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learned three things besides, which might be of use: north winds are cleansing, look for a root of evil, and go round the long way. Well enough. I also learned that I have at least one live friend somewhere, and that there may be a woman who genuinely loves me; both great matters indeed.”
    “And what will you do now, Prince?” she asked.
    “Now, that’s the form of address, Lady,” I said. “Not boy.” I was afraid of her, right enough, but I would not show it, though the Goddess struck me then and there. “Now? Now, I’ll find a way to clear vermin from the land. As soon as I’ve had an hour or two of sleep, that is…”
    Mind, I’d no idea at all how any of my great plans were to be carried out. At that moment, every bone in me ached with weariness, and my mind was clouded.
    But in the outer court, I found Isa and a guardsman weighted down with my armor: every bit of metal shone with the gloss of jewelry. She followed me with her new servant, a young man who stared at both of us as if he saw the gods. It was a way Isa had, I found later, that she could make any man do her bidding, for no price but her smiles. As for me, the tale of my exploits was running through the town, much magnified; the young fellow looked at me as if I were a great hero who would save all.
    Unfortunately, I did not feel like a great hero. I felt like a man with an unsolvable problem.
    We went to the castle, where I fell into a great bed, once Uncle Hogir’s own, and into nightmare-haunted sleep. Weary as I was, I should have slept without a dream. But ghostly blue-green light flooded through my sleep, with voices, mocking. I saw the face of the woman I had killed shrieking soundlessly at me, and the faces of dead men piled on a plague cart. It was not a good sleep.
    But sleep it was, at least. When I awoke, sun flooded the narrow windows, and Isa sat adding a stitch to a torn place in my tunic. I was hungry as a wolf, and my mind was full of a new idea.
    Later, on the walls, I looked out to where the circle of black tents still ringed us in. There were fewer of them now, though, and the riders kept well back.
    Men came, saying that the slower ships were in sight, and that the first of them was even now entering Astorin harbor. There would be more food, though more mouths too, and powder for the guns. But no horses, I thought. How can one fight riders on foot?
    The north wind touched my face with a cold puff as I stood on the wall. Then I remembered.
    In   Dorada ,  in  this   autumn  season,   the  wind  rises strongly and flows down the valley, from the mountains toward the sea. For days, sometimes, the wind blows so strongly and steadily that ships must tack about and wait before entering the harbor, or be drawn in by oarsmen. And the voice had spoken of the north wind.
    But there had been no word at all from Granorek, the fortress at the head of the valley of Dorada, nor any sign that it was still in the hands of Doradans. My uncle Malvi was not a man who would have given over Granorek easily, though. There were more than a hundred men of fighting skill there with him, maybe more if some had come in before the flood of invaders swept them up. The place would have been stored better than the city; Uncle Malvi was like that. To reach Granorek… but I heard someone call my name.
    “Prince Kavin.”
    He came up the stair to the wall, fat as ever, grinning like a frog which he much resembled. Thuramon the magician, my old teacher.
    “Thuramon! You look in good health,” I said, frowning. “Unlike most others hereabouts.”
    “Now, what value is there in magic art if a man’s to starve or fall ill?” Thuramon asked, stroking his beard. “Surely I would be no more than a charlatan if I were to come here to you thin and weak.”
    “You’ve been in the city through the whole siege?” I asked.
    “Where else?” he said, chuckling. “Though I sometimes found it convenient to walk invisible among the enemy. A little trick