Free Limits of Power by Elizabeth Moon Page A

to all,” Amrothlin said. “As events proved. Besides, she had sworn she would not. She doubted herself after—” He stopped abruptly. “I cannot say all. Not yet. You might as well know that she was determined to pass it to her son, but
we
knew that was impossible. She quarreled with the Lady about it, insisting she had done so.”
    Secrets indeed! Arian stared at him, silenced for a time as the new possibilities tumbled through her mind. Kieri’s mother had intended him to inherit the elvenhome gift? Why? And how? And … most important … had she done it or merely talked about it?
    â€œDo you think she—?” Arian began.
    Amrothlin interrupted. “It is impossible, I tell you.” He ranted on for another half-glass about the impossibility of such things, about Kieri’s mother’s rebellious foolhardy nature, about the elven estimate of Kieri’s own character when he had escaped from bondage and returned to Lyonya an abused waif.
    â€œIt would have been better had he died; nothing was left of whatever the prince had been.”
    Arian’s own anger erupted. “Can you say that now, to the king’s face?
Nothing
left? He has taig-sense, he has the healing magery—”
    â€œHe did not have it then.”
    â€œAnd you did nothing to help him! How could you leave any child to starve in the winter forest, let alone your sister’s son? How is
that
creating harmony and song?”
    â€œI did not,” Amrothlin said. “I was not the one who found him first. When I heard—” He closed his eyes a moment before going on. “I argued he should be taken to some human settlement, placed there. I went, in fact, to where he had been found, but he was gone.”
    â€œAnd how long did you search?” Arian asked.
    â€œThe second time? Until I found bones,” Amrothlin said. “You do not understand. The first time—when he was taken—I found his mother’s—my sister’s—body. We never found his—we thought animals had scattered—we did not know he was taken.” He shuddered. “The second time—I found the bones of a child perhaps twelve or thirteen, clearly mangled by animals. I know now they were not his. At the time … I thought they were. A half-year, perhaps, later, someone reported a waif taken in by the Halverics. The Lady sent an elf to visit. He was not sure; there was no memory, no sign that this boy was certainly the prince. The boy was thriving in Halveric hands. Later still … from the description, it was clear who he was, but all reports had him too broken to be worthy of a throne.”
    â€œAnd yet he is,” Arian said. Amrothlin bowed assent.
    She started to ask again about her own father but stopped short. If her father had been his father’s heir, had inherited the ability to form an elvenhome, could he have transferred that to his half-elf children? To … to
her
? No, certainly not. On reflection, an elvenlord would not have sent his only heir so far away and forbidden him to mate with elven women. He had mated with human women precisely to prevent fathering a child who could receive the Lady’s elvenhome gift and continue the Lady’s domain. He—or his elvenlord father—had wanted it to fail.
    She asked instead about the length of time the other elves might be gone before returning to Chaya. What seemed to her like a simple question resulted in another half-glass explanation for uncertainty—and soon he took his leave, saying he would be back in the morning to talk to the king. When Kieri rode in shortly before dark, she told him what Amrothlin had said.
    â€œElves!” Kieri said, stripping off his gloves and tossing them on the table. “Why can’t they just tell us straight out? Why is everything so … so complicated?” Then he looked thoughtful. “Orlith … could that be why he was