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.That Gate would open into her bedchamber if he tried to reawaken it andDenoriel never visited Elizabeth's bedchamber.Neither of those options seemed viable, and he dismissedthem.However, the imp he had sent to watch for visitors had passed along other images, one being the paththat led to the main entrance of the palace, now closed, and the branch that led around to the entrance toElizabeth's wing.He could create a temporary Gate just at the beginning of that side path and walk.Hislips thinned a trifle at the thought of the energy he would need to expend to create a new Gate, but thenhe shrugged.He could renew his strength in almost any Unformed land.The creation of the Gate went smoothly, although the echo of the energies involved sent the air spiritrushing through the palace and the garden.By the time it actually found the Gate, Pasgen was walkingunhurriedly along the path toward the palace.A brief inner survey showed the air spirit a Sidhe; an evenbriefer outer survey showed a familiar face and figure.The air spirit had no capacity to wonder why aGate had been created, when its master usually arrived on Miralys.It returned to the vicinity of Elizabeth.The guards at the gate both smiled and wished Pasgen a good day, calling him Lord Denno.He onlynodded in return to the greeting, not certain how Denoriel would respond, but he did not cross thecourtyard, which would have taken him close to the stable.He slipped around the far edge of the openspace taking any cover he could find, until he was able to reach the door to the great hall of Elizabeth's wing.No one questioned him; many smiled and would have spoken but he quickly begged pardon and claimeda need for haste.In the audience chamber, real good fortune smiled on him.Mistress Champernownewas giving instructions to one of the grooms, but when she saw Pasgen, although she looked surprised,she came forward with an outstretched hand and a broad smile."I am so glad to see you," she cried."Whatever did Elizabeth say to you to drive you away for so long?She has been weeping over it in secret, although she will not confess.Or was it my fault, saying you werecoming too often? I am so sorry, Lord Denno, but we are warned not to allow Lady Elizabeth to becometoo attached to anyone not appointed by her father."Pasgen took her hand and kissed it, although he shuddered inwardly at the need to touch a mortal.Still, itwas a small price to pay her for supplying so much necessary information.He now knew exactly what tosay."No, no.Really the fault is mine for taking some umbrage at your kind hint.I am aware that the king'schildren must be carefully guarded but I was.hurt.The fact is that I needed to be away for some timeand I took a petty revenge by leaving without a word instead of warning you about my absence.I, too,am sorry and I have brought a little token of peace."So saying he extracted the rolls of half-crowns from his doublet and pressed them into her hands.Shestared, lips parted, as she felt the weight of the coins.Too much, Pasgen thought.It seems that Denoriel is not as generous in paying his way as Ibelieved.Then he realized he need only make this sound like a special bribe and she would accept it.He leaned forward."Since Lady Elizabeth still seems to remember our quarrel, perhaps you would sendher into the garden where I could talk with her alone?""Yes, of course," Kat Champernowne said, looking at the rolls of coins in her hands."I will make sureshe goes to meet you too and doesn't suddenly conceive of a will to be stubborn." And she helped himagain, by waving him toward a door he would not have noticed but Denno would surely have known.Through the door was a well kept but narrow lawn and a short, stone-paved path to a gate.Pasgen wentthrough the gate, closing it behind him, and along the gently curving path that led deeper into the garden.When he was just ahead of a curve that would hide him from the house, he stopped.Two or three stepswould take him and the girl out of sight at least from the garden gate and the windows of the lowerfloor.If someone was looking out of the windows above, they would be able to see what he was doing,but they would be too far away to help or even summon help before he was gone.He did not have long to wait before the garden gate opened and a girl-child with bright red hair and anupright carriage came through.Behind her was a maid.Pasgen's lips thinned.He had told that stupidwoman that he wanted to speak to Elizabeth alone.He tried to think of a spell that would prevent themaid from following Elizabeth and yet not alarm the child so that she would run away.Just as the words formed on his lips, he swallowed them back.Was that not the maid that had struck andthen damaged Aurelia? If it was, she might be protected, and if the spell failed to take hold, she wouldcry out and warn Elizabeth.Let the child come closer.He would deal with the maid when it wasnecessary.In the event something better happened.The maid looked at Pasgen and then stopped near the gate asthe child came forward.Pasgen moved back a few steps and then a few more, until he was sure that he and Elizabeth would be hidden from the house and the maid at the gate.He would have liked to go a bitfarther, to where he now saw there was a side path even better concealed, but the child was frowningand she was still not in arm's reach."Why are you wearing those strange clothes?" she asked.Strange clothes? But they had been in Denoriel's clothes press, so he must have worn them.Perhaps notrecently, Pasgen realized.And then he noticed that Elizabeth was wearing a very plain gown.Possibly hewas overdressed?"We had quarreled," he said."I wished to wear my very best to show I was sorry."She dropped her head a little and did not move forward.Pasgen stopped backing away.Elizabethlooked around at the walk, at a row of bushes that divided the bed of flowers near the path from a bedthat fronted another path.She seemed to understand that the bushes would hide them from sight andPasgen was afraid she would insist on returning to where the maid could see them, but she did not
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