She drooped dispiritedly against his broad back, longing for respite from the steady motion of the horse. Whenever Finn rode by she straightened and arranged her face into an expression of determined spirit, but when he left them she returned to her haze of weariness. The Cheysuli did not tell either captive where they rode, only that their Keep lay at the end of their journey. When Carillon demanded his instant release and that of Alix, threatening the Mujhar’s displeasure and retribution, Duncan refused courteously. Alix, watching him silently during much of the day’s ride, wondered at the difference so evident in the brothers. Finn seemed the more aggressive of the two; Duncan kept his own council and gave nothing away to supposition. Though Alix wanted nothing more than to leave the shapechangers’ presence with Carillon accompanying her, she far preferred Duncan’s company to Finn’s. In the evening she sat before a small fire with Carillon, staring into the flames in exhaustion.
