Skyfall by Catherine Asaro Page B

thought of it that way.”
    “You have heard this title before?”
    “People use it for me.”
    “Do you live in a high place?”
    Roca shook her head, scattering snow off her hood. “It is only a title. Is it so unfamiliar? Last night, when you called me an ice queen, I thought—” She didn’t finish, uncomfortable with his words even if he had only been teasing. They came too close to the truth.
    Eldri flipped his hand, which Roca gathered was the Lyshrioli equivalent of a shrug. “Brad’s people, they talk about kings and queens. They tell me this is like Bards and Memories, except a king marries a queen. They even say I am king of Lyshriol.” He looked alarmed. “I hope they don’t tell Lord Rillia that. He might not appreciate them saying I am Bard over him.”
    That intrigued her. “Who is Lord Rillia?”
    “Bard of the Rillian Vales. They have more people there than we do in the Dalvador Plains.” His teeth were chattering. “I am Bard of Dalvador, but he is lord of all the lands, including mine.”
    Roca wanted to shake the resort planners. The least they could have done was get their facts straight before they started playing with local cultures. She wondered if they even cared that they might endanger Eldri if they treated him as if he ranked above the true leader here. “Do you know Lord Rillia?”
    “Of course. He and my father were friends.” He rubbed his palms together, making his gloves squeak. “Unlike Lord Avaril.”
    “Who is Lord Avaril?”
    “He lives in the Blue Dale Mountains.” His face paled even more than from the cold. “He swore he would kill my father. Now he says he will kill me.”
    “Good gods, Eldri. Why?”
    “He wants to be Bard in Dalvador.” Eldri wrapped his arms around his body. “He might have killed my father. We don’t know.”
    She spoke gently, remembering his kindness when she had told him about her first husband. “I’m sorry your father died.”
    “All my family did.” He sounded subdued now. “It was on this mountain during an avalanche. Possibly it was an accident. Such things happen here.”
    “Possibly?”
    “Many rumors claim Avaril caused it. He is my cousin, the son of my father’s brother.” Eldri stamped his feet in the snow. “If everyone in my family dies, he becomes Bard.”
    It sounded all too familiar. The long histories of the Skolian noble Houses included their share of titles gained through assassination. If that was what had happened here, though, it hadn’t succeeded. “But you survived.”
    “I was only a few months old, so they left me at Windward when they went riding. Garlin had to stay home and take care of me because he had misbehaved. He was sixteen.” Eldri was trying to sound unconcerned, but his bewildered pain was obvious. “The avalanche killed everyone, my parents, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, cousins…Garlin is my family now.”
    “Ai, Eldri. I am so sorry.” Roca threaded her arm through his. Although she suspected Garlin had taken advantage of the situation over the years, it seemed unlikely he had helped cause the tragedy. From what she understood, titles here went through the male line, unlike in many Skolian cultures where it went through the female line. As a son of Eldri’s aunt on his mother’s side, Garlin wasn’t in the line of succession. If anything happened to Eldri, Garlin would lose the power he wielded now as the Bard’s chief adviser.
    “Someday I will have a big family again,” Eldri said. Ice glittered on his eyelashes and he could barely get out the words.
    Roca moved closer to him. “You are so cold.”
    “Aren’t you?”
    She grimaced. “Very.”
    “You look warm.” He was obviously trying to achieve the same state, without success.
    “Will you be able to sit out this storm?”
    He had a strange look, as if she had cornered him. “I don’t think so. I don’t understand. Why does it not bother you?”
    Roca’s foreboding was growing. At first she had thought