The water lapped gently against the side of the boat making little splits and spluts as it drifted around the large pond. Rori’s foot hung over the edge of the small rowboat and trailed through the cool water.

  He turned and looked at the other end of the small boat. She sat nestled in the prow dragging her fingers through the water. She looked completely at home. The paint on the old boat was chipped, peeled and worn with age. She looked anything but. The similarity to previous events were not lost on him, and sure Karyn was not as beautiful as Meredith, but then it was hardly a fair comparison. She was certainly more beautiful than any woman he’d known before.

  Her hair was down again, and she was wearing what she had described as an ‘old dress’. It was shorter than any of the other dresses he’d seen, ending just below her knees. But otherwise, it looked to Rori as nice as anything he’d ever seen her wear.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” said Rori.

  “What? Why?” asked Karyn.

  “I don’t know. I just arrived and basically passed out the moment we got back to the house. I didn’t get much sleep the night before and then I worked most of the day. Then Nolan had me running like a crazy person through the streets for half the night. I hadn’t realized how tired I was until I stopped moving.”

  “As I’ve already said six times today, it’s not a problem. I suppose I was hoping that we would sit up half the night talking, but unless the plan has changed you aren’t leaving for many days. We’ll have plenty of other nights and days to while away. Besides, sitting here drifting with you in this boat is pretty amazing.”

  “Don’t you have to be in Willowsbrook or Lorenthia?” asked Rori.

  “Not right now. There are a few things that I could do, a couple of meetings I had to reschedule, but it was nothing pressing. The Senate is currently on recess. I’ve been going nonstop since the last time I saw you, so I’m actually glad to have a reason to take it easy for a while.”

  “Say no more,” said Rori laying his head back and soaking in the sunlight. Then after a moment’s thought he turned to her and added, “There aren’t any myths about this lake having a monster living in it are there?”

  “I’d hardly call this a lake,” Karyn answered with a smile. “You can see the shore in all directions. Gerard always called it Milton’s Pond. Anyway, I know there are no monsters. One year there was a drought and the pond all but dried up. There was nothing left but a few large puddles. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason,” said Rori lying back in the boat again.

  They drifted in silence for a while.

  “It’s a pretty big pond,” Rori said after a while without opening his eyes. “I’m not sure at what size a pond becomes a lake, but this one’s got to be close.”

  “If you say so. But I bet you could easily swim from one side to the other. Lakes should be bigger than that.”

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  “Do people often go swimming?”

  “Sure. There’s a kind of a beach over there. There’s no sand or anything, but the ground slopes gently down into the water. Do you want to go swimming?”

  “Not right now. But I’ve spent the last several days as Karl, and I haven’t been able to keep up my training. I figured later I would do some running. If Nolan and Kedra had stayed the night, he would be devising some hideous regimen that included swimming twenty miles or something. And while I’m a decent swimmer, I could use more practice.”

  “Speaking of Nolan telling you how to train, that reminds me,” said Karyn. “I have some friends coming tomorrow to stay for a day or two. They’re both close friends of mine so you needn’t worry about them letting on where you are hiding. It will be nice for me to catch up with them, but they are actually coming because Nolan wanted you to spar with Charity. She can fight with this spiked chain thing. Evidently you two talked about that at some point.”

  “Oh,” Rori replied but even in the short word there was just a touch of detectable regret.

  The rocking of the boat caused Rori to open his eyes again. Karyn had leaned forward and was now looking directly at him.

  “Rori, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Why are you asking?”

  “Answer my question first.”

  “Okay. Honestly, I don’t know.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “It’s the truth though. The Cunāe are all about community first. Most Cunāe children get passed around from clan to clan at an early age. It isn’t uncommon for someone born Cunāe to not know who one or both of their parents are. As for age, we don’t celebrate birthdays, so I don’t even know on what day I was born. Though last year Nolan declared that the seventeenth of Aladan was now my birthday.”

  “How old do you think you are?”

  “Well, I obviously don’t remember the first several. I tried to figure it out once when I was younger, but I never could decide for sure. Does it matter?”

  “I talked to Dade, Nolan and Kedra. They have varying opinions. They all agree that in some ways you seem much older. But in others, much younger and na?ve. Don’t be offended by that. Personally, I think it just makes you more adorable. Would it offend you if I tried to figure it out?”

  “Why would it,” said Rori his mind trying to wrap itself around the adorable comment. “But I’ve already talked to Jaelle about it. She remembers when I joined Yoska’s clan, but even she wasn’t sure how old I was then.”

  “I meant figuring it out magically. Also, I’m not being completely honest. The truth is that I have already tried.”

  “Tried how?” Rori asked cracking one eye back open.

  “You’re not the only one who can talk to Meredith. We don’t have regular conversations like you seem to, but she was willing to listen to a few questions of mine.”

  Rori thought for a moment and then said, “Okay. How old am I?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know.”

  “I believe my line is, ‘that’s not an answer’.”

  “And mine is, ‘it’s the truth though’,” Karyn said with a smile.

  “I thought you asked Meredith?”

  “I did. She wasn’t overly specific in her answer.”

  Rori laughed aloud and closed his eyes. But then he cracked them back open again. “Now answer my question. Why did you want to know?”

  “Rori, I’m twenty-five and a Senator of Lorenthia. People constantly make comments about my age. So, whether I like it or not, I have a public image that I have to maintain if I want to be effective at my job. I’m a widower, but I’m also still young. The point is that I’m not interested in having meaningless trysts and I don’t need a scandal involving a juvenile.

  “Um, okay.”

  “There could be a vast difference in our ages.”

  Rori looked more than a little confused and said, “It doesn’t matter to me. Should it?”

  “I guess not. Meredith seemed not to think so.”

  “What did she say when you asked her?”

  “I asked her how old you were, and she said, ‘old enough’.”

  “Old enough for what?”

  “For it not to matter.”

  “For it not to matter for what?”

  “For this.” And with that Karyn leaned forward in the boat onto her knees. With the glorious sun lighting her from behind, making her hair glow, she pulled her dress off over her head.