Danilo Syrtis signed the estate books and handed them back to the steward.
"Tell the people in the Hall to give you some dinner before you start back," he said, "and my thanks for coming out in this godforgotten weather!"
"It was no more than my duty, vai dom," the man said. Danilo watched him leave and wondered if he should go to his own dinner now, or send for some bread and cheese here in the little study he used for estate business. He did not feel like making polite conversation with the steward about business or the weather, and he supposed the man, too, was eager to get back on the road and be home with his wife and children before dark set in. There was more snow coming tonight; he could see the shadow of it in the great clouds that hovered over Ardais.
Snow coming, and it was cold in the room. And by nightfall I shall be on the road ... and Danilo started, wondering if he had fallen asleep for a moment. There was no such luck coming his way, that he should be on the road, away from here, by nightfall. Danilo rubbed his hands together. His feet were warmed by a little brazier of charcoal under the desk, but his fingers ached and he could see the breath between his mouth and the books which lay on the desk before him. He had never grown used to the cold in the Hellers.
I wish I were in the lowlands, he thought. Regis, Regis, my brother and bredu, I do my duty here at Ardais as you in Thendara; but though I am Regent here at Ardais, I would rather be in Thendara at your side, no more than your sworn man and paxman. I shall not see my home again, perhaps not for years, and there is no help for it. I am sworn.
He put out his hand to the bell, but before he could ring it, the door opened and one of the upper servants came into the study.
"Your pardon, vai dom. The Master would like to see you, at once if convenient; if you are still occupied with the steward, he asks you to name a time when you can attend him."
"I'll go at once," said Danilo, puzzled. "Where will I find him?"
"In the music room, Lord Danilo."
Where else? That was where Dyan spent much of his time; like a great spider in the center of his web, and we are all in his shadow.
Dyan, Lord Ardais, was Danilo's uncle; Danilo's mother had been the illegitimate daughter of Dyan's father, who had had many bastards. Dyan's only son had been killed in a rockslide at Nevarsin monastery; when Danilo proved to have the laran of the Ardais Domain, the catalyst-telepath Gift believed extinct, the childless Dyan had adopted Danilo as his Heir.
)
