On many a hot and sleepy afternoon, when Bel’s disc warmed the land and everyone else crept off to find a cool place to nap, little Charis had beckoned Annubi from his stuffy cell to stroll among the blue shadows of the columned portico where the seer would tell her stories of long-dead kings and instruct her in intricacies of the seer’s art. “It is a useful skill for a princess,” he would say, “practiced discreetly, of course.”

But the little girl had grown, and the curiosity had faded. Or, if not, it lay asleep in some hidden corner of her spirit.

“Ah, Charis,” he said, momentarily rearranging his frown. “It is you.”

“You need not be so abrupt, Annubi,” she said, sidling up to him. “I will not detain you from your oh-so-important errands. I only wanted to ask you who had come.” She took his hand in a familiar gesture and they continued along the gallery.

“Has something stirred you from your lethargy?”

“Sarcasm is not a royal attribute.” She mimicked his dour expression. Usually it made him laugh. Today, however, Annubi scowled at her from under his overgrown eyebrows. “Have you been using the stone again without my guidance?”

She laughed. “I need no silly stone to see what is before my own eyes. I saw the ships enter the harbor. And the palace is like a tomb, it is so quiet around here.”

Annubi’s lips curled at the corners. “So, at long last you have mastered the first principle: the second sight is no substitute for a sharp eye.”

“Do you mean,” Charis asked as they began to walk along the gallery, “that the second sight would not have shown me more?”

“No, child.” The seer shook his head slowly. “But why bother to learn the second sight if you will not use the first?”

“I thought the Lia Fail saw everything!”

Annubi stopped and turned to her. “Not everything, Charis. Only a very little.” He raised a cautionary finger. “If you ever hope to be a good seer, you will never trust the stone to reveal what your own eyes should have seen.” He paused and shook his head. “Why do I tell you these things? You have no real interest.”