More than a thousand years ...a wife ...children ...a servant ...annoying ...only occasionally helpful ...but still ...

"Rynere. We need to go."

"Can't we at least bury him? And what about Danid?"

"Who?"

"Danid!" Rynere pointed to the man. "We can't leave him here like this!"

"I can't carry him and he'd slow us down. Besides, you don't seem to be worried about the man I shot."

"That's because he was trying to kill us! Danid saved my life!"

Kyndran's eyes narrowed.

"He what?"

"Kyndran! Don't act like that! If someone saved your life what would you do?"

"This is different -"

"How?"

"Oh, don't press the poor fellow."

Rynere jumped, and turned to where Tass had been lying. It wasn't him. The voice had come from the woods behind him. Rynere glanced at Kyndran. He was equally surprised.

"What? Who's there?"

There was a pause.

"I'm debating," the voice said, rather teasingly, "whether to stay out of sight and keep you in suspense, or be uncharacteristically thoughtful and give you at least a hint as to who I might be."

"We'd appreciate the latter," Rynere said, curious but cautious.

"Well, I know that," the voice dragged out the last word. "I'm just talking to myself. Ignore me."

"Who are you?" Kyndran took a step towards the sound, one hand on his bow.

"Take a guess."

"How should we know?"

"Look around and think a bit. It's really not that hard."

Rynere's eyes narrowed.

"Are you related to Tass?"

"The young lady is correct," the voice said with a hint of approval.

"How?"

"Oh, it can all get very complicated ...let's just say I'm related. You see, Tass is the patriarch of a rather large family line, and I'm not exactly sure myself what relation I am." A young man, black-haired and green-eyed, stepped out from behind where Tass lay. He bowed with a flourish.

"Tace, at your service."

"Tace," Kyndran said disbelievingly.

"Where did you come from?" Rynere studied him carefully.

"Miss Kirea wanted me to come help you the rest the of the way, despite the fact that I don't know any -"

"What's going to happen to Tass?" Rynere demanded.

Tace was silent for a moment, looking at the body on the ground.

"Miss Kirea said she'd take care of him. But it would appear that the young lady and the prince have a deadline to make."

Kyndran glanced back at Rynere. She looked down at Danid.

He was awake and sitting up.

"What's going on?"