Fires of Aggar Read Online Free Page B

press further. Instead, Gwyn changed tack, “Who had she been trying to reach, M’Sormee ?”
    “Dey Sorormin of our home world — a Sister n’Shea and one n’Athena.”
    “Of home?! She’s a Sister then?!! How — there’s never been a Sister governing as a Ramains’ Dracoon!”
    “She is not a daughter of Valley Bay, Gwyn. But she has been accepted by both her mentors n’Shea and n’Athena as a foster daughter… she has some claim to us and our help.” Bryana let her daughter absorb that for a moment, then elaborated. “My garden with its roses and greens of home is apparently very similar to the garden of her mentor n’Shea. As happens when we grow tired, however, she found she could not See across the stars. So this garden which is so very foreign to Aggar — and my own Blue Sight — drew her here instead.”
    A wry grin sprouted as Gwyn muttered, “Wager she was shocked to find herself still under blue skies and not beneath lavender.”
    “She was frightened, a bit.”
    “Of you? And she with the Sight?” Gwyn was genuinely alarmed. “M’Sormee, what were you doing?”
    “Snipping the winter roses back… no, it was not my amarin that dismayed her. It was the risk that the Council might learn of her visit. She has asked me not to involve them. I chose to respect her reasons, although she did not explicitly share them.”
    “Which means she impressed you… and we should trust her.” Given her mother’s Blue Gift, Gwyn didn’t question that decision. “So now, you send for me instead.”
    “You are a Ramains’ Royal Marshal, Daughter, one of the Crowned Rule’s emissaries — judge and protector. I had assumed you’d be riding out for duties again this spring…? Ahh, and I See I am right. As a Marshal, I thought… well, it occurred to me that the problems of Khirlan’s Dracoon is foremost the Royal Family’s business. Clan raiders are threatening the welfare of the Ramains’ realm. The people’s safety is more important than Council’s policies, is it not? Wouldn’t it be prudent for a Royal Marshal to investigate?”
    “Do you know how well the Crowned Rule has been kept informed of these Clan troubles?”
    “Does it matter?” Bryana was not ignorant of the neighboring realm’s politics. “When the Crowned is preoccupied, the Marshals tend to the important matters as things arise. Since when do they wait for royal directives?”
    “We don’t.”
    “Then you wonder at something else.”
    For a moment Gwyn considered that uneasy feeling inside, her chin once again atop her knee. Finally her thoughts ushered themselves together, and she found the inconsistencies that teased her.
    “You want to know more of this Dracoon Llinolae.”
    “Yes, I do.” Gwyn gave a wry grin. Her mother’s Blue Sight was as perceptive as usual. “You say, she wants no involvement of the Council in this? That’s fair. They are certainly passive enough with their patient diplomacy to try anyone’s nerves — especially when one is dealing with a military threat! And I don’t know of anyone who’d deny that the Clan and their horde of fire weapons could create a military nightmare! But what I don’t understand is how a Blue Sight came to be Dracoon of Khirlan, if the Council wasn’t involved? I mean, M’Sormee, I intend no disrespect, but you are the Ring Binder and not an appointed official for a reason!”
    “Aye,” Bryana smiled indulgently. “I See details upon details in the ever-flowing life cycles around us. I bind the Ring of Valley Bay to our home world by traversing the glowing paths of amarin that connect the Blue Sights of Aggar to Home. I read the pieces and share the images, the impressions of life. And rarely can I be objective about those things that I See, because I Feel them in the perceiving. It would make me a very poor leader, in many circumstances. I would forever be biased in favor of the stronger personalities.”
    “Although that sensitivity makes you an