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the way inside. Arian, he saw, had already taken off boots and socks and sat on the bench, looking around with interest. Kieri sat down and pulled off his house boots.
    “It’s not what I expected,” Arian said.
    “It’s not what you’d expect inside, either,” Kieri said. The Seneschal led the way with one of the big candles and set it on a holder for them, then bowed and withdrew. Kieri felt that ancient peace enfold him. He heard Arian’s little gasp of surprise.
    “They’re … like the others only … more.”
    “My father,” Kieri said with a gesture. “And my sister, on the women’s side.”
    “What is that—oh—it’s writing. At my mother’s family’s bonehouse the oldest were painted with pictures in certain colors, but no writing.”
    “Can you read it?” Kieri asked.
    “No … at least … it says something about beloved son, doesn’t it? Here?”
    “Yes. I did not know the script at first, and then I could read it.”
    “I hope they like me,” Arian said.
    “You can read the script—I think that proves they do.” They were shoulder to shoulder now; Kieri felt a pressure from those bones, from all the bones. Did Arian feel it? She moved across the aisle to his sister’s bones.
    “And this was her child … I came to her coronation, you know.”
    “I didn’t—” Kieri’s throat closed. That others had known his sister as an adult, and he only as a tiny child, barely able to walk steadily …
    “All the Knights of Falk were summoned, and the senior knights-candidate. She was beautiful. And gracious, very gracious. It grieved us all when she died.”
    Kieri felt the faint touch he had felt before, his sister’s presence, but this time not full of anger and warning … this time a caress, a blessing.
She was gracious, too. As she is now. Be happy
.
    Moved by impulse, he reached out and took Arian’s hand and lifted it high. “This is Arian, who will be my wife and my queen,” he said. “Make her welcome, for my sake.”
    Light bloomed in the ossuary, far brighter than the candle, bright as summer sun and carrying the scent of ripe fruit and roses. The pressure he had felt before increased, inexorable, and in a moment he and Arian were joined as they had not been before, embracing. Then joy and the light faded back to the candle’s glow.
    “They made us welcome indeed,” Arian said, in a shaky voice.
    “They believe you are a queen,” Kieri said. “Remember that, when you doubt it.” The chamber felt quiet again, the presences withdrawn. Kieri sighed. “And now for the Council.”

    K ieri laid out the situation as best he could. “Our troops defeated the Pargunese army in battle; survivors of the scathefire attack on the Halveric camp, forest rangers, and Royal Archers stationed in the area had much depleted their numbers before I got there.” Faces relaxed; a murmur rose. Kieri went on.
    “What we know now is that the Pargunese were befooled and then led by Achrya into moving above the falls—into land the rockfolk had denied them, land containing two hills in which dragons had laid clutches of eggs, supposedly guarded by gnomes.”
    “But there are no—” someone said.
    Kieri held up his hand for silence. “Under Achrya’s urging, the Pargunese took some of those eggs and broke them, releasing an immature form of dragon. In a later change, the immature dragons became a form of fire, uncontrolled and uncontrollable by humans. The Pargunese thought they had a weapon—thought they could control it—but they had released what Achrya wanted: chaos and terror that only the gods—or a dragon—could control. That is what burned Riverwash and a Halveric encampment; that is what we saw the other night.”
    “If the Pargunese have them, they could send more,” Sier Halveric said. He looked more angry than frightened.
    “They do not,” Kieri said. “The dragon—and yes, there is a dragon; Arian and I both met it—will prevent that; the dragon