The servant led me toward the high table at the far end where the nobles sat. At first they were only a blur of faces: a tall man, lean and wolfish, with a great shock of fair hair; a pretty, red-haired girl in a blue dress; a small boy about Marius’ age; and at their center, an aging man with a dark reddish beard, old to decrepitude but still straight-backed and keen-eyed. He bent his eyes on me, studying my face intently. This, I knew, must be Kermiac, Lord Aldaran, my kinsman. He wore plain clothes, of a simple cut like those the Terrans wore, and I felt briefly ashamed of my barbarian finery.
He rose and came down from the dais to greet me. His voice, thinned with age, was still strong.
“Welcome, kinsman.” He held out his arms and gave me a kinsman’s embrace, his thin dry lips pressing each of my cheeks in turn. He held my shoulders between his hands for a moment. “It warms my heart to see your face at last, Elaine’s son. We hear tidings in the Hellers here, even of the Hali’imyn,” He used the ancient mountain word, but without offense. “Come, you must be weary and hungry after this long journey. I am glad you felt able to join us. Come and sit beside me, nephew.”
He led me to a place of honor at his side. Servants brought us food. In the Domains the choicest food is served a guest without asking his preference, so that he need not in courtesy choose the simplest; here they made much of asking whether I would have meat, game-bird or fish, whether I would drink the white mountain wine or the red wine of the valleys. It was all cooked well and served to perfection, and I did it justice after days of trail food.
“So, nephew,” he said at last, when I had appeased my hunger and was sipping a glass of white wine and nibbling at some strange and delicious sweets, “I have heard you are tower-trained, a telepath. Here in the mountains it’s believed that men tower-trained are half eunuch, but I can see you are a man; you have the look of a soldier. Are you one of their Guardsmen?”
“I have been a captain for three years.”
He nodded. “There is peace in the mountains now, although the Dry-Towners get ideas now and then. Yet I can respect a soldier; in my youth I had to keep Caer Donn by force of arms.”
I said, “In the Domains it is not known that Caer Donn is so great a city.”
He shrugged. “Largely of Terran building. They are good neighbors, or we find them so. Is it otherwise in Thendara?”
I was not yet ready to discuss my feelings about the Terrans, but to my relief he did not pursue that topic. He was studying my face in profile.
“You are not much like your father, nephew. Yet I see nothing of Elaine in you, either.”
“It is my brother Marius who is said to have my mother’s face and her eyes.”
“I have never seen him. I last saw your father twelve years ago, when he brought Elaine’s body here to rest among her kin. I asked then for the privilege of fostering her sons, but Kennard chose to rear you in his own house.”
I had never known that. I had been told nothing of my mother’s people. I was not even sure what degree of kin I was to the old man, I said something of this to him, and he nodded.
“Kennard has had no easy life,” Kermiac said. “I cannot blame him that he never wanted to look back. But if he chose to tell you nothing of your mother’s kin, he cannot take offense that I tell you now in my own fashion. Years ago, when the Terrans were mostly stationed at Caer Donn and the ground had just been broken for the fine building at Thendara—I hear it has been finished in this winter past— years ago, then, when I was not much more than a boy, my sister Mariel chose to marry a Terran, Wade Montray. She dwelt with him many years on Terra. I have heard the marriage was not a happy one and they separated, after she had borne him two children. Mariel chose to remain with her daughter Elaine on Terra; Wade Montray came with his son Larry, whom we called Lerrys, back to Darkover. And now you may see how the hand of fate works, for Larry Montray and your father, Kennard, met as boys and swore friendship. I am no great believer in predestination or a fate foretold, but so it came about that Larry Montray remained on Darkover to be fostered at Armida and your father was sent back to Terra, to be fostered as Wade Montray’s son, in the hope that these two lads would build again the old bridge between Terra and Darkover. And there, of course, your father met Montray’s daughter, who was also the daughter of my sister Mariel. Well, to make a long tale short, Kennard returned to Darkover, was given in marriage to a woman of the Domains, who bore him no child, served in Arilinn Tower—some of this you must have been told. But he bore the memory of Elaine, it seems, ever in his heart, and at last sought her in marriage. As her nearest kinsman, it was I who gave consent. I have always felt such marriages are fortunate, and children of mixed blood the closest road to friendship between people of different world. I had no idea, then, that your Comyn kinsmen would not bless the marriage as I had done, and rejoice in it.”