Kings of the North - Elizabeth Moon [9]
“I am the king,” Kieri said. “That gives me the right. This realm is my responsibility, and I am not going to let it fail because the Lady will not stir herself to tend it. She can spare the time for this, out of her immortality, or she can give up her claim to sovereignty.”
“You dare! This land was ours; we share it with lateborn out of generosity.”
“I dare because I must,” Kieri said. “This land survived so long because—so the tales say, at least—elves and humans worked together. Now, as you well know, they do not—and she is not helping. Was she like this when my mother was queen? Did she help my sister when she came so young to the throne? Or did she withdraw to her elvenhome whenever my sister asked for her help?” That, after all, might explain his sister’s sense of betrayal, if after losing mother and brother, her grandmother refused to have anything to do with her.
Orlith’s expression was suddenly guarded. “Your sister did not ask.”
“Why not, do you think?”
Orlith shrugged. “How would I know? She never spoke to me.”
“Perhaps the Lady never offered,” Kieri said. “I wonder if she even cares that my sister and I were her grandchildren.”
“The Lady saved you,” Orlith pointed out. “If she did not care, do you think she would have come?”
It made no sense. “I’m grateful for that,” Kieri said. “But I don’t understand why she is so … so changeable.”
“She is the Lady,” Orlith said, as if that explained and excused everything.
“And I am the king,” Kieri said, “but that does not mean I can do whatever I please from moment to moment.”
Orlith glared but said, “Then perhaps the king’s majesty will condescend to have the lesson which I came to give. We shall go to the garden.”
Kieri sighed inwardly, but he might as well comply. Though he felt—he was sure—that he was gaining taig-sense even when not around elves, he knew he needed more instruction.
In the garden, surrounded by the roses in full bloom and the other flowers, birds, insects, he tried to do as Orlith wanted, and use only his taig-sense to identify the components of the garden, but he could not keep his nose from telling him where the roses were, his ears from noticing the wasp that zipped past his ear.
Yet Orlith was pleased when he was able to sense beyond the rose-garden wall that in the kitchen garden a row of carrots had been pulled … there was a gap where five days before there had been a row of living plants.
“You have indeed made progress, Sir King. Now try to reach the King’s Grove trees … do you feel them?”
“Yes,” Kieri said without hesitation. “All I have to do now is reach out.”
“Good. Then let us see if you can distinguish them.” He handed over a polished stick. “Only one of the King’s Grove trees is kin to this … can you tell which one?”
Kieri held the stick, admiring the gold and dark grain. “What is it?”
“Later. For now I want you to feel your way to the parent tree.”
Kieri had no idea how to match the wood in his hands to his taig-sense connection to the trees … but the taig itself, he thought, might help. He imagined the stick as a tiny child looking for its parent … and as if that were true, one of the trees reached out. His hand tingled, and then he knew.
“Sunrising side of the circle,” Kieri said.
“Could you put your hand on it?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent! Try this one.”
Dark wood, the grain barely visible. Kieri was sure it was blackwood, but he said nothing and let the taig lead him. This time it was faster; he opened his eyes and said, “Summerwards, two trees into the grove from the circle.”
Orlith blinked. “Amazing. That is, indeed, the location of the tree. We will try one more—it is the traditional test—but I expect you will have no problems with it.” He handed over a stick of wood with red and black grain that glittered a little in the sunlight.
“Fireoak,” Kieri said. He had no need to ask the taig; it wrapped itself around and through him, and he and the tree both regarded the wood that had once been part of a particular limb on its sunsetting side with pleasure. He told Orlith; the elf nodded, smiling now.
“Well