"No," Tal said, embracing his great-uncle. "You know what I wish."
"Hmmph," snorted Ebbitt. "I"ll be back. Couldn"t miss this opportunity, you know. There I was, on my last breath... or perhaps the second-last breath, I can"t be sure... and I thought if I die now never see the Ice. Beside, there"s those Crones. I like the sound of them."
Tal let Ebbitt go, but pressed two fingers against his great-uncle"s chest. Something moved under the curs, something other than skin and bone.
"Ebbitt!"
"What can I say?" exclaimed Ebbitt. "It wants to come with me. We"ve been playing Beastmaker and I"m winning a hundred and six games to one hundred and eight."
The Codex beat against Ebbitt"s chest and the old man hastily added, "The count is a little in dispute. It could be one hundred and six even."
Tal frowned. The Codex was too valuable to lose. But there was no guarantee he"d be able to consult it even if it did stay in the Castle. At least if it was with Ebbitt he"d be able to find it when he had to. Besides, Malen was going to stay in the Castle and several other Crones were gong to join her, as part of a permanent emba.s.sy. Tal would be able to communicate with Ebbitt and the Codex via the Crones.
And with Milla, too. There would be much to talk about.
"Farewell, Milla," said Tal. He held out his wrist, showing the scars of the oaths they had made together. Milla bared her wrist, and they touched scars, cool skin against cool skin.
Milla smiled, a smile that Tal had not seen before. He smiled back and looked into her eyes. In their joined gaze, they both saw everything they had been through together, from their meeting on the Ice to the fall of Sharrakor.
Everyone was silent as they stood together. Time ticked over in Icecarl breaths and Chosen seconds, counted in sparks within their Sunstones. Finally, Milla raised her hand, and Tal"s fell away.
Milla held her hand high above her head. A Talon flared and a violet whip spun overhead, before falling into motes of light as Milla closed her fist and lowered her arm.
Icecarls shouted, their calls reverberating through the great hall. Then they shouldered their burdens and set out on the long road down the Mountain of Light. Down toward the Ice and the Living Sea of Selski, down to their windborne homes, the clan ships of the Icecarls.
Milla did not look back.
Tal watched for a moment, then turned toward the shining Sunstones, to the thousands of halls and rooms and corridors of the Chosen and the Freefolk, the people of the Castle.
But even as friends and strangers alike came to his side to ask questions or beg favors or tell him things, his thoughts were only on one small part of the Castle. A suite of rooms with the front door marked by an Orange Sthil-beast leaping over a seven-pointed star.
Beyond that door his family was together again. His father, Rerem, who had been rescued from the Orange Keystone, was regaining both his sanity and his strength. His mother, Graile, had almost totally recovered from the water-spider poison. His brother, Gref, had been cured so rapidly by the Crones that he had already gotten into several sorts of minor trouble. And Tal"s little sister, Kusi, seemed to have forgotten that anything had happened at all.
Tal smiled again, a smile tinged with the weight of memory and responsibility. So much had happened, and so much lay ahead.
But everything could wait, thought Tal, as he made his way through the crowd.
For Tal Graile-Rerem was finally going home, and he had a Sunstone.