"Girls!" He scowled. "Did you go to the gardens to pick flowers or dance in the mud? Look at the mess you've made!"

The twins glanced back. Lillis's mouth formed an O, but Lorelle only gave a careless shrug. "It's just dirt, Papa. Kieran can clean it up in half a chime."

"Oh, can he?" Sol put his hands on his hips. "Kieran may be able to clean with just a weave of magic, but there's plenty of work for him to do around here without your making more for him. Both of you, take those shoes off at once. Lillis, get a broom and start sweeping. Lorelle, you fetch the mop. And just for your sass, you can clean the breakfast dishes this morning as well."

"Papa!"

He pointed. "Go."

The girls pouted and trudged off. Sol frowned after them, shaking his head in dismay. Laurie would be beside herself. The last several weeks of living around magic had clearly spoiled the girls into forgetting the lessons of responsibility and discipline their mother had worked so hard to instill in them. But what was Sol to do? Their lives had changed. Forever. Cling as he might to mortal ways, magic was going to be a daily part of his daughters' lives, and there was no getting 'round it.

"Good morning, Master Baristani," Kiel greeted as he and Kieran walked in with Lord Teleos. The two Fey and the border lord had begun breakfasting with the Baristanis each morning before heading off to continue the restoration of Teleon. Not that there was all that much to do anymore. The warriors Rain had sent to accompany Lord Teleon to Orest had worked nonstop for the last seventy-two bells to repair the bulk of the fortress. They and Lord Teleon would be departing for Orest on the morrow.

"Looks like someone's been walking in the mud this morning," Kieran said with an eye on the muddy footprints. He lifted his hands and started to spin magic, but Sol stopped him.

"No, please, Kieran. The girls made the mess. I've told them they're to clean it up. I won't have my children turn into slovenly little pamperlings just because they live amongst the Fey."

"Kieran." Kiel spoke his blade brother's name in a strange, strangled voice, and poked him in the arm. "Kieran, look." He pointed to the breakfast table.

Kieran turned—and froze.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Both Fey were staring at the bouquet of white flowers on the table, and Sol's chest squeezed tight. Were the blooms poisonous?

But Kiel was reaching for the bouquet with shaking hands, and Kieran was making no move to stop him. The Water master lifted the bouquet to his face and breathed in deeply.

Even Lord Teleos was staring. "Are those what I think they are?"

"Master Baristani," Kieran rasped, "where did those flowers come from?"

"The girls brought them in. Why?" Sol was torn between alarm and confusion. The three men were acting as if they'd seen a dead man, but clearly the flowers were not dangerous. "What's going on? Did they do something wrong?"

Kieran didn't answer. Instead, he pivoted on a heel, marched back out into the hallway, and, in a very un-Fey-like manner, shouted, "Lillis! Lorelle!"

The twins came running, mop and broom banging behind.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Kieran pointed to the flowers in Kiel's hand and on their heads. "Where did you find these flowers?"

"Outside." Lorelle pointed through the arching stone windows to the graceful curving terraced gardens beyond. "In the gardens we helped Ellie and Lady Marissya plant."

Lillis beamed. "Aren't they pretty? There's lots and lots of them. They must have bloomed in the night."

«Fey! Ti'jensa! To the gardens! Hurry! Tell me what you see.» Kieran sent the call on the common path, and outside, half a dozen warriors raced for the terraces.

Moments later the cry went up, "It blooms! The white bell blooms!" In voices that rang with excitement, they announced their discovery on the common path for all the Fey to hear, «Amarynth, brothers! The white bell blooms in the gardens of Teleon!»

There was a moment of shocked silence; then a shout rose up throughout the keep, a great hurrah that rattled window glass in its panes. "Amarynth blooms! Mioralas! Blessings on this house and all who dwell here!"

"Amarynth?" Sol's brows drew together in surprise. Many woodcarvers used the six-petaled Amarynth blossom, also called the star flower, as a motif in their carvings, but he had never seen a live bloom. "They're real?"

"They are indeed, Master Baristani, and they bloom only in the footsteps of a Fey woman bearing young."

Sol's eyes went wide. "You mean Ellysetta…my Ellie-girl is—"

"Nei. Not Ellysetta," Kiel said. "She and Rain are not yet fully united, and truemates do not breed outside the bond. These flowers bloom for Marissya and Dax."

Kieran had a silly, stunned grin on his face. "I'm going to be a brother. A brother, Kiel. My mela is with child." Tears filled his eyes.

Kiel smiled. "Mioralas, my friend. I couldn't be happier for you." He clapped his hand on Kieran's back. "You should be the one to tell them. Weave the news now, quickly, before our brothers shout it all the way to Dharsa."

"Aiyah…aiyah, I will…right now." He could hardly concentrate. He closed his eyes and pressed the bouquet of Amarynth to his face, careful not to bruise the precious blooms. Weeping, laughing, soaring with joy, he spun the weave. «Mela…gepa…it's Kieran. …»