“He could visit,” Arian said a bit tartly. Kieri glanced at her. Tilla had a handful of Arian’s hair. She reached up and patiently unhooked the tiny fingers. “I wonder if I was as active at this age. I see others born within the same fiveday who are not yet sitting up so strongly. Tell me, Caernith, are elven babies faster to learn skills than human babies? I’d have thought, with such long lives and a longer pregnancy, they’d be slower.”
Caernith smiled, a surprisingly sweet smile. “They learn many things faster, milady. These two in particular; I suspect it’s having elven blood on both sides. You’ve noticed their babbling often sounds like singing.”
“Yes, I have,” Arian said. “And my mother said I started singing very young.”
“They will learn speech early and then sing in earnest. It would be well to have musicians play here every day or so to educate their ear. And they may be on their feet, though still a little unsteady, well before they’re a year old. Elven children are not babies long—they grow and learn quickly for the first two years, outstripping human children. Later, however, they will seem to stay the same for a long time—an elf child of thirty winters may be no more than chest-high on an adult and far from adult in other ways. They need more years to learn elven lore and history, you see.”
“And half-elves?” Kieri asked.
“Their pattern is more like the human but faster in the early years. You, lord king, began standing at just half a year and speaking words perhaps three tendays later, according to the elves who knew you then. When you were lost, you had both elven speech and human, as if a much older child, though not excessively tall. And you, my lady, were much the same. These two—” Caernith reached out to ruffle Falki’s hair. “These two bid fair to exceed either of you. I will be surprised if by the end of the next quarter-year they are not on their feet and speaking.”
Though Kieri still had many duties as king and lord of his elvenhome, he and Arian found time to play with their children. And on Midsummer, when he went to the King’s Grove to sing the sun into harmony, he presented his children to the Old One in the bone-house as well.
Paran Oathkeeper, the Tribe rejoices in the birth of your children. Put their hands on my head.
Kieri put each of the children’s hands on the old skull for a moment.
We know them. They are ours. Bring them again when they can stand on their own.
Regular news from Tsaia reported continued unrest in Fintha, often spilling over the border, but no more iynisin attacks. King Mikeli had decided to recall Arcolin from Aarenis, in light of Arcolin’s report, to undertake a stronger defense of Tsaia’s border with Fintha. In Aarenis, Arcolin had reported to Mikeli that the danger was less: the Kostandanyan troops had held off Immer’s in Fallo, and Cortes Cilwan had been retaken. Arcolin’s letter to Kieri mentioned Count Vladi’s warning, along with the circumstances:
He had been drinking, and I am not sure what he meant by “demon-ridden.” Perhaps what Dorrin told us of—what almost happened to Stammel, another being in the same body. That is what Andressat thinks the code his son pricked on his own body means. But rumors have multiplied—that Alured has died of wound fever or has lost a leg or was deposed after the defeat by his own commanders. No one I trust has certain word about him other than he was injured in Fallo, thrown from his horse in the midst of battle. Sorellin reports no more trouble from Rotengre; trade is beginning to return up the Immer from the coast.
Ganlin of Kostandan, Mikeli wrote, was going to marry Rothlin Mahieran, but not until she had finished her training at Falk’s Hall. That surprised Kieri; he’d been sure she would marry sooner.
The Kostandanyan ambassador explained: “They wanted a Girdish woman at first, but with more Girdish troubles, Royal Council thought better Falkian knight. Our king has no care either way, just wants Ganlin married to good rank.”
So the summer wore on, drier than most but yielding good crops of the summer grains. Kieri’s days were full, dawn to dusk, but nothing seemed as perilous as the year before. Arcolin came back to Tsaia well before Autumn Court, having negotiated with Foss Council to bring along one cohort of the Company. He sent Kieri a fuller account of the state of Aarenis, including a new rumor that Alured had died on a voyage to the pirate base at Whiteskull.
As Caernith predicted, the twins grew and learned rapidly, their first infant sounds quickly coming to resemble near-speech, and musical speech at that. The elves of Kieri’s elvenhome seemed almost as fascinated by the babies as he and Arian, but they were not alone. Kieri’s human subjects also came to see them, bringing gifts. By the Autumn Evener they were both standing, even lurching from one parent to another, not quite walking. Both could say a few words clearly enough to be understood.