ALBERN LED SUN AROUND THE edge of the hill, and suddenly, there was Lan Shui. He paused the tale, and they both stood looking upon the town.

Sun found herself speechless. She had never seen Lan Shui, and yet Albern had described it in such detail that she felt as if she had been here before. It was nestled by a river that thundered down out of the Greatrocks, the peaks stretching tall and mighty above it. The western spur, which had seemed so large before, was now dwarfed by mountains that were no longer hidden by nearer hills.

“Lan Shui,” said Albern. “It has been a long time since last I beheld it. Come. I am hungry, and I long for something to drink.”

He nudged his horse forwards, and Sun followed. Though she kept studying the town as they approached, her mind drifted back to the tale Albern had been telling her.

“She got away,” said Sun. “Kaita, I mean. You were both such capable fighters, and yet she escaped you.”

“As she did in Northwood,” said Albern.

“She had help in Northwood,” said Sun.

Albern looked down at her, brows raised. “I am afraid I do not see your point, unless you mean to imply that we let her get away.”

“Of course not,” said Sun quickly. “It is only that … it must be the unluckiest thing I have ever heard of.”

Albern chuckled. “Luck. I have told you already—”

“That you do not believe in luck,” said Sun. “That you trust fate instead. Yes, I have heard you. Many times. But if that is true—if you were not meant to kill Kaita then, and you were meant to find me in that tavern, and all the rest of it—then why do anything at all? Why make choices? Why … why try? If you are meant to do one thing or another, if it is all a path laid before you in advance, then what does it matter what choices you make?”

Albern’s smile grew a little sad. “It is tragic to see such cynicism in one so young.”

“I speak of your beliefs, not my own,” grumbled Sun.

“And you apply a fatal viewpoint to them,” said Albern. “Think of this. One thing is certain for all of us: death lies at the end of our road. That is a certainty. That is a fate no one can escape. So if we know we are fated to die, would you say we should not live? Of course not. Our choices are everything. They make us who we are. And I believe they do shape events. Sometimes, a greater force—fate, I call it, though others have other words—it stops us from making the choice we want to make. But that does not mean our choice is invalid, or that we were wrong for making it. Think of it as a war of forces, a conflict between the things we can choose and the things we cannot. We may not be able to control everything, but we must never stop trying to help when we can, however we can.”

It was another one of Albern’s sayings that had the sound of deep wisdom, but which made Sun most uncomfortable for reasons she did not entirely understand. It kept her silent until they entered Lan Shui, waved on by a guard at the gatehouse who gave them only a cursory inspection. Within the walls, she let herself get distracted by the sights around her. A strange cast seem to cover the buildings around her, as well as the mountains and green fields beyond. She was reminded of Albern’s tale of the place, of the desperate battle he and Mag had fought against the vampires within these walls. Could she, in fact, see scratches on the walls from the vampires’ claws? Or did they come from a more mundane source, or did she imagine them entirely? 

But, too, she thought of the story he had just been telling her, about his little party riding into Telfer lands. The experiences were very similar, and the sensation she had now was familiar as well, the malaise of riding into a foreign town as a stranger, an interloper in another’s domain.

“It is different, being a traveler, is it not?” said Sun. “I have not often had the experience of riding into a town or city, unless I was a distinguished guest of some lord there. It is odd to be just a … a person. A person who knows no one, to whom nothing is familiar.”

“Yes, it can be strange,” said Albern. “But I think your discomfort will fade with time, and with practice. Strangers are usually kind. More often than not, you will find yourself welcomed in the places you visit, as long as you bring no evil with you. The experience Mag and I had when we first arrived here, or when we encountered those Telfer rangers in the mountains, is a rare one. Here in Lan Shui, Yue only distrusted us because the town was in danger. In the mountains, the Telfer guards only suspected us because they were on high alert, for the trolls were threatening their home. The kindness with which we were received at the gates of Opara, and at Kahaunga, is the norm, not the exception. In times of peace, people are given to hospitality, and even charity.”

Sun looked nervously around at the town again. “Then what sort of welcome do you expect in these times?”

Albern gave a little frown and did not answer.

He pulled his horse to a stop in front of an inn. Sun read the sign over its door: The Sunspear. But she could not reconcile Albern’s stories of the place with the sight before her. This building looked almost brand new. And when Albern saw to his horse’s lodgings and led her inside, there was a young woman behind the bar, not the older man from his tale.

“This looks … rather different from what you told me,” said Sun quietly.

Albern paused in his advance across the room. “Oh, yes, it would. Many buildings in Lan Shui were destroyed in the Necromancer’s War. The innkeeper who used to own it—the one we met, and who I told you about—was killed. But the inn was rebuilt, and his daughter owns it now. That is her behind the bar. If you find us a table, I will fetch us a meal and some drinks.”

Sun did as he asked, finding a spot in the corner. Albern soon arrived with a savory stew that made her mouth water, as well as a mug of beer for each of them. For a time they said nothing, only tucking into their fare and drinking deep. After a quarter-hour they both leaned back in their chairs at the same time, sighing.

“I asked after Dawan,” said Albern. “She is here. I have sent word that we arrived, and she should come to see us shortly.”

“That is good,” said Sun. Then she frowned. “I think.”

Albern chuckled. “It is. I only hope it does not take too long. I wish to see to our other business outside of town before the end of the day.”

Sun’s stomach did a little turn. “I suppose I wish to do so as well.”

“It is all right if you are a little nervous,” said Albern. “But come. I will return to the tale to take your mind off it, if that is all right?”

“Of course,” said Sun.

“You mentioned earlier how strange it was that Kaita escaped,” said Albern. “But you have little inkling, I think, of just how right you are. To understand, you need to know how I left my home in my youth, when at last I had decided to do so. I should not have escaped. You might call it sheer luck that I managed it. But I think I was meant to get away that night, and it is a tale worth telling.”