No long-time, well-loved companion asleep next to him, half-curled on her side, pale hair as fine as feathers framing a long, intelligent face.

I miss her, too, Aelliana said, her voice seeming the veriest whisper in his ear.

"And soon we will miss Theo, as well," he said, grimly.

Theo will forgive us. His lifemate's voice was firm.

"Ah. As Val Con has forgiven us? Or Er Thom. Did he forgive us, Aelliana, when his lady was killed, his heart shattered, and his brother, who might have held him to life, absent and uncaring?"

His answer was a profound silence, as weighty as it was brief.

I want to go for a walk.

He opened his eyes, so that she might observe the frowning sky.

"In that?"

Surely, we have walked in snow before. I wish to see the grounds, and what sort of country we have landed in.

There was, he admitted, something in what she said. One ought to know one's lands, after all, and such roads and trails and hidey-holes as might be available, at need.

And a walk would do them both good.

He threw back the blankets, came to his feet, and crossed the room to the closet.

#

The formal gardens at the front of the house had survived the journey, though it remained to be seen if they would survive Surebleak.

It was chill enough that Daav turned up the collar of his jacket as he paused on the path to take his bearings.

In...other days, he would have walked to the right of the house, to the place where the formal gardens gave way to the working land. At that point, he would have turned to follow long rows of vegetables, soil monitors twinkling among the leaves like stars. Eventually, he would have entered a slender belt of trees and found a path tending uphill, which he would follow until the trees thinned and he stepped out onto Trealla Fantrol's spacious lawns.