounds of creatures and birds. Water purled past the Tarman’s hull as the barge made his way steadily upriver. From the deckhouse, yellow lanternlight shone. The crew was at its evening meal. The clack of crockery, the mutter of conversation, and the smell of fresh coffee drifted out to him. Bellin said something, and Skelly laughed, a warm and gentle sound in the night. Big Eider’s chuckle was a deep undercurrent to their merriment.

Leftrin ran his hands slowly over Tarman’s railing. He nodded to his tillerman. “He’s fine. He knew there would be changes.”

“I been having dreams.”

Leftrin nodded. “Me, too.”

A slow smile spread across the tillerman’s face. “Wish I could fly.”

“So does he,” Leftrin agreed. “So do we.”

“WHY DID YOU have to book passage on this ship?” Sedric demanded abruptly.

Alise looked at him in surprise. They stood together on the deck, leaning on the railing and watching the thick trunks of the immense Rain Wild trees slip past them in a never-ending parade. Some ancient giants were as big around as watchtowers. Strange, how they made the other behemoths look small. Draperies of vine and curtains of lacy moss hung from their outstretched branches, weaving the trees together in a seemingly impenetrable wall. Beneath the canopy of foliage and moss, the forest floor looked swampy and dismal, a land of endless shadow and secretive light.

She had come out on the deck to enjoy the short span of daylight hours. Although the river flowed through a wide swampy valley, the forest that lined the banks of the Rain Wild River was so tall that the tops of the trees formed a leafy horizon. Above them the stripe of blue sky that showed seemed a narrow ribbon even though Alise knew it as almost as wide as the wandering gray flow of the river.

She had been surprised when Sedric came to join her. She’d scarcely seen him since they left Bingtown. He’d even been taking his meals in his cabin. He had been quiet and withdrawn for most of their journey, more subdued and solemn than she’d ever seen him. Obviously, he was not relishing his duty. For her part, she had been astounded to discover the companion that her husband had arranged for her. It made no sense to her. If he wanted to protect her reputation, why send her off chaperoned by his male secretary? Like many things that Hest arbitrarily decided for her life, he hadn’t deigned to explain it to her.