Rynere looked back at Tace. He shrugged.

"What do you want explained?"

"Everything."

"That's a bit more than I know, darling."

"Why are you here? What are you going to do? Do you even know what you're doing? Was Matthan telling the truth? Has this happened -"

"Truth be told, I have absolutely no clue what I'm supposed to do except get you and the prince to a certain palace by a certain date. As for Matthan? Well, he's a lying trickster that's been around as long as Tass. He mixes small bits of truth into the falsehoods, but they're really not worth trying to find.

"Has this happened? No, as far as I can recall, Tass has never died before. But he used to tell us children stories about himself when we were young. Each one was basically the same, but had a different twist. I'm guessing this is the twist for this one."

"Don't you even care?"

"I do. But I do have my orders."

"This 'prince' isn't even able to walk," Kyndran finally spoke up. "What makes you think -"

"Tass. If I recall correctly, Tass had a remarkable talent -he could make ailing persons return to their regular strength within hours. It would diminish his own strength, but he didn't seem to care."

Rynere blinked, Kyndran looked even more disbelieving, and Danid put a hand to his head.

"What just happened to you is a lot to take in," Tace cocked an eyebrow. "We can give it a bit of time, but we still need to keep moving. Matthan will be up and about shortly."

"I shot him twice!" Kyndran exclaimed. "He's not getting up any time soon!"

Tace glanced at him, half-condescendingly, half-teasingly.

"So you can swallow that Tass was able to keep people alive and yet you can't swallow that Matthan -"

"I never said I believed you."

Tace nodded.

"Good point. Oh, and by the way, you weren't supposed to be here in the first place. I do believe Tass actually put you back, but you just don't give up until she," he pointed at Rynere, "gets married. Anyway," he continued before Kyndran could answer, "we must be on our way. Are you going to stay underfoot, or just return later and be underfoot?"

Kyndran stared at him disbelievingly.

"The former?" Tace said. "Well, you can at least carry a pack. Danid, you should be able to get up now. We need to hurry -Matthan will be back shortly."

"One question before we leave," Rynere said. "What would have happened if Tass had stayed alive?"